Parable vs MortarStone · updated 26 August 2026
Giving is one signal. Parable reads it beside all the others.
MortarStone does giving reporting properly, and its Basic tier costs nothing. Parable is not a giving tool — it is a reporting layer that happens to read giving alongside attendance, groups and serving on the same person.
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The short answer
If giving reporting is the whole job, MortarStone has a free tier and 60+ reports and we will tell you so on a call. Parable earns its price when the question spans more than money — the family still giving who stopped showing up is invisible in a giving tool at any price.
Who should choose which
MortarStone has a free tier and we do not, so this comparison starts with us behind. Here is where we stay behind, and where we do not.
Choose MortarStone if…
- Giving is the only thing you need to report on.
- You want deep donor segmentation — first, second and third-time givers, lapsed, core.
- Free matters more than breadth. Their Basic tier genuinely costs nothing.
- You want fundraising coaching alongside the software.
- You need pledge tracking, campaign budgeting or automated giver emails.
Choose Parable if…
- You want giving read beside attendance, groups and serving on one person.
- You want to spot the family that still gives but stopped attending.
- Your questions change and you need the answer to cross out of giving.
- You want plain-English questions rather than choosing from a report list.
- You want the same tool to serve your executive pastor and your data person.
One question, both tools
Giving is down 9% on last year. Find out why.
“Giving is down about 9% on this time last year. What happened?”
What MortarStone tells you
A great deal, and on the free tier. Basic Track includes access to their reporting features — first-time givers, giving retention, core and top givers, recurring givers, benchmark giving trends, tithing reports, giving scores, location-based giving, and gift timing split into early, on-time and late. They will show you whether the drop is fewer donors or smaller gifts, which segment moved, and how it tracks against benchmark. Sixty-plus reports, and for a church whose question really is about giving, that is a complete answer for nothing.
What Parable tells you
Whether giving is even the real problem. The same 9%, and then whether the households behind it are still turning up — because a family that stopped giving and stopped attending in the same month is a pastoral situation, and a family that stopped giving while attending every week is a financial one. Parable reads giving next to check-ins, groups and serving on one person record, so "did we lose the givers or did we lose the people" is a single question rather than two exports and an afternoon.
MortarStone answers the question better than we do for as long as the question stays inside giving. Parable is the tool for finding out that it does not.
Side by side
| Parable | MortarStone | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | ||
| Giving reporting | ✓ | ✓Deeper than ours |
| Attendance, groups and serving | ✓ | ✕Giving only |
| One record spanning all of it | ✓ | ✕ |
| Donor segmentation | ✓ | ✓First/second/third-time, lapsed, core |
| Pledge and campaign tracking | ✕ | ✓ |
| How you get answers | ||
| Ask in plain English | ✓ | AI assistant listed; scope unclear |
| Forecasting | ✓Giving forecasts | ✓Budget and pledge forecasting |
| SQL and warehouse access | ✓Scale plan and up | ✕ |
| Cost | ||
| Free tier | ✕Free trial only | ✓Basic Track, all reports |
| Paid pricing clear | ✓From $79/mo | ✕Public plan page is malformed |
| Coaching included | ✕ | ✓On higher tiers |
Scroll the table sideways to compare →
Conceding the ground they hold
Where MortarStone is the better buy
It is free, and not in a crippled way. Basic Track costs nothing and their own site describes it as including access to all reporting features. That is a genuinely strong offer and we have no answer to it. If giving reporting on Planning Center is the whole job, start there, keep your money, and come back to us if the questions start crossing into attendance.
They go deeper into giving than we do, and they always will, because it is the only thing they do. Pledge progress, campaign timelines, asset-based gift tracking, gift timing broken into early, on-time and late, and giving measured against a budget — Parable does none of those. If your finance team lives in a budget-versus-actual report, that alone is a reason to pick them.
There is also a consultancy attached. MortarStone sells coaching alongside the software on its higher tiers, so you are buying strategy as well as reports, and some churches want that badly. It is a different purchase from a tool. We sell software and a founder who will answer questions; we do not run your generosity strategy.
Our own weak spots
Where Parable is the wrong choice
- No free tier. MortarStone's Basic Track costs nothing and ours costs $79 a month billed yearly once the trial ends.
- No pledge tracking, no campaign budgeting, no giving against a budget. If those are the reports your finance team needs, we simply do not have them.
- Our giving reporting is broader but shallower. We read giving beside everything else; they read giving further down than we do, and a specialist usually wins inside its speciality.
- No fundraising coaching. You get software and a founder on a call, not a generosity consultant.
50+
churches using Parable
750,000+
people cared for
24M
data points synced weekly
Churches using Parable
“We’re all excited about the vision around this product and the results we’re already getting.”
Questions people ask us
Is Parable a MortarStone alternative?
Only if your need is broader than giving. MortarStone is a giving-analytics product with a free tier and more donor-specific reporting than Parable has. Parable is a reporting layer across all of Planning Center, so giving is one of several signals rather than the whole picture. Plenty of churches could reasonably run both.
MortarStone has a free tier. Why would we pay for Parable?
You would not, if giving reports are all you need — free is a good price and their Basic Track includes their reporting features. The case for Parable starts when the question crosses products: a household still giving but no longer attending, or whether the people who joined a group in January are still serving in April. A giving tool cannot see either.
Does Parable replace Planning Center Giving?
No. Parable reads Planning Center Giving and never writes to it. You keep your giving provider exactly as it is.
Can Parable do donor segmentation?
Yes — first-time givers, lapsed givers, recurring and core givers are all questions you can ask, and the answer comes back as a list of actual households. MortarStone ships more giving-specific reports out of the box; Parable lets you ask for whatever you want, including questions that mix giving with attendance or serving. We do not ship a proprietary giving score the way they do.
Is MortarStone actually free?
Their Basic Track was free when we checked on 26 August 2026, and described on their own site as including access to all reporting features — first-time givers, giving retention, core and top givers, recurring givers, benchmark trends, tithing reports and giving scores among them. Growth Track and Impact Track sit above it. We would rather point you at that than talk you out of it: if giving reporting on Planning Center is what you need, free is hard to beat and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
What do MortarStone's paid tiers cost?
We could not verify a trustworthy paid price on 26 August 2026. MortarStone's public plan page mixes its real giving features with unrelated template copy such as "Personal Projects" and displays implausible single-digit monthly figures, while the paid-track calls to action still ask you to talk to them. So we are treating paid pricing as unclear rather than repeating a number that looks accidental. Parable's number is on the page: $79 a month billed yearly at the entry tier.
We already use MortarStone. Does Parable replace it?
Probably not, and we will not push you to. The honest shape is that MortarStone stays your giving reporting and Parable answers the questions that cross out of giving into attendance, groups and serving. Some churches do consolidate onto us once they notice most of their questions were never really about money — but if your board's standing report is a giving report, keep the tool that produces it.
What we checked, and where
MortarStone in their own words
Basic Track remains free and is described on their own site as including access to all reporting features. The current product pages also list an AI assistant, powerful search, smart workflows, automated email engagement, annual budget planning, pledge tracking and guide services on the higher tracks. Their public plan page is not reliable enough to quote for paid pricing: it mixes church-giving features with unrelated template items such as "Personal Projects" and displays implausible single-digit monthly figures. We therefore describe paid pricing as unclear rather than guessing. They still publish eleven named churches and a 12.5% year-over-year first-time-giver result for Chapelstreet Church.
Read on 26 August 2026 from: mortarstone.com · MortarStone for Planning Center · Basic Track (free tier) · MortarStone plans
Use their free tier first.
Genuinely. If giving reporting is the job, MortarStone Basic Track costs nothing and will do it. Come to us when the question stops being about money.
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