How to Create a Church App: Features, Rules and Cost (2026)

By Sigsten Gustavii· 27 October 2026· 8 min read

To create a church app, list what your members look for during the week (this Sunday's sermon, the next event, their small group, a way to give), describe those screens to an AI builder like Borel or paste your church's website, set up moderation for prayer requests and group chat, and publish the app under your church's own Apple Developer account.

A church app's job is the week between Sundays. It keeps the sermon one tap away, the small group in touch and the next event on people's calendars. That is a small, steady app, and exactly the kind an AI builder makes well, at a fraction of what a custom church app costs.

Features worth building, and what can wait

Start with what members ask about most and add the rest when people use the app. Each addition is a short message to Borel.

Giving and Apple's donation rules

Giving is where church apps most often run into Apple's rules. Guideline 3.2.2(iv) says that, unless you are an approved nonprofit, apps that raise money for charities and fundraisers must be free and may only collect funds outside the app, such as via Safari or SMS. Guideline 3.2.1(vi) lets approved nonprofits fundraise inside their own apps, provided they offer Apple Pay support, among other requirements.

Borel apps don't offer in-app giving of that kind, so the simple, rule-following route is a Give button that opens your existing giving page in Safari. Members give the way they already do online, and your giving provider sends receipts as it does today. Read the full rules on Apple's App Review Guidelines page.

Prayer requests, groups and privacy

Prayer requests are personal. Give each one an audience the person chooses: only the pastors, their small group, or the whole church. Borel's database keeps those rules in the database itself, so a request shared with a small group is readable by that group's members and nobody else. Small groups work through invite codes, so a leader shares a code and members join.

Anything members post that others see falls under Apple's Guideline 1.2: a way to filter, report and block, and contact details. Borel's moderation kit puts Report and Block on posts, requests and messages, checks text before it is posted, and lists blocked people in settings. Add your church office's email to settings.

Sermons, notes and reading plans

Sermon audio can be played in the app from wherever you host it, with notes and scripture references alongside. Long video works better on the platform you already stream to; link to it from the sermon page. A daily reading plan is a quiet favourite: one passage a day, a tick when read, and a reminder at the time each member chooses, scheduled on their phone. Larger text and dark mode follow each person's iPhone settings, which helps older members.

Events and visitors

An events list with Add to Calendar puts a service, a study evening or a youth weekend into the iPhone's own Calendar, with the address filled in. A Visit us screen gives service times, parking notes and directions in Apple Maps. Visitors should be able to see all of this without creating an account.

A members' directory is tempting, but handle it with care: let each person choose whether to appear and what to show, and keep it to signed-in members. Many churches find that small groups cover the need with far less personal data on display.

Announcements without push notifications

Borel apps don't send push notifications. Put announcements in a news list on the home screen, shown when the app opens, and keep using your newsletter or message group for urgent news. Reminders that each member sets for themselves, like a reading plan or an event they added, do work, because they are scheduled on the phone.

App Store rules for church apps

What a church app costs

That is $339 a year on Borel's lowest monthly tier plus Apple's fee. Apple waives the Developer Program fee for some eligible nonprofits; check Apple's fee waiver page for who qualifies. See pricing.

How to choose the right church app builder

• Borel, for your church's own native iPhone app with sermons, events, groups and prayer requests, built from your website or a description.
• A church app platform, if you want a ready-made system with Android, giving inside the app and a support team, for a monthly fee.
• [CatDoes](/compare/catdoes), if many members use Android; it builds React Native apps for both stores.
• Your website, if members mostly need service times and a sermon link.

How to do it with Borel, step by step

Step 1: Paste your website or describe the church

Make an app for St. Mary's church, using the name, logo and colours from our website. Anyone can see service times with directions in Apple Maps, this week's events with Add to Calendar, and sermons with audio and notes, newest on top. Members sign in with email to join small groups with an invite code, see their group's plans and share prayer requests with their group or only the pastors. Every request and message can be reported and people can be blocked. Add a daily reading plan with a reminder at a time each person picks. A Give button opens our giving page in Safari. Settings shows our office email and Delete account.

Borel's planner, Penny, asks about anything unclear, then Rivet writes the app in Swift with SwiftUI and Xcode builds it on Borel's Mac. Nobody at the church needs a Mac.

Step 2: Test with a small group

In the iOS Simulator in your browser, join a group with two accounts, share a prayer request with the group and check a third account can't see it. Add an event to the calendar.

Step 3: Give it to a few members

With Pro, install it on your iPhone with Borel Companion, then invite a small group through TestFlight for a few weeks.

Step 4: Publish under your church

Stamp checks the common reasons for rejection, and Publish builds and uploads the app under your church's Apple Developer account, with a demo member account for the reviewer.

The Bottom Line

A church app is for the week between Sundays: the sermon, the next event, the small group and a way to give. Borel builds it natively from your website or a description, with prayer requests kept to the audience each person chooses and giving that follows Apple's rules. Paste your church's website into Borel and see it on a live iPhone today.

I think a church app is for the week between Sundays. Paste your church's website into Borel and see what that week could look like.

– Sigsten

Make your iPhone app in Borel

Describe the app you want and see its first screens before you pay anything.