Clerestory: the waivers attached to a class registration, and the record of every registrant who signed.
Most comparison pages are written by the company that wants to win, and this one is too. So here is how we have tried to make it worth reading: every claim about Realm below is quoted from ACS Technologies' own website, help center or agreement, or from the published pricing of Vanco, Realm's payment processor, with the date we read it. Where Realm does something we do not, we say so plainly.
Realm is church management software from ACS Technologies. ACS says it works "to meet the needs of thousands of churches", and that it "intentionally built Realm to serve the needs of administrators". It covers the inside of church life: member profiles and families, children's check-in, small groups, volunteer rosters, giving, and optional fund accounting and payroll.
Clerestory is payments and a supporter CRM for everything a non-profit sells or collects: donations, memberships and dues, events, camps and classes, auctions, raffles, admission and the shop. It does not manage small groups, worship planning or children's check-in. For a church, it is built for the fundraising a church management system was not: the school auction, the capital campaign dinner, the summer camp with waivers and the bookstore.
ACS publishes one Realm price. Realm Inform, the plan for church staff only, "is a monthly subscription billed at $49 per month after the free 30 day trial" (ACS). Realm Connect, the plan for the whole congregation, is sold at "one simple monthly price based on your typical weekly attendance", and ACS publishes no figure for it (ACS). The accounting tools are an option on any plan with no published price, and "Additional fees will apply for additional services such as integrated background checks, etc."
Processing comes on top of the subscription. Realm Giving runs through Vanco: "You first have to apply for a merchant account with Vanco." (ACS Help). ACS does not publish the rate a Realm church pays. Vanco's own eGiving pricing page, read on 13 October 2026, lists two plans: Grow at $0 a month with cards at 2.90% + $0.45 per transaction, and Thrive at $54 a month with cards at 2.65% + $0.39. American Express is 3.99%, ACH is 1.00% + $0.45 or 0.90% + $0.39, and there is a $25 fee per chargeback (Vanco). We could not find whether a Realm church pays exactly those rates, so treat them as Vanco's published prices, not Realm's.
On the contract, ACS's Software Services Agreement says the term "will continue until the end of the current Billing Period" once you decide to stop, that you cancel by calling ACS, and that "ACST may increase prices from time to time for any of the Services." (ACS).
Our platform fee is 3% per successful transaction, and that is the whole of our price. No license fee, no per-seat pricing, no modules, no setup fee, no minimum and no contract. You never receive a bill from us, because the fee comes out at the moment of each payment, and if you refund a gift, our 3% comes back with it.
Card processing is a separate fee. Stripe charges it on your church's own Stripe account, at 2.2% + $0.30 for our customers with Stripe's non-profit rate. On a $100 card gift, that is $2.50. At Vanco's published rates, the same gift costs $3.35 on Grow or $3.04 on Thrive.
And your supporters can cover both fees. On Realm, contributors can cover the processing costs on their gifts, which helps. They cannot cover a subscription. On Clerestory, a supporter who ticks the box covers our 3% and Stripe's fee together, so your church receives the full gift. Across every payment through August 2026, that brought our customers' effective platform fee to 1.65%.
3% is a ceiling, not a floor. Our published Terms of Service say: "At higher processing volumes, the platform fee may be adjusted or capped at a mutually agreed rate." For a church or diocese processing more than $800,000 a year online, that means volume pricing or contract pricing at an annual rate, agreed in writing before you start.
Read the right-hand column carefully. "Not documented" does not mean Realm cannot do it. It means we searched ACS's published Realm pages and help center on 13 October 2026 and did not find it. If something exists and we missed it, tell us and we will correct this page.
| Capability | Clerestory | Realm |
|---|---|---|
| Price published on the vendor's own website | Yes, a 3% platform fee per transaction | Partly. Realm Inform is "billed at $49 per month after the free 30 day trial". Connect is sold at "one simple monthly price based on your typical weekly attendance", with no figure published (ACS, ACS) |
| Card processing rate published by the vendor | Yes. Stripe, on your own account, at 2.2% + $0.30, the non-profit rate our customers receive | Not on ACS's pages. Realm's processor is Vanco: "Vanco is our trusted partner and payment processor within Realm". Vanco's own eGiving pricing lists 2.90% + $0.45 or 2.65% + $0.39 per card transaction (ACS, Vanco) |
| Process payments on your own Stripe account | Yes | No. Realm Giving runs through a Vanco merchant account: "You first have to apply for a merchant account with Vanco." (ACS Help) |
| Supporters can cover the fees | Yes, both fees: our 3% and Stripe's processing, with a box that starts unticked | Yes, processing costs. Realm's giving launch guide tells churches to turn on the option for contributors to cover processing costs on their gifts. A subscription is not something a contributor can cover (ACS) |
| One-time and recurring gifts | Yes | Yes—"accept one-time or recurring gifts using debit cards, credit cards, digital wallets, and eChecks (ACH), plus stock and cryptocurrency" (ACS) |
| Pledges | Yes, with payment schedules, automatic card payments and an Outstanding Pledges report | Yes—"Give people the opportunity to track giving toward target amounts." (ACS) |
| Text-to-give, QR and NFC giving | No | Yes. Realm's giving launch guide covers text giving, and its giving page lists "additional mobile giving options with QR codes and Near Field Communication (NFC)" (ACS, ACS) |
| Paid event registration | Yes, with capacity, waitlists, sponsorships and offer codes | Yes—"Collect payment for events such as camps, retreats, kids’ programs, and more." It also offers "partial payments, track balances, require deposits" (ACS) |
| Event discount codes | Yes, with automatic member pricing | Yes—"You can create a customized code that people apply to a paid event during registration" (ACS Help) |
| Waivers on registration | Yes, with a record of who signed which version and when | Not documented |
| Auctions and paddle raise | Yes, with bidding from guests' own phones and one batch charge for winners | Not documented |
| Raffles | Yes, with every draw recorded | Not documented |
| Bookstore, merchandise and sales tax | Yes, with inventory, a kiosk and Stripe card readers | Not documented |
| Paid memberships with tiers and auto-renewal | Yes | Not documented |
| Children's check-in with security labels | No | Yes—"add a Security ID to match parents with their children", with "customizable check-in kiosks" (ACS) |
| Small groups and attendance | No | Yes, as part of Realm's Connect plan (ACS) |
| Volunteer scheduling | Yes, volunteer shifts and hours | Yes—serving team leaders "manage their team’s rosters and schedules" (ACS) |
| Background checks | No | Yes, with Verified First, and "Additional fees will apply for additional services such as integrated background checks, etc." (ACS, ACS) |
| Fund accounting and general ledger | No. Clerestory syncs to QuickBooks Online and keeps restricted and unrestricted funds in your books | Yes, as an option on any plan—"you have the option to add our latest church accounting tools", with no price published (ACS, ACS) |
| Text messaging | No | Yes, through Constant Contact—"SMS can be added to any plan." (ACS) |
| Website builder | No. Clerestory forms embed on the website you already have | Yes—"Choose from sixteen pre-formatted templates" (ACS) |
| Duplicate merging | Yes, matched nightly, merged field by field, and a merge can be undone for 30 days | Yes—"You can merge any two profiles, whether they’re identified as possible duplicates or not". We found no undo documented (ACS Help) |
| A church and its school or foundation, each with its own EIN and receipts | Yes | Not documented. Realm Accounting can track campuses as account segments, but we found nothing on separate legal entities with their own receipts (ACS) |
| Contract | None required. If a payment is refunded, our 3% comes back | Month to month. ACS's Software Services Agreement says the term "will continue until the end of the current Billing Period", cancellation is by phone, and "ACST may increase prices from time to time for any of the Services." (ACS) |
Read the "No" rows in our column as carefully as the others. Realm does children's check-in with security labels, small groups and attendance, text giving, background checks, fund accounting and payroll, a website builder and text messaging. Clerestory does none of those. On pledges, recurring giving, paid event registration, discount codes, volunteer scheduling and duplicate merging, both products do the job.
It is a church management system, and Clerestory is not. Children's check-in with a security ID that matches parents to their children, small groups and attendance are the core of Realm. If those are what your staff needs, Realm does them and we do not.
Church accounting. Realm offers double-entry fund accounting that posts giving batches to the general ledger, budgets, and payroll. Clerestory syncs payments to QuickBooks Online and leaves the books to your accounting system.
More ways to give. Realm documents text giving, QR codes and NFC, and accepts gifts of stock and cryptocurrency. Clerestory accepts cryptocurrency through Stripe and records gifts of stock, though it does not take stock transfers online.
The fundraising a church management system was not built for. The school auction or the capital campaign dinner runs in Clerestory: tickets and tables, a silent auction guests bid on from their phones, a live auction and paddle raise recorded by bidder number, and one batch charge for every winner. Each guest gets a statement that separates the fair market value of what they won from what they gave. Raffles are drawn inside the product with every draw recorded. We found none of this documented for Realm.
Camps and retreats with waivers. Vacation Bible school, a youth retreat or a summer camp runs with registration, capacity, a waitlist, a roster and attendance, and a waiver attached to the registration, with a record of who signed which version and when. Realm documents paid events, deposits and partial payments, but not waivers.
The bookstore and the coffee bar. Books and merchandise sell at a kiosk or on a Stripe card reader, with stock, SKUs and sales tax. We found no point of sale, inventory or sales tax documented for Realm.
A church and its school or foundation. Each entity is a payment account with its own EIN, tax classification, bank account, receipts and QuickBooks class, in one Clerestory account.
A price you can read before you call, with both fees on their own lines. 3% for the software, Stripe's processing for the card, and supporters who can cover both.
If your church needs children's check-in, small groups and fund accounting in one system, Realm does those and Clerestory does not, and we would not tell you otherwise.
The case for Clerestory is the money that sits outside the Sunday offering: the auction, the raffle, the camp with waivers, the bookstore, a school or foundation with its own receipts. That is where Realm does not document the work and Clerestory does it, on your own Stripe account. Ask both of us the same two questions: what does the software cost, and what does the card processing cost, each on its own line? Ours are 3% and 2.2% + $0.30, and your supporters can cover both.
On 13 October 2026 we read ACS Technologies' Realm product, plans and tools pages at acstechnologies.com, the Realm Inform store page at buy.acst.com, the Realm help center at help.acst.com, ACS's Software Services Agreement, Realm's giving launch guide, and Vanco's published eGiving pricing. Every quote on this page was checked word for word against the live page in a browser on that date, except the giving launch guide, which is a PDF and is described rather than quoted. Each row links to the page it draws on. We did not use G2, Capterra or any comparison site.
Where a row says "Not documented", these are the capabilities we looked for on ACS's Realm pages and help center and did not find: waivers, auctions, raffles, retail and sales tax, paid membership tiers, and separate legal entities with their own receipts. Documentation moves and products change. If anything here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.
Not for everything. Realm is church management software: children's check-in, small groups, volunteer rosters, fund accounting and payroll. Clerestory does not do children's check-in, small groups, fund accounting or payroll. Clerestory runs the parts of church life that take money and that Realm does not document: auctions and paddle raises, raffles, camps and retreats with waivers, the bookstore with sales tax, and paid memberships, on the church's own Stripe account.
As of 13 October 2026, ACS Technologies publishes one Realm price: Realm Inform, a staff-only plan, at $49 a month after a 30-day trial. Realm Connect is priced by typical weekly attendance, with no figure published, and the accounting tools and background checks are extra. Card processing for Realm Giving runs through Vanco; ACS does not publish the rate, and Vanco's own eGiving pricing lists 2.90% + $0.45 or 2.65% + $0.39 per card transaction.
Clerestory's platform fee is 3% per successful transaction, with every feature included and no license, per-seat fee or contract. Card processing is a separate fee charged by Stripe on the church's own Stripe account, at 2.2% + $0.30 for customers with Stripe's non-profit rate. Supporters can choose to cover both fees at checkout, and if a payment is refunded, the 3% comes back.
Yes on both, but they cover different things. Realm lets contributors cover the processing costs on their gifts. On Clerestory, a supporter who covers the fees covers both Clerestory's 3% and Stripe's processing, so the church receives the full amount. Nobody can cover a software subscription for you.
No. Clerestory does not print name tags or security labels for children's check-in, and gifts are made through online forms, a kiosk or a card reader, not by text message. As of 13 October 2026 Realm documents both.
