What's free and what you pay for
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| FaithDash platform: members, visitors, attendance, events, automation, team access | Free |
| Your first 100 SMS, after verifying your church phone number | Free (one-time) |
| Each SMS part after that | UGX 35 |
| Monthly subscription | None |
| Setup fee or contract | None |
Every feature is included for every church. There are no paid tiers and no locked features.
How an SMS is counted
An SMS is billed per part. A standard text (GSM-7 encoding) fits 160 characters in one part. A longer message is split into parts of 153 characters each. If a message contains even one character outside the GSM-7 set, such as a curly quote (’), an em dash (—) or most emoji, the whole message switches to Unicode. Unicode fits only 70 characters in one part, or 67 per part when split.
| Message length (GSM-7) | Parts | Cost per recipient |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 160 characters | 1 | UGX 35 |
| 161–306 characters | 2 | UGX 70 |
| 307–459 characters | 3 | UGX 105 |
| Message length (Unicode) | Parts | Cost per recipient |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 70 characters | 1 | UGX 35 |
| 71–134 characters | 2 | UGX 70 |
| 135–201 characters | 3 | UGX 105 |
FaithDash's composer shows the character count, the encoding, the number of parts and the total cost while you type, so none of this is a surprise. To check a message now, use the SMS cost calculator.
Worked examples
These are illustrative scenarios, not specific customers.
| Scenario | Calculation | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| One-part Sunday reminder to 200 members | 200 × 1 × UGX 35 | UGX 7,000 |
| The same reminder every week for a month (4 Sundays) | 4 × UGX 7,000 | UGX 28,000 |
| Two-part announcement to 500 members | 500 × 2 × UGX 35 | UGX 35,000 |
| Day-1 welcome text to 15 new visitors | 15 × 1 × UGX 35 | UGX 525 |
| Practice notice to a 40-person choir tag | 40 × 1 × UGX 35 | UGX 1,400 |
Sending to a tag instead of the whole church is the simplest saving. If only the choir needs to know about practice, only the choir gets charged.
How paying works
- Verify your church phone number in Settings. No message can be sent until you do, and verifying unlocks your 100 free test SMS (worth UGX 3,500 at the standard rate).
- Top up the church balance by mobile money. Payments are processed by Flutterwave.
- Send. Each send is deducted from the balance. The Billing page shows your current balance, total topped up, total spent, the last 30 days of usage, your top-up history and a full transaction ledger.
- Top up when low. Low-balance warnings show roughly how many more SMS the balance covers, with a one-click top-up beside them.
The balance belongs to the church, not to one person's phone, so a change of secretary or treasurer doesn't strand your airtime.
Why it isn't cheaper per SMS
FaithDash sends through the BulkSMS Uganda gateway, the same class of telco-connected infrastructure other bulk SMS platforms in Uganda use. UGX 35 per part reflects that underlying rate. We don't claim to undercut it. What you get for it is the work you no longer do: no spreadsheet exports, no CSV uploads, no forgetting who the new visitors were, and reminders that send themselves. See how FaithDash compares.
Frequently asked questions
Is FaithDash really free?
Yes. Member records, visitor check-in, attendance, events, automation and team access cost nothing. The only charge is UGX 35 per SMS part you send, taken from a prepaid balance.
Is there a free trial?
There's no time-limited trial, because the platform itself is free with no time limit. Every church also gets 100 free test SMS once it verifies its contact phone number.
Do unused balances expire?
No. The prepaid church balance has no expiry date. It stays on the church's account until it's spent on SMS.
Does an emoji really double the cost?
It can. One emoji or curly quote switches the whole message to Unicode, which cuts a part from 160 characters to 70. A 120-character message is 1 part in GSM-7 but 2 parts in Unicode. FaithDash's composer warns you, and the calculator shows you exactly which characters caused it.
What currency is used?
Uganda shillings (UGX) by default. Currency is stored per church, so the balance and pricing model also support other currencies.