Research methodology

Which products are included

A product must be available for a UK church to buy, subscribe to, download or deploy now. It must help a responsible church role prepare, deliver or manage administration, ministry or operations; being useful to an individual Christian is not enough on its own.

The product's main task must work in the UK and fit a directory category. A general-purpose product needs clear church or charity relevance, or another distinct reason for inclusion.

Private-beta products, products that are not available to UK customers, individual devotional or discovery apps without a church-managed workflow, and products without enough current evidence for a useful assessment are excluded from the main catalogue. Newness, a narrow denominational audience, a free or open-source model, and unresolved procurement questions do not by themselves prevent inclusion.

The directory currently contains 147 entries and is not a market-wide shortlist. Inclusion is reviewed as products and evidence change, and does not amount to endorsement.

How facts are researched

1. Prefer official product, pricing, support and policy pages.
2. Record the source URL, checked date and fields it supports.
3. Keep structured facts separate from directory assessment.
4. Omit incidental details that do not have useful supporting evidence.
5. Turn material gaps into a precise question for the supplier.
6. Do not infer compliance from general marketing language.

How sources are described

Supplier source

A current official product, pricing, support, policy or terms page supports what the supplier publishes.

Independent source

A relevant public record, regulator, authoritative body or other non-supplier source supports the fact.

Directory tested

Church Software UK performed and documented the stated test. This label is not used unless that work actually occurred.

When a detail is missing

Optional details are left out. Matters that could change a choice—such as hosting, Gift Aid, contracts or data download—become specific questions for the supplier. “No” is used only when a suitable source clearly establishes absence.

Review cycle

The automated stale check currently flags entries more than 180 days after their last checked date. A recent date does not mean every product detail is complete.

Public feedback scans

A public feedback scan is a dated, limited synthesis of eligible public feedback. It is separate from supplier facts and this directory’s assessment. It does not claim to find everything said online, measure satisfaction, establish that a view is typical, or establish every account as fact.

We identify the product, app, module and supplier before searching; use balanced positive and negative queries; and record the date range, scope, sampling approach, source types and UK relevance. We exclude private material, supplier testimonials, copied or syndicated material, personal data, high-risk allegations and sources whose terms do not permit the intended use. We do not scrape platforms, use their widgets, or publish star ratings or review structured data.

Repeated themes need support from distinct eligible source contexts or several apparently independent reports on one suitable source. Thin evidence is labelled as limited; a completed search with no eligible material says only that no usable public feedback was found in the sources and date range checked. Scans are normally reviewed after 180 days, sooner where a product changes materially.

We look for suspicious, incentivised, duplicated or out-of-date material and do not use it as a theme without proportionate checking. Anyone can report a misleading summary or source via the correction route below. We will investigate the supporting evidence, correct or remove misleading material where appropriate, and retain an internal record of the editorial decision. Commercial status never changes source selection or prominence.

Corrections

Corrections will be assessed on evidence, regardless of commercial status. Use the public correction route to report an inaccurate listing or a misleading public-feedback summary, with the relevant public evidence.

Commercial independence

Where a supplier offers an affiliate programme and we use it, the relevant link is labelled and the relationship is recorded on the product listing. Affiliate relationships and sponsorship do not affect inclusion, directory order, shortlist or comparison results, rankings or editorial reviews. Any sponsored listing must be clearly labelled and is held to the same research and editorial standards.

How AI is used

AI may help organise research, identify missing fields and draft copy. It is not treated as a source of product facts. A human remains responsible for checking evidence and approving published material.