Installing
macOS says WorshipHub "is damaged and can't be opened". Did the download fail?
No — the download is fine, and the app is not damaged. That message is what macOS shows for any app that isn't signed with a paid Apple Developer certificate, whether the app is healthy or not. It is a wording choice by Apple, not a diagnosis of your file.
To open it: put the app in your Applications folder, then right-click (or Control-click) the app and choose Open instead of double-clicking. A dialog appears with an Open button — click it. You only do this once.
If that still refuses, macOS has flagged the file as quarantined. Open Terminal and run xattr -cr "/Applications/WorshipHub.app", then open it normally.
Why isn't the app signed with an Apple certificate?
Because it costs money we would rather not ask a church for. Apple's Developer Program is a US$99 per year subscription, and it is the only way to get a certificate that makes macOS open an app without warnings. Notarization — the extra step that removes the warning entirely — also requires that same paid membership.
WorshipHub is free, has no subscription, no ads, and no paid tier. There is no revenue stream to pay a recurring fee from. So the app ships with an ad-hoc signature: it is a genuine, valid signature that proves the app hasn't been tampered with since it was built, but Apple doesn't recognise it as coming from a registered developer, and macOS says so in the loudest way it knows.
If donations ever cover the yearly cost, this is the first thing that gets paid for — the warning disappears for every church at once, without anything changing in the app itself.
Windows shows a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen.
Same underlying reason as the macOS one. Microsoft SmartScreen warns about installers it hasn't seen distributed widely yet, and a code-signing certificate that would silence it is another paid yearly subscription.
Click More info, then Run anyway. The warning fades on its own as more people download the same file.
Is there a Linux version?
Not for the presentation app itself. The macOS and Windows installers exist because that is what churches actually run on the computer driving the projector, and there is no packaged Linux build yet.
Everything else works on Linux today, with nothing to install: Remote, Captions, Notes and Songs all ship a web version that runs in any modern browser. So a Linux machine can write sermons, manage the song library, and act as the remote — it just cannot be the presentation computer yet.
Cost and licensing
Is it actually free, or free-for-now?
Actually free. There is no paid tier, no per-seat pricing, no feature held back for a Pro version, and no trial that expires. Every feature described on this site is in the app you download.
Nothing is funded by donations today — the project is simply maintained without a budget. Donations would go toward real costs the project has not been able to cover yet (the code-signing certificates being the clearest one), plus domains, hosting, and continuing to build and maintain it. Either way, nothing is locked behind them.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no sign-up, no login, and no account system anywhere in the app. Your song library and sermons live on your own computer.
The optional cloud sync uses your Supabase project, not ours — so even that is your account and your database, not a service we run.
Can we use it in a church we charge admission to, or a conference?
Yes. There are no restrictions on the setting — church, conference, school, home group, commercial venue. The app is free to use, full stop.
What you present with it is your responsibility, though: song lyrics and most modern Bible translations are copyrighted, and licensing those (CCLI or equivalent) is between you and the rights holder.
Using it in a service
Does it need an internet connection?
Not for the core of a service. Songs, service files, projection, and the animated backgrounds all run offline. Bible translations and speech models are downloaded once and then work offline.
Internet is only needed for things that inherently reach outside the room: YouTube playback, looking up lyrics online, cloud sync, and secure tunnels.
Do people in the congregation have to install an app?
No. Remote and Captions are web pages — a phone opens a URL or scans a QR code and that is the whole setup. Nothing from an app store, no account, no permissions beyond the camera for scanning the code.
Which of the four apps do I actually need?
Probably none of them to start — the desktop app runs a service on its own.
Add Remote when you want to drive slides from a phone instead of standing at the computer. Add Captions when people in the room speak a different language. Add Notes if the preacher wants their sermon and Bible verses in one place, with tap-to-project. Add Songs if whoever manages the song catalog isn't the same person running the presentation.
My phone connects, then says "Trust this device".
The desktop serves the companion apps over HTTPS with a self-signed certificate, because there's no way to obtain a real certificate for a private IP address on a church network. Browsers refuse that silently, so the app detects the pattern and walks you through accepting it once per phone.
Tap Trust, accept the browser warning in the tab that opens, then return to the app.
Can it work when the phone is not on the church Wi-Fi?
Yes, through a Secure Tunnel — one click in the desktop settings exposes the companion apps over Cloudflare, ngrok, Tailscale, or localtunnel, with a real HTTPS certificate that phones and OBS accept without warnings.
Privacy and data
Where does the sermon audio go? Is it sent to a cloud service?
It doesn't leave your building. Speech-to-text runs on your own computer using a Whisper model you download once (Metal-accelerated on Apple Silicon). Translation in the Captions app runs inside each listener's browser.
No audio, no transcript, and no translation request is ever sent to us or to any third-party AI service.
Do you collect analytics or telemetry?
The desktop app doesn't phone home, other than checking a single signed file for update notifications. It sends no usage data, no crash reports, and no identifiers.
Updates
How do updates work?
The desktop app checks a signed release file when it starts and shows a small notice in the corner if a newer version exists — then it opens the download page. It does not replace itself behind your back, which matters when the update check might land in the middle of a Sunday service.
Notes and Songs update themselves, since they're built on a framework with a vetted updater; you'll be asked before anything installs.
How do I know an update is genuine?
Every release entry is signed with a private key that never leaves the maintainer's machine, and the app verifies that signature against a public key compiled into it. A release file that has been altered — or served from somewhere else — fails verification and is ignored silently.
Didn't find your answer?
Each app has its own setup guide with connection steps and troubleshooting for that specific app.