Overview

Planning Center brings together software for church administration and ministry, rather than concentrating on a single workflow. It suits churches that want to coordinate records, worship, events, and groups across one platform. Product-level free plans make it possible to start selectively; the main trade-off is that Services pricing scales with the number of people accessing it.

Founded in 2006 by Jeff Berg and Aaron Stewart, the company is based in Carlsbad, California. Planning Center describes its products as suitable for churches from small neighborhood congregations to multi-campus organizations, though its product-specific plans mean the right fit depends on which operations a church needs to cover.

Key features

People and ministry records

People centralizes membership information alongside attendance, giving, and volunteering activity. That makes it a useful foundation for churches that want a shared view of participation rather than separate records for each ministry. Its free plan includes an unlimited database and reporting, a substantial starting point for organizations focused on organizing member information.

Worship planning and teams

Services combines worship planning with volunteer scheduling, team communication, and rehearsal tools. Its plans include unlimited feature access, teams, service types, and plans; the charge is instead tied to the number of people who access the system. That structure avoids feature-based restrictions, but can make costs rise as more staff and volunteers need access.

Integrations, API, and security

Planning Center offers an open API and integrations including SongSelect, PraiseCharts, Checkr, Mailchimp, and Zapier, as well as third-party tools. This gives churches options for connecting the platform with their existing stack. The company says it is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and PCI Level One compliant, encrypts data in transit and at rest, and uses a multilayered backup strategy.

Support

Support is free for customers and noncustomers, with a stated response time of about one business hour Monday through Friday and a weekend crew for emergencies. That is a meaningful point of access for churches evaluating the platform as well as existing users who need help.

Pricing

Planning Center uses a freemium model, with a free plan, paid plans from $5/mo, and a 30-day trial. The product plans have different limits, so the headline starting price should not be treated as the cost of using the full platform.

Calendar: 0.00 USD per free, with one room. This works for a church with a single room to schedule, but the room cap makes it a limited option for facilities with multiple spaces.
People: 0.00 USD per free, with an unlimited database and reporting. It is the clearest free fit for churches primarily seeking member records and participation reporting.
Services: 0.00 USD per free, with five team members and 100MB of storage. That provides a way to begin planning with a small team, but the team and storage caps constrain broader use.

Services paid plans include unlimited feature access, teams, service types, and plans, with pricing based on the number of people who access the system. An exact paid Services price is custom pricing. If an account exceeds a plan limit, it continues to work; if the organization exceeds the limit more than once, Planning Center suggests an upgrade. That avoids an immediate interruption, though recurring overages are a signal that the free or current tier no longer fits.

Planning Center also gives overall feature figures of a 75-member limit, group management, event registration, child check-in, SMS messaging, and volunteer scheduling. These provide a sense of the platform's reach, but the distinct free-plan caps show why churches should assess each product against their actual needs.

Platforms

Planning Center supports Android, iOS, web, and API access. The Services mobile app supports iOS and Android phones and tablets, but is not compatible with Windows devices. Churches that depend on Windows mobile devices should account for that limitation when deciding how volunteers and staff will access Services.

Who it's for

Planning Center is strongest for churches seeking connected tools across member records and ministry activity, worship preparation, scheduling, events, and groups. The separate free plans let a smaller congregation start with the product it needs, while the platform's range can suit larger, multi-campus organizations. It is less compelling for a church that needs a single narrowly scoped worship tool and does not need the wider set of operations; it should also budget carefully if many people need access to Services.

Pros and cons

Pro: People offers an unlimited database and reporting at no cost, supporting substantial recordkeeping without a paid starting tier.
Pro: Services includes unlimited features, teams, service types, and plans on paid plans, so access needs—not feature bundles—drive its pricing.
Pro: An open API, named integrations, and third-party tools give teams routes to connect their existing software.
Pro: Free support is available even to noncustomers, with a stated weekday response time of about one business hour.
Con: The Services free plan is limited to five team members and 100MB of storage, and paid pricing depends on the number of users.
Con: Calendar's free plan covers one room, which may not suit churches coordinating several spaces.
Con: The Services app does not support Windows devices, limiting mobile access for teams relying on that platform.

Alternatives

Churches comparing worship-focused options can also consider OnStage, which has a free Starter plan for up to five members, 200MB storage, and five events per month, with reminders, chat, annotations, and PDF song imports. For a presentation-focused option, WorshipTools Presenter offers a free plan with 500 MB cloud storage, 10 users, and 15 items per service, alongside unlimited services and songs.

AssemblyFlow has a free full app for congregations of 50 or fewer members, with one main worship assembly and one operator. Ministry Planner offers one free tool per church account, including scheduling for one team and up to 1,000 volunteers or event planning for one active event and up to 1,000 people. Either may suit a church seeking a more bounded starting point for a particular ministry workflow.

ServeFlow: Worship Planner is a free option for iPhone and iPad users. c-SPOT is free and open source, with Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows platforms. For a paid subscription with a defined small group tier, WorshipTeam.com offers a 5-user group for 14.00 USD per month, billed monthly. Ministry Order is another alternative.

For churches comparing tools by workflow, Planning Center can also be weighed against Worship Planning Software, Church Check-In Software, Church Website Builders, Small Group Management Software, Church Scheduling Software, and Church Background Check Software.

Verdict

Planning Center is a strong choice for churches that want several ministry operations connected, particularly those able to begin with free product plans and build around an open API. The main reason to look elsewhere is a need for a narrow worship workflow, Windows-compatible Services mobile access, or predictable Services pricing independent of user count.

	Arbor	Planning Center
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Paid from	$5.83/mo	$239/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Android, iOS	Android, api, iOS, Web
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from	7.99 /mo	5 /mo
Member directory	Yes	—
Group messaging	Yes	—
Mobile access	both	—

Arbor vs Planning Center

Arbor

Planning Center