Planning Center alternatives: 11 church management tools compared
Planning Center is a family of separate church products, each with its own plan, so the bill depends on how many of them a congregation switches on. Churches look elsewhere when online giving is not offered in their country, when five metered tiers become hard to forecast, or when they want one flat price for a single database. Others want data held in a particular region, or software run by a vendor close to their own denomination. The eleven options below range from German hosting to a source-available system you run yourself.
Short answer: ChurchTools, ChurchDesk and ChMeetings head the list of Planning Center alternatives drawn from our church management ranking. Our rule for order: vendors outside the big brands go first, and the largest names are not placed in the top three. ChurchTools is the one to try if you need data held in Germany and euro billing. The 11 entries that follow are all ranked in Best Church Management Software in 2026; each one explains what sets it apart from Planning Center.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Pricing: Free plan per product; paid tiers per product by usage, published
Established in: United States
Built for: Churches that want to start with worship scheduling and add products gradually
Not for: Treasurers who want one fixed bill covering every ministry
01
Why buyers look past Planning Center
01
Giving stops at four countries
Planning Center's Giving page lists the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with processing rates shown in dollars only and every online donation passing through Stripe. A parish in the EU or UK finds no listed route there, and a new Stripe account is created at onboarding rather than connecting one you already hold. Without Giving, a large part of the offer falls away.
02
Several products, several meters
Each product bills on its own measure. The pricing page shows free limits of 5 team members in Services, 10 daily check-ins, 15 group members, one bookable room in Calendar and 5 attendees in Registrations. A church using most of them tracks five thresholds at once, and the paid prices only appear inside an interactive tool, which makes a yearly budget harder to draft.
03
Hosting is in AWS with no region choice
The security page says customer data sits in Amazon Web Services data centres and gives no region or residency option in the text we read. It lists SOC 2 Type 2 and encryption at rest, but customer two-factor sign-in was not described. Churches with a rule on where records live, or a denomination that asks for it, need a written answer before they commit.
bookkeeping and payroll on a desktop matter more than a web app
#11
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What each one does differently
1
ChurchTools
Germany · Published
ChurchTools is built in Karlsruhe, quotes in euros and dollars, and keeps its data in Germany. Six sizes run from 100 people to unlimited, and groups, calendars, check-in, a wiki and chat sit in every one, with no minimum term. Finances costs extra and the vendor describes its customers as churches in German-speaking regions, so English-language support is thinner than the product's reputation suggests.
Switch from Planning Center if you need data held in Germany and euro billing.
ChurchDesk is registered in Copenhagen, with a London company for English-language customers, and it is organised around the parish office: room planning, forms, a website builder, finance and workflows. Four plans are listed in sterling and billed annually. Each parish pays a one-time setup and training fee, and the largest listed plan stops at 5,000 contacts.
Switch from Planning Center if a parish office needs calendar, rooms and forms in one European product.
ChMeetings gives a free plan to 50 people, then five paid tiers up to an unlimited one, which sets it apart from vendors that meter by product. Accounting, worship planning and volunteer scheduling are included, and the interface comes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Arabic. Texting and a branded app are extra, and donations on the free plan stop at 50 a month.
Switch from Planning Center if a small church wants one permanent free plan covering the whole database.
ChurchTrac puts people, giving, fund accounting, check-in, worship planning, a website and an app in every tier, so the only choice at purchase is size, counted in names tracked from 75 to unlimited. A 30-day trial is offered. The site names a support team in Jacksonville but not an owner, and website or bookkeeping setup help is charged separately.
Switch from Planning Center if you prefer one feature set at every size over a product per function.
Rock RMS is made by Spark Development Network, an Arizona non-profit, and licensed at no charge to faith-based organisations. The code is public, though the Rock Community License bars for-profit use and managed hosts. Spark asks for a yearly donation per attendee. Running it needs Windows Server, IIS and SQL Server, or one of two hosting partners, so the cost moves from licences to people.
Switch from Planning Center if your church has an IT volunteer and wants to control the software and its database.
One Church Software sells two plans, Core and Core+, each on a sliding scale from 250 profiles to beyond 24,000, with a 30-day trial. Core already covers check-in, contributions, small groups, service planning and the mobile app. Every profile is billed, children and archived records included, and automation, multi-campus tools and the API sit only in Core+.
Switch from Planning Center if a mid-sized church wants check-in, giving and planning under one plan price.
Elvanto counts only active adults, meaning people who attend, volunteer or give, so children and lapsed names do not raise the bill. Prices start at fifty adults and are quoted in US dollars only, with a setup fee. Data can sit on servers in Australia, Europe or the United States, and the owner also sells a second database beside it.
Switch from Planning Center if you want a regional server choice and a bill that ignores children.
Tithely's database, formerly Breeze and now called Tithely Church Management, costs one flat monthly rate whatever the congregation size, with no contract and exports included. A bundle adds an app, website, messaging and service planning at a higher figure. The company earns on giving, where cards carry a percentage plus a fixed fee, and it also owns Elvanto.
Switch from Planning Center if one flat monthly rate matters more than metered tiers.
TouchPoint began in 2009 inside Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis and now belongs to Cass Information Systems, a listed payments company. It bills on active records, includes every feature, and publishes a yearly starting price that sits far above what a small church would pay. A demo is offered but no trial, and giving, websites and ticketing are add-ons.
Switch from Planning Center if a large congregation wants every feature in one price per active record.
Servant Keeper charges for staff logins rather than members: both plans allow unlimited family and member records, with four users in Core and eight in Complete. Core handles members and gifts, while email, texting, a website, an app and livestream hours arrive only in Complete, at twice the price. Extra users need a custom quote and no trial is mentioned.
Switch from Planning Center if a small office team wants unlimited member records and a login-based price.
Church Windows comes from Computer Helper Publishing, selling church software since 1987, and adds a payroll module beside fund accounting, which few rivals here list. You licence one to four modules and choose a support tier. The desktop edition costs little, while the web edition of one module costs over three times as much monthly, with each extra seat charged.
Switch from Planning Center if bookkeeping and payroll on a desktop matter more than a web app.
You run a church in Germany or a German-speaking region
ChurchTools: Data sits in Germany, pricing is shown in euros, and six sizes start at 100 people with no minimum term.
02
You work from a parish office that books rooms and sends forms
ChurchDesk: Calendar and room planning, forms and finance come together, with four sterling plans billed annually and a one-time setup fee.
03
You need a free database and have a small congregation
ChMeetings: The free plan covers 50 people permanently, with donations on that plan capped at 50 a month.
04
You have a volunteer who can run servers
Rock RMS: Spark licenses it at no charge to faith-based organisations, but hosting and Windows Server skills are yours to supply.
05
You want one flat price instead of per-product tiers
Tithely: The database is one monthly rate at any congregation size, with no contract and exports included.
04
When Planning Center is still the right choice
Planning Center remains a sound choice for a church in one of the four giving countries that wants to pick products one at a time. People is free at any size, the member app and web platform is free, and no product carries a contract, setup fee or cancellation fee. The company says it is founder-owned and set up a foundation in 2024 so it cannot be acquired. A church that uses only two or three products inside the free limits may pay little.
05
What moving off Planning Center involves
01
Giving history and recurring gifts
Donors with recurring gifts have to set them up again in a new processor, so list who gives by schedule before the switch. Keep Planning Center's fund reports and statements for the tax year in question, and agree with your treasurer which system issues the year-end statements.
02
Services plans and volunteer schedules
Song libraries, service plans and team rosters sit in Services, and not every rival imports them. Export people and groups from the free People product, and rebuild upcoming rosters by hand in the new tool. Run both systems side by side for one month so volunteers receive only one set of reminders.
06
Questions about replacing Planning Center
6 answers
Can a church in the EU or UK use Planning Center Giving?
Planning Center's Giving page lists the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with processing rates in those four currencies. It names no EU or UK route, so a church elsewhere should ask the vendor before relying on it.
What does Planning Center charge for card donations?
In the United States the page shows 2.15% plus $0.30 for cards and $0.30 for ACH, with 1.5% more for international cards. Canada, Australia and New Zealand have their own rates. These come on top of any product plan.
Is any part of Planning Center free?
People, the database, is free at any size. Giving allows 10 monthly donations, Services 5 team members, Check-Ins 10 daily check-ins, Groups 15 group members and Registrations 5 attendees. Calendar is free with one room.
Which alternative keeps data in Europe?
ChurchTools states that its data sits in Germany, and Elvanto lists servers in Europe among its choices. ChurchDesk is registered in Copenhagen. Ask each vendor for its data processing terms, since the company's country and the server location are separate matters.
Do I pay a setup fee at Planning Center?
The pricing page says there are no contracts, start-up fees or cancellation fees, and you can change plans at any time. ChurchDesk and Elvanto, by contrast, list a setup fee.
Is there a cheaper way to run a small church database?
ChMeetings has a permanent free plan for 50 people, and Tithely sells its database at one flat monthly rate. Planning Center's People product is also free at any size, so the saving depends on which other products you would otherwise switch on.
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Sources
Checked 7 November 2026
Planning Center pricing: Free limits per product, billing per product, no contracts or setup fees, giving rates by country, $0.02 text, 30-day trial.
Planning Center Giving: Listed countries US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand; Stripe processing; USD pricing.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Author and fact-checker: Sebastiaan Smits. This page was last reviewed on 8 November 2026; our review process is public.
