Rating
4.4
273 reviews
Categories
2
Founded
2025
Employees
1
Realm integrates basic record keeping into the daily motion of church life - staff is equipped and your church body engaged. CHURCH STAFF - Realm simplifies how your staff manages information. - Track member involvement - Review giving trends - Enter contribution records - Manage small groups. CHURCH BODY - Realm creates new information as people engage online. - Make online contributions - Print personal giving statements - Check event schedules - Update own personal information.
Ad spend / mo
$0
0 paid keywords
Paid visits / mo
0
Organic keywords
606
Organic visits / mo
26,656
Running 9 ads on LinkedIn as Realm - a paid B2B channel, on top of any Google/Capterra spend. Includes video creative.
The shared messaging across Nonprofit & Fundraising CRM advertisers - the validated angles to copy. See the niche →
(273 reviews)
We are almost a year into using Realm and I would say that overall it has been a good experience. The support staff are responsive when you need assistance. I feel like many aspects of my job have been made easier with Realm.
Pros: It is very user friendly. Reports have a cleaner, more modern look to them and they are much easier to generate. Maintaining a clean database is easy to do with Realm, especially using the "merge profile" feature and the Dashboard that flags any duplicates or unrecognized addresses.
Cons: For our church members, the initial process of creating their accounts was difficult. We ran into a lot of issues and error messages. Their main complaint with the app is that the pictures are really difficult to see. As an admin, I would love the ability to create forms, so the information is all in one place.
Janet M. · Ministry Coordinator for Finance and Operations · Non-Profit Organization Management · May 7, 2025
Pros: Everything is in one place. I like how giving can load directly into our P&L.
Cons: The chart of accounts set up is a bit difficult to navigate during initial set up.
Jessica W. · Executive Office Administrator · Religious Institutions · March 26, 2025
| Category | Page | Rank | Placement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fund Accounting | 1 | 13 | Shortlist |
Domain confidence 97%
I've really liked it. As the head pastor, the more I learn about it, the more I put it to use. For example, just this week I learned how to create a volunteer team for one of our worship service needs, and I sent out a sign-up link, and people are signing up. It's nice to have all of this functionality in one place.
Pros: Easy to use. Really like the "newsfeed" - I feel like it's a great way to keep people informed and also follow up on ministry events (with photos). Also, it's nice to have easy access to my giving history and also to be able to make donations easily through the "realm connect" app.
Cons: Really the only struggle we've had is getting the word out about it - and getting people to use it. There's a little bit of a learning curve and, especially with older parishioners (and we have a fair number of them), there can be a bit of an aversion to technology and learning new things.
Fr. Panteleimon D. · Priest · Religious Institutions · February 28, 2025
It's been a great experience so far and we are all so happy with it. I need some more guidance to do even more with it because there is SO much potential!
Pros: Realm has allowed our parish to get into the 21st century of church management! It is so nice having everything in one place and having the ability to provide access to our parishioners so they can see their giving in real time. Realm is opening so many doors for us and we are so happy to be on this path.
Cons: It was difficult to know exactly what to do when I was handed 'the keys'. I took over a lot of the finance responsibilities as well as administrative tasks and I struggled to know where to start.
Robin S. · Treasurer · Religious Institutions · December 10, 2024
Great! They are so easy to work with. Meets our needs as a church.
Pros: The Realm system is user friendly Great Support
Cons: The directory was a little tricky to print, but we received help.
Tamara W. · Pastor · Religious Institutions · December 6, 2024
They contacted me right away and after we chose them they jumped on it. Even on their day off!
Pros: How great the customer service was and how easy it was to set up.
Cons: There wasn’t anything I didn’t like or had problems with.
Anne G. · Web master and designer · Education Management · December 6, 2024
Realm has been an overall delight. It is easy to use, easy to customize, and it just makes my job a whole lot easier. There is a help section that will help you with anything you need and if you can't find your answer there, the customer service reps are fantastic. They are friendly, knowledgeable, and always happy to help. I have never felt that I was irritating or bothering anyone when I have called for help. I love that we have a rep who contacts us from time to time just check in and make sure we are still good. They are also very knowledgeable and happy to help.
Pros: It handles nearly everything. We use it for accounts payable and receivable. I can print checks straight from the accounting software and log it into the register. We keep up with our bank account and bank credit cards this way. Profile Accounts can be customized to fit your needs and reports can run off the information collected. It makes finding information for our Annual Church Charge Conference reports quick and easy. I can also use reports to sort out particular types of members, members by age, and so on and I can create labels from the report inside of Realm itself. We can create News Posts that allow comments and/or email notifications and send them to all members or separate groups. It makes communication a breeze. We are able to create events and allow members to sign up and let us know how many people they are bringing. I have heard that ACS is also working to make a scheduler/calendar that will work with Realm. Right now we use ACS Facility Scheduler and it is a great tool.
Cons: The only thing I would like to see is a facility scheduler/Calendar that we could use inside of Realm itself.
Michelle B. · Office Administrator · Religious Institutions · November 12, 2024
overall I like Realm and would definitely recommend it
Pros: I like the reporting and event section and its not hard to understand
Cons: the check system, because Realm has not created the capability to connect of their check-in system to wireless printers like Planning Center. We use to have Servant Keeper with the pc ...so we updated to make a more streamline look for check without all the cords and pc's. So I have to use 2 databases Planning Center for Check In and Realm for everything else. We had been told before we transfered to Realm that it was in the works to get wireless printers for check in..that was many years ago 7 or 8.
Sandra S. · Admin for Kids and Student Min and Database Admin · Religious Institutions · November 7, 2024
Exceptional product - and service! With each question that we have for the telephone support, the representatives take as much time as needed to provide in depth answers to the questions and solutions to the potential problem. I can't praise them enough!
Pros: Realm Connect has been a tremendous way for our congregation and staff to communicate and keep abreast of news and events. Our people love the fact that they can not only see their own profiles, but also the online directory of members.
Cons: I have not found anything that I do not like about Realm.
Linda B. · Executive Director, Administration and Resources · Non-Profit Organization Management · August 28, 2024
Real is a relatively intuitive platform, but the support system available to the user is truly what makes
Pros: The Realm support team are tremendously helpful, patient when we have questions or need instruction, thoughtful when crafting solutions, professional and polite. All our interactions with the Realm team have been very positive, and it is a relief to hear the voice of folks like [sensitive content hidden] on the other end of our calls with we need assistance!
Cons: It sometimes difficult to make corrections or back out entries/actions when simple mistakes are made.
Catherine R. · Church Administrator · Non-Profit Organization Management · August 26, 2024
We are overall satisfied with both the functionality and support.
Pros: The simplicity of Realm is what I like the most. We do not have to invest a huge amount of time getting staff to understand the modules. The system is intuitive and able to handle complex workflows.
Cons: We do have some functionality that hasn’t been deployed. I wish there was an easy way to take a look at the functionality prior to a decision to implement.
Audra N. · Financial Operations Assistant · Religious Institutions · March 15, 2024
Pros: We appreciate the clean look of Realm and the ever expanding functionality around volunteer management.
Cons: There are a few functions I wish worked differently. All can be worked around and submitted for enhancements.
Megan W. · Executive Assistant · Religious Institutions · March 15, 2024
It is a love hate relationship. As a smaller church without professional tech help and only one person to implement it has been a struggle to move forward. The guides sometimes are not updated to reflect recent changes or stop short of explaining how feature will work ie. What I need to do to get desired outcome. It is a trial and error. The videos sometimes just show features but don’t go into detail if you want this outcome do this kind of instruction. Features work differently in Realm as the admin than a regular congregant on connect - it becomes confusing trying to learn two different ways of accessing what I need and communicating that to congregants.
Pros: The online database and connectivity with congregants who will use the app.
Cons: Congregants who refuse to use the app. Struggle learning the system from admin side - congregants complain not user friendly. People still having glitches with sign in so they have abandoned using it. To meaning settings required to opt in to notifications.
Kim S. · Realm admin, membership secretary · Religious Institutions · March 11, 2024
Realm is an excellent CRM system for churches and has the added benefit of offering (for additional cost) an integrated accounting system. Customer support hours and level of services are just fine. It takes a while for staff to catch on to its power and Excel skills for a few staff are critical for custom reporting. Cost is very reasonable considering its power and customer service support.
Pros: Realm is a very well constructed CRM system for churches, not surprising consindering how long ACST (maker of Realm) has been in business. It has an integrated donations system. You can buy (which we did) the integrated accounting module, thus eliminating the need to double post donation summary information. Customer support is excellent. Customers get to suggest and vote on enhancements.
Cons: Conversion to Realm should have been easier. I'd like to be able to construct queries like in any database system using parentheses to bracket query logic. It is overkill for many small (under 100 Average Sunday Attendance) churches in my opinion.
Bruce F. · Realm Administrator · Civic & Social Organization · March 6, 2024
Getting used to a new system is never easy, but with use I'm very comfortable with Realm. The reporting is very helpful, and managing the data is pretty straight forward.
Pros: We haven't encountered any glitches in Realm. It works as it is supposed to. Once you get used to how things work in Realm, it's easy to use.
Cons: There are features I requested be added to Realm. These requests have not been acted upon.
LESLIE O. · BUSINESS MANAGER · Religious Institutions · March 6, 2024
Overall, it has been exceptional! I would highly recommend!
Pros: Realm is user friendly and if there is something that I can't figure out, the customer support is amazing!
Cons: Integration with ACS would be helpful. I haven't used the Accounting feature however, I was told that everything would go to Accounting and ACS would phase out. I haven't heard good things about the Accounting option and the fact that ACS hasn't been phased out, makes me leery of that option.
Krista T. · Business Administrator · Religious Institutions · March 6, 2024
Realm helps us accomplish many of the basic tasks of running our office from a financial and people management perspective.
Pros: The best qualities of Realm allow us to easily track donor gifts and create registration events to which congregation members can RSVP and pay.
Cons: There are occasionally things that are not intuitive and require a call into Realm/ACS for help. The help line does almost always get us a quick answer and help us with our concerns.
Jason D. · Director of Youth and Stewardship Ministries · Religious Institutions · March 4, 2024
WE ENJOY REALM OVER THE ACS PEOPLE SUITE
Pros: WE LOVE THAT ONLINE DONATIONS POST DIRECTLY TO CONTRIBUTOR'S ACCOUNTS
Cons: TAKES ME A WHILE TO FIGURE OUT SOME REPORTING FEATURES. ALSO CANNOT HAVE MORE THAN ONE GIVING DATABASE
SHARON F. · FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATOR · Religious Institutions · March 1, 2024
Great support and prompt help. Tons of resources to learn more online. I love having one place to go for everything - check-in, member data-base, directory, giving, registration/events, etc.
Pros: Ease of use. I can add, edit, unactivate, or even delete profiles in seconds. Online giving is the best! Having used other providers, the ability to create separate giving page links, funds, text giving is far superior to any other product I have tried. Plus, it all pulls over into reports got me to look at YTD data in a moment.
Cons: Integration of Pathways. We still struggle with utilizing this tool as it seems cumbersome. And when an event is created in a group, it can't be shared outside that group. I would love group events to show up in "Registrations" with a way to hide repeating events or have repeating events show up as just 1 event with the next one shown. I also would appreciate the ability to delete profiles that gave 7+ years ago. We have no need to keep them. Wish there was a service planning option so we didn't need to use Planning Center anymore!
Kelly J. · Facility Administrator · Religious Institutions · March 1, 2024
Pros: Sending messages quick, keeping reach of giving for management stand point and being able to have one location for everything you need.
Cons: Initially setting this up was a little of a hassle from when we migrated. But the customer support was super amazing and helped so much!
Josh F. · Technical Director · Non-Profit Organization Management · December 14, 2023
Overall, we had a great experience with Realm, and still use it to this day
Pros: First, it was a really switchover from their previous software. Second, it was amazing for us when COVID hit.
Cons: There were limited role management options when it came to giving permissions to Church attenders. I do think it worked good otherwise.
Anonymous User · CEO · Design · February 14, 2023
recién empezando
Pros: aun no puedo calificar recién estoy usándolo
Cons: aun no lo uso y no puedo dar una opinión de evaluación
Anonymous User · pastor · Religious Institutions · November 14, 2022
We have appreciated this upgrade from People Suite to Realm.
Pros: Our reasons for using Realm out weigh the reasons not to use Realm. It is a robust system that offers your organization a lot of features, maybe more than you will use. It is simple to use and the features available allow you to implement as you need.
Cons: Some of the products in Realm are not needed but cannot be a la carte. The system can be expensive but they work with smaller organizations to accommodate this.
Josh E. · Director of Administration · Religious Institutions · November 5, 2022
This has been the most frustrating (and expensive) software that anyone could purchase. (And I have used more than the average person). It doesn't seem to automatically do anything, causing several issues. It has issues, where you can even email to the addresses listed as a group. To type the email, and system issues, causing a 2 min email to take an hour. Someone emailed to me twice and went to spam causing me to be blocked. I can go on and on. It should be free!
Pros: Nothing -This has been the most frustrating (and expensive) software that anyone could purchase
Cons: Every area has issues. Maybe the pay online works ok.
Patsy M. · Purchasing · Accounting · September 12, 2022
Compared to our previous ChMS, Realm is very good, and the frustrations are surpassed by a solid experience and feature set.
Pros: Realm does almost anything you would need a church management software suite to do, and does it well: tracking attendance, giving, financial transactions; keeping family and sacramental records; providing good communications and volunteer coordination features. It even integrates with ConstantContact and the web interface is intuitive and keeps improving.
Cons: Realm does so much so well--but it isn't good at anything out of the box. For instance, each household in Realm must have a "head of household" --an antiquated notion of family dynamics that isn't necessary. The structure of reports--and what reports are available by default--are limited and can be frustratingly to customize on the fly.
Anonymous User · Director of Family Ministries · Religious Institutions · August 19, 2022
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