# FaithDash > FaithDash is a church management platform (church CRM) for congregations in Uganda and beyond. It brings member records, visitor tracking, attendance, events, groups/tags, rule-based automation and built-in SMS messaging into one dashboard — so a church admin sends from a live member database instead of exporting a spreadsheet into a separate bulk-SMS portal. ## What FaithDash includes - Visitor management with QR-code self check-in — visitors scan a code at the entrance and enter their own details, no paper forms - Member database — one live record per person, with roles, tags and contact details - Attendance tracking for any service or event, with analytics and engagement trends - Events and scheduling, including recurring events - Targeted SMS — send to All members, Visitors only, Members only, Leaders only, or any custom tag (Choir, Youth, Ushers…) - Live SMS composer — character count, GSM-7 vs Unicode encoding, message parts and cost shown before you send - Background sending — large sends run as a job with a live progress readout and a sent / partial / failed report - Searchable message history — every SMS logged with recipient count, parts, status and cost - Automation — visitor follow-up sequences, event reminders before an event, and attendee follow-ups after it, all configured once in a form - Prepaid billing wallet — pay-as-you-go balance topped up by mobile money, with low-balance warnings and one-click top-up - 100 free test SMS for every church once its contact phone number is verified - Multi-church support — run several congregations or campuses from one login ## Pricing The platform is free to use. You only pay for the SMS you send: UGX 35 per SMS message part, billed from a prepaid church balance topped up by mobile money (Flutterwave). Every church also gets 100 free test SMS once it verifies its contact phone number. No subscription, no contract, no time-limited trial — the app is simply free and you buy SMS as you need them. ## SMS delivery SMS is routed through the BulkSMS Uganda gateway (app.bulksmsug.com) — the same class of telco-connected infrastructure other Uganda bulk SMS platforms run on. FaithDash does not resell SMS below the gateway rate; the value is the church-specific workflow around it. ## Key pages - [FaithDash home](https://faithdash.com/): product overview, features and pricing - [FAQ](https://faithdash.com/faq): common questions about FaithDash, answered - [Blog](https://faithdash.com/blog): 50+ articles on church SMS & communications in Uganda - [llms-full.txt](https://faithdash.com/llms-full.txt): every article and fact sheet in one plain-text file ## Guides & explainers - [What 'Bulk SMS' Actually Means for a Uganda Church](https://faithdash.com/blog/what-is-bulk-sms-uganda): A plain-language explainer on what bulk SMS actually is, how it works in Uganda, and what a church admin needs to understand before sending their first one. - [Why Does an SMS Cost UGX 35, and Who Actually Sets That Price?](https://faithdash.com/blog/sms-cost-explained-ugx-35): A plain-language explainer on where the UGX 35 per SMS part price actually comes from, and why no church communications tool can undercut it. - [One Emoji Turned a 1-Part Text Into 3](https://faithdash.com/blog/unicode-emoji-sms-cost-trap): A single emoji or curly apostrophe can triple your SMS cost. Here's why, and how to catch it before you hit send. - [Eight Questions to Ask Before You Pick a Bulk SMS Tool for Your Church](https://faithdash.com/blog/choosing-sms-platform-checklist): A practical checklist for church committees comparing bulk SMS options in Uganda, built from the questions that actually matter after the sign-up screen. - [Why SMS Still Beats WhatsApp for the Grandmother in the Third Row](https://faithdash.com/blog/whatsapp-vs-sms-uganda-reach): WhatsApp groups feel free and modern. For a chunk of any Uganda congregation, SMS is still the only message that actually arrives. - [We Turned On Email Too. Almost Nobody Opened It.](https://faithdash.com/blog/email-vs-sms-uganda-church): A church admin enables email alongside SMS expecting to save money on messaging, and learns the honest difference in how each channel actually gets read in Uganda. - [The Gateway Behind the Gateway: How FaithDash Actually Sends Your SMS](https://faithdash.com/blog/bulksms-uganda-gateway-explained): FaithDash doesn't own a private wire to Uganda's telecoms. Here's the honest, unglamorous truth about how the SMS actually leaves the building. - [Someone Replied 'STOP.' Now What?](https://faithdash.com/blog/sms-opt-out-etiquette-uganda): A church admin gets a blunt reply to a bulk SMS and has to figure out, without a rulebook, how to actually respect it — because no platform does that thinking for you. - [Budgeting for Texts Like You Budget for Airtime](https://faithdash.com/blog/budgeting-sms-costs-quarterly): A church finance committee learns to forecast its SMS spend the same practical way it already budgets for airtime, fuel, and diesel for the generator. ## Comparisons with generic bulk SMS platforms - [EgoSMS vs FaithDash: Which One Actually Fits a Church?](https://faithdash.com/blog/egosms-vs-faithdash-church): EgoSMS is a solid, established bulk SMS gateway in Uganda. Here's an honest look at what it's built for, and where a church's actual needs pull in a different direction. - [Africa's Talking Is for Developers. Most Churches Don't Have One.](https://faithdash.com/blog/africas-talking-api-vs-faithdash): Africa's Talking is a genuinely powerful SMS API platform. The honest question for most churches isn't whether it's good — it's whether anyone on the church committee can write code. - [SMSOne Markets Straight to Churches — So Why Did We Still Build Our Own?](https://faithdash.com/blog/smsone-churches-comparison): SMSOne names religious organizations as a target customer directly. A fair, honest look at what that means, and why a church-facing portal is still a different thing from a church system. - [We Tried Naming Every Church-Targeted Bulk SMS Site in Uganda](https://faithdash.com/blog/trust-sms-uganda-comparison): Trust SMS Uganda, RedSMS, Oracom, FamITech — a roundup of the bulk SMS portals that list churches as a customer, and what they all share structurally. - [RedSMS, Oracom, FamITech: Same Job, Different Logins](https://faithdash.com/blog/redsms-oracom-famitech-roundup): A look at three more generic Uganda bulk SMS portals churches use, and why the real cost isn't the SMS rate — it's the number of logins. - [Why We Built Messaging Into FaithDash Instead of Just Recommending a Bulk SMS Site](https://faithdash.com/blog/why-we-built-faithdash-messaging): The honest reasoning behind putting SMS and email inside a church management platform instead of pointing churches to one of Uganda's existing bulk SMS portals. ## How the product works (feature deep-dives) - [She Visited Once. The Text Went Out Before We Remembered Her Name.](https://faithdash.com/blog/visitor-follow-up-day-one): A first-time visitor is easiest to lose in the first 24 hours, before anyone's written her name down properly. How automatic visitor follow-ups close that gap. - [Watching the Cost Climb As She Typed](https://faithdash.com/blog/character-count-composer-story): Inside the FaithDash Messages page: how a live character, encoding, and cost counter changes the way a church admin actually writes an SMS. - [Watching 800 Texts Go Out Without Standing Over the Phone](https://faithdash.com/blog/background-job-progress-story): Why sending 800 SMS as a background job, with a live progress readout, beats sitting frozen in front of a browser tab hoping it doesn't crash. - [Nobody Touched a Phone and the Reminder Still Went Out at 6am](https://faithdash.com/blog/automation-set-and-forget-story): How one church's event reminders went from a Saturday-night scramble to something nobody has to remember to do at all. - [Nobody Called Them After the Marriage Seminar. Now Something Does.](https://faithdash.com/blog/event-attendee-followup-story): How automatic attendee follow-ups close the gap that used to open right after a church event ends — no volunteer memory required. - [The Treasurer Asked 'Did We Actually Send That?' We Could Just Show Her.](https://faithdash.com/blog/message-history-audit-story): When the church treasurer questioned a month's SMS spending, a searchable message history turned a defensive argument into a two-minute answer. ## FAQ ### What is FaithDash? FaithDash is a church management platform (church CRM) that combines member records, visitor tracking, attendance, events and built-in SMS messaging in one dashboard. It is built for churches in Uganda and works anywhere. ### How much does FaithDash cost? The platform is free to use. You only pay for the SMS you send: UGX 35 per SMS message part, billed from a prepaid church balance. There is no subscription and no contract. ### Is there a free trial? There is no time-limited trial. The platform is free to use, and every church gets 100 free test SMS once it verifies its contact phone number — enough to try real sends before you top up. ### How does FaithDash send SMS? Messages are routed through the BulkSMS Uganda gateway — the same class of telco-connected infrastructure other Uganda bulk SMS platforms use. FaithDash does not resell SMS more cheaply than the gateway; the value is the church workflow wrapped around it. ### Can I send messages to specific groups instead of the whole church? Yes. Send to All members, Visitors only, Members only, Leaders only, or any custom tag such as Choir, Youth or Ushers. The recipient list is your live member database, so there is no CSV to export and upload. ### What can FaithDash automate? Three kinds of rule-based sends: visitor follow-up sequences after someone registers as a visitor, event reminders a set time before an event, and attendee follow-ups a set time after an event ends. Each rule is configured once in a form, sends by SMS, and can be switched on or off. ### How do I pay and top up the balance? Top up the church balance by mobile money (Flutterwave-powered). Low-balance warnings and a one-click top-up appear inside the app. A church phone number must be verified before any message can be sent — and verifying it also unlocks 100 free test SMS. ### How is FaithDash different from a bulk SMS portal like EgoSMS or SMSOne? A generic bulk SMS portal is a text-blasting tool you feed by hand from a spreadsheet every time. FaithDash is a church database that texts the people in it automatically, on rules you set once — it already knows who is a visitor, a member, a leader, or who attended a given event. ### Do visitors have to install an app? No. Put a QR code at your entrance; a visitor scans it, fills in a short web form, and they are in your system. Automated follow-up can then start the same day. ### Does FaithDash work outside Uganda? Yes. It is Uganda-first — UGX, mobile money top-ups and a local SMS gateway — but the member, attendance, event and automation tools work anywhere, and currency is stored per church. ### Is there a contract or monthly subscription? No. FaithDash is pay-as-you-go: you spend from a prepaid balance only when you send SMS, and all app features are included for free.