Pushpay Review

Pushpay is a church giving and church management company. It was founded in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2011 and now runs its US business from Redmond, Washington, with an office in Colorado Springs. It was listed on the NZX and ASX until May 2023, when a company owned by entities associated with investment firms BGH Capital and Sixth Street bought it and took it private. Pushpay sells digital giving on its own, or bundled with church management software and a branded app as ChurchStaq (ParishStaq for Catholic parishes). It also owns Resi, a church live-streaming service. In the US, its subsidiary Pushpay Processing, Inc. describes itself as a registered ISO of KeyBank, and churches sign a card merchant agreement with Fiserv and KeyBank. In Australia and New Zealand the only processing partner Pushpay lists is Stripe, and it lists Stripe's connected-account agreement for the US and Canada too. Software is quote-based. As of August 2026, Pushpay's own blog gives card rates of 2.1% to 2.9% + $0.20 to $0.30 and ACH rates of 0.5% to 1.0% + $0.20 to $0.30, variable based on total giving volume. Contracts run one, two or three years (36 months unless the order form says otherwise), renew automatically and cannot be cancelled early without paying the balance. The BBB rates Pushpay A+, and it scores 4.2 from 183 reviews on Capterra.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Pushpay’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Pushpay is

Pushpay makes giving, church management and engagement software for churches and Catholic parishes. Chris Heaslip and Eliot Crowther founded it in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2011, and Pushpay says it launched its iOS giving app in August 2012. It later listed on New Zealand's NZX and Australia's ASX. In December 2019 it bought Church Community Builder, a Colorado Springs church management company founded in 1999 that had more than 4,000 church customers, for US$87.5 million in cash. In August 2021 it bought Resi Media, a church live-streaming company, for US$150 million in cash and shares. Pushpay's own timeline dates ChurchStaq, its combined giving, church management and app suite, to 2020 and ParishStaq, for Catholic parishes, to 2022. In April 2026 it bought Nurture, a pastoral care tool, without disclosing terms.

In 2023 Pushpay was taken private. Pegasus Bidco Limited, owned by entities associated with BGH Capital and Sixth Street, acquired every share under a court-approved scheme of arrangement. The scheme paid NZ$1.34 a share for a block of specified shares and NZ$1.42 for the rest. Pushpay left the NZX and ASX in May 2023, and the scheme was implemented on 19 May 2023. Its press releases are datelined Redmond, Washington, and its legal notices go to an office in Colorado Springs, the former Church Community Builder base. Kenny Wyatt is chief executive. As of October 2026, Pushpay says it serves 14,000 churches and parishes and handles about $8 billion in giving a year. It also says seven of the ten largest US churches use it.

Why we list Pushpay as an ISO

Pushpay describes itself as an ISO, and the paperwork matches. Its user agreement (updated 1 September 2026) says US and Canadian organisations contract with Pushpay Processing, Inc. for payment processing, and calls that subsidiary an independent sales organization that works through processing partners. Every page footer says Pushpay Processing, Inc. is a registered Independent Sales Organization of KeyBank, N.A., Cleveland, Ohio. The card agreement churches sign is a Fiserv merchant services program guide with KeyBank as the member bank, and churches get their card statements through Fiserv's portal. Card deposits reach US churches under the church's own merchant ID, so each US church has its own merchant account, sold, priced and supported by Pushpay. That is the ISO model rather than the payment-facilitator model, where churches sit as sub-merchants under a platform's master account. The picture is different outside the US. In Canada Pushpay lists a First Data card program guide alongside Stripe's connected-account agreement, and in Australia and New Zealand Stripe's connected-account agreement is the only processing partner agreement it lists, so churches there are set up as Stripe connected accounts. Pushpay also lists the Stripe agreement for the US without saying which services use it. We classify Pushpay as an ISO because its main US card business, and its own description of itself, are ISO-based. Pushpay is not a merchant of record, because gifts go to the church.

What it costs

Pushpay is quote-based. Its pricing page lists tiers for churches (Giving + Apps, ChMS and ChurchStaq) but shows no prices. Instead it asks you to book a demo for answers and pricing options. The only processing rates Pushpay publishes appear in comparison tables on its own blog (updated June and August 2026). There it describes its rates as "Variable based on total giving volume" and gives these ranges:

• Cards: 2.1% to 2.9% + $0.20 to $0.30 per gift.
• ACH bank transfers: 0.5% to 1.0% + $0.20 to $0.30 per gift.
• Check scanning and remote deposit: from $0.29 per check, according to the pricing page.
• A monthly account fee on card processing, which the help centre mentions but Pushpay does not price publicly.
• No setup fee. Optional paid coaching is available, and integrations cost nothing extra.
• Software fees, billed monthly or annually by automatic ACH. The amount is quoted per church.

The ranges are wide. At the top, $100,000 of card gifts averaging $100 each costs $3,200 ($2,900 plus 1,000 gifts at $0.30). At the bottom, if the lowest percentage and the lowest per-gift fee apply together, it costs $2,300 ($2,100 plus 1,000 gifts at $0.20). Pushpay does not say what volume earns which rate, so get the card rate, the ACH rate, the monthly account fee and any early termination fee written into the order form and processing application. One of Pushpay's own 2026 blog tables lists ChurchStaq at a flat 2.9% + $0.30, the top of the range.

Contracts and terms

The contract is the part of the deal to read most closely. Pushpay's pricing FAQ says it offers one-, two- and three-year contracts, and that if you cancel early, the balance of the contract will need to be paid. The Additional Agreements for Organizations, read in October 2026, add the detail:

• Each order form runs for a 36-month initial term unless the order form says otherwise.
• It renews automatically for a further term of the same length unless either side gives written notice at least 90 days before the end. An earlier version of the same page renewed for one year at a time.
• It cannot be cancelled during a term, except for a material breach left uncured for 60 days. Fees are non-refundable and are not prorated.
• Fees for everything other than processing "will automatically increase by up to 10% per annum" from the end of each term. Pushpay reserves the right to change fees at any time, but promises not to raise subscription fees during the initial term if you comply with the agreements and your use stays consistent.
• Discounts apply only in the initial term, are Pushpay's confidential information, and can be withdrawn if you disclose them.
• Pushpay is your exclusive payment processor for the life of the contract.
• Pushpay and its processing partners can withhold settlement funds or debit your account to cover chargebacks, refunds, fines and other liabilities if chargebacks rise, your finances appear to deteriorate or you breach the agreement. They can keep doing so after termination.

The card merchant agreement with Fiserv and KeyBank is separate and also has a three-year initial term, after which it runs in 30-day periods until cancelled in writing. Until you send that written notice, it says you will keep being charged fees even if you no longer use the account, so cancel the merchant account in writing when you leave, not just the software. If you leave within the three years, it allows an early termination fee when one is listed on your application, so check the application before you sign it. Pushpay's user agreement sends disputes to individual arbitration with JAMS. Only individual users, not organisations, are offered a 30-day window to opt out.

Deposits

Pushpay's help centre (updated December 2025) publishes fixed deposit schedules. A card gift made Monday to Thursday is batched the next day and deposited the day after that, so it arrives two business days later. Card gifts made Friday or Saturday land on Monday, and Sunday gifts on Tuesday. ACH gifts go through two hold days before they are released, so a Sunday or Monday gift is deposited on Friday and a Tuesday gift on the following Monday. Check-scanning batches closed before 5pm Pacific arrive the next business day. Federal holidays add a day. The help centre says the schedule cannot be changed, because it reflects how long financial institutions take. Pushpay's 'Why Pushpay' page advertises next-day fund availability, which only the check schedule matches. Card and ACH processing fees are withdrawn monthly, between the 3rd and 6th of the month.

Features

Pushpay's giving product covers the usual channels: an app, web and text giving, plus recurring gifts, Donor Covers Fees, offline and non-cash gift records, multi-campus funds and reconciliation reporting. Its main distinguishing feature is Everygift. Everygift queues gifts when a payment gateway is down, flags failing recurring gifts so donors can catch up, warns recurring donors before a card expires and suggests a recurring schedule to one-time givers. Pushpay claims its Everygift features grow and secure about $37,000 a year for a church of around 1,000 people. That is Pushpay's own figure and we have not checked it. ChurchStaq adds church management (people, groups, check-in, volunteers, events and facilities) and a branded app, and ParishStaq does the same for parishes and dioceses. There is no limit on users or administrators. Pushpay says it is transforming both suites into a more modern platform.

Reputation

As of 1 October 2026, Pushpay USA is BBB-accredited (since February 2023) and rated A+. Its file shows seven complaints in three years, three of them closed in the past 12 months, and Pushpay responded to all of them. The complaints follow a pattern. A church whose two pastors had died asked to leave and was told to pay the 20 months left on an auto-renewed term. Another said it was charged $200 a month for an app it never received and kept paying a card processing fee after it had stopped taking gifts. A third church said Pushpay would not cancel its subscription. Donors also complained about recurring gifts they could not stop and stored cards they could not remove. On Capterra, Pushpay scores 4.2 from 183 reviews, with ease of use at 4.3, features at 4.1, customer support at 3.8 and value for money at 3.6. Reviewers praise ease of use and text giving, while cost and slow support come up as complaints. Its Trustpilot page has only seven reviews (3.1, with four of the seven one-star), too few to mean much.

Pushpay USA settled a federal wage-and-hour class and collective action for $1.75 million; the court gave final approval in October 2022. Two former sales development representatives had alleged they were wrongly classified as exempt from overtime between 2018 and 2020. Pushpay denied liability. The case concerned employees, not customers. We found no lawsuit or regulatory action against Pushpay over its payments or contracts. New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority prosecuted an individual, not the company, for insider trading in Pushpay shares around co-founder Eliot Crowther's 2018 share sale.

Who Pushpay suits

Pushpay suits established churches with real giving volume, especially multi-campus churches and Catholic parishes, that want giving, church management and an app from one vendor that, in the US, also sells and supports their card processing. Volume matters, because the published rate ranges reward it, and a large church has the leverage to negotiate the software price and rate. A small or shrinking church should think hard before signing. The contract runs up to three years, renews for the same length unless you give 90 days' notice, ties you to Pushpay as your only processor and cannot be ended early without paying it out. If you do sign, get every rate and fee into the order form and processing application, prefer a shorter term, and diary the non-renewal deadline.