# Page 3 | Planning Center Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 3 - Is Planning Center the right Donation Management solution for you? Explore 1137 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/76708/Planning-Center/reviews --- Planning Center 4.7 (1137) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 3 - Reviews of Planning Center ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 51-75 of 1137 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use LF Lauren F. President and Director Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Planning Center: A Must do for Any Ministry" May 11, 2024 5.0 My experience with Planning Center has always been good. The Services platform is amazing and I love using it to plan worship and create service orders. Their customer service reps are always so nice. There was even a time of financial struggle in one of the churches. I reduced our system down to the free level and the reps were so nice and even credited back money we had prepaid. Planning Center is customizable, affordable, and a great resource for any ministry, church or nonprofit. Pros I love Planning Center. I have worked in several churches and have started planning center from the ground up on several occasions. Every feature is very intuitive. It was so easy to learn and set-up. I have been an administrator as well and love the ability to view what others in the system do. It is great at sending email reminders. There are so many features you can customize for your own ministry situation. It transposes chord charts for you. What I am describing is just Planning Center's Services platform because I am the most familiar with that part. There other applications are useful and helpful as well. Cons It is truly had to think of a con. The smallest complaint I have is minor. I download the chord charts I make in Planning Center chord chart maker as pdfs. When I have gone to a new system, I can only upload the pdf...I cannot change the song's key or arrangement in the chord chart maker as I could before in the prior system. But again, that's minor. Reason for choosing Planning Center I don't know what other products would even compare honestly and I have never thought of using anything else. Review Source ML Mike L. Pastor of Creative Arts Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Essential Worship Planning Platform" May 11, 2024 5.0 Have been using Planning Center for years and it just keeps getting better and more powerful. Pros Everything is in one location and we can do backend programming to customize reports. Cons Sometimes what we are trying to do is buried deep in the platform. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Worship Leader Music Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Church Service Planning" April 30, 2024 5.0 Pros I have been using Planning Center for many years now and I have enjoyed using it. It is easy to use, and I get all information needed for when I am scheduled to serve in worship. Cons In the past I had issues with blocking my schedule but it's been fixed since then Review Source Kaylee R. Worship leader Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Very useful for all Departments!" June 5, 2023 5.0 Pros The design, the backend ease of accessibility, the layout. The ease of use for both users and administrators, the amount of features that could be used each week, and also the ability to store files and songs into it. Cons It was a bit pricey, and also the financial organizing side wasn't ideal. When it came to service flow layout, it seemed a bit awkward looking, like the agenda needed to be updated to streamline and match the rest of the platform. Reason for choosing Planning Center It is so common, especially in church groups, so it just made organization easier for everyone involved. We were able to easily get everyone on the same page with multiple teams. And even if someone volunteered in 2 or more roles, they were able to see their schedule and access materials easily. Review Source DA Dave A. Business Administrator Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "PCO as full ChMS" July 30, 2021 4.0 We have been very pleased with a fully-integrated solution that is continually improving with a great support team at a price that saves us money! Pros When making the switch to PCO as our full ChMS I was concerned at first because there is no dedicated implementation process. However, I was amazed by how smoothly the implementation went. It is extremely intuitive and the support team is amazing. The online help is very useful, the support team responds quickly (I think their target is within 2 hours), and the Slack channel helps glean ideas from other users. We saved about $3,000 per year compared to our previous solution and have a better product. Cons PCO is not perfect. There is not a perfect solution. I don't think we've found any issues that we can't work around so far and I've really been impressed by the development team and the rolling out of improved features. Alternatives considered [ShelbyNext Membership](https://www.capterra.com/p/71788/ShelbyNext-Membership/)[ChurchStaq](https://www.capterra.com/p/211982/ChuchStaq/)[Shelby Arena](https://www.capterra.com/p/175655/Arena/)[Rock RMS](https://www.capterra.com/p/141654/Rock-RMS/) Reason for choosing Planning Center We gave CCB/Push Pay an opportunity to convince us to stay with them. Rock RMS seemed a bit over our head because we don't have dedicated IT experts on staff. Shelby seemed like a good product but we got the feel that our experience would probably be similar to CCB. PCO is very intuitive, easy to implement, fully-integrated, has great resources and support, is frequently pushing out improvements, and saved us money. Switched from [ChurchStaq](https://www.capterra.com/p/211982/ChuchStaq/) The primary catalyst for our decision to look at other options was the merger with Push Pay. I had a negative impression of Push Pay when we were looking at mobile app solutions. CCB did not offer a fully-integrated solution. Also, some of their features were cumbersome to use (process queues & reporting). They promised a lot but were slow to roll-out improvements. Review Source Christopher H. Director of Data & Systems Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great software!" May 20, 2022 5.0 Overall, we love Planning Center. It's easy to use & the team there is super friendly and helpful when needed. We wish it was more customizable, but overall, we love all of their products and use them frequently. Pros We love how intuitive PCO is. It's easy to navigate & use, with very little extensive training required. It's the "Apple" of software. It is seamless for volunteer & attendee management, and it makes sign ups, giving, groups, etc. a breeze. Cons It's not quite a customizable as we would like. All solutions are out of the box, and there's not the option to really change or amend things (functionality, reporting, etc.). I also wish the API, specifically for registrations, was open to developers so we could connect that into our main church database. Alternatives considered [MinistryPlatform](https://www.capterra.com/p/110437/MinistryPlatform/) Reason for choosing Planning Center Ease of event registration & seamless integration into the People database of PCO. Volunteer scheduling/maintenance is robust. Review Source Response from Planning Center July 13, 2022 Hi Christopher, Thanks for your kind words! You mentioned feedback regarding our lack of customization and API concerns for Registrations specifically. Our Support Team is a great resource for help in that area. Hit the '?' icon in the upper-right of the screen when you are looking at your List. Send us a message and our team will jump in to help! We welcome feedback and feature requests, too. Thanks! JV Jennifer V. Office Admin Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Planning Center is an all in one software that makes management easier." March 21, 2022 5.0 Planning Center is easy to learn and manage. It has helped our church navigate managing over 200 members. This includes using online giving, member database, scheduling, music, emailing members, managing attendance to events and conducting background checks. Planning Center certainly has made our life easier in the office! Pros I like how it is versatile and allows us to plug in other services that help us navigate our business efficiently. Cons I wish we could have access to a live person quickly if assistance with the program is needed. Alternatives considered [Church Windows](https://www.capterra.com/p/2670/Church-Windows-Software/) Reason for choosing Planning Center They had more to offer for a great price. Switched from [Churchteams](https://www.capterra.com/p/103773/Churchteams/) Planning Center had more options to use and they were more cost effective. Review Source Response from Planning Center July 14, 2022 Hi Jennifer, Thanks for your kind words! You mentioned wishing you could have access to a live person. We are here in the wings ready to support you. You may be surprised how quickly we respond! Our Support Team is a great resource for help in that area. Hit the '?' icon in the upper-right of the screen when you are looking at your List. Send us a message and our team will jump in to help! Thanks! LP Luke P. Ministry and Marketing Coordinator Religious Institutions Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Exactly what we needed to take our organization to the next level" February 12, 2020 5.0 Planning Center has been a dream for our church. Before we made the move we had a different system for everything and none of them talked to each other in any way. We were scheduling 200+ volunteers 8 weeks out in an Excel spreadsheet. Our previous database software did almost nothing useful and we avoided even using it. Now with Planning Center we're more organized, automated, and streamlined than ever. I know we're not yet using it to it's full potential, there's so much more we can do still and we're excited to see how Planning Center will continue to change, grow, and get better. Pros Planning Center apps more than make up for their cost by the time, headache, and agony they save us. They are well designed and regularly adding new features. Planning Center listens to user feedback and is very friendly. They want to see churches empowered and so they listen to users for direction as they're implementing new features. Their help docs are great. The apps themselves are powerful. They may not always do what you want in the way you want it, but there's always a way to get it done. The integrations – Lists, Automations, Workflows, Forms – transform People from a database app into a powerhouse of tracking and automation. Cons Some more complicated tasks are not alway simple for PC novices to figure out; they do require some problem solving and hoop-jumping at times but it's still better than going without. Better training docs for getting users or volunteers up to speed for the first time are currently missing. I find myself having to create these based on existing help docs and my own material. Alternatives considered [FellowshipOne](https://www.capterra.com/p/230779/Fellowship-One/) Reason for choosing Planning Center FellowshipOne is owned by Ministry Brands, which if I'm not mistaken is a for profit company that has been buying up church software companies. While there's nothing inherently wrong with that, we were much more comfortable with Planning Center and their model. We quickly got to know the people and their heart to help churches. Switched from [Elexio Community](https://www.capterra.com/p/117170/Elexio-Database/) Elexio was terrible to work with and was basically useless in comparison. No one wanted to use it. It was clunky and only did a couple of the things we now do with Planning Center. Elexio also had cost us as much or more than we now pay for Planning Center while providing a fraction of the value. Review Source EA Edwin A. Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Planning Center.. Leaps above Fellowship One.. Still wishing we went with CCB." January 10, 2023 5.0 It's been really good! The reporting and volunteer management options have really helped us a ton. Pros The Services product is incredible. We could not imagine better.. after getting it setup that is. The reporting you can do is incredible. Cons The giving isn't great and the integrations leave something to be desired. We really wish they would build an actual robust email software so we could stop paying squarespace for this. Switched from [FellowshipOne](https://www.capterra.com/p/230779/Fellowship-One/) F1 really became limiting in a lot of factors. Review Source Response from Planning Center January 11, 2023 Hi Edwin! Thanks for a solid 5 stars in every category - that's super kind of you! We're also so glad that you're enjoying the Services product. That said, we do want to help with any questions you have about Giving or about Emailing through People/using Mailchimp. You can reach our support team at support@planningcenter.com or by using the "?" in the top right corner of any page where you're logged in. We'd love to hear from you and see how we can help further! Thank you again! JR Justin R. Church Administrator Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Planning Center - Great Value, Product and Service!" May 24, 2022 5.0 Planning Center makes life in a busy church manageable! It gives me the confidence that things aren't getting overlooked and that our members can have an enjoyable experience every time the doors are open! If I were asked to cut the budget, this would be one product I'd fight for. Pros Planning Center is your one-stop shop for all things related to managing a growing and thriving church! I don't even want to begin thinking about how we would manage membership, service planning, small groups, communications, and everything else that goes into running a church without this software. It is definitely worth every penny! Cons There isn't really anything I don't like about Planning Center. If I had to choose one pain point it would be that there are so many features within each module that its difficult to understand all the ways they interacts. I'm constantly learning new things and how this product can make our job easier in many ways! Review Source Response from Planning Center July 13, 2022 Hi Justin, Thanks for your kind words! You mentioned having a bit of trouble understanding all of the features we offer and how it's a lot to learn. Our Support Team is a great resource for help in that area. Hit the '?' icon in the upper-right of the screen when you are looking at your List. Send us a message and our team will jump in to help! Thanks! Darien C. Associate Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Impressive Church Management Software that is constantly improving" October 9, 2020 5.0 Planning Center is a life-saver for our organization, freeing up our time to focus on the people that truly matter. Planning Center has allowed us to implement robust systems to manage a lot of our administrative work; simplifying our lives and helping keep our teams on the same page. Pros Planning Center offers a robust set of applications that help create a comprehensive church management platform. Combining the useful features of PC People (such as workflows, forms, database management, etc) with their Service management system (Services), Group management system (Groups), Calendar application (Calendar), Attendance tracking systems (Check-ins), Giving platform (Giving) and event registration platform (Registrations) creates a very robust set of tools that help make church management easy. Paired with the Church Center app (provided with PC People), you also gain access to a consumer facing application where church members can join groups, register for events, give, and even check-in their kids - all from one central hub. All of these separate platforms have their individual strengths, but overall combined they form an integrated church management solution that offers useful features and well-designed software that is constantly improving based on the feedback of their customers. Cons Planning Center is a platform that is constantly growing, which of course means that there are always areas of improvement. The beauty of PC is that they are constantly monitoring what is missing, and working on improving in those areas - so anything I list here really are minor issues that will likely be addressed in the near future. Two crucial things that they are missing are a few back-end admin tools, such as a robust security options (such as 2FA) and a simple user management interface. Currently, there is no way to enforce password security for PC users with access to people's personal information, nor is there a way to require (or even implement) 2FA. On top of this, managing people's access levels to different planning center applications cannot be managed from a simple back end admin location - rather to add (or remove) permissions you need to manually visit each separate application, access the users profile, and add/remove the permissions on an application-by-application basis. All this are mere annoyances regarding security, and are things that I believe will be addressed in PC's feature roadmap Review Source MH Mitchell H. Worship and Families Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Incredible Software to help Manage your team!" November 9, 2023 5.0 Pros We love how easy it is to add people to the program, how intuitive it is to create services plans and items and adding people into various positions, and we love how you can upload the music and chord charts for each song so that volunteers can easily rehearse and practice on their own! Cons It is a little more on the expensive end of the market; however the features they include mostly off set this. We also wish it could do more. Reason for choosing Planning Center Planning Center has much more features and much more integration options. Plus it is easier to use! Review Source NT Nathaniel T. Associate Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Industry Standard for a reason" March 29, 2024 5.0 Planning Center is great, don't get me wrong. If your church has the funds to invest in Planning Center, or if you are already using their other software, it is likely the best solution out there for you. HOWEVER, (and that is a big however) if your church has a ChMS that already offers worship planning, it is likely just fine! I am with a different church now, and we just switched to Pushpay. Their worship planning is very simple and offers SongSelect integration. If you are a small to medium-sized church, looking for worship planning software, I would HIGHLY encourage you to make sure you do not already have access to this in your ChMS, and if you do not, consider switching to a solution like Pushpay where it is integrated. I know ShelbySystems offers this too. But if your budget and situation allows you will be thrilled with the functionality and user interface you find in Planning Center. It is simple enough for volunteers to use and the optional Music Stand app is great for getting music into the hands of your musicians early in the week, and allowing them to have their music on their phone or more preferably iPad/tablet. But if your current system offers an alternative, it is probably not worth the extra to have Planning Center as well. Pros The simplicity to plan services and schedule volunteers help make it the best! Cons Planning Center is the leader in worship planning software and they know it! Planning center is expensive an may not be worth it for your church. Especially if you have another ChMS that already offers worship planning. Review Source WHS William Hernando S. Musica Teacher Education Management Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Para Servicios con excelencia" September 14, 2022 5.0 Quedamos muy satisfechos usando Planning Center. Como músico líder y co-pastor es muy importante ese nivel de flexibilidad y control sobre información clave de la congregación Pros Me gustó la integración de los servicios. El Conocimiento que tienen de las necesidades de una Iglesia. Cons Viviendo en Colombia el cambio a dólares hacen que el precio oscile bastante. El servicio no es costoso pero para una congregación no muy grande que quiere escalar en opciones, puede ser no tan accesible. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Excel](https://www.capterra.com/p/176574/Excel/) Reason for choosing Planning Center Por el nivel de integración de características y las Apps Review Source Response from Planning Center September 26, 2022 We appreciate your feedback, William! Hearing how we can make our products more efficient and affordable is always important to us! Thank you! Cameron M. Technology Coordinator Religious Institutions Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great Church Management System for Small - Medium Sized Churchs" June 17, 2021 5.0 My title says that it is a great ChMS for a small - medium sized church, that is just because that is the size of the church that volunteer. Planning Center also has the potential to be great for a large church as well. So far we have been very happy with the transition to planning center, my next project is going to be integrating our website with their API so that we can sync the events and other features of Planning Center. Pros I like that Planning Center has all of the features that we need integrated into a single suite. Previously, we had 2-3 tools for membership management, communication, and online giving. We have been able to consolidate that down to a single system and saved money. Cons The member directory in the mobile app can be a little confusing for some of our members that are not tech-savvy. To overcome this, our technology team has been promoting our digital outreach and making ourselves available to the congregation to assist with getting them setup in the directory and using the mobile app. Alternatives considered [SimpleChurch CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/131549/SimpleChurchCRM/)[Tithe.ly](https://www.capterra.com/p/154664/Tithe-ly-Church-Giving/) Reason for choosing Planning Center We were already using the Worship Planning features and the rest of the suite integrated really well. Switched from [Churchteams](https://www.capterra.com/p/103773/Churchteams/) Churchteams was having issues delivering communications to our members, the interface also had some issues. We wanted a more robust system. Review Source Response from Planning Center June 21, 2021 Hi, Cameron! Thank you so much for your kind review. We're delighted to hear that you've had a successful switch and that you're able to use Planning Center as a unified system. Should you soon venture into using our API and have questions navigating through that process, please don't hesitate to reach out to our team for help. All the best! NL Nicholas L. Finance Director & Dinner Groups Director Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "It's core programs are stellar" February 22, 2018 4.0 All in one stop shop for Church Database Management Pros Planning Center is a great all in one suite for a church database. Their customer support is really good. They will respond to your email within an hour. They've had a slack channel that is also helpful for you to learn from others how they are using the software. The majority of their products are great. People, Services, Check-In are best in class in my opinion. Resources and Registrations are good they get the job done. One of Planning Centers best features is that they are constantly making quality improvements. Their updates keep them at the top of the ChMS game. I've witnessed others get the lead and they play it safe or drop the ball. Or they just built such a large product that its too big to update. People -Easy to import and export (this is a must feature in my opinion for any database) -Customizable (again another dealbreaker for me if a database doesnt have that) -F R E E Service - The best volunteer management software in any industry Check-In -Simple to use and straightforward -Beautiful UI Cons Groups and Giving are what I like least about Planning Center. We had to move on from PC Giving because after 2 years of using it they never added the ability to mass import donations or work with outside vendors. I would have loved to have been able to integrate PushPay with Planning Center. It would have saved us H O U R S. I would have loved to have our members see their entire history of giving. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to manually re-enter every gift. That would take months to complete and we are only 10 years old as a church! Reporting could be much improved too. You can really only search by one category at a time. So if you want to look at everyone who has given to a certain fund by check you'd have to export the info to get that. Groups is still in beta in my opinion and have been since they launched in June of 2016. It's not complete or usable in my opinion. All it does is take attendance. Our groups are more than just taking attendance. Every group's system has a span of care (coaching structure) but groups don't have anything to assist you with that. It also doesn't receive many updates. The team that works on giving also works on groups so giving naturally gets all the priority. Finally, one thing that scares me about Planning Center is that some of the staff can be really arrogant. I don't know if it's because of how many users they have and managing all the requests but they don't listen well enough. Review Source Response from Planning Center February 28, 2018 Hi Nicholas, Thanks for your review. We've had a lot of changes to our teams in the past two months, and the Giving/Groups team has been split in to two separate teams to help advance both of those products faster. It still might be awhile before Giving has a way to bulk-import payments, but adding the ability to track external payments in September was a step in that direction. It's definitely concerning that you feel our staff is arrogant, so if you would like to contact me directly about experiences that contributed to this feeling, I'll gladly look into it with you. Reagan Helms Support Team Lead Planning.center DS Daniel S. Worship Minister Religious Institutions Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Comparison to WorshipTeam software" September 11, 2019 4.0 Overall, I do like Planning Center, but I am really torn, because the "Cons" chew up a ton of my time. In my previous church (5 years ago), I DID use Planning Center and thought it was great. I realize that Planning Center is the "BIG PLAYER", but there are definitely things they could improve to make the experience easier. Pros 1\. Parts Storage - I can store my keyboard parts, lead sheets, chord sheets all in one place 2. Templates for services is very handy - saves a couple minutes each week allowing me to just add in my songs and any special things happening in the service. 3. Matrix view of plans and people - I do my people planning every 2 months, so it's nice to see 2 months worth of services all on one screen and fill in the blanks. 4. Black out dates - each team member can block out dates that they are not available, so I don't even need to bother asking them 5. Music Stand app - allows all of my musicians to be totally paperless (using an ipad), even my piano player (since I can import her music right into planning center along with my lead sheets from SongSelect). In WorshipTeam, I first have to create a PDF, and I can only create the PDF with Chord charts. I can actually turn pages for all of my musicians simultaneously using a session. 6. Notifications - I love the automatic notifications of members for upcoming services they are assigned to 7. Church Management - great tool for planning nursery workers, sunday school workers, ushers, greeters, etc. And they all get email/text reminders too! 8. Auto import of chord charts from SongSelect is great (too bad it won't also import my lead sheets) 9. I have heard of the ability to automatically create my projection slides from my weekly plan including proper sequence for each song - no mismatch of words between slides and chord charts. Cons 1\. Transposing songs is PAINFUL! In WorshipTeam, I can transpose with one click. I don't have to manually transpose the MP3 for the song and the chord chart is automatically transposed too. In our church, we have a lot of altos and basses. Rarely do we ever do a song in the original key. 2. Library is self populated. In WorshipTeam, I have the songs I have added to the library, but also all the songs that everyone else has added. So, for contemporary songs, they are usually already in the library for my use all ready to go. When I have a substitute worship leader, they are extremely daunted by the task of adding a song to the library in Planning Center. I don't know if they will ever do it even though I wrote out a procedure for them. 3. Not sure, but I think the storage area is limited in Planning Center. So, if I have created to many alternate keys of songs, I will eventually run out of space? 4. CCLI reporting is more complicated. With WorshipTeam, a report is easily created with one click and I don't have to keep track of anything on a weekly basis. Reason for choosing Planning Center I have used it before, and it seems to be the software of choice for most of the worship industry Review Source Response from Planning Center September 12, 2019 Thanks for your honest review, Daniel! Many of the items in your CONS list are things we can help you with. Would you reach out to our support team at support@planning.center and we'll help get some of these pain points resolved! TM Tania M. Finance Administrator Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Customizable packages - value for money" January 23, 2023 5.0 Overall this is a great program, a great way to keep everything in one place and keep all databases accurate. It helps keep our small groups organized, our calendar organized, and is great for registrations.We track giving and use it for receipts and it has worked nicely for that as well, and takes into account CDN giving rules/laws. Pros I love that you can customize which modules you need. You can try a module for 30 days, you don't pay for large usage unless you need it. They give a grace period, where you can get the small package but if you use it more for one month, you don't have to upgrade. It keeps donor management and people database in the same place, so if someone changes their address, it is changed across all modules. Cons Reports seem to be difficult to generate accurate results. For example, if you want to generate a report that includes everyone who gave any amount in the past year and attended an event or volunteered. We have tried this report and didn't get back proper results when run by someone other than the giving users. They don't need to know specifics on giving but should be able to add that as a criteria. Also, if someone accidentally deletes a user then there is no way to get them back even if they had giving. There should be a safeguard in place so that only giving users can delete a profile that has giving.I don't like that you cannot use VISA/MC debit for paying, Review Source Response from Planning Center January 25, 2023 Thanks for your kind words, Tania! You mentioned having a bit of trouble with List rules in People. A People Admin that is not a Giving Admin cannot access Giving list conditions. This is a guardrail and privacy structure we created intentionally. Only a Giving Admin can run a list to return that info. Also, if you delete a user, we still keep the records of these donations that can be reassigned to the donor's correct profile or if you need to recreate the profile. Lastly, there are different regulations in Canada that are above our control as far as what cards are allowed but we will submit this as a Feature request. Our Support Team is an excellent resource for help in that area. Hit the '?' icon in the upper-right of the screen when you are looking at your List. Thanks again! Tyler H. Executive Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "So. Much. Better." May 2, 2020 5.0 I was the XP at a church that used Planning Center. I went to another church that used one of their main competitors. After 18 months, we are on Planning Center. I'm much happier and the rest of the staff is much happier. I think that pretty well sums it up. Pros When we switched from our previous software to Planning Center, I worked with our staff to see how it was going. The responses I got were always akin to "well, it is frustrating learning a new system...but this is better than what we were on." Basically, in one or two days our staff was less frustrated with Planning Center than they were continually with a system we had been on for three years. As we've been on it longer, the frustrations have decreased and the benefit to our church has increased. Moving to Planning Center has been the best organizational choice we've made in a long time. Oh, and it is about $100 (33%) cheaper each month. And that's on month-to-month vs an annual contract with the old guys. And when our online giving agreement runs out and we switch the Planning Center giving, we'll save another $200 or so a month. And their support is incredible, typically responding within an hour (vs 2 business days on the old platform). Cons To my understanding, Planning Center set out to make a great stand alone tool for Check Ins, a great tool for Registrations, a great tool for Giving, etc...to do this, they set up separate development teams for each module. I understand this, having worked with some tools that started as a great online director or great giving tool or great event tool and tried to expand to do much more. The result is often complicated bloat. I do think Planning Center's model largely avoided this because each thing has to stand on its own. In my estimation, I'd like to see some tweaks to certain modules, but overall each of them accomplishes what I need. The one drawback to this, though, is that the tools don't integrate quite as tightly as I'd like. Everything talks back to their People module, but sometimes it would be good to have them talk to each other a little more. E.g., when we set up an event in Check In, we also have to go into the Calendar module to set up the event to request the room. This can be a bit of a hassle. To be fair, it does seem like they are moving in this direction with new features, so hopefully their biggest weakness (to me) will continue to shrink! But, again...this is minor compared to the frustrations I've had with other systems. I've been on ones that I hated even logging into because I knew I was going to get mad. I genuinely like using Planning Center. Switched from [ChurchStaq](https://www.capterra.com/p/211982/ChuchStaq/) PC was a much better experience and more functional for our needs Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Director of Creative Elements, Digital Ministry and Co-director of Television Ministry Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "This is the software you want" November 1, 2018 5.0 I can't reccomend planning center enough. It's easy to use. It looks good when integrated with our website and digital signage. It encourages collaboration between teams. While it doesn't have an accounting module that kind of thing is best left up to the experts; intuit's products handle accounting much better than any church management software anyway. If you're not already using planning center services, you really should it makes planning worship so much easier and once you see how great that is you'll want to get groups, resources, and everything else and by that time most of your database is already populated and the people module is free. You'll be swapped over to it as your main church management software before you even realize it. Pros It is the most user-friendly software. They have more features than you'll ever need and it makes collaboration a breeze. The system always functions as it should and most of the time the development team is several steps ahead, putting out new features that are actually helpful. The fact that they work with groups like renewed vision to integrate with propresenter is incredibly valuable. Everything being cloud based also makes it easy to collaborate between departments on events. Their groups search is easy to use, resolution-responsive and looks great integrated into any website. The kiosk option in their events module makes dynamic calendar-based digital signage really simple. Everyone who has ever resisted adopting planning center at our church has eventually come around to really like it. Cons If you have a need for a feature the development team is going to tell you that they may add it one day and never commit to a release. Also they don't offer any training other than videos online - for savvy people this isn't much of a problem because their interface is so user friendly, but if you have staff who refuse to learn things on their own this will deter them from wanting to adopt planning center - though it shouldn't because it is really easy to learn. The pricing model can be somewhat confusing at times and I wish there was more of a discount for people using multiple modules; a large church can get close to spending a thousand dollars a month without much trouble, though I know this is comparable to some other platforms and honestly you get what you pay for. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer CEO Internet Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Planning center best tool for managing charismatic groups and churches" August 31, 2022 4.0 Planning center allowed me to better know all the members of the organization to which I belong and to know how to enlist them in the work for a common good. Pros What I liked most about this software is its ability to manage religious groups. Cons What I liked least is that it is not easily usable by new religious organizations. Alternatives considered [ChurchStaq](https://www.capterra.com/p/211982/ChuchStaq/)[Tithely Church Management](https://www.capterra.com/p/132513/Breeze-ChMS/) Reason for choosing Planning Center This software allowed me to organize the work in the religious groups and to better follow the groups. Review Source Response from Planning Center September 14, 2022 Hi there! Thank you for your review. You mentioned having a bit of trouble getting started as a new org. Our Support Team is a great resource for help in tis area. Hit the '?' icon in the upper-right of the screen when you are looking at your page. Send us a message and our team will jump in to help. Thank you! Timothy H. Lead Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Our Virtual Assistant" July 18, 2019 5.0 Our team has come to a place of embracing this product and using it well for planning worship events. Early on, it was a bit of a learning curve. Having been use to software having phone support with programs. Over all, this product has become a virtual part of our team. We like the ability to update it on the fly, even in the middle of an event. We have also used the "groups" portion of the app, but not a lot. Our next adventure with this product is to be implementing the "check-in" portion of the app. The PlanningCenter portion is great for setting up teams to serve and for bringing our sheet music library into the 'plan.' Pros This app/program has become a great aid in planning worship services and events for our Sunday Services and other events. It helps us get all of our information into one spot. Secondly, in planning our worship services and other events, it has become a template that leads us to our 'finished product,' a well planned and detailed event. Cons All support is done through tutorials and through email contacts. There is no phone support, at least that I have found. Reason for choosing Planning Center We were originally using a pen and paper listing or a typed list that was purely based on talking it out and writing it down. The problem before was that we would often miss out on key items. With PlanningCenter, we are often primed by the template on activities to include or people needed to serve in roles for that portion of the plan. PlanningCenter is constantly updating their product and tutorials. Review Source Response from Planning Center July 23, 2019 Hey Timothy, thanks so much for your feedback and sharing how the software helps your Team get to the finished product for your events. As for phone support, you are able to schedule a call via the (?) on the top right of the app you have questions in. While email support is the fastest most efficient way to receive support. You can still schedule a call via the (?) via the "open a ticket" modal. Hope you have a blessed one! HR Hunter R. Media Director Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "My favorite ChMS" May 4, 2021 5.0 Planning Center has helped our church get back to focusing on people. We used to focus on managing people and administrative tasks, but with the ease of use Planning Center offers, it's allowed us to get back to the people on a more personal level. Pros Planning center has many apps, all centered around a common database that serves as the backbone for the entire ecosystem. All the apps reference People, the database app, to add users and administrators to each app. Apps include: Groups: Create and manage small groups. Services: Create service line-ups, worship setlists, and manage volunteers for every team your church has all from one platform, so nobody can ever be double booked. Registrations: Create and accept registrations for events, whether registration is free or you have to pay to register. Calendar: Manage events on a calendar, and have a place for end users to add events and reserve rooms. Giving: Online giving with an available add-on to your website, and text-to-give features. Check-Ins: Check in kids and print tags for them, and even create tags for volunteers and special events. Publishing: Edit and manage content for Church Center, and link sermons to your YouTube archives. Church Center: A free app for your church, available for mobile and browser use. Enables mobile giving and allows church members to access the membership-facing side of Planning Center. Cons There's so much flexibility with this ChMS that it's hard to know where to start. It's like trying to write a book, and you're staring at a blank page. You know you have something good to write, something worthwhile to say, but you don't know where to start because of the endless possibilities of starting an amazing new journey. Reason for choosing Planning Center There was no other option for us. Planning Center was too easy and flexible. Just an amazing software all the way around. Switched from [KidCheck](https://www.capterra.com/p/84428/KidCheck/) There was no organization to our church management before. Now there is. It's really as simple as that. And I don't mean the church staff was disorganized, I mean there was no management to our events and groups. And there was certainly no automation. Now we're getting there. Review Source Response from Planning Center May 6, 2021 Hi, Hunter! Thank you for your kind words. So glad to hear you're enjoying Planning Center! VR Verified Reviewer Owner Accounting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Excellent church planning software " May 23, 2022 5.0 Pros I love all the databases and features available. Its great at capturing duplicates, setting workflows and generating reports. Cons Only drawback is the separate module apps, but it makes total sense why it's setup that way because it allows for optional enrollment and cost savings so you only pay for what you need. Review Source Response from Planning Center July 13, 2022 Hi there! Thanks for your kind words! You mentioned concerns or questions regarding pricing and our separate products. Our Support Team is a great resource for help in that area. Hit the '?' icon in the upper-right of the screen when you are looking at your List. Send us a message and our team will jump in to help! Thanks! TB Trae B. Family Ministry Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Trae Bremer" June 17, 2023 5.0 Pros Planning center provides a foundation to manage your church. Its a go to platform that allows to approach and manage every aspect all from one software. That's my favorite part, the fact our whole church can be managed from one program. Cons I do think planning center can continue to update it's email system. Though Mailchimp is a great integration, the lack of customizing email templates and list can be updated. Alternatives considered [Text In Church](https://www.capterra.com/p/142758/Text-In-Church/) Reason for choosing Planning Center Planning center was better in at every angle. Review Source Response from Planning Center June 21, 2023 Hi Trae! Thank you for your time and feedback regarding email templates. Our Support Team is a great resource for assistance in this area. Hit the '?' icon in the upper-right of the screen. Send us this feedback as a feature request and our team will be sure to process it for you. Thank you, Trae! Talk to a Capterra advisor for free and get results within 15 minutes.