Why GatherSafe
Built for church security.
Not adapted for it.
General PTT apps like Zello were built for delivery drivers and construction crews. Church security teams have fundamentally different needs — and a fundamentally different budget reality. GatherSafe addresses both.
Cost savings
Zello charges per person.
We charge per church.
Zello Plus is $15 per user, per month. GatherSafe is $15 per organization — your entire team, unlimited growth, one flat rate. The larger your team, the more lopsided the math gets.
20-person team
You save
$285/mo
$3,456 per year
75-person team
You save
$1,086/mo
$13,126 per year
200-person org
You save
$2,921/mo
$35,242 per year
When your team grows, your bill doesn't.
On Zello, every new volunteer you add costs you $15 more per month. On GatherSafe, adding the 51st team member costs the same as adding the 5th — nothing extra. For a volunteer-run security ministry, that changes the economics completely.
Zello Plus pricing: $15/user/month as listed on zello.com · GatherSafe billed per organization, not per user
Purpose-built
What general PTT apps don't understand about church security
Command Structure
Mirrors how church security actually operates
Your security director needs to hear everything. Your parking team doesn't need to hear the children's wing team. GatherSafe's lead-group model gives leadership a unified feed of every sub-team while keeping each team's channel private — exactly how a well-run church security program works. Zello's flat channels don't understand the difference.
Emergency Protocols
Purpose-built for the threats you actually face
Active threats, medical emergencies, lost children, disruptive individuals — church security incidents happen fast and need an immediate, coordinated response. GatherSafe's one-tap panic button broadcasts GPS coordinates to every leader with tiered severity levels, push notifications that bypass silent mode, and acknowledgment tracking so you know who has responded.
Congregation Privacy
Communications your congregation trusts you to protect
Security teams discuss threat descriptions, medical conditions, and information about vulnerable individuals. That's a serious privacy responsibility. GatherSafe encrypts messages at rest with AES-256-GCM — only your team can read them. Zello encrypts data in transit with TLS, but Zello holds the keys. If their systems are breached or subpoenaed, your communications are exposed.
Documentation
The incident log you'll need after something happens
After a serious incident, your leadership, insurance carrier, and potentially law enforcement will ask what your team saw, when, and where. GatherSafe's encrypted incident reports — with photos, GPS coordinates, and timestamps — create a defensible, permanent record. Zello has no incident logging.
The bottom line
Zello is a capable walkie-talkie app built for general-purpose teams. Church security is not a general-purpose problem. Your team protects people who gather in faith — and they deserve a tool built with that responsibility in mind. GatherSafe costs less than a single Zello seat, and it was designed specifically for the work you do.
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Your congregation deserves better protection
Join security teams across the country who chose purpose-built tools over generic apps. Purpose-built for how church security teams actually operate.
Starting at $8/month · iOS & Android