Why choose us
Every parish already has some way of keeping records — a spreadsheet, a generic CRM someone tried once, or software built for a church overseas. Here's how Digital Steward compares, criterion by criterion.
Comparison At-a-Glance
| Criterion | Spreadsheets | Generic CRM | Foreign Software | Digital Steward |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Built for the presbytery structure Whether parish, presbytery and session are part of the data model, or something you bolt on. | No | No | Partial | Yes |
Works on a mid-range Android over patchy data Whether it was actually tested on the phone and connection a session clerk has, not just a laptop on office wifi. | Partial | No | Partial | Yes |
Local support, in Kenyan office hours Whether a stuck session clerk gets a real answer the same day. | No | No | No | Yes |
Generates the presbytery return in the right format Whether the quarterly return comes out the way your presbytery clerk actually expects it. | No | No | No | Yes |
Priced for a parish budget Whether the price was set for a Kenyan parish, or for a much larger organisation. | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Built for the presbytery structure
Whether parish, presbytery and session are part of the data model, or something you bolt on.
Works on a mid-range Android over patchy data
Whether it was actually tested on the phone and connection a session clerk has, not just a laptop on office wifi.
Local support, in Kenyan office hours
Whether a stuck session clerk gets a real answer the same day.
Generates the presbytery return in the right format
Whether the quarterly return comes out the way your presbytery clerk actually expects it.
Priced for a parish budget
Whether the price was set for a Kenyan parish, or for a much larger organisation.
Compare options in depth.
Why traditional general-purpose tools fall short for the specific needs of Presbyterian administration, and how we address it.
Built for the presbytery structure
Whether parish, presbytery and session are part of the data model, or something you bolt on.
Digital Steward
Presbytery, parish and session are built into the data model from day one. Digital Steward reflects exactly how Presbyterian churches are governed.
No concept of parishes, presbyteries or session structure — you build the structure yourself, from scratch, every time.
Built for sales pipelines and deals, not membership rolls and session minutes.
Has a structure, but modelled on a different denomination's polity — you adapt your church to its assumptions.
Works on a mid-range Android over patchy data
Whether it was actually tested on the phone and connection a session clerk has, not just a laptop on office wifi.
Digital Steward
Built and tested on mid-range Android over throttled mobile data. Pages load in milliseconds even in rural areas.
Works, but the mobile app is heavy and easy to corrupt on a dropped connection.
Built for a sales rep's laptop on office wifi, not a session clerk's phone in the church hall.
Built assuming reliable Western broadband — noticeably slower and frustrating on 3G data packages.
Local support, in Kenyan office hours
Whether a stuck session clerk gets a real answer the same day.
Digital Steward
Support team is based in Kenya, working on Kenyan office hours. Get real answers instantly on WhatsApp or phone call.
No support line — you're on your own, or asking whoever set it up.
Support runs on US or UK office hours, in a queue with every other business customer globally.
Support ticket goes to a different time zone, often a different first language.
Generates the presbytery return in the right format
Whether the quarterly return comes out the way your presbytery clerk actually expects it.
Digital Steward
One click. All membership rolls, births, deaths, and transfers are formatted exactly the way your presbytery clerk expects them.
Whatever format you built by hand — inconsistent from clerk to clerk, and year to year.
No concept of a presbytery return at all — you're exporting raw data and reformatting it yourself.
Built for a different denomination's reporting requirements entirely.
Priced for a parish budget
Whether the price was set for a Kenyan parish, or for a much larger organisation.
Digital Steward
Priced reasonably for a Kenyan parish budget, with simple flat-rate pricing and no hidden fees.
Free, if your time spent reconciling it by hand doesn't count.
Priced per sales seat, at a scale built for corporate budgets, not parish operations.
Billed in USD or GBP, at pricing tiers set for much larger Western congregations.
See it with your own presbytery's numbers.
Book a 20-minute walkthrough. We'll show you the membership roll, the giving record and a sample presbytery report — using categories from your own presbytery, not a generic demo.