What 9 Embers does

9 Embers is a privately held, Colorado Springs-based technology services company founded in 2015 that specializes exclusively in the Rock RMS church management platform. The company operates as an Official Rock Partner, offering implementation services, custom development, ongoing support retainers, and managed hosting (Cloud 9), alongside a growing catalog of proprietary plugins distributed through the Rock Shop marketplace, including Group Finder, Planning Center Sync, Amazon S3 Storage, Twilio Voicemail, Financial CSV Import, Soft Credits, Service Reservation, and a Compass Website Theme. Its customer base consists entirely of churches and ministries using or adopting Rock RMS, with named enterprise-type relationships at Grace Church, Mountain Christian Church, and GT Church. Revenue is generated through a mix of project-based professional services (implementations and custom development), recurring monthly support retainers, subscription plugin sales through the Rock Shop, and recurring managed hosting fees. In November 2025, 9 Embers co-developed and launched Agent 9, an AI-powered assistant for ministry teams, in partnership with Pushpay, marking the company's first AI-native product and signaling a planned expansion beyond pure services into AI-augmented church analytics. Distribution combines direct enterprise sales (discovery-to-launch implementation projects, multi-year contracts) with marketplace distribution through the Rock Shop and content marketing via the Insights blog. The company is bootstrapped, with no disclosed institutional funding or parent ownership.

Name

9 Embers

Legal name

9 Embers LLC

Website

https://9embers.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

9 Embers is an Official Rock Partner providing implementation, custom development, support retainers, managed hosting, and a catalog of plugins (including the AI-powered Agent 9 Assistant) to churches and ministries using the Rock RMS church management platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Colorado Springs

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Rock Implementation Services: Full-service Rock RMS implementation including discovery meetings, configuration, training, and data conversion. Typically structured as project-based engagements.
2. Support Retainers: Monthly retainer agreements providing ongoing Rock RMS support, customizations, and strategic guidance. Includes retainer referral bonus program (5-hour bonus for referred clients).
3. Plugin Sales: Custom plugins sold through the Rock Shop marketplace including Group Finder, Invite Manager, and other ministry-focused extensions.
4. Managed Hosting: Cloud 9 Managed Hosting provides recurring revenue from infrastructure management services for Rock RMS instances.
5. Custom Development: Bespoke development services for church-specific Rock RMS customizations, workflows, and integrations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

9 Embers is a Rock Partner that delivers end-to-end services and software products around the Rock RMS church management system. Its core offerings include Rock RMS implementation, configuration, data conversion and training, plus ongoing support retainers, custom plugin development, managed hosting (Cloud 9), and the Agent 9 AI Assistant for ministry data analysis.

Product overview

9 Embers is a Rock Partner offering a portfolio of plugins and professional services for the Rock RMS church management platform. The product suite includes the core Agent 9 AI Assistant (an AI-powered copilot for ministry data), Cloud 9 Managed Hosting, and specialized plugins (Group Finder, Planning Center Sync, Amazon S3 Storage, Twilio Voicemail, Financial CSV Import, Soft Credits, Service Reservation, and Website Theme). Services include Rock Implementations, Support Retainers, and custom Development. All products are built to extend and integrate with Rock RMS, which serves as the underlying church management platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Agent 9: An AI-powered assistant integrated with the Rock RMS platform designed to help church leaders and ministry teams analyze donor and community data more efficiently.
• Cloud 9 Managed Hosting
• Rock Mobile Compass App
• Group Finder Plugin

Products and services

• Cloud 9 Managed Hosting Managed hosting service for Rock RMS environments, providing infrastructure management, maintenance, and ongoing support for churches running the platform.
• Rock Mobile App Package Mobile app package built on Rock RMS, enabling churches to deploy branded apps with features for messaging, events, groups, prayer requests, and giving.
• Agent 9 AI Assistant AI-powered assistant integrated with Rock RMS that helps ministry teams analyze donor and community data, generate database insights, build personalized profiles, and create reports through natural language interaction.
• Amazon S3 Storage Plugin Plugin enabling churches to store and manage files using Amazon S3 cloud storage within their Rock RMS environment.
• Financial CSV Import Plugin Plugin for importing financial data via CSV files into Rock RMS, facilitating data migration and batch entry of donation or transaction records.
• Group Finder Plugin Plugin providing a searchable, filterable interface for church members to discover and join small groups, with map integration and campus support.
• Planning Center Sync Plugin Plugin enabling synchronization of attendance and group data between Planning Center Online and Rock RMS platforms.
• Service Reservation Plugin Plugin enabling churches to manage and automate reservation systems for facilities, equipment, or ministry resources within Rock RMS.
• Soft Credits Plugin Plugin for tracking soft credits in Rock RMS donation records, allowing churches to attribute and acknowledge gifts that pass through multiple hands.
• Twilio Voicemail Plugin Plugin integrating Twilio voicemail services into Rock RMS, enabling staff voicemail functionality for church communications.
• Website Theme Plugin (Compass) Compass website theme for Rock RMS providing a church website template with photo galleries, video players, accordion components, and hero swipers.
• Rock Implementations Professional services for implementing Rock RMS at churches, including discovery meetings, configuration, data conversion, training, and go-live support.
• Rock Support Ongoing support and maintenance services for Rock RMS environments, available as monthly retainers for troubleshooting, configuration updates, customizations, and strategic guidance.
• Websites Custom church website design and development services using Rock RMS theming and web technologies.
• Mobile Apps Custom mobile app development services for church apps powered by Rock RMS, including the Rock Mobile Compass App.
• Development Custom development services for Rock RMS including plugin creation, workflow automation, Lava templating, and system customization.

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduced implementation risk through proven discovery-to-launch process with weekly meetings and clear milestones
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability6 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• PushpaycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 November 2025Co-developed Agent 9, an AI-powered assistant integrated with Rock RMS platform. Agent 9 helps church leaders and ministry teams analyze donor and community data more efficiently through database insights, personalized profiles, and report creation. Launch announced November 2025.
• Rock RMScoreTechnology or IntegrationOfficial Rock Partner specializing in Rock RMS implementations, custom development, support services, and plugin distribution through the Rock Shop. Develops within the Rock ecosystem and stays ahead of platform evolution.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Pushpay: Pushpay is a leading church management and giving platform that serves as both a strategic partner and a direct competitor to 9 Embers. They co-developed Agent 9 and overlap with 9 Embers on church CRM, donor data, and engagement workflows targeting the same ministry buyer.
• Planning Center: Planning Center is a major church management software suite (People, Giving, Services, Groups, etc.) that competes directly with Rock RMS, the platform on which 9 Embers is built. Churches choosing between Rock and Planning Center represent the same target market 9 Embers serves through its partner ecosystem.
• Church Community Builder: Church Community Builder (now part of Pushpay) is a church management software platform serving the same Rock RMS-competing vertical. It represents the same target market as 9 Embers with overlapping church engagement functionality.
• Icon Systems (Shelby): Icon Systems offers Shelby, a church management software platform that competes with Rock RMS. Like 9 Embers, Icon Systems serves the same niche of churches seeking a dedicated ChMS, making it a directly comparable peer.
• Breeze ChMS: Breeze is a popular church management system used by thousands of small to mid-sized churches. It competes with Rock RMS in the same vertical and target customer, making it a directly comparable peer for understanding 9 Embers' addressable market dynamics.

Broad incumbents

• Subsplash: Subsplash is a broad church engagement platform offering mobile apps, giving, media, and ChMS features. It overlaps with 9 Embers' Rock Mobile Compass App and broader church engagement offerings at a larger scale.
• Ministry Brands: Ministry Brands is a broad church and faith-based software provider offering a wide portfolio of products including giving, accounting, and membership tools. As a larger incumbent, it competes with Rock RMS and 9 Embers at the higher end of the church market with bundled offerings.
• ACS Technologies: ACS Technologies is a long-standing broad incumbent in church and faith-based software, offering management, giving, and accounting solutions. It targets the same church buyer as 9 Embers but at a much larger scale with a full product suite.

Emerging players

• Faithlife (Proclaim, Logos): Faithlife offers church management, presentation, and content tools targeted at ministry users. It is an adjacent competitor in the church technology space that targets a similar buyer but with different product emphasis.
• Tithe.ly: Tithe.ly is a church giving and engagement platform that has expanded into broader ChMS functionality. It competes with Rock RMS giving features and with 9 Embers' managed giving infrastructure for the same church customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/9-embers

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 9 Embers