Planning Center

Avantages

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!

Inconvénients

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.

Avantages

It is easy to use for scheduling team members for their events and shifts but it has some visual limitations in terms of how much info/data you can see on the screen. It has a great feature of drag-and-drop of team members into slots for teams/events. It also has a great feature for sending out messages and alerts, including reminders for upcoming events that team members are scheduled.

Inconvénients

It has some limitations for what can be displayed on a screen and moving across multiple events is somewhat limited.

Avantages

Coming from an environment where planning worship was done manually, Planning Center raises the bar. It’s easy to use, always accessible and information communication is immediate and accessible by all.

Inconvénients

I can’t think of anything I don’t like. Maybe having a chat feature would be nice.

Avantages

To me, I like planning center because we have all of our church members stored in here. Basically like a modern church directory. We use this software to organize and plan all of our events.

Inconvénients

Not much complaint here but I would say if anything it could be a little more user friendly for seniors that are trying to register for events.

Avantages

I have used two other church software systems and needed something simple for my current organization. What I like most is that Planning Center does not require me to set up a server. It is fairly simple and intuitive while allowing some level of customization. It allows you to choose and only pay for the types of functions you need. In fact, in one setting, I have just used the free People module as it allowed me to sync with MailChimp and manage emails to our members.

Inconvénients

The one negative I have run into is it is not as customizable as other software I have used. To be fair, the other software was open source, so someone could even code special features for you. But apart from that, it does not have as many options for how you put in addresses, phone numbers, etc. At least the free version I am using offers a few basic options.

Avantages

Love its versatility and great price for what you get! Love all the functionalities and how you can track and keep a record of meetings, attendance, planning, etc.

Inconvénients

It can be tricky to navigate and learn this software, it takes time to get used to it. I wish it was more user-friendly, maybe a better and simple design to use.

Avantages

I appreciate being able to see plans and serving requests from our worship leader. I think it's a great tool for him and the church as a whole to organize the services and volunteers. I mostly use the app which is pretty easy to use but the website is far easier.

Inconvénients

The app is layed out a bit oddly and isn't the most functional- specifically viewing lists of teams and trying to go between teams or dates, there isn't an easy way to go back or get back to where you were before. Also, trying to listen to the music we are supposed to learn isn't the easiest to work with - often the controls for the music aren't viewable on the screen and sometimes it just plays the music without being able to stop/control it.

Avantages

This software is good and very helpful. It is great for scheduling people, planning out events/services and coordinating worship. The fact that it links with Pro Presenter is a HUGE plus. The communication reminders and scheduled emails are very helpful.

Once you get it set up it works quickly. Getting your first few plans together takes some time (especially if you have never used it before) but after that it works pretty easily.

Inconvénients

Setting it up takes time.

It is not the most intuitive. Trying to navigate from a plan to an individual and then to a song selection is not always the easiest until you figure it out.

When you copy a plan (replicating a service like Christmas Eve) it also copies all of the rehearsal times but I didn't realize that so had some confusion when I changed the settings. FYI - feel like that could have been an alert button to remind me.

Avantages

Planning Center is a fantastic tool to help churches organized. The automated reminders are the best part of the entire tool. Not having to manually email out reminders to team members is worth its weight in gold.

Inconvénients

There are some functions and tools in Planning Center that are not as intuitive and take a little bit of learning (and help from tech support) to master.

Avantages

+Easy to make a PDF of the 'schedule' for the order of service
+Very customizable to suit your church's needs
+Sign up to volunteer is as simple as clicking a button, agreeing to volunteer. Planning Center also allows you to 'black out' dates indicating you are unavailable. That feature is extremely helpful when coordinating schedules

Inconvénients

+When printing PDFs, often prints multiple pages that include information about WHO is serving - this is not readily apparent when using the web-based browser interface

Avantages

The calendar feature is easy to use and great for scheduling people months in advance. Having chord sheets and song links in one place is so much easier than trying to find those files and shareable links to send out each week. Gives a central place for communications.

Inconvénients

The mobile app can be a little difficult to navigate depending on the size of your screen. Works better on a little larger mobile screen.

Avantages

The ability to edit the music lead sheet on the screen is very convenient.

Inconvénients

It's not always easy to find what I want. Also, there's a limit to how many people you can add to have access to a single business account.

Avantages

Been a light user for years as someone who plays the cello on the worship team just occasionally. But, the day finally came where I decided to make a personal account as my family is thinking about doing more music for nursing homes and the like. It's just the best thing out there for planning services or concerts.

Inconvénients

We just started using their Music Stand feature where you can use a tablet to see your music and a foot pedal to turn the pages. I found this a little harder to get used to than expected, but I'll keep trying. I doubt there's anything else out there much better, it just has its inherent limitations (and advantages) over sheet music.

Avantages

I like that the software knows what its purpose is and provides everything necessary to serve that purpose.

Inconvénients

Sometimes services can get busy and cluttered. Some settings are challenging to change and this has led to minor problems.

Avantages

I like that it is easy to use, everything is sectioned off into categories which makes it easy to find what you are looking for (i.e. there is a block out dates section where I can go into that specific category to just submit dates that I am not available to serve), and I get email reminders of when I have been scheduled and when my scheduled dates are coming up. I also love the media player feature where I can listen to all of the music that is scheduled to be played right there.

Inconvénients

There is not anything that I dislike about this software. It is very clean, organized and user friendly.

Avantages

Very nice interface, with a lot of options for sharing information and keeping teams on the same page.

Inconvénients

I wish I could see the details on services I am not a part of, but that may just be a setting that my church has chosen.

Avantages

This software is capable of accommodating large groups of people. It has the basics of what we need.

Inconvénients

This software isn't as user-friendly as I would like for it to be. I'm sure there are features we aren't using because we are unfamiliar with them.

Avantages

Planning Center has helped us in many ways to get our worship ministry volunteers organized and on the same page. It gives us one stop for scheduling and obtaining resources to practice for our worship services.

Inconvénients

There is one facet that I don't find as intuitive as I would like. Since I am an occasional user, I sometimes have trouble figuring out how to go from the current service to other services that I am involved in.

Avantages

I really like the idea of Planning Center - one place to plan every aspect of your event. And then, send requests and reminders for volunteers. Wonderful concept! Makes for effective planning!

Inconvénients

Not user friendly in my opinion. The options and features are not always easy to find. Took a lot of frustrating hours to figure it out.

Avantages

This software has enabled our music ministry teams and tech teams to be professional, organized, and efficient! I love being able to see everything I need in one place: members of the team, rehearsal times, linked media, etc.

Inconvénients

There is NOTHING I dislike about Planning Center! Using it over the last 5 years has been a BREEZE!

Avantages

I like that I can send the same message and information to a group of people at once.

Inconvénients

The things I like least is that you can't set up service 100% via the app. Somethings you have to do via laptop or desktop.

Avantages

It allows you to view the Church's service including the music, Youtube videos, and Sound clips for musicians and interpreters alike. It allows you to organize Sunday morning services from special services.

Inconvénients

Sometimes, it can be hard to find the Special Services like Christmas Eve if you're not looking for it. I would make sure that your church has a strong communication plan, so that everyone is on the same page.

Avantages

I appreciate that this software streamlines the expectations for people involved in an event. My church uses this specifically for Sunday mornings so that everyone involved in the service knows where to be and when. You can also upload files which makes it nice for the worship team to practice songs prior to Sunday.

Inconvénients

This software works really well. I can't think of anything I dislike or that I would change to enhance the use.

Avantages

This allows for quick assignements to the volunteers and makes it really easy to accept or decline positions.

Inconvénients

I haven't really come across any as it really is smooth. One minor thing I found is that our church uses planning center for volunteer service and we also use them for donations/giving but they are two different apps and I wish they were in one app.

Avantages

This software is very easy to navigate and easy to use both for the person setting up events and the people registering.

Inconvénients

There wasn't anything I didn't like about this software.