A church admin searching for free church email software is usually solving a Tuesday problem. Someone needs to hear about the potluck, the service time, or the class that still has room. A free plan can do that job. It can also stall a healthy list, because of a limit nobody wrote down.
This is a plain look at what those plans give you, the catches that show up once you are sending, and a short checklist. We make Hey Church. The Free plan is one option further down. Plenty of small churches are already well served by a tool they like.
What a free plan actually gives you
Free church email software gives you three things: a place for the people who agreed to hear from you, a place to write the note, and a way to send it. That is the weekly announcement, the meeting reminder, and the note that nursery moved. You do not need a design studio for those.
If you have been looking for a free church newsletter tool, you are shopping for the same job: one readable email on a rhythm your church can keep. A handsome template is optional. A ceiling is not.
Every serious free plan draws that ceiling somewhere: how many people you can store, how many emails you can send, or a feature you assumed was included. Choosing Tuesday at 9, instead of sending whenever someone remembers, is a common one to check. Read the numbers before the screenshots. The useful question is whether the line sits past your real week, or through the middle of it.
The catches that show up later
Contact caps. Many free plans store a few hundred people, then stop. That is enough if you add only people who asked for email. It is not enough if the whole directory goes in, including people who never agreed to be mailed. Count the willing list, not Sunday attendance.
Monthly send caps. Storing people and sending email are different limits. One hundred people every week is about 400 emails in a four-Sunday month and 500 in a five-Sunday month. Two hundred people every week is already past 800. A free email for small church use works when your real month fits inside the cap.
Daily send caps. Many free plans also cap a single day. A monthly allowance does not mean the whole list can be mailed on Tuesday morning. If the daily cap is smaller than your list, one announcement arrives in pieces, and the people at the end of the list hear about Sunday on Wednesday. Look for a daily number next to the monthly one.
Mailchimp’s Free plan is a concrete case many churches already know: 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a daily cap of 250, and no scheduling. When that plan still fits is covered in Mailchimp alternatives for churches.
Branding footers. Many free plans put their name or logo in a line at the bottom. That line is part of how a free product stays free. Look at an example before you move the list. Some congregations never notice. Some do not want a second logo under the church’s name. Decide before you import.
Scheduling that is not there. Some free plans send only when a person presses the button. Ask whether one email can send later, and whether an announcement can go out again without being rebuilt. Church news repeats. The retreat is still news for several weeks, and each of those weeks should not have to start from a blank page.
The nudge to upgrade. A clear plan shows you the wall before you reach it. A frustrating one waits until you are about to send, then asks you to change plans so the email can leave. Growing into a larger plan is normal. Find the sentence that says what happens at the cap: sending stops, the rest waits until next month, or the screen asks you to upgrade.
A short checklist
Sit down with the person who will actually send the email. Your own numbers matter more than a tour of a sample church.
- Who belongs on the list? Only people who agreed to receive email.
- How often will you send? Weekly, every two weeks, or once a month. Count a busy month, including a fifth Sunday.
- Do the caps cover that count? Check the contact cap, the monthly send cap, and any daily send cap. If one of them is smaller than your real week, this plan will not carry the way you send.
- Can the note leave while you are away from the desk? If it should arrive Tuesday at 9 and nobody is free then, you want a way to send later.
- What sits in the footer? Look at a finished example before you import anyone.
- What happens at the limit? If the pricing page does not say, ask before the list moves.
- Who will still do this in March? Choose the tool a volunteer will still open when Easter planning starts.
For a wider look than free plans, see best church email software.
Hey Church Free is one option
A search for a free church announcement app is the same decision: ordinary news, without a marketing department. Hey Church is one tool for that job. It fits when the limits below match your list.
Hey Church Free includes 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, and up to 10 active announcements. The Free plan does not include SMS. A smaller opted-in list fits. So does a church that writes less often than every week. A list already past 250 people does not fit, and neither does a month that needs more than 500 emails.
Weekly, every-2-weeks, or monthly announcements and Send later are included on every plan, including Free. Send later uses the church’s time zone setting. Hey Church does not send daily. You send an announcement when it is ready, or you set it to repeat Weekly, Every 2 weeks, or Monthly.
You sign up, then add contacts manually, by CSV upload, with a QR sign-up code, or with a one-time Planning Center import. The import brings people in once. It is not a sync, so you import again when that list changes. How to add contacts covers the manual add and the import. How to share your sign-up QR code covers the code people scan from a slide or a bulletin.
You then create an announcement and send it, or set it to repeat. When the blank page is the hard part, start from the church announcement email templates. Ten active announcements is a real ceiling. Sunday, one class, and one event sit under it. A church with many promotions running at once can run past that number. Read the limit before you commit. Current Hey Church details are on our pricing page.
If those limits match your church, Start free and send this week’s announcement. If they do not, take the checklist to another tool.