These are the rules for using ShepherdCloud. Please read them carefully. By using our service, you agree to follow these rules.
Last updated: June 2026Contents
ShepherdCloud is a church management platform that helps churches manage their members, finances, events, and communication — all in one place.
ShepherdCloud is a software project built and maintained by the ShepherdCloud team.
These Terms of Service are the agreement between you and us. When we say "you," we mean the church, organisation, or person using ShepherdCloud. When we say "we," "us," or "our," we mean the ShepherdCloud team.
By signing up or using ShepherdCloud, you agree to these terms. If you are signing up for a church or organisation, you confirm that you have the authority to do so. If you do not agree, please do not use our service.
The ShepherdCloud website, app, and all the tools we provide.
The ShepherdCloud team who build and operate the service.
The church, organisation, or person using the service.
Your church's own space on ShepherdCloud. Each church gets its own separate workspace with a unique web address.
Anyone you allow to log into your church's workspace.
The main person in charge of your church's account, who can manage everything including buying add-ons.
Our free service tier with no recurring charges.
Everything you put into ShepherdCloud: member records, financial data, events, messages, files, and so on.
To use ShepherdCloud, you must confirm that:
You are at least 18 years old.
You have the authority to sign up on behalf of your church or organisation.
All the information you give us during sign-up is true and accurate, and you will keep that information up to date.
You will follow all relevant laws in Ghana and in your own location.
When you sign up through our setup wizard at /setup/wizard, you will need to provide your church name, pick a unique web address, and give us an admin email and password.
We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to refuse any sign-up if the church name or web address is offensive, impersonates someone else, or seems inappropriate.
You are responsible for everything that happens under your account. Do not share your login — each person who uses ShepherdCloud should have their own account.
Tell us immediately if someone else gets into your account by emailing [email protected].
We offer 2FA to help keep your account secure. We strongly recommend turning it on.
You can be logged in from up to 3 devices at once (5 for admins). If you exceed this, the oldest session may be logged out.
We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms.
ShepherdCloud is free. There is no charge for the free plan. The free plan includes:
The free plan has no recurring charges. We reserve the right to modify plan features with notice per Section 21.
If you need more than the free plan offers, you can buy add-ons through the Billing & Actions tab. These are one-time purchases — they never expire. Only the Super Admin can buy add-ons.
SMS messages (20/month), emails (20/month), and attendance scans (100/month) reset at the start of each month.
Member count (100) and user count (1) are permanent caps. Buy add-ons to raise them.
If we ever change the free plan limits, we will give you at least 30 days' notice.
When you buy add-ons or pay for any service, your payment is handled securely by Paystack. We do not store your full card details.
We use this payment provider:
Our payment processor. It accepts cards, bank transfers, and mobile money in Ghana Cedis (GHS).
Things to know:
When you make a payment, you authorise us to charge the stated amount. You get a payment reference that starts with SUB_. Keep this for your records.
Make sure you have enough money in your account to cover the payment. We are not responsible for delays or problems caused by the payment companies, banks, or mobile networks.
20 per month.
20 per month.
100 per month.
Unused amounts do not carry over to the next month.
100
1
1 GB
If you hit a permanent limit, you can buy add-ons to increase it. Add-ons are one-time purchases with no recurring fees.
Go to your Subscription Status page, open the Billing & Actions tab, and click "Buy Add-ons."
Only the Super Admin.
Via Paystack. You will see the price before confirming.
Add-on prices: Church Members (₵0.50 each), System Users (₵5.00 each), SMS Credits (₵0.20 each), Email Credits (₵0.05 each), Storage (₵0.10 per MB), Attendance Scans (₵0.05 each).
Fair use: We may step in if someone's usage harms the service for everyone else. We will contact you before taking any action.
ShepherdCloud gives you the following tools, all available on the free plan:
Track tithes, offerings, welfare contributions, harvest donations, pledges, and expenses. Generate financial reports.
Store member details, photos, QR codes, groups, roles, and family connections.
Plan church events and track who attends using QR codes or manual check-ins.
Build custom reports and export them as Excel, CSV, or PDF files. Schedule reports to run daily, weekly, or monthly.
Send bulk SMS and emails. Set up automatic birthday wishes and absence reminders.
Control what each user can do with role-based permissions. Use 2FA to protect accounts. All activity is logged.
See your church's key numbers at a glance, with smart analysis of giving patterns.
Connect other software to ShepherdCloud through our programming interface.
Let members give tithes and donations online through public payment pages.
We are always improving the service. Features may change over time. If we make a big change to something you rely on, we will let you know in advance.
You agree not to do any of the following:
Do not upload anything illegal, offensive, defamatory, or that violates someone else's rights.
Do not send spam, run scams, or trick people through our messaging tools.
Do not try to break into other accounts or systems connected to ShepherdCloud.
Do not disrupt the service, spread viruses, or attack our systems.
Do not try to copy or reverse-engineer our software.
Do not use bots or scrapers to extract data unless you use our official API.
Do not resell or rent out access to ShepherdCloud without our written permission.
Do not use ShepherdCloud in a way that breaks data protection laws.
Breaking these rules can lead to your account being suspended or closed. We reserve the right to report violations of law to the relevant authorities at our sole discretion.
You own your data. Everything you put into ShepherdCloud — member records, financial transactions, event details, messages — belongs to you. We do not claim any ownership over it.
You give us permission to store and process it, but only so we can run the service for you. That is the only reason we touch your data.
You can export your data anytime through the reports section. You can download it as Excel, CSV, or PDF.
If you close your account, we will delete your data from our live systems within a commercially reasonable timeframe. We may retain backups for a limited period consistent with our standard backup retention practices.
How we handle personal information is explained in our Privacy Policy. That policy is part of these terms.
ShepherdCloud hosts many churches on the same system. Each church gets its own separate workspace (for example, yourchurch.zonenet.work). Here is how we keep things private:
Every query to the database automatically filters by your church's ID. Churches are logically isolated from one another through our multi-tenant architecture. We implement technical controls designed to prevent cross-tenant data access.
If your church has multiple branches, they stay within your workspace. Branch data is kept separate from other branches under your church.
Even when the system processes scheduled reports or sends automatic messages, each task carries the correct church ID so data never mixes.
ShepherdCloud depends on other companies to deliver some features. Here is what they do:
Processes payments. Paystack's own terms and privacy policies apply when you pay.
Provides the servers where your data is stored.
Delivers text messages. Delivery depends on mobile network coverage.
Sends emails on our behalf.
Help us track where logins come from for security purposes.
Optional speed and security layer for your church's page.
THESE THIRD-PARTY SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. WE DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THIRD-PARTY SERVICES. You use them through us at your own risk.
ShepherdCloud has a programming interface (API) that lets you connect other software to your church's data.
You need an API key to use it. Keep your API key secret, like a password.
There are rate limits to prevent overuse. We set these at our discretion. Do not use the API in a way that overwhelms the system or harms other churches.
We can revoke your API key if we suspect misuse. We will notify you first when possible.
The API is provided "as is." We may change or retire parts of it with reasonable notice.
ShepherdCloud is our project — the code, the design, the name, the logo, the reports engine, the analytics tools, and all documentation belong to the ShepherdCloud team.
These terms give you the right to use ShepherdCloud. They do not give you ownership of it.
"ShepherdCloud" and our logo are identifiers of this project. You need our permission to use them in a way that suggests endorsement or affiliation.
Everything you upload is yours.
If you send us feedback or feature ideas, we can use them freely without owing you anything.
ShepherdCloud is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We make no warranty, express or implied, regarding uninterrupted access. Sometimes we need to do maintenance, or things break beyond our control.
We will make reasonable efforts to provide advance notice of planned maintenance that might cause downtime.
We back up your data regularly. Still, you should also export your own backups from time to time using the reports feature.
We monitor the service using Sentry (for errors) and Prometheus (for performance).
Disclaimer: TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
If you want to leave:
You can close your account at any time through your account settings.
If your free account has been inactive for 12 months, we may close it after giving you notice.
If we need to close your account:
We may suspend or close your account if you break these terms, fail to pay for add-ons, or use the service for fraud or anything illegal. Where possible, we will warn you and give you a chance to fix the problem first.
If we close your account for a breach, you lose access immediately. We may keep your data for a short time so you can export it. After that, it will be deleted.
You can request a refund within 30 days of your payment. After 30 days, we look at refund requests case by case.
To ask for a refund, email [email protected] with your payment reference and the reason.
Approved refunds take 7 to 10 business days and go back to your original payment method.
We do not refund consumed add-ons, partial periods, or accounts closed for breaking the rules. Payment processor fees (like Paystack's 1.95% + GHS 0.30) cannot be refunded.
As far as the law allows:
We are not liable for indirect or unexpected losses — things like lost profits, lost data, or business disruption — that come from using or being unable to use ShepherdCloud.
If we are found liable for something, our total liability is capped at whatever you paid us in the 12 months before the issue arose, or One Hundred Ghana Cedis (GHS 100), whichever is greater.
Some countries do not allow these kinds of limits. In those places, our liability is limited as much as the law permits.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to cover our costs and defend us against any claims that arise from:
Including anything you upload or how you configure the service.
Any violation of the rules or obligations described in this document.
Such as their privacy or intellectual property.
Any activity that violates applicable laws or regulations.
These terms are governed by the laws of Ghana, where the ShepherdCloud team is based. We are not a registered legal entity, and these terms represent a good-faith agreement between you and the individuals who build and maintain the service.
If there is a disagreement, here is how we handle it:
Both sides try to resolve the issue through honest discussion.
If talking does not work within 30 days, we bring in a neutral mediator in Accra, Ghana.
If mediation also fails, the matter goes to the courts in Accra, Ghana.
We may take reasonable steps to protect our rights in the service or to prevent serious harm.
We may update these terms from time to time. If the changes matter, we will tell you at least 30 days beforehand — by email and/or a notice inside the app.
If you keep using ShepherdCloud after the changes take effect, that means you accept them. If you disagree with the new terms, you should stop using the service.
These terms, plus our Privacy Policy, are the complete deal between you and us.
If a court finds one clause unenforceable, it gets removed or reduced, but everything else stays in effect.
If we do not enforce something today, we can still enforce it later.
You cannot hand off your account or rights to someone else without our written permission. We can transfer them freely.
We are not responsible for failures caused by disasters, war, unrest, government actions, internet outages, power cuts, or failures in infrastructure we do not control.
These terms do not make us partners, joint venturers, employer-employee, or agent-principal.
If you have questions about these terms, reach out:
ShepherdCloud — A church management platform built and maintained by the ShepherdCloud team. We operate as an unregistered project, not a formal legal entity.