# Page 10 | Planning Center Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Page 10 - Is Planning Center the right Church 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

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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/)

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Last updated March 13th, 2026

# Page 10 - Reviews of Planning Center

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 226-250 of 1137 Reviews

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Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

GW

Garrett W.  
Network Administrator  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great, robust system that helps with the planning for the various teams and safe facilitation of kids during services"

December 28, 2017

4.0

Have been a customer for years and despite some issues, will continue to use it!

Pros

There are many great aspects of Planning Center. We don't use every piece, but the Check-Ins are HUGE. This is THE way to allow kids to be checked in during our Sunday services. Having a barcode scanner makes the process much quicker and easier. The update allowed past registration issues to be fixed (users were listed twice - once as an "employee" and second as "customer"). The second biggest piece we use is the Services portal. Allowing every member of the worship/media team to see the flow of service is great! Everyone can be on the same page while allowing service to flow smoothly - almost without the congregation even knowing there's an order to things...

Cons

Have to jump through hoops to get any type of technical support. The answers aren't always online in the FAQ or Help pages. On top of that, not "anyone" can create a ticket, it must come from the contact person. That's normally fine, but what if they're on vacation, or just happen to be the person who pays the bill? On a Sunday morning when kids are going crazy and parents are looking at you like you did something wrong - it doesn't help.

Review Source

JM

Jennifer M.  
Admin  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Great For Churches"

January 24, 2020

4.0

Planning Center let's me keep everything in one place. It's not just a people data base, it's so much more! I use it for connection cards, events, sign-ups, growth groups, attendance, emailing groups of people, calendar, resources and so much more.

Pros

I am able to keep my staff and pastors in the loop and in the know at all times. Makes my job so much easier!

Cons

I wish there was better reporting capabilities. I would also like to have training able, as I had to learn how to use PC mostly on my own.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

January 24, 2020

Hey Jennifer! Thanks so much for the feedback. We lobe that it has helped streamline your communication and made your job easier. As for training, we do have our Planning Center university that gives an in-depth training on each of our products. This is available here: https://planning.center/university As for improved reporting capabilities, we'd love to hear about some of the suggestions you have. Would you be up for sharing with us by emailing us at support@planning.center We are always looking for ways to improve our products so that they continue to support the church and their processes for reaching their community.

Kiana M.  
Homemaker  
Graphic Design  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Planning Center is Great for Churches of All Sizes"

November 13, 2018

5.0

Pros

It's amazing! It's the best church organization app out there! It allows our church to schedule and keep track of everything we need for the weekend experience.

Cons

Planning Center Resources is confusing and difficult to navigate and I wish all the different areas of Planning Center were more similar and integrated.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

January 3, 2019

Hey Kiana, Thanks for reaching out and giving us an honest review. We are hard at work updating the Resources app and would love to hear some feedback on what makes that app difficult for you to navigate. If you haven't done so already, would you mind emailing support@planning.center with some more details regarding what makes that app difficult to use? Thanks!

JT

Jacob T.  
Owner  
  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The best church management software for any size church body & team."

March 12, 2018

5.0

Pros

The best part of Planning Center is being able to pick and choose which parts of the software you actually need. You don't have to worry about paying exorbitant prices for tons of features you don't need. The pricing is based on what your church needs. And it's so easy to add or remove apps. This may have started as a service scheduling software, but it has become established as a resource, scheduling, and giving database for our church.

Cons

The only con I could see with this software is learning. I've been using this software for many years, but for those who are first trying it out could need some extra time getting started and used to it. They provide great training videos but if they built an onboarding process for newbies, it could make the product that much greater for the larger church management software market.

Review Source

TV

Tim V.  
Musician  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Excellent organisational tool for a range of church users"

March 23, 2019

5.0

We use Planning Centre primarily for service planning, rotas, and music management. It is an invaluable tool that has revolutionised our organisation and delivery of multiple church services across three different sites. The balance between central control and personalisation is extremely helpful and promotes engagement. The music team users (for whom any digital planning software was new) vary widely in their digital competence but Planning Centre has made it possible to get everyone on board and has improved our delivery and team working hugely.

Pros

Planning Centre is an excellent tool for church organisation. It has a wide range of features that supports all the key aspects of church service/meeting planning: team management, music group and media management, rota scheduling, and many others. The permissions controls are helpfully graded to allow various levels of devolved access. Calendar integrations are helpful too. The layout and user interface is clean and clear and the design is consistent across the web version and mobile versions.

Cons

There used to be some limitations but technical developments over the past couple of years have really improved functionality and robustness. There isn't anything significant that can be faulted on this software from my use and requirements of it.

Review Source

DR

Daniel R.  
Executive Minister  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center Apps - Pick and Choose"

February 5, 2019

4.0

We began using Planning Center Services as a stand-alone app and quickly fell in love with it and our people adjusted well to using it. When we added People, Giving, Registration, and other apps, there was a bigger learning curve on the part of both staff and our people. Some apps are definitely more valuabel than others (Services, for instance).

Pros

There are several apps Planning Center offers that are excellent. For instance, the services app is second-to-none and the registration app is great as well. You can keep things easy or really get down into the weeds with each and your users will have a fairly easy time adapting to its use.

Cons

The price tiers leave a little to be desired. It can get pricey the bigger your church is (a number size doesn't fit all in terms of financial resources available). Suing Planning Center as a database has taken quite a bit of adjustment, but has worked, overall.

Review Source

GB

Gregg B.  
Online Audio Engineer  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Amazing Worship Planning Software"

November 20, 2022

5.0

Overall, PCO is an incredible product that any worship team should use to take their planning to the next level. It’s a critical component to making our worship and production team run and be on the same page!

Pros

This tool is vital to the worship planning and helping everyone be on the same page. We use almost all of the worship features and love them!

Cons

I haven’t run into issues on planning center. I always laugh though, when we transpose a song using the feature and the vocals sound like \[SENSITIVE CONTENT\]. The rest of the band and music sounds on point and helps our band be prepared.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Safety Team Lead / Bass Player  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "We Use It To Schedule Over 400 Volunteers"

March 26, 2020

4.0

My overall experience with Planning Center is very good. It is absolutely vital in running a large church organization with a ton of volunteers.

Pros

Our church has three campuses and streams online, we have over 400 volunteers and we use Planning Center to manage all of it. Between the desktop platform and mobile app, we can schedule team members for about 20 different teams. We also use it for our kids' ministry check-in and check-out.

Cons

As a user and team lead, I don't have to many cons. It would be nice to be able to add a person to an existing team via the app instead of having to use the desktop site. But maybe this is possible and I just haven't learned it yet.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

March 30, 2020

You can assign a person to a Team by going to their profile. As long as you have the proper permissions, tap "Teams" and then assign them to a position on a team in your account.

MS

Micah S.  
Pastor  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center Works!"

February 16, 2021

5.0

It's been a very positive experience leading to us being more efficient and effective in our work. It has been one of the better decisions we've made to incorporate into our field of work. We depend on it daily!

Pros

This is an amazing support to the organization of our team. The ability to plan events - schedule people for those events - and to contact them automatically cuts our time down so much. It allows us to put energy elsewhere knowing that Planning Center is doing it's job. It has improved our communication and efficiency greatly.

Cons

There are some struggles with the layout of the app. It tends to not be as user friendly as it use to be honestly. The recent changes have cause some frustration - even though change is good.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

March 5, 2021

Thanks for the review, Micah! We're always interested in hearing feedback on new features. If you're willing, send your thoughts on to support@planningcenteronline.com.

Julie G.  
Communications Specialist  
Law Practice  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Seven years of Planning Center"

October 24, 2018

4.0

We have a large, multi-site worship team, so Planning Center is the perfect tool for us. It's kept us organized, despite having more than quadrupled our team members over the years. They have "grown" with us!

Pros

We've used Planning Center for the management of our church worship team for seven years, so I've seen many iterations and improvements over the years. Every change they've made has been for the better. They've really listened to their users as far as features that have been added. My favorite is the ability to transpose songs. I'm also a HUGE fan of the accompanying Music Stand app.

Cons

After every upgrade, I've had to "reteach" myself how to use it. Buttons move, features changs. Most of the changes are for the better, but I have put off app upgrades, so I don't have to go through that process immediately.

Review Source

Jason M.  
Worship Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Churches NEED this Platform"

February 25, 2020

5.0

As a growing church it's key to have technology that will grow with you. PCO is just that. I couldn't imagine a workday without it.

Pros

Ease of use and the fact that all program share the same database. It allows for consistency and accountability.

Cons

Wish there was a better reporting module especially in the Groups and People modules. You can create lists but more canned reports would be great.

Review Source

TP

Terri P.  
Co Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The Must Have for Churches"

July 18, 2019

5.0

We make every service happen effectively with planning center.

Pros

This software covers all the bases for church management. It comes with an app, it covers children's ministry, worship, registrations, check-ins, groups, facility management and giving.

Cons

I wish it included more features about guest followup such as texting.

Reason for choosing Planning Center

It was superior in service and worship management

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

July 23, 2019

Hey Terri, thanks so much for the feedback, we are so glad that the software has been a blessing to you and your team. Texting is definitely a feature that we do hope to support in the future. In the meantime, we have some great third party texting companies that integrate with us. You can check out that list here: https://pcopeople.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002285534-Third-Party-Integrations If you have any suggestions on how we can continue to improve our apps we'd love to hear from you. You can reach us at support@planning.center Have a blessed one.

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Customs Compliance Specialist  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Centers Connects my Church's Volunteers"

April 2, 2019

4.0

I use Planning Center on a weekly basis to respond to requests to serve at my church. I find it easy to accept and block out days.

Pros

The thing I like most about Planning Center is how the Services app within its suite of apps works to allow me to see everyone who is volunteering on any given Sunday for the service.

Cons

The thing I like least about the software is that it seems impossible to back out or cancel once I've accepted to serve at X event. I would have to directly contact the organizer and maybe they could cancel me.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

April 3, 2019

Hi, and thanks for your review! In response to your comment in the Cons section, the option to decline a position you have already accepted is available in the app when you tap on the position name on the "My Schedule" screen. If you'd like further help, please feel free to write into our friendly support team at support@planning.center Thanks! Matt

Molly P.  
Program Manager  
E-Learning  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center is helpful for Churches"

February 3, 2022

5.0

Our church used planning center to manage check ins, attendance, database info, and more. We also use the app for people to be able to check in and see their group information. It is helpful!

Pros

Planning Center makes it easy to manage information at our church!

Cons

There are small details we wish we could do but can't, but it's still working good for us

Review Source

VF

Vicki F.  
Program Administrator  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Allows Ease of Planning & Organizing"

June 1, 2018

5.0

Planning Center is very intuitive and easy to use, even for beginners. I would recommend it for any ministry that schedules teams of people.

Pros

Planning Center allows us to schedule a very large group of different ministry teams, assign tasks, and see at a glance who has "accepted" an assignment and who declines the assignment. This software allows us to plan our services and keep our entire ministry team in touch. It gives our team members a view of the entire ministry and opportunities available.

Cons

It could have better database capabilities. It is not as robust as other databases, but then again, it's not meant to be a database program.

Review Source

JS

Jayme S.  
Kids Director  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center for the win"

November 21, 2019

5.0

Pros

I have used Planning Center in 2 different churches and it has worked wonderfully in both organizations! It's such a great program for organizing/scheduling volunteers.

Cons

The service app can be a bit funky at times, but overall it's a good app. There is definitely a learning curve to understanding how to use all of the different scheduling/template/team building tools, but the help feature is very well laid out.

Reason for choosing Planning Center

Was able to use it across various ministries.

Switched from

[lambs list](https://www.capterra.com/p/121809/lambs-list/)

Lambs list was very limited on what it offered, and planning center worked for the worship team as well as the kids team.

Review Source

DM

Dillon M.  
Student  
Education Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The best of the best"

August 2, 2023

5.0

Pros

I use Planning Center weekly and would not want to use anything else

Cons

Never had any issues with it, it is always getting better and better

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

August 7, 2023

Thank you for taking time to leave a review! We appreciate your feedback!

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Google Trusted Independent Photographer  
Computer & Network Security  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center Services - easy for volunteers to use"

January 1, 2019

4.0

I volunteer at a church that uses Planning Center Services. Planning Center makes it as easy as I can imagine to coordinate my volunteer time and communicate with church staff.

Pros

\-Service details page intuitively shows people/notes/attachments/order all in one place -Great iOS app with feature parity with web version, push notifications in addition to SMS alerts are a nice bonus -Integration with Google Calendar and iCloud Calendar automatically puts services in your calendar -It is easy to communicate with team leaders about blackouts and reminders

Cons

\-It is difficult to create recurring blockouts as it's unclear what info (reason/times for blockout) is repeated -Message delivery can be flaky (particularly with custom non-automated messages), requiring the users to manually check the web dashboard

Review Source

Timothy L.  
Software Consultant  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "great way for churches to organize and connect their people"

April 6, 2021

5.0

Overall a very good company that we have been using successfully for a couple of years now. Highly recommend!

Pros

there are lots of great capabilities from planning center that really help our church and make it easy for people to get information and get involved serving. It is also very nice that they offer a free app as part of one of their packages, since everyone uses their phone now adays the app makes it easy for the team to engage.

Cons

the pricing seems a little expensive at $14 per feature per month. This hinders us from using some of the other features that would be nice to have but may not necessarily be worth a separate payment by themselves.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

April 15, 2021

Hey Timothy! We appreciate the review. If you're willing to reach out at support@planningcenteronline.com, we're happy to clarify any questions you have about pricing!

VR

Verified Reviewer  
A+ Certified IT Support Specialist  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Good for One-Off event Planning"

February 23, 2020

3.0

It has been OK. I have only used a few of the features of the software, but when I was a team leader and had to find a replacement for a call-off, It was a painful experience.

Pros

This software is great for planning an event and order of service. It allows the attachments of documents and other pertinent files to be accessed by participants.

Cons

The scheduling of participants needs to be overhauled. It is clunky at best. Not being able to have team members have the ability to find a replacement for them when they have to decline is frustrating for the event planner. If, for instance it could incorporate with Slack, and send out a message when a "Decline" is submitted, the other team members could take ownership and step in. The event planner could then monitor this process and make calls if needed.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
UX/UI Designer  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "It feels threshold to have it, but there are new emerging products now available"

December 6, 2018

3.0

Pros

Planning Center basically a household name within churches. They've owned the market and help set worship teams up for success via scheduling, resources and service planning.

Cons

The UI is still a little clunky to navigate. It all get's the job done, but I believe can be improved. Also, when you start to interact with other products in their suite, you can tell that there's not a holistic approach and the user's congnitive load is probably bigger than desired.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

December 7, 2018

Hi there. Thanks for writing in and giving us an honest review. We work hard to keep our applications up to date. A huge part of that is hearing what our customers would like to see what the common struggles are when using our software. If you haven't already, would you mind emailing some of your ideas or things that you don't find intuitive to us at support@planning.center. Thanks!

JM

Jonathan M.  
Pastor of Administration and Children  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Indispensable tool for managing church services and volunteers"

October 10, 2017

5.0

Centralized volunteer scheduling Centralized song planning and rehearsing Service planning

Pros

Schedule services and communicate with volunteers through one central location Great mobile app that is not an afterthought. Many of our volunteers only use the mobile app Song planning made easy - just add a song to a service and add people to a service and they have everything they need to rehearse and show up prepared The more ministries use it, the more powerful it becomes - managing schedule conflicts across teams gets easier when all of your teams use it. You can tell the people who write this software are also on church teams. They "get" it.

Cons

It is so robust and flexible, with so many options, getting started can be a little overwhelming. For even a mid-sized church like us, it is an investment. It costs about the same as our church management system, so it is not insignificant. However, I would say we get much more value out of the software than our church management system, so it is worth it.

Review Source

EM

Eric M.  
Pastor  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Great cloud-base Church Management Software"

March 24, 2021

4.0

It has allowed me & my team to keep all congregational contact information up to date and provide better care for our flock. Everything we need is centralized and allows us to record, connect and delegate needs to the others on the team.

Pros

The People Module is the best. I love the ability to update the people/family information on the fly is great. The list feature within the People Module gives you the ability to create lists of all sorts by age, address, interests, service or ministry. It updates automatically ever evening to insure the most accurate data.

Cons

Using the Custom Fields within the People Module was a bit challenging, because it is a custom field it is a bit broad but because the natural of the software you would have a a better solution to record the service or ministry dates & positions a little more easily. The Planning Center help center just tells you to use the custom fields but doesn't give you much help from there.

Switched from

[Church Windows](https://www.capterra.com/p/2670/Church-Windows-Software/)

For its cloud base service.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

March 26, 2021

Thanks so much for the review, Eric. If you're willing, we'd love to hear a bit more about the difficulties you were having with Custom Fields. If you'd shoot us an email at support@planningcenteronline.com, we'd love to help!

Brent P.  
Director Of Information Technology  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center has been a staple fo rus for many years"

September 7, 2018

5.0

Pros

We've been using PC since it was just for event planning. Now it has people management, volunteer signups, and room reservations and more. We would have a VERY hard time doing what we do on a weekly basis if it wasn't for planning center. The team is great to work with and they have integration with Rock RMS now which has helped us as well. I love seeing this product continue to be developed. So many companies make a great product and ride it until it is obsolete. Planning Center has continued to improve as long as we've used them.

Cons

The pricing tiers for extra storage (or the storage in general) could stand to be bumped up as time has gone on and storage has gotten so much cheaper. But I'd rather specs like this get stale than the product itself.

Review Source

Pieter V.  
Director  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: I used a free trial

### "A Great All-in-One Solution For Small Churches, Yet Lacks in Customizability"

July 12, 2022

4.0

Our setup was easy, but because we found some features lacking in customizability to our organization's needs, we did not end up sticking with Planning Center past the trial period, but instead opted for a competitor.

Pros

Planning Center is a solution that really provides church an "all-in-one" solution to various aspects of church management - from volunteers, to donations, to events.

Cons

Unfortunately, while Planning Center provides a one stop shop with many features, there are competitors with specialized software tools that does a better job at some of those features. We were most interested in donations forms, but found Planning Center's to be lacking in customizability as well as integration with other software API's or something like Zapier.

Alternatives considered

[Fundraise Up](https://www.capterra.com/p/174380/Fundraise-Up-Online-Giving-Widget/)[GiveForms](https://www.capterra.com/p/171404/GiveForms/)[Givebutter](https://www.capterra.com/p/172048/Givebutter/)

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

August 9, 2022

Thanks for your kind words, Pieter! You mentioned some feedback on our forms and API. 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! Thanks!

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