Church Online Platform

Church Online Platform is a church-focused service and community platform for congregations that want to pair online worship with prayer, chat, and follow-up. It is best suited to churches that already have a streaming provider and want a free home for service interaction rather than a video player on their own website.

Overview

Built for online ministry, the platform brings service scheduling together with tools for attendee connection and next steps. Churches can run live or prerecorded services through a streaming provider of their choice, while attendees can participate through chat, prayer, and church-defined actions. Its focus is the experience around a service, not supplying the video stream itself.

Churches can use a custom domain or subdomain for a branded experience. The GraphQL API supports querying and changing platform data, while documented integrations include Facebook login and Pixel, Google Analytics, HubSpot, OpenID Connect single sign-on, and webhooks. The platform was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Key features

Participation and care

Attendees can use public chat, direct messages, and profiles; staff have moderation controls and chat translation into over 60 languages. Personal private prayer and live prayer requests make room for pastoral care during services. These tools are useful for churches that want interaction to be part of the service, though the platform does not replace the separate provider needed for live video.

Next steps and hosting

Customizable Moments can direct attendees to church links or forms, giving tools, and salvation commitments. Hosts can manage services from a computer or mobile device, message one another privately, and use shared hosting resources. That combination helps churches coordinate service operations and follow-up in one place.

Analytics and privacy

Analytics track trends over time and service measures including unique attenders, watch time, salvations, and prayer requests. Life.Church says it does not share or sell personal data to third-party advertisers for their advertising purposes; chat transcripts are stored for 30 days. The maker advertises ongoing support, with help articles and a contact form in its support center.

Pricing

The Church Online Platform plan costs free. It includes unlimited services and attenders, unlimited admins and hosts, unlimited public and private chat and prayers, a custom domain, and customer support. There is no free trial because the plan is free.

The unlimited attendee and service allowances make it a strong fit for churches that need core online service tools without a platform charge. The important trade-off is that the church must arrange its own streaming provider. The platform also does not permit embedding itself inside another website, so a custom domain is the branding option rather than an embedded experience.

Platforms

Church Online Platform supports Android, iOS, web, and API access. Hosts can manage services from computers or mobile devices. It does not offer multistreaming or a website player embed; service scheduling is supported.

Who it's for

This is a good fit for churches seeking an online worship space with attendee conversation, prayer, volunteer coordination, and measurable follow-up, particularly when they already use a streaming provider. It is a poor fit for organizations looking for an all-in-one broadcaster, multistreaming, or an embeddable player on an existing church website.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Unlimited services, attenders, admins, hosts, chat, and prayers at no cost leave room for congregations to grow without platform usage caps.
• Pros: Prayer, translated chat, Moments, host coordination, and service analytics support interaction and follow-through beyond simply watching a stream.
• Cons: Live video requires a separate streaming provider, adding another service to arrange and manage.
• Cons: No multistreaming or website player embed; churches cannot place the platform inside another website.

Alternatives

For broader streaming workflows, consider Church Streaming Software. Choose Restream instead if simultaneous distribution matters: its free plan supports two channels at once, but adds Restream branding and caps recordings at six hours per stream and 15 days of recording storage.

Castream is another option for streaming to multiple destinations; its free plan allows two simultaneous destinations but limits sessions to five minutes and includes a watermark. OneStream Live may suit churches scheduling multistream events, with its free plan offering two destinations, 720p, one team seat, 1 GB storage, and three scheduled events.

Subsplash Church App is an alternative for churches considering a church app and giving-oriented offering. For video hosting, Vimeo offers a free plan with one seat and 1 GB storage. BlizCast Radio & TV is another alternative. Livepush may be preferable when broad distribution is the priority: its free plan supports up to 10 platforms at once and 20 streaming hours per month. StreamYard On-Air is another option to consider.

Verdict

Churches that already have streaming covered and want unlimited service participation tools at no platform cost should choose Church Online Platform. Its strongest case is the breadth of attendee, host, prayer, and follow-up features in a free plan; look elsewhere if you need the platform itself to provide video distribution or an embeddable player.