You're already paying for your website — through the offering
The hidden math of bundled platforms: a $300k-giving church wastes about $6,900 a year on giving spread.
A pastor told us last month, “Our website is free.” His church does about $300,000 a year in card giving on Subsplash. We did the math together at his kitchen table. The website was costing him about $6,900 a year.
He didn’t believe it. We pulled up his Stripe receipts, then Subsplash’s pricing page, then the platform agreement his predecessor had signed. The number was right there. He just hadn’t lined them up before.
The mechanism
Bundled platforms — Subsplash, The Church Co, Tithe.ly bundled tiers — charge a giving spread on top of normal card processing. They quote it as ~2.3% + $0.30 per transaction. Stripe (which is the underlying processor for almost everyone, including Planning Center) charges about 2.2% + $0.30 at base rates, with discounts available for nonprofits.
The delta — sometimes 0.1%, sometimes 0.2%, sometimes more depending on the tier — is the platform’s cut. It compounds because giving compounds. Big givers giving big gifts pay more. Recurring givers pay every month, automatically.
That cut is the website. And the app. And the streaming. And the church-management thin layer. The platform isn’t “free” — it’s prepaid through the offering, on a billing cycle that no one ever sees.
The math at four giving volumes
| Annual card giving | Bundled spread (~2.3%) | PCO Giving (~2.15%) | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $150,000 | $3,450 | $3,225 | ~$225 + no platform fee |
| $300,000 | $6,900 | $6,450 | ~$450 + no platform fee |
| $600,000 | $13,800 | $12,900 | ~$900 + no platform fee |
| $1,200,000 | $27,600 | $25,800 | ~$1,800 + no platform fee |
The ”+ no platform fee” line is the bigger one. PCO Giving doesn’t charge a monthly software fee on top of processing. Bundled platforms do — they just bury it in the spread.
Why this isn’t a marketing point
I want to be careful here. The point isn’t that bundled platforms are evil. They’re just a particular kind of business model, sold to a particular kind of customer, and the customer doesn’t always see the bill.
The point is that the church should know. Once you can see the line item, the question is no longer “Can we afford a custom website?” It’s “Can we afford not to redirect what we’re already spending?”
For most churches in the 100–800 attendance band, the answer is no.
What honest pricing looks like
A custom site costs what design costs. A serious build with on-site photography is $6k–$12k upfront, plus a small monthly retainer for hosting, the Sunday Engine, and a real human on call. You pay for it once. You keep your giving. You keep your data.
We do the math on every proposal. We’ll do it on yours, free, before you ever decide.