Planning Center

Vorteile

We are a bilingual congregation. So, ease of use and implementation are key for our team. We need to train, build, and use the application in our bilingual environment.

Nachteile

File management is a challenge. There is no easy way to log into Planning Center and delete multiple, old files in the system.

Vorteile

The organized convenience of having almost every form of information about church members using features like groups, checkin, registrations, services, etc. is highly valuable. I do enjoy the customization opportunities to use specific church language, as well as the ability to use other supported platforms in combination.

Nachteile

I don't enjoy the updated group chat feature as much as I did the functionality of it before.

Vorteile

the wireless printing of the name tags/mobile check in

Nachteile

probably tech support. hard to get answer rt away

Vorteile

It is comprehensive. It incorporates people management, giving, attendance, events, calendar, facilities, everything into one platform that works together.

Nachteile

There are times where Planning Center Services is not as user friendly as I would like.

Vorteile

Ability to integrate several modules together.

Nachteile

The services module is not very kids ministry friendly.

Vorteile

The name tags that we use for church each week when people check in makes it easier to greet and get to know others.

Nachteile

The cost is a little high. And the worship planning platform is really confusing and cumbersome. Integration with constant contact would be great!

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Vorteile

Anyone from anywhere can be a part of the service planning and others on the team can view it in real time!

Nachteile

Sometimes the navigation gets a littel cumbersome and it's hard to find exactly what you are looking for

Vorteile

The extent of features when it comes to organizing and scheduling teams is fantastic. I find it very helpful that Planning Center tells me how long it has been since a particular volunteer has been scheduled, regardless of what role they were serving. Additionally, the level of functionality on the side of the volunteer is great. They can add blackout dates and respond to serving requests directly within an email.

Nachteile

At times, the menus can be a little clunky, and I find myself having to hunt for specific features. Planning Center's help section is fairly comprehensive though, so this usually fixes the issue for me.

Vorteile

It is very easy to use and functional for all of the needs we have.

Nachteile

There really isn't anything that I like the least about it.

Vorteile

It makes communicating with my volunteers so much easier.

Nachteile

The price is too much for what it offers in my opinion.

Vorteile

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).

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

I like how it is versatile and allows us to plug in other services that help us navigate our business efficiently.

Nachteile

I wish we could have access to a live person quickly if assistance with the program is needed.

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Vorteile

The Services product is incredible. We could not imagine better.. after getting it setup that is. The reporting you can do is incredible.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

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!

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

Ease of use, total integration, modular and scaled pricing, complete overhaul of traditional record keeping

Nachteile

The only con I can think of is that their servers are often bogged down on Sunday mornings, so make sure you have all your ducks in a row before the weekend! haha

Vorteile

We utilize the services app for managing peoples schedules and Sunday morning flow of service. It makes it a breeze and is such a huge help with saving time for scheduling and also planning ahead to know how to properly plan!

Nachteile

I love everything about planning center. It was such a breeze setting up all of the volunteers at our church. And now they love using the app as well!

Vorteile

I love how easy it is to access and customize events, registrations, payments, etc. Easy tracking and management. Can sort the registration lists a variety of ways. Can add manual payments and registrations. Can access people information, household information, attendance records, etc. Love it!

Nachteile

I guess what I like least, is the fact that payments towards an account are split equally for registrants in the same household. Our situation with fundraising is that sometimes one registrant in the household partakes in a fundraiser, while another does not. When I post a manual payment, it posts to the household total due instead of just one registrant or the other. We also sometimes have donations come in for one registrant or the other and I would like to be able to post it to just one of their accounts instead of both.

Vorteile

I love how it allows me to organize my church and quickly access information

Nachteile

I think it can add more items that would be reduced cost, especially to a small church

Vorteile

Definitely a believer in planning center. My go to for worship sets, teams and planning.

Nachteile

No complaints here. Would definitely recommend to all.

Vorteile

I like how easy it is to set up music for each service!

Nachteile

I don’t like that I have to pay more to have 2 services set up.

Vorteile

Ease of use for all the applications and all the functionality.

Nachteile

Getting phone support quicker however they still have great support via email and phone support if you wait.

Vorteile

I have used Planning Center in the past with my church. It's been a helpful database useful with church information. It's helped me do my job more effectively as a church staff member. I would recommend it.

Nachteile

Some of the features may be daunting at first if you're not familiar with it. It may take some time to get used to it.

Vorteile

One thing I like is how easy it is to donate and use overall.

Nachteile

I don't have anything I don't like about Planning Center.

Vorteile

I frequently used Capterra as a platform to help me choose which software to buy. The platform itself is simple to use, and the sign-up process is straightforward. They do offer a good incentive program whereby they give gift cards to reviewers for each review that is accepted.

Vorteile

The things that Planning Center does well, it does very well. It always delivers notifications and I feel that it is reliable. Every single time that one of the people on my team have had an issue with the software, it was incredibly simple to resolve, and usually was a case of user preferences that needed adjustments. For the majority of the people that benefit from the software, the experience is seamless and professional. Due to the fact that most of the people who use Planning Center are not directly paying for the software, it has set itself apart as the crown of church planning resources. It is certainly my first suggestion to new worship pastors or churches that are trying to become organized.
The fact that it can take care of so many different church needs from one platform is also worth mentioning. My church uses another system for online giving, but it is comparable to what Planning Center offers. We are in the process of transitioning all of our check-in systems to Planning Center and it is significantly cheaper and easier to use than ANYTHING else on the market right now.

Nachteile

My experience with Planning Center is not limited to, but mostly within the realm of "Services" so that is where I will spend most of my time. Before that, however, I will mention that while I know of a number of people who enjoy the "Music Stand" app, Planning Center does not offer the best deal for the service. Apps like Onsong, while expensive up-front, are not a monthly expense and allow for many file types and importing formats, including the ability to download the music straight from "Services." This allows for some freedom in set design and application as many of my musicians are playing during the week and not at the church. If they could pay once for "Music Stand" and also import the secular music into their setlists, they would use the app outside of a Sunday morning context.
Now for the interface. One of the best tools in "Services" is the REPORTS section. And while I love the way it looks now, it has lost a lot of versatility. It is difficult to select the date for the reports, not to mention, hard to find the reports to begin with. Now, if I want to find songs from last Christmas, I really have to hunt to find the reports, find the right drop-down bar, and select "custom" on the display. Why not keep the custom option in the bar to begin with, and have the presets in the drop down bar? There is just a lot of unused real estate on that particular page, and I have spent too much time trying to relearn something that wasn't much easier in the last edition.

Vorteile

Ability to choose products a la carte for your organizations personal needs and cost efficiency

Nachteile

Would love to see more personal customization options

Vorteile

I appreciate that many of the lowest level uses for their products are free. This gives a chance to test and use before full implementation. The best part of these products is the full integration between all the different apps.

Nachteile

Sometimes the updates happen a bit to frequently on particular apps. This is normally not a problem, but for a setup and take down church, it proves to be difficult as the new workflow needs to be figured out day off.

Vorteile

It literally is the backbone of our church planning. You can just about manage everything with it. Literally.

Nachteile

Previously there were some gaps in workflow automations but they are heavily investing in this and coming up with things I didn’t even know I needed.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

It was simple to use, and the free option made it nice to try it out before committing to a subscription.

Nachteile

The price was too high for the limited functionality of what they were offering.

Vorteile

The simplicity to plan services and schedule volunteers help make it the best!

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

By far the best and most comprehensive church software out there, simply for the fact that everything is integrated together! I can give my volunteers everything they need, and plan out months of music at a time, work with all our other volunteers, sync our app for small groups, sync our calendar, sync our online giving, and more. I wouldn't recommend any other worship planning software!

Nachteile

The only con I have is that I wish, like some other church software, you could make your own app that's fully branded for you, including the name. To download our app, you have to search Church Center and then find your church. Not that big of a deal, but it's the only con I have.

Vorteile

Planning center is always adapting and changing to needs of the client. They take input very well and help problem solve when needed. Their customer service is incredible.

Nachteile

There really isn’t anything that I or any of my colleagues dislike about planning center. Typically if there’s an issue, it’s easily resolved by a call to customer service.

Vorteile

It's a great place to keep track of and keep in contact with the individuals in our church. Many capabilities

Nachteile

There can be a bit of a learning curve if you're new to the program or teaching others how to use it.

Vorteile

The volunteer and crew scheduling piece is great! I also really like creating run of shows or order of service on planning center.

Nachteile

It’s great for crew management and run of show building but now so much client management.

Vorteile

Planning Center is an industry standard for worship services and team management, it is essential for our church of 400 to be able to make sure people are plugged in where they need to be.

Nachteile

It does get a bit pricey the more add ons you have.

Vorteile

I love how everything works together, and how all the modules are connected by the people module. I also love the "Church Center" Hub, with everything in one place.

Nachteile

It's not cheap, but I think you definitely get what you pay for.

Vorteile

The Service Planning function of PCO is incredible and so user-friendly. The functionalities and features of songs and teams and filters and types of services are all helpful to faithfully and effectively plan services.

Nachteile

I have no qualms with Planning Center and am hard-pressed to think of something negative. It really is so great!!

Vorteile

I like that I can customize things into Spanish

Nachteile

The cost. It was expensive for a new church plant that had no funding

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

In the past I had issues with blocking my schedule but it's been fixed since then

Vorteile

Planning center is very user friendly. Even if you don't have any experience with building sign ups it takes a minimal amount of time to learn. The products are low maintenance and it's a great way to track volunteers for a non-profit.

Nachteile

Pulling people off waitlists is a little tedious, but otherwise, we really love this product.

Vorteile

I have worked with a church management system that was very complex, so it's been nice to work with something more intuitive and simple for the staff to use.

Nachteile

It appears an integration with our donation platform is not available, so we may have to switch providers.

Vorteile

Everything is in one location and we can do backend programming to customize reports.

Nachteile

Sometimes what we are trying to do is buried deep in the platform.

Vorteile

I think it's most amazing to make church-related work easy because all the functions are gathered in one place. I'm satisfied with being able to communicate with the songs and lyrics, all the other volunteers, and plan church-related work without difficulty. Also, I was able to easily manage the relevant information of the people.

Nachteile

There is no cons, everything is good so far.

Vorteile

The ease of use, the actual helpfulness of the help areas, and the flexibility are my favorite things about Planning Center. There's no sharp learning curve.

Nachteile

The only feature I can think of that drives me crazy is that once a SongSelect chart imports itself (even if the user didn't mean to), it's almost impossible to delete. We prefer PraiseCharts, but the SongSelect charts are there to stay, no matter how we try to delete them.

Vorteile

Ability to send emails or messages to group members. Dashboard of who is in my group. Custom photos to ID the groups.

Nachteile

Unclear as a user -- or as a group leader -- when, how, and why to use Church Center. Second, emails for confirmation acceptance into a group are sent via a [sensitive content hidden] or the like. It's confusing as the recipient, and is sometimes blocked by users' email platform settings. Third, Many people are unable to register for a group--but it appears to them as users that they have indeed registered. This is a fundamental and foremost problem impeding use. Fourth, it appears to favor PCs. Macs don't work in some situations, apparently the Mac App is needed.

Vorteile

Planning Centre has also been fast to implement new and in-demand features wanted by churches.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

Planning center is pretty easy to get setup throughout your church. It offers lots of add-ons like their worship planning and check-ins ones.

Nachteile

Planning center is costly compared to other options. We haven't completely switched over to Planning Center because of it's costs.

Vorteile

Our ministry has been around for some time, but now that we have the capacity to hire staff, we also have the capacity to upgrade our data management. We were already using Planning Center for donor management, but can now use Check-Ins for tracking guests, and Services for a Volunteer Scheduler. It’s been great that this database for churches has worked so well for our nonprofit as well!

Nachteile

Takes some time to really learn, but thankfully there are tons of videos and a great customer service team. Would love to see a space where you could Test your Event, etc. before it becomes live and you have to make changes.

Vorteile

It literally does everything for our church. There's no way we could survive without it.

Nachteile

Setting up and scheduling events could be a little easier.