Unlimited people and households
Every member, visitor, child and family, with your own membership types, custom fields and milestones.
Free church management software
Free church management software, with no limit on people
Sanctuary Core is a free church database for your whole congregation: profiles, families, forms, events, registrations, follow-up and printed mail. Free forever, not a trial, with no credit card.
What’s included
Built around the work churches do every week
Forms and event registration
Guest cards, sign-ups and event registrations that create and update people for you.
Calendar, rooms and tasks
Book rooms, publish a public calendar, and assign follow-up so nobody falls through the cracks.
Email and printed mail
Design newsletters with 1,000 free mailing emails a month, and print personalised letters, postcards and labels.
What is free, and what is paid
Core is the free foundation: the directory, forms, events, registrations, calendar, lists, tasks, email and printed mail for one campus, with no limit on how many people you keep. Emails to one person are always free; large mailings beyond the monthly allowance use email credits, and texting is pay as you go.
Paid plans add the rest of Sanctuary on top of the same records — volunteer scheduling and service planning, online giving, the My Church congregation app, more campuses and the Shepherd AI assistant. Upgrading never means moving your data.
Getting your church set up
Set your church up on the website, then bring your people in: Move to Sanctuary imports people and households from a spreadsheet or your previous system, and you review everything before it is final. Add the membership types and custom fields your church tracks, open a guest card form for visitors, and invite the staff who need access. Each step has a short guide in the Sanctuary Help Center.
Why a free plan, and why it stays free
Every other part of Sanctuary is built on Core’s people records, so a church that starts on Core already has the record the rest depends on. The free plan is how most churches start, and nothing in it expires.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sanctuary Core really free?
Yes. Core is free forever with unlimited people and households. It is not a time-limited trial, and no credit card is needed to start.
What is included in free church management software from Sanctuary?
Profiles and households, membership types, custom fields, lists and milestones, forms and event registration, a calendar with rooms, tasks and follow-up, 1,000 mailing emails a month, and printed letters, postcards and labels.
What costs money?
Large email mailings beyond the free monthly allowance, texting, and the paid plans that add volunteer scheduling, online giving, the My Church app, extra campuses and Shepherd.
Can we upgrade later without moving our data?
Yes. Paid plans add apps on top of the same people records, so nothing is exported or re-imported when you upgrade.
How many campuses does the free plan cover?
One. Churches with more than one campus use a paid plan, where every campus shares the same directory.
Can we import our existing members?
Yes. Move to Sanctuary brings people and households across from a spreadsheet or another system, with a review step and an undo until you mark it final.