# Page 8 | Planning Center Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 8 - 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 8 - Reviews of Planning Center ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 176-200 of 1137 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use BM Bruno M. Attendant Consumer Goods Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Planning Center it's a good software " July 23, 2022 5.0 I love it because it can be easy to understand and have too much tools to use Pros This software it's really useful to understand, and at the same time it have great tools and functionalities that are really useful, this software it's amazing and for the churchs it's really good. Cons I don't like the graphic interface for some esthetic incongruences and i don't like it, but it's a great software. Review Source Response from Planning Center August 9, 2022 Thank you, Bruno! You mentioned not liking our graphics or Publishing features. 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! Thank you! NO Nicholas O. IT Support Technician Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Streamline Church Manageent" November 24, 2023 5.0 The system is easy to learn and pick-up for both our junior and senior users. Pros Planning Centre has also been fast to implement new and in-demand features wanted by churches. Cons I least like how they seem to only implement features that will work in the USA. It's seldom they have features that work in Australia. Review Source LB Luke B. Director of Family Ministry Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Excellent Functionality, Complicated Use" December 7, 2019 4.0 Overall, Planning Center was an incredibly helpful product with a steep learning curve. It had many great features but was not user friendly at all. Ultimately, this lack was what led our church to switch to a different software (Church Community Builder) earlier this year after multiple years of use. Pros When you are able to figure out how to use the various features, Planning Center is an incredible software for church use. For check ins, volunteer scheduling, church membership databases, and all things relating to music/band planning, it is an excellent software. I schedule volunteers for our church's kids ministry, manage check-ins, and played in the church band. Though it is sometimes complicated to use, the actual options available in Planning Center are great. Most of what you would ever need to do can be found in this software. Cons Though it has a wide range of functionality, it is not user friendly at all. As someone who managed around 100 kids ministry volunteers, I saw this first hand. Not only did it take me a long time to gain any kind of real proficiency in it and even after years of using it, I still occasionally learned new things about it. I was also met with many questions from volunteers about checking schedules and seeing attachments on schedules. If it was easy to use, it would have been a near perfect church software but, unfortunately, it was quite complicated. Review Source RT Robert T. Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Church-wide rollout is a success...mostly." February 9, 2026 4.0 On the whole, this is still a good product that allows for a lot of leadership and administrative tasks. We've found usage for lots of tasks. Pros Since my original review, we've rolled out Planning Center church-wide (previously, we'd only used it for leadership tasks). Overall, this has been good and helpful for our congregation; we can communicate easily with the whole church, online giving, event planning, and other activities are beneficial. The program is intuitive - to a point. Some of the back-end work takes some effort to figure out, but there are good resources available to help learn the product. Cons The biggest drawback we've found is the directory. Every person must opt-in to have their information public, and there is no option to change that. This has proven to be difficult - we've gotten a lot of people to adopt this, but it's not always been easy. And, for some users it's proven too technically difficult. There are a few glitches that we've noticed among users, depending on which OS they use. So church-wide rollout wasn't quite as smooth as I would have liked. Review Source Mark T. Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Intuitive Church Management Software" February 14, 2020 5.0 I love the ease of use and beauty of this product. It makes my life very simple. I highly recommend. Pros I love the look feel and ease of use of Planning Center. Everything is streamlined, intuitive, and easy to learn. There is virtually no learning curve. Cons Everything is done based on Planning Center's idea of church data management. Churches are very diverse and sometimes have customizable needs. Customization is not a Planning Center thing. This protects the design and performance but can hamper in other areas. Alternatives considered [Realm](https://www.capterra.com/p/146265/Realm/) Reason for choosing Planning Center Popularity, design, and ease of use. Switched from [ACS](https://www.capterra.com/p/2668/ACS/) Cost and ease of use Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Worship Musician Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Solid collaboration tool for churches" July 9, 2020 5.0 Easy service planning and file sharing, organized, and allows people to easily and simply share their schedules, as well as communicate via messages in-app. Pros Our church uses this to meticulously plan a service, and it works well in establishing timing and ensuring we're all on the same pagel. In the specific context for musicians, it will allow easy sharing of files in different keys and audio playback. We can easily share notes and comment. Cons On android version, when opening pdf files for music charts, it keeps redownloading the file (though not large files, it's clutter I have to clean up) and I can't seem to find a setting to prevent this. Perhaps some kind of integration with a pdf viewer tool could be helpful. This happens on multiple devices I own. I suppose I could just directly open my device's download manager / files and open the song chart I want that way, but that's more steps when I feel it could possibly be done more effectively within app itself. Review Source AB Alex B. Teaching Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Planning Center Does it All!" January 14, 2021 5.0 We liked the smooth and more cost-effective check-in system with PC so much that we switched our giving platform over as well - saving us time, aggravation, and even more money! Pros Our church was looking for a better, more reliable system for children's check-in than the big-name, big-ticket system we were using before and PC was the answer! Its modular setup ensures that we don't pay for features we don't use, but also leaves us with plenty of options should our needs change and we decide to expand our functionality. Cons There is literally nothing that we have encountered about Planning Center that has not been easily remedied. We are completely and totally satisfied. Switched from [Realm](https://www.capterra.com/p/146265/Realm/) We switched because our previous system was just too cumbersome. Every Sunday morning was an adventure in aggravation seeing what new issue we could encounter with what we were using. With minimal setup and transition, we were able to move to PC and have a better, more reliable system for less than what we were paying with the big guy. Review Source Response from Planning Center January 22, 2021 Hey Alex - So glad to hear that Planning Center has been helpful for you! If anything ever comes up, don't hesitate to reach out to us. :-) DM Don M. Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Unifying teamwork for worship" May 31, 2021 5.0 I have used it as the worship leader, primary planner in medium to large churches with worship teams of varying sizes. It works great for it specialized purpose aimed mostly at contemporary worship with video and projection. I now serve as the pastor of a small, more traditional service. The free account is actually enough for us now. They were the first on the block and are still the best. Pros The ability to effectively plan all details of a worship gathering including team member scheduling with multiple participants and a full team able to access what they need when they need it. Cons I have used Planning Center for over 10 years. They continue to add more and more functions that are wonderful for a large church but not so much for a small church. Reason for choosing Planning Center Much better than simply creating documents and much simpler, repeatable. Also the automatic use of attached chord charts, rehearsal recordings, database of music library. Review Source Response from Planning Center June 1, 2021 Hey, Don! Thank you so much for those kind words and for being a customer with us for over 10 years. That's amazing! We wanted to follow up concerning your comment about creating features that seem to work well for large churches, but not smaller ones. Can you please let us know what types of features we might be able to add that could help smaller churches in this ever-growing and evolving space? If this is a discussion you'd be willing to have with us, please send your feedback to support@planning.center and we can pick it up from there. Thanks and have a wonderful week! TW Travis W. Director of Worship and Communications Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Simply the BEST" March 6, 2021 5.0 The features and accessibility of Planning Center have made this software an essential resource for my career and organization. The ability to organize worship services, schedule and communicate with staff and volunteers, and store and provide resources is quick to learn, easy to train and implement, and has no competition in its effectiveness and efficiency. When it comes to an all-in-one church management software, there is no competition in value and features. Pros Planning Center is one of the most efficient and effective tools I've used as a leader. Creating plans, scheduling people, updating info, sending communications, and resourcing teams are all able to be done quickly and confidently within a web browser or phone/tablet application. Cons I believe what Planning Center offers surpasses any expectations and desires, and is consistently rolling out new features and updates I didn't know I needed. I have no cons for this software. Review Source Response from Planning Center March 12, 2021 Thanks for the review, Travis! We're so happy Planning Center has helped you schedule and communicate with your teams. Don't hesitate to reach out if you ever need anything! Keegan D. Audio Visual Admin Religious Institutions Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None" April 30, 2021 4.0 Planning Center gets the job done. The design and workflow works well other than being inconsistent across the platform. Pros Planning Center does a lot of things. From planning services to keeping track of church members, Planning Center helps organize multiple parts of your ministry. If you're looking for an all-in-one solution, this platform is your best option. Cons While Planning Center does a lot, it doesn't stand out in any of its features. There are 4 main applications that manage church members, church service, event registrations, and event check-ins. For the most part, they're intuitive until you switch from one app to the other. The design and flow don't really match in each area so it's a ding in Planning Center's best aspect of being all-in-one. You'll be hard-pressed to find a better all-in-one solution but, you may want to look at other options if you're more focused on a single area of what Planning Center tackles. Review Source Response from Planning Center May 3, 2021 Hey, Keegan! Thank you for your feedback! We would love to hear any suggestions for improvement or feature updates you might have. Please feel free to send us an email at support@planningcenter.com with any specifics! Thanks! JH Jean H. Beauty Guide Consumer Goods Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Highly Valued Software for my Team " October 21, 2021 5.0 Planning Center is crucial to me and my worship team. I will always utilize it. Pros I love everything about Planning Center. It is easy to manage, easy to access, and allows me to be efficient in scheduling. I am able to load events, songs, keys, schedule people, and even send emails from this program. Automated emails and reminders are my favorite feature. Cons There are no cons. I absolutely love this product. Review Source CL Curtis L. Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great for Small Church " May 26, 2022 5.0 We are thankful for Planning Center and we know that as we grow as a church we will only start using more and more of what Planning Center has to offer. Pros Our church body is in the 50-60 people range and we love using Planning Center for the volunteer coordination aspect. Because so many people are involved in so many different areas, it is vital for us to be able to coordinate each volunteer and their area of service for each week, and Planning Center does just that for us. Cons It can take a while to get acclimated with how this software is used. There are so many wonderful option but sorting through what is useful for a small church and what isn't can be a bit time consuming. Review Source Response from Planning Center July 13, 2022 Hi Curtis! Thanks for your kind words. You mentioned having a bit of trouble with onboarding and getting started with Planning Center. 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 will be sure to provide any clarification you need. Thanks! VR Verified Reviewer Entrepreneur Internet Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Planning Center will get your church organized!" July 25, 2018 5.0 Pros Planning Center gives our body a central software that can get us all on the same page. You can provide members with a login to view upcoming service opportunities. We use it specifically for child care, setup and tear down teams, and security. As a server, if you know a day in the future will not work, you can block it out. We use this feature the most for upcoming travel. You will also have the ability to upload materials in a variety of file types if needed. We like to upload the lesson so people can see what types of activities will be completed on each day. Cons I'm not sure there is a feature that blocks the viewing of other members serving. If you require privacy in terms of who is serving when, you may have to think of a work-around. Sometimes I wish there was a feature that I could send a message to the creator of the event. I find I have to send a separate email if I have a question about the event. Review Source BB Brian B. Lead Worship Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best Software Available on the Market for Worship Planning, Volunteer Communication and Scheduling" December 31, 2019 5.0 When I arrived at my first full-time church 10.5 years ago, I decided in my second month I was going to do a 30 day trial of a worship planning website called planningcenteronline.com that I had seen advertised and had heard some friends discuss. That was one of the best decisions I have ever made as a worship leader. The ease with which Planning Center allows me to plan worship, communicate with volunteers and do all I need to lead a powerful worship ministry is unheard of in the industry. Planning Center is one of the best tools out there! Pros Ease of use for both volunteers and staff. Clean, concise user interface. Easily customizable to fit your own needs. Cons The ONLY con I can think of is that sometimes their Music Stand app for sheet music use can be a little clunky and not load sheet music easily on a tablet or iPad. Alternatives considered [WorshipPlanning.com](https://www.capterra.com/p/252192/WorshipPlanningcom/) Reason for choosing Planning Center Ease of use. Word of mouth from friends and people I know. Review Source MT Michael T. Creative Director Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Must have for Church Administration and Planning" May 17, 2022 5.0 We keep track of our member roll as well as attendees with Planning Center. We use it every week to plan every Sunday Service. We use it to schedule all of our volunteer teams. We use it on Sunday for chord sheets and workflow. It is the brain engine that helps us function as a church. Pros Planning Center is like having an extra staff person who keeps us organized. As the deacon of Music, I use it weekly for scheduling, service plans, contacting people, etc... Also, I use Music Stand every Sunday. It is a game-changer. I can transpose on the fly and it keeps everything organized. Cons I have been using PCO for a long time. It has vastly improved over time, specifically in user-friendliness. There is still a fairly decent learning curve on the admin side of things, but once you know how to use the software it is an invaluable tool for church planning and admin. Review Source Tim A. Lead Pastor Used the software for: 2+ years ### "This has helped keep our church organized and helped us grow our Dream Team!" March 7, 2018 5.0 Planning Center has been very useful for our Dream Team. It helps organize us and keep things simple! Pros I love the matrix view! This allows me to see several weeks in a row and schedule volunteers around to make sure no one is doing too much. I love how people can confirm or reject and block out dates. This helps avoid micro-managing. Cons When I send out requests to serve on a team, I write out an email. However, since there are different ways to respond to a request, I never know if the volunteers read the email or not. So the email function can't really be used to send out important information. Review Source Marina K. manager Design Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "great App" March 29, 2023 5.0 My experience is wonderful, I advise everyone to go through it . Pros The application is very practical and fast . Cons The application helps in completing tasks . Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Customer Service Agent Hospitality Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Good and Getting Better" September 20, 2018 4.0 Planning center has saved me much time and money since I no longer have to pull paper music from files or print copies or purchase music for my guitar players. I hope it will expand to sheet music so I can use it for my singers and keyboard players. We use this every week, admittedly not to its full potential. We use it for chord charts with music stand. We have yet to venture into the coordination with ProPresenter but hope to do that in the next year. The option of uploading PDFs is wonderful, enabling me to upload a chord chart with notes or changes. This is also great for songs that have no chord chart available. I create it in Word, print as a PDF, then upload to planning center. Easy peasy. Pros No paper! I don’t have to keep file cabinets full of paper music and whatever notes someone makes on their app are saved for future use. Cons It’s still a bit clunky in navigation and searching. I’d like it if it started suggesting songs as I’m typing in the search box. But I appreciate not having to click in the search box after each search. Adding songs is still a guessing game. I wish there was a preview of the song so I didn’t have to go thru the entire adding process just to see if it’s the right one. Review Source Matt S. Executive Director Philanthropy Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Clean, Fast and Powerful Church Management Suite" March 23, 2019 5.0 Pros The Planning Center suite of services, including People, Services, Groups, etc, is everything you need to effectively run a small start-up or large multi-campus church community. The tools are fast, user-friendly and affordable. You can effectively plan your services, right down to the minute. You can schedule groups and events, take payments, track attendees and members and develop custom workflows for volunteers, follow-ups or pastoral care. Cons It isn't cheap. For the budding church, where attendance is still small, it may feel a little steep. Review Source EH Elena H. Financial Assistant Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great Way to Organize Services" January 24, 2019 4.0 I really like the accessibility of this app! Simple to use and I can create my own profile. I can see who else I am serving with and what dates I still need to respond to. I can also print out documents on the specific services. Thanks for a great app! Pros \- Schedules are clear. - I can blockout dates and times - All schedules and materials for services are easily found within the app. - I can easily print items from the app. - Team members are visible and all statuses (confirmed, declined, etc.). - Personalized to my liking and functionality. Cons \- Cannot change my choice on confirmations or declining. - Not super smooth in blocking out dates or finding services. - Sometimes when I go into messages or a specific service date, I cannot easily go back to the main list of my WHOLE schedule. - Could get better at recommending to Administrators to fill everything out and keep it up to date for users. Review Source Response from Planning Center January 25, 2019 Hi Elena! Thanks for you kind words and honest criticism! If you'd like to walk through any of the issues or hurdles you are seeing in the app, make sure to email our support team, here: support@planning.center. Or through the helpdesk of the app. We take feature requests very seriously and we'd love to hear what you'd like to see change! Have a great day! JB Joshua B. Worship Leader Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Makes Church Volunteer Scheduling Easy" November 16, 2021 5.0 Planning center is a necessity to the job I do as a Worship Leader. I schedule many people a week for positions in the band or on the tech team and I can’t imagine handling that without planning center. They can see the order of the service and access audio and pdfs they need for each song. Users can blockout days that they will be out which clears up scheduling confusion when planning. I can plan months in advance and let people know when they will be needed and planning center sends out all of the reminder emails each week. If you handle any type of scheduling for a group of volunteers I recommend Planning Center above all else. Pros Schedule all volunteers needed from the week to assigned positions. Ability to group people by position. Ability to control what level of access each person has. Ability to email all scheduled people or all people in a certain group. Automatically sends reminder emails to scheduled people. Cons Hard to remember which settings menu has certain features you are looking for. New update has changed the way certain things are done or where they’re found that will take adjusting to. Review Source Steven S. Owner Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Amazing software to make sure we know exactly what is going to happen on the weekend." September 6, 2022 4.0 Overall, I have gone to the "Songs" section many times and searched for specific songs in the database and was able to get the chord charts, listen to the mp3, or see the song in a variety of keys. On the specific days that I am scheduled you also get to see the breakdown of what is going to happen from start to finish with a breakdown of time and how long things should last. There are also uploads such as a stage layout that can be added, so everyone knows where to stand. The database of contacts is great as well! Pros I am a volunteer at my church that uses Planning Center. I get an email and app notification when I am scheduled to play guitar for my church. I then have the option to "accept" or "decline" the request. You can also add "blockout dates" ahead of time so you cannot even be scheduled for specific dates that you know don't work for your schedule. Cons Nothing. I don't like how I can't see every weekend plan and only the ones I am scheduled on. However, that is not a software issue but a limitation by the church allowing what users like myself have access to. So, overall, this software is amazing and doesn't lack anything that you would want. Review Source JD Josh D. Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great overall Church Management Software" October 28, 2019 5.0 Overall, Planning Center has provided a powerful central hub for communicating and organizing our church activity across the board. We just recently fully migrated over to all of the planning center features and look forward to digging deeper as we fully integrate into every ministry in our church. Pros Planning Center offers a vast array of tools for managing our church, from check-ins to worship planning and everything in between. It has streamlined communication and cut back on overall administrative time so that we can actually do the work of the pastor. Cons While the versatility is great, there is so much to learn across the several different planning center tools and can be a bit overwhelming. Some significant initial learning/setup is required to fully utilize every tool to its full capacity. Review Source Ryne T. Campus Director Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Still learning but happy so far" July 23, 2019 4.0 Pros PC is a very robust system. I love that it incorporates multiple applications into one suite. Cons I don't like that when I create an event I cannot give someone else access to edit the event. This is actually a big problem when it comes to having events approved and having an assistant make any changes. I wish they allowed you the ability to co-edit. Review Source DA Dominic A. Lead Pastor Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Planning Center gets the job done!" June 8, 2021 5.0 Overall, my team and I are thrilled with this product. We use it every week and it helps us to communicate and stay organized for each of our events. Pros Planning Center helps us as a leadership team plan and prepare for our Sunday morning service and events with ease and efficiency. Cons I think Planning Center is perfect the way it is. If I had to make one change it would be the profile pictures under the people tab. The picture are too small. Reason for choosing Planning Center Planning Center was an all in one option for us and most of our team were more familiar with the product. Review Source Talk to a Capterra advisor for free and get results within 15 minutes.