Realm Accounting alternative
A Realm Accounting alternative for churches leaving Realm
Leaving Realm means replacing three things that came from ACS as one system: the church database, Realm Giving and the books. Grain replaces the books. It's double-entry fund accounting on its own. It syncs giving from Planning Center, Pushpay, Rock RMS, Subsplash, OnlineGiving.org or Overflow, and Starter is free for churches spending up to $20,000 a month.
$244,570
Best Realm Accounting alternatives for churches in 2026
Here's Realm Accounting next to Grain, from how you buy each to how gifts reach the books. Three more options follow the table.
More Realm Accounting alternatives to compare
- AplosDouble-entry fund accounting in a nonprofit suite, with its own online giving, AplosPay. Plans start at $79 a month.Grain vs Aplos
- ChurchTracA church database with single-entry, cash-based bookkeeping included in every plan.Grain vs ChurchTrac
- QuickBooksGeneral accounting software. Churches track funds with classes, which start on QuickBooks Online Plus.Grain vs QuickBooks
What Grain costs at your size
Realm's price covers its church database and giving too, so there's no like-for-like number. Grain prices only the books, by your church's expenses and revenue.
Connect plan: monthly, based on typical weekly attendance. Accounting is added to the plan
Up to $20k a month in expenses, 3 users
Up to $1M a year in revenue or expenses, unlimited users
Bigger than $1M a year? Scale starts at $100 a month.
What changes when the books leave Realm
The next database change leaves the books alone
Realm Accounting is an add-on to a Realm plan, and Realm Giving is what posts gifts into it, so the books move whenever the church database does. Grain keeps the books out of that decision. It isn't a church database and it syncs giving from six platforms, so if your church changes its database again in a few years, the funds, the history and the board reports stay where they are.
A plan that follows your finances, not attendance
Realm's Connect plan is priced by typical weekly attendance, so a growing congregation can mean a bigger bill even when the budget hasn't changed. Grain's Starter plan is set by monthly expenses, measured as the median of your last 3 months, and the paid plans by yearly revenue or expenses. A full Easter service changes nothing, and neither does a heavy December: one month over $20,000 doesn't push you off Starter.
Keeping Realm for people and giving?
Grain doesn't have a Realm connector, so gifts from Realm Giving won't sync into Grain with their funds. The deposits still arrive through the Plaid bank feed, and you assign each one to its accounts and funds, the way you'd code any bank deposit.
Book a demo and we'll walk through how your Realm deposits would come in.
The order to leave Realm in
Choose the new church database and giving platform first, so the books only move once. Then pick your cutover: a month-end you've reconciled and, if you can, the first day of your giving year, so each donor's statement for the year comes from one system. If you run Realm Payroll, move payroll on that same date, since it posts into Realm Accounting. Before you cancel Realm, extract the General Ledger statement report to CSV and run your year-end reports. Grain's team helps map your funds, accounts and opening balances.
Common questions
- Does Grain connect to Realm?
- No. Grain doesn't have a Realm connector, so Realm Giving gifts won't sync with their funds. Grain syncs giving from Planning Center, Pushpay, Rock RMS, Subsplash, OnlineGiving.org and Overflow. A church that keeps Realm can still bring its deposits in through the Plaid bank feed and assign each one to its funds.
- Can you buy Realm Accounting without Realm?
- ACS's plan pages sell it as an add-on: "Add integrated Accounting to any plan," across Inform, Connect and Multiply. ACS's accounting help center also documents passing deposits from MinistryPlatform, another church database, into Accounting. Whether you can buy it with no ACS database at all is a question for ACS. Grain is sold on its own.
- Does Realm Accounting work with Planning Center?
- ACS's Realm integrations page lists a one-way sync of profile details, such as name, phone number and email, from Realm to Planning Center People, for worship planning. Giving isn't part of it. Grain syncs Planning Center People and Giving, including batch deposits, so gifts arrive with their funds.
- What happens to Realm Payroll when the books leave Realm?
- Realm Payroll posts into the Realm Accounting general ledger, so plan to move payroll on the same date as the books. Grain's payroll add-on is $50 a month plus $10 per employee and runs in the same ledger: direct deposit or checks, Form 941 and W-2s, housing allowance tracking, and wages split across funds.
Move your books off Realm once
Start free and give each fund its own balance. Or watch a short demo first.