The Best Sermon Notes Apps for Churches in 2026

"Sermon notes app" means a few different things depending on who's asking. Some churches want a place for people to type private notes during the message. Some want the pastor's outline or fill-in-the-blanks on every phone. Some want the actual presentation slides — the ones on the screen — in people's hands, along with the Scripture and a way to respond. The right tool depends on which of those you're trying to do, and on one big architectural question: do you want people to download an app, or not?

Below is a straight comparison of the platforms churches most often evaluate, followed by our read on who each one is genuinely best for.

Sermon notes apps compared

How to read this table

The most important column for most churches isn't a feature — it's "app required." A dedicated app is a persistent home your most committed members will keep and open all week. But it also asks every guest and every casual attender to visit a store, download, and sometimes create a login before they can see a single slide. That friction is invisible to the people already inside your ecosystem and very visible to the ones you're trying to reach. Which side of that trade-off matters more to you should drive the whole decision.

Best for sharing slides, Scripture, and notes without requiring an app: preachly.io

preachly.io is built around the no-app case. A church posts the week's page and shares it with a QR code, an NFC tap tag, a text, or a short link; anyone who scans it lands on the sermon and its slides — automatically reformatted for phones — with the Scripture (linked to Bible.com) readable right there and a note pad with verse highlighting built in. The same page can carry the worship song list, digital connect cards, prayer requests, giving, and a full Spanish translation, and it offers a two-way Planning Center integration. Because there's nothing to download, it's especially strong for guests and for the frictionless Sunday-morning moment. If your goal is to get the slides, the passage, and a place to take notes onto every phone in the room — including the first-time visitor's — this is the closest match.

Best free option: YouVersion Events

YouVersion Events, from Life.Church, is completely free and lives inside the YouVersion Bible App that hundreds of millions of people already have. Churches publish sermon notes, verses, announcements, and links; attenders follow along with the pastor's notes, take their own private notes, and save the Event to revisit later. The catch is the same as its strength: it runs inside the Bible App, so people need that app, and it's built for notes and Scripture rather than pushing your actual presentation slides. For a church that wants a genuinely free, Scripture-centered follow-along and doesn't mind the app requirement, it's excellent.

Best for synchronized presentation slides: Deepen

Deepen is an interactive presentation app whose standout feature is live slide sync: you build (or import from PowerPoint) a deck, and each slide advances on people's phones in step with the screen, alongside personal note-taking, live reactions, and livestream. If the experience you want is "the slide on the wall is also the slide in their hand, in real time," Deepen is purpose-built for it. It does require attenders to use the Deepen app, and Scripture handling is lighter than a Bible-native tool.

Best if you already run Planning Center: Church Center

If your church already lives in Planning Center, its Church Center app now includes a sermon notes feature (in beta) with structured, fill-in-the-blank outlines and personal note areas people can complete, reveal, and email to themselves. The advantage is integration — it's the same system your staff already use for services, groups, and giving, with no second vendor. The trade-off is that people need the Church Center app, so it serves your engaged members better than a walk-in guest.

Best full branded app for larger churches: Subsplash

Subsplash is the high-end, fully custom-branded church app platform, bundling media and streaming, giving, a website, and sermon notes (including prebuilt "Fill In" note sheets) into one ecosystem. It's powerful and polished, and it's priced for it — quotes commonly land well above a hundred dollars a month once add-ons are included. For a larger church that wants its own named app in the app stores and has the budget and staff to run it, Subsplash is a serious option; for a small church that just wants slides on phones, it's more platform than the job requires.

Best all-in-one on a budget: Tithely

Tithely leads with free giving and layers on church management, a branded app, a website builder, and worship tools in flat-rate bundles. Sermon notes come as part of the app rather than as the headline feature. If you're consolidating giving, member management, and a simple app into one affordable subscription, Tithely's bundle is a strong value; if your only goal is sermon notes, you'd be buying a lot of tooling you may not need.

So which sermon notes app should your church choose?

Start with the app question. If you're mainly serving committed members and want a persistent, all-week home, a full app platform (Church Center, Subsplash, Tithely) or an app-based follow-along (YouVersion, Deepen) makes sense. If you want to reach everyone in the room on Sunday — guests included — with the slides, the passage, and a note pad, and you don't want a download standing in the way, a no-app, QR-based tool like preachly.io is the better architecture. Match the tool to the moment you're trying to win, not to the longest feature list.