A Flocknote alternative with the parish database built in

Flocknote made parish communication easy, and a lot of parishes are glad they moved off reply-all email because of it. Bellringer starts from a different place: the parishioner record is the product, and email and SMS are things you do from it.

Create your parish — it's free Free plan, no credit card required.

Communication and records in the same system

Most parishes running a communication tool are also running something else — a spreadsheet, an old desktop database, a filing cabinet — to hold the things a mailing list cannot: sacrament dates, household relationships, giving history, who is actually registered.

Bellringer holds both. A parishioner has an email address and a phone number, and also a baptism date, a household, a set of ministries, and a giving record. Sending a message is a query against that data rather than a separate list you have to remember to keep in sync.

What you get

Parishioner and household records with custom tags, notes, and status
Email and two-way SMS, with replies threaded into one inbox
Groups and ministries with self-enrollment by SMS keyword or join link
Sacrament records — baptism, first communion, confirmation, marriage
Mass intention requests through a public form, with a staff queue
Giving and pledge tracking, multiple funds, end-of-year statements
Events with RSVP, volunteer sign-up sheets, and attendance check-in
A digital bulletin you publish from the same place
Free CSV import, and export of anything you can filter

Catholic vocabulary, not generic church software

Bellringer is built for Catholic parish offices specifically. Sacrament records, Mass intentions, RCIA, ministry rosters, and the parish bulletin are first-class features with their own screens — not custom fields you configure into a general-purpose church platform.

That narrowness is the point. A parish secretary should not have to translate what they do into someone else's vocabulary to get their work done.

Moving your data over

Export your people to CSV and import them on any plan, including the free one. Bellringer maps columns on the way in and flags likely duplicates afterwards so a messy export does not become a messy database. Your data stays exportable — every filtered list in the app has a CSV export, so you are never locked in.

Common questions

Can I import my existing parishioner list?

Yes. CSV import is available on every plan including the free one, and duplicate detection runs afterwards to catch records that arrived twice.

Does Bellringer do two-way texting?

Yes. Parishioners can reply to an SMS and the reply lands in a threaded inbox. Carrier opt-out keywords like STOP are handled automatically.

Is there a free plan?

Yes, with a cap on parishioner count and no credit card required. Paid plans add unlimited parishioners, SMS, giving, and automation.

A Planning Center alternative built only for Catholic parishes
A Planning Center alternative built only for Catholic parishes: sacrament records, Mass intentions, census, bulletins, and giving in one system.
A Breeze ChMS alternative for Catholic parishes
A Breeze ChMS alternative for Catholic parishes: parishioner database, email and SMS, sacrament records, Mass intentions, giving, and bulletins in one place.
Mass intention software for Catholic parishes
Take Mass intention requests through an online form and manage the queue in one place. Part of Bellringer, parish management software for Catholic parishes.