# Page 12 | Planning Center Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Page 12 - 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 12 - Reviews of Planning Center

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 276-300 of 1137 Reviews

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Most Helpful

Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Finance & Information Systems Director  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The Best Church Management Solution on the Market! Seriously - stop searching!"

August 31, 2018

5.0

Pros

Planning Center has the best approach to building software for the church. They truely listen to the customer and work to build into the product what we're asking for. The product is also one of the cheapest options on the market for what you're getting.

Cons

They are young so not everything is built in - yet! I honestly don't have much bad to say about them.

Review Source

JC

Joe C.  
Account Manager  
Marketing and Advertising  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "A fantastic solution for any church..."

January 20, 2020

5.0

I'm a HUGE planning center fan. Any pricing or ease-of-use issues that I had pale in comparison to what this tool can do and how it can help keep a church organized and efficient. It definitely takes some time (and support calls) to get to know the product but the automation and integrations are second-to-none in this space. There's no other tool out there that helps keep churches organized and efficient.

Pros

Overall features and automated emails/text to volunteers was 100% worth it for anything price or ease-of-use issue that I had. Saving time saves me $$$.

Cons

Planning Center was not easy to use initially and took an investment of time to get 'onboarded' to know what to do and how to use it. That said, I'm still sold on how useful this tool is.

Reason for choosing Planning Center

Features: integrations, automated reminders, song file/MP3 archives.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
New Media Manager  
  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great all in one tool"

April 19, 2018

5.0

No need for 10 different sites

Pros

Helps our church stay on the same page without needing 10 different tools. Everything is easy to use. Always improving and rolling out new features.

Cons

They need bundled discounts for the more apps you add to your plan. They also need a forms app so you can automatically get information to the other apps through the user end.

Review Source

PT

Patrick T.  
Video Production Coordinator  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center is the go-to platform for event scheduling"

September 24, 2020

5.0

I'm overall very happy with using Planning Center to plan and organize our services.

Pros

Planning Center has a fantastic platform for planning, scheduling, and running events. Scheduling teams in the matrix view and auto-schedule function make staffing positions a breeze. It's convenient that they keep a history of deleted plans for about 30 days in case you need to refer to them. The songs section makes keeping any files such as PDF's, MP3's, or links organized with the correct asset.

Cons

It can be daunting the learn how to use the software for a new user. I've encountered some issues when trying to print plans such as it not including elements I wished to include. It would be nice if you could see edits a user is making in real-time on the page.

Review Source

CM

Curran M.  
Videographer  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The new standard for Church databases"

August 20, 2020

5.0

Between scheduling volunteers, planning services, and tracking people's information for admin use - this software really has it all. Church work can be overwhelming and a great hub of information is needed to be able to access at any time. This is that hub.

Pros

It's extremely simple to put together a service, request volunteers to serve, and see who has confirmed or declined for the weekend. Need to call someone? Switch from "services" to "people" and you can easily pull up their information. The staff is great about training those who need it, the interface is pleasing to the eye and it's easy to learn within minutes.

Cons

There's a lot of in-depth features many will miss because they don't know about them. This requires a large amount of training to be able to know every feature at your church's disposal. But it is worth the time investment.

Switched from

[Elexio Community](https://www.capterra.com/p/117170/Elexio-Database/)

Elexio was too complicated and outdated. And we were already using PCO for Services.

Review Source

MM

Micah M.  
Elder  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Price increases with use but lots of features included"

September 25, 2020

5.0

Overall we enjoyed the number of features provided, and hands-down is the best software for CCLI/SongSelect storage and planning. But there are other CHMS options that are cheaper and can work alongside PCO Services for a lower cost.

Pros

We loved having the amount of features that PCO (Planning Center Online) included. They provide various add-ons/modules to fit your needs and goals (e.g. check-in, events, people, services, etc.).

Cons

We didn't like the increase in cost as we added more people using PCO. I think the "rhyme behind the reason" is that a church would be able to afford paying more as the church grows in number. While this might be the case for other churches the price didn't seem to justify the features for us. Customer support is fast but it's hard to talk to a real person over the phone (email is their preferred support, but I would rather talk to a person personally).

Alternatives considered

[Realm](https://www.capterra.com/p/146265/Realm/)

Reason for choosing Planning Center

at the time it seemed like the best option available (2013 when we signed up)

Review Source

JT

Jason T.  
Lead Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center has revolutionized the way we communicate with our volunteers and teams."

September 28, 2017

5.0

Planning Center has allowed us to expand our ministry capacity through clear lines of communication with our volunteers. Truly an indispensable tool for ministry.

Pros

Planning Center has revolutionized the way we communicate with our volunteers and teams. From the most tech-savvy teenager to our oldest retired worship team member, this form of communication simply works for everyone. I love the way you can communicate via different ways. When we first began to transition to Planning Center, we were a traditional church stuck in the 1980's in many ways, especially in our communications. While it took about 3-6 months to get everyone on the worship team using it (probably a rotating team of 40), now we don't know what we would do without it. Since then, we have expanded with Planning Center's capability. From our Volunteer Greeters, to other teams (Ushers, Safety), it is a tool that serves everyone, and helps us expand our ministry efforts more efficiently.

Cons

While Planning Center is the industry standard, in my opinion, I would love if they incorporated a capacity to either integrate with an e-mail marketing/communications company (i.e., Constant Contact or Mail Chimp) or offer that service themselves so I don't have to keep email lists in 2 different (sometimes 3) places.

Review Source

HD

Heather D.  
English Teacher  
Education Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "The Best Planning Software for Churches"

November 10, 2022

5.0

Planning Center reduces the time spent Planning events and regular worship.

Pros

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.

Cons

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

Review Source

JF

Josh F.  
Technical Director  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Saves so much time!"

December 21, 2023

5.0

I love this app and will continue to keep using it to its fullest potential. It makes our life at our church so much better using this!

Pros

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!

Cons

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!

Review Source

Waldo M.  
Director of Media Services  
Telecommunications  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center for a smooth operation"

December 21, 2022

5.0

Pros

The integration and management of personnel, as well as the workflow of productions. The software also has many options for customization per production which is very useful.

Cons

At the present time there are no real negatives.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Facilities Manager  
  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "It works great for organizing volunteer staff and other operations."

December 14, 2017

5.0

It's unified our volunteer scheduling. Before PCO we had papers posted on bulletin boards to tell our teams who was doing this or that for each week of the month. It was hard work for team leaders! PCO allows team members to communicate easily if they're going out of town. No master calendar taking up wall space anymore! Plus if someone doesn't show up, we don't have to ask numerous people to find a replacement.

Pros

I like how easy it is to use, it really does just about whatever a church needs when scheduling volunteer staff. The auto schedule is very nice. I love how scalable the service is to our needs.

Cons

It is a bit complex. Some things aren't quite were you would expect them to be... But the help center is great and easy to use.

Review Source

DM

David M.  
Creative Arts Director  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "I love Planning Center!"

November 12, 2018

5.0

Pros

Everything! Planning Center is the best software Ive ever used for helping organize church services! We use it every week and Ive used it for almost the past decade exclusively! It has great ways of contacting the teams and keeping everyone on the same page and prepared for the weekend services!

Cons

The only thing Ive ever not loved about Planning Center is planning center resources and that is only because it was a little confusing at first and didn't seem to have a logical system of reserving rooms

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

November 14, 2018

Hey David, We just made some big changes to Planning Center Resources, and plan to add some more in the near future. Our reservation page looks and functions like a calendar now. If you'd like to give it another try, contact our support team and they can give you another free trail!

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Aluminum fabrication  
Construction  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Manage anything manageable with eas"

July 21, 2022

5.0

My experience using this beautiful app is simply because of it multiple functions.

Pros

This is an app that is created to give a large and small medium church the best of plans which help maintain and manage the church and it's entire challenges it might be facing, and it has unlimited functions you might ever think of works with Android and iOS to give you the best and automatic login, group management, attendance tracking, and so on.

Cons

To use this app sometimes is hard because overall people using the app has to login or have account before it can be accessible, there is nothing like visitors chance of getting glance of what it looks like.

Reason for choosing Planning Center

Because of it efficiency and can accommodate more people into the app with a single management source, and it's very easy to use because of its notification on the go.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

August 9, 2022

Thank you for your kind words! You mentioned having more opportunities for visitors to preview Church Center. Our Support Team is a great resource for help in that area. Or you can submit a feature request for visitors! 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! Thank you!

Chris M.  
Athletic Trainer  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Simple, yet effective planning software!"

March 7, 2019

5.0

We have had great success using the one service but we genuinely hope to use more of the Planning Center suite in the future as our church grows!

Pros

Using Planning Center has been a huge help for our church so far. We are not currently using the full suite but do utilize the Services section. It allows for easy planning and organizing of the events within each service and then that can be communicated with those involved! If a change occurs, updates can be swift and communication instant. It is a great resource and we hope to upgrade to more of their services if we can get the approval!

Cons

Not a big con because it holds true to any platform, but you do need to have someone who is very organized and on top og things to maintain the information and communicate any updates that occur. Also, the cost of the entire suite can be a little burdensome for smaller churches.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Worship leader  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great for church teams"

May 21, 2019

5.0

A good system to organize worship teams.

Pros

I am a worship leader at our church. With his software I am able to review the week’s song set as well as review lyrics. Oftentimes the songs will be performed in a different key than what team members are familiar with. So an audio file can be uploaded. This is great since I always sing harmonies; I can learn the new notes while driving home from work since the app is available on my phone.

Cons

Earlier versions of the app were extremely buggy on the iPhone. It was easier to log into website than deal with the app. However, the current version is a huge improvement. Quite seamless. Not very intuitive with some features. Buttons don’t take you where you figure they would. But the features to listen/view to the files are great. I like the loop/repeat feature on the playback the most.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

May 24, 2019

Hi! Thank you for your kind words and honest review! If you are finding some buttons unintuitive in the web or mobile apps, we'd love to hear from you with the details of what is happening vs. what you are expecting to happen. Contact our support team through the help section of the mobile app. We'd love to help!

AA

Angel A.  
Volunteer  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The Gold Standard"

June 1, 2021

5.0

Overall, Planning Center has been a game changer and has allowed us to organize our events and most importantly, as our church has grown we have been able to expand Planning Center's applicability.

Pros

I love the ability to have all parts of the planning process in one place, with mulitple applications that all connect and work seamlessly together.

Cons

I wish there was the ability to connect to third party software. Everything works great as long as you are in the ecosystem but if you prefer another software for one or more functions it gets a bit complicated to use them in tandem.

Reason for choosing Planning Center

It had more functions and a lower barrier of entry. It was also recommended to us by other churches.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

June 3, 2021

Hi, Angel! Thank you for the review. We're really glad that using Planning Center has been a solid experience for you overall. As far as addressing the callout you had with connecting to third-party software, we'd love to hear a bit more about what you have in mind. Could you send a ticket to support@planning.center and let us know what type(s) of integration you're looking for between other products? We might be able to offer some suggestions or at least track your ideas as a feature request. Thanks and have a wonderful day!

SW

Spencer W.  
Media & Technology Director  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center Review"

January 21, 2020

5.0

Planning Center is helping us keep all our important information for our members in one central database.

Pros

The thing I like most about Planning Center is that it keeps all of our databases connected, and all of our members contact info in one place.

Cons

The thing I like least about Planning Center is that it can sometimes be difficult to find what you need, some of the features are buried within multiple pages, so if you don't know where to go it can be difficult to find something sometimes.

Switched from

[ACS](https://www.capterra.com/p/2668/ACS/)

ACS was very old and outdated and difficult to use.

Review Source

Teegan F.  
Graphics Operator  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Best schedule planner for churches"

July 30, 2019

5.0

Using this software has made it really easy to schedule volunteers to work specific services, while giving them all the information needed for that specific week.

Pros

The ability to request to schedule people and create time blocks is great! The option to upload documents or links to videos to the weekly schedule is very useful to get the correct information out to the whole team.

Cons

I disliked that there is no ability to set someone as a back up to certain positions. This often leads to someone rejecting a request and the position being empty.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

August 3, 2019

Thanks for the review Teegan, There are a few recommended ways to handle a Backup Team. Our support team would be happy to walk you through them if you'd like to reach out to Support@planning.center with this question.

NH

Nathan H.  
Board member  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Fantastic software with multiple uses for a church of any size. "

July 15, 2021

5.0

Planning center is fantastic and has exceeded our expectations from being a basic planning software to now have implemented giving, worship set lists, volunteer management and even kids church check ins.

Pros

Ease of use and ability for multiple users to nagar multiple volunteer teams, worship set lists and giving.

Cons

There is a slight learning curve to implementing the giving platform for the church and to show different volunteers how to access their profile to block out dates etc.

Review Source

LB

Lois B.  
Office Manager  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Very helpful"

September 8, 2022

5.0

Pros

It plans our weekly worship and service and lets all involved know what is going on. We can communicate with team members quickly and easily. I also like that the price is on a sliding scale depending on the number of people involved.

Cons

It would be nice to have specific pages for different ministries.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

September 21, 2022

Hi Lois, Thank you for your kind words. You mentioned that you would like to see pages for different ministries. 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. Thank you!

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Director, Demand Generation & Digital Marketing  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Effective tool to let you scale your team's effectiveness"

November 28, 2020

5.0

We've seen less time being spent on administrative tasks, which has historically been a burden for our small team. We'd highly recommend the platform for churches of all sizes looking for help in gaining process efficiencies.

Pros

The suite of tools in Planning Center are broad enough to give any church the ability to leverage technology to improve their workflows. The services tool is especially effective in managing the scheduling and coordination of volunteers.

Cons

No major things to speak about - the tool functions as expected, and has mobile apps available as well. We truthfully have no complaints about the platform!

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

January 6, 2021

Thanks so much for the review! So glad Planning Center has been useful in your ministry. Let us know if any questions arise in the future!

AL

Aaron L.  
Music director  
Civic & Social Organization  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning center gets few things wrong"

August 8, 2019

5.0

I used to have issues but now that I know how to operate the majority of this program, it’s pretty great.

Pros

There is a lot here in this program, so for sure you’ll need a tutorial but once you get it down, it’s amazing. You’re able to run reports on songs, members and service times, which is so amazing. There is so much packed in that is so helpful. You’ll be running an efficient service in no time.

Cons

There can be a lot. It can be daunting. Sometimes things get lost in the details, but be patient and make sure you find a tutorial to get you through.

Review Source

Sergio Eduardo R.  
Gerente de compras  
  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Great for big church teams"

January 16, 2018

5.0

Pros

The services app is what I found the most useful for our church since we manage a few worship teams for services throughout the week, youth group, children worship, main team, etc. It is easy for the leader to schedule people to serve on any given service.

Cons

What did't work for us is the fact that you depend a lot on the people to actually use the platform and here in our case, people tend to forget that they have to block vacations, of even check in to some events and stuff, so that way we came to the conclusion that we were paying for something that people was not really using. Other than that, the experience was really good.

Review Source

AH

Austin H.  
Worship Leader  
  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Our church loves using planning center. It keeps everything in one place."

March 20, 2018

5.0

I love using Planning Center. It's easy to create service plans, link with our slideshow program, schedule volunteers, and easily reference attached documents for songs and Scripture readings. We also use Planning Center Giving to easily provide an online giving option. It was so easy to set up.

Pros

Planning center helps keep our church organized. We can collaborate on plans, see everything in advance, and schedule volunteers. The large number of features such as tags or blockout dates make it easy to make sure we schedule people based on availability. We have also started using ProPresenter, so the link between these two programs is very helpful in creating slides. Everything is stored in Planning Center, and it easily imports in from our slideshow program. Planning Center giving has made it easy for online donations. Most people don't carry cash or checks around, so having that online donation option is helpful for them. Planning Center was easy to set up and use.

Cons

I don't have many problems with Planning Center at all. Sometimes, the learning curve on advanced functions can be steep, and I may forget the exact steps to do something, but their help guides are there to guide me through. I'm still not sure how to automatically send emails as soon as I schedule someone, but that's a minor issue.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Administrative Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Church Organization at its finest"

February 7, 2019

5.0

I am extremely thankful for the ability to use this program. It has allowed our leaders and volunteers to have information at their fingertips with the Apps that Planning Center has developed.

Pros

I love the ability to use Planning Center's applications based upon what our need requires. We don't have to pay a flat fee for use. We actually pay for the portions we seek to utilize at the given time. And then, if we decide it's not necessary, we can drop that portion at no extra cost.

Cons

Some of the inability to easily group our people within the People portion of the service. It would be nice to easily search for people based upon their information and develop groups that way.

Review Source

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