# Page 16 | Planning Center Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Page 16 - 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 16 - Reviews of Planning Center

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 376-400 of 1137 Reviews

Sort by:

Most Helpful

Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

JS

Josh S.  
Associate Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Planning Center top notch product and customer service."

April 22, 2021

5.0

PC helps us plan out our services, keep track of our groups and our people!

Pros

Planning Center is super easy to use, very first time user friendly and easy to train new people on!

Cons

Transposing the key on new songs was a little more difficult compared to the rest of Planning Center.

Reason for choosing Planning Center

PC is so much easier to train lay leaders in and more affordable.

Switched from

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

Ease of use and affordability.

Review Source

Mark L.  
Lead Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great for Scheduling"

January 15, 2019

5.0

Pros

The scheduling function for people is the best feature!

Cons

I wish the price breakdown didn't start at 400 people.

Review Source

Evan G.  
Software Developer  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "PCO for the win"

October 1, 2018

5.0

Been great. we use workflows to ensure no follow up gets through the cracks, forms are great for collecting information, and automations have simplified a lot of manual tasks.

Pros

Automations. Workflows, forms, list automations, and more, pco will make a lot of your manual tasks automated saving you tons of time!

Cons

They piece it out as seperate apps so they can sell it to organizations that may not need everything. THis is nice for those people, but at times, can seem like a bit of a hassle to see everything you need to see.

Review Source

John H.  
Lead Pastor  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "LOVE"

September 28, 2020

5.0

I can't love PCO more! It's so satisfying to see all the information we need in one place with the multiple platforms.

Pros

Planning Center makes my life easier. From scheduling people, deploying information on groups and events, to giving and giving access to all of that information through an app. LOVE

Cons

If there's one thing that sort of gets me, it's some of the pricing. BUT, with that said, I get it. They provide an amazing service and that costs money. We're just a small startup church and can't afford all the bells and whistles we want.

Review Source

Matthew B.  
Systems Administrator/Analyst  
Publishing  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "My experience with Planning Center has been great!"

January 3, 2018

5.0

Pros

I like that this software is easy to use. It has a lot of features that I find valuable. This has been helpful for previewing and preparing for the upcoming services. As a volunteer audio technician, it helps me see what position I'm in, who I will be working with and any relevant notes for each step of the service. With it, I can also hear all the music that will be performed during the upcoming service.

Cons

I find it annoying that you cannot maximize the video player used to preview any audio or video files.

Review Source

Richard B.  
Onboarding Partner Manager  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The Gold Standard for church planning software"

November 29, 2018

5.0

In my current church we only scratch the surface of what can be done, only scheduling people for music, tech, and preaching. However, I've seen this used to coordinate volunteers and staff across multiple campuses, multiple services, and multiple teams in a previous church. It is an incredibly powerful tool.

Pros

Everything. The ease with which I can share all necessary files and schedules with my team, the ease of integration with other tools like CCLI and WorshipTogether, and the ease of creating chord charts and transposing song files on the fly.

Cons

There are no real cons to this software.

Review Source

MG

Michelle G.  
Media Volunteer  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Best Church Management Software"

April 8, 2020

5.0

It helps our small church plant stay organized while not needing or having the ability to have a paid office assistant.

Pros

I love how easy Planning Center is to use. Everything is very intuitive from Services to Check-Ins to Giving. It is a robust platform but requires very little training to start using.

Cons

Each of the applications costs has a monthly subscription charge so it can get a little pricey, but well worth it.

Alternatives considered

[KidCheck](https://www.capterra.com/p/84428/KidCheck/)[Pushpay](https://www.capterra.com/p/142580/Pushpay/)

Reason for choosing Planning Center

While these other alternatives are good products, we strongly preferred a solution which would accomplish all of our related church management instead of a combination of 3-5 different pieces of software which would not communicate with each other like Planning Center does.

Review Source

NM

Nicholas M.  
Assistant Tech Director  
Performing Arts  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Church Teamwork Dreamwork (2)"

January 9, 2019

4.0

Planning out church services is our main use of this product.

Pros

This made organizing events, resources, and people very easy. The church was able to lay out events completely; the band could upload music files and chord sheets; people could be assigned tasks and responsibilities.

Cons

The mobile version is NOT intuitive at all. Very difficult to access different folders and the calendared events.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

January 10, 2019

Hi Nick, Thanks for reaching out and giving us an honest review. We would love to hear more about your thoughts regarding our mobile app. If you haven't done so already, would you mind emailing us at support@planning.center?

LG

Lee G.  
Communications Director  
  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "PlanningCenter has revolutionized how our organization schedules volunteers and maps service orders."

January 16, 2018

4.0

Pros

The platform is very user-intuitive when it comes to laying out the segments of a service or event. You can drag-n-drop to reorder elements, as well as quickly change details, titles and length of time that segment takes.

Cons

I think it would be beneficial that when an event template is updated, it updates all existing events using that template. Currently, it updates all new events created from a template, requiring you to manually adjust elements of the existing ones. This feedback may make more sense for someone who regularly uses this feature.

Review Source

DS

Dan S.  
Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The Best in the Business "

March 12, 2020

5.0

I use PCO for everything. The best feature is People - a free database that syncs to every feature a church needs!

Pros

I love everything about PCO. For real. I use mostly every feature and have yet to find another product cheaper and better. Do it!

Cons

I really don’t have one. Maybe...at times it’s a bit too good. Sometimes it’s so intuitive that it’s easy to overthink features.

Review Source

cC

cathie C.  
church member  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Invaluable in Worship Planning"

July 30, 2019

5.0

Great - they seem to be investing in more development...we need to be able to connect people more - and groups more and with ease and text one another and such..

Pros

I like the way it allows all of the worship team to see and plan together...learn music = have resources in one place..

Cons

I know they are working on it - with the addition of groups - but I wish there was a place to chat and contact other memebers - an easy way to use PCO for everything and not have to use additional log ins like What's App to communicate with teams...

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

August 1, 2019

Hey Cathie, thanks for your honest feedback. We love hearing how our apps help resource the church and how we can improve. As for Groups, expanded communication is something that we are working hard on and hope to have out in the near future. We know this is an important tool to help the church build community. If you have any suggestions or questions, our support is always happy to help and we respond to all support requests within 1 business hour. You can reach us at support@planning.center

BP

Beka P.  
Administrator  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "This program is so helpful!"

November 8, 2018

5.0

Pros

I love that you can add people to see the same events across the company; plus you can share songs, media, services, etc. It's really helpful that there's so much flexibility and versatility to make each service your own with item headlines, notes, adding media/songs, times and the length of each item. It's just very helpful & easy to use!

Cons

Maybe it was just because I was more picky about how the layout of services, but the template aspect was a little confusing/ hard to use. If you upload that template you're stuck with it. Also when I search for someone it was tricky sometimes because if you didn't have the right box checked it wouldn't work.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

November 16, 2018

Hi! Thanks for your kind words! In regards to templates in the app, they can be a bit confusing. We have plans to make them more intuitive, in the near future. If you are having trouble with the filters on the main People page, feel free to write in to support from the helpdesk. We are here to help!

SL

Steven L.  
Media Director  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Not sure how churches live without this"

December 20, 2019

5.0

Our services are more organized and efficient dues to our use of planning center. Our effective communication to all of the teams and members has been critical as well.

Pros

We utilize this software to plan our services, keep track of membership and teams, get notifications out to members, store song files and chord charts, integrate to ProPresenter, and on and on. It is such an integral part of our weekly services and it keeps us on track.

Cons

Sometimes creating and managing templates can be a little challenging. Creating teams and managing team members is not as intuitive as I’d like it to be either.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

December 24, 2019

Hey Steven! Thanks for the feedback, we are glad that Planning Center has helped your ministry and its vision for the community. We love our churches and hope to continue to equip your church with resources to fulfill your mission. If you have any suggestions or feedback on how we can continue to improve Templates and Team Management we'd love to hear it. You can reach our support at support@planning.center

CB

Chris B.  
Facilities Manager  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Not for facility managment"

April 20, 2021

3.0

From what I understand the volunteer side works just fine for the ministry folk here. But from a facilities stand point there are much more free options or very cheap options out there can do so much more.

Pros

I like that you can set up each room individually for booking purposes. But of course you will be charged for each room you set up so be careful not to crazy or you will really spend too much.

Cons

The booking of the room is all that it can do. There is no tracking or set up requirements for the space so our facilities people are left to guessing for following a piece of paper. And if the paper need to be produced to function then why bother with a digital version that will just add more steps to any process.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

April 22, 2021

Hi, Chris! Thank you for your feedback! We would love to hear more specifics about what you'd like to see improved in Calendar. Please feel free to reach out to us by sending an email to support@planningcenter.com. Thanks!

CW

Cameron W.  
Lead Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Exactly what you need"

February 20, 2020

5.0

Overall I give Planning Center and all its functionality a 10 out of 10. There is not a better overall resource out there for the money.

Pros

Planning Center is a one-stop-shop for church leadership of any size. From using their database resource to organizing weekly teams for worship gatherings or small groups, it is excellent. We also use the Giving function as well for our online giving. Not a better resource available for the money.

Cons

I wish you could make hyperlinks in the comments section in the services program, as well as make the website and app more alike.

Review Source

NG

Nic G.  
Musician  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Great for planning services and uploading and sharing documents!"

November 17, 2018

4.0

I'm the music director at my church and we have been using this for about a year now, it's been a huge time saver for me! In the past, I had to make sure I had everyone's email address and/or phone number to get the music and charts for each week.

Pros

Planning Center is really easy to use! I assisted the pastor of my church in setting it up and it could not have been easier. It really has been helpful in keeping a flow to our services. It is really great how you can upload documents and share with anyone who has a login. We have a pretty large size band, this feature insures everyone is always in the loop when it comes to the music being performed each Sunday morning!

Cons

I haven't run into any issues yet with Planning Center! I do wish there were a few more features, like having child check in or even a chat/message feature.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

November 19, 2018

Hey Nic! Thanks for reaching out and giving us an honest review! You had mentioned that you wished we had a child check in feature and I wanted to reach out to let you know that we do have an app designed to check people in! You can find out more about our Check-Ins app on our website. https://planning.center/check-ins/

LW

Lesa W.  
Kafe Manager  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Good Program"

July 17, 2019

5.0

Overall it is a very good program just use all the helps to learn what you don't understand. They are very good at explaining how to do things.

Pros

This is a great program for scheduling workers for positions. You just email them or text and they reply with accept or decline

Cons

It is sometimes difficult to understand different things in the program. I have a hard time learning how to text someone instead of email them for their positions.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

July 23, 2019

Thanks so much for your feedback about your experience with the Services application. While we don't have a mass texting feature in Planning Center at this time, it is something that we do hope to add down the line. In the meantime, we do have text-notifications that can be sent for scheduling requests, and we'd be happy to show you how you can enable this for you and your volunteers. Would you be up for opening a ticket with our support team at aupport@planning.center and we'd be happy to walk you through this process.

Alexis N.  
Voice Teacher  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great Service Planning Software"

November 13, 2019

5.0

Really good experience overall. The software works really well and rarely crashes.

Pros

Planning Center Online is the best service planning software available. It is browser-based, has a functioning app, and all of the functions you need. The additional add on modules expand the functionality to other parts of church life but are not required.

Cons

The cost is the biggest problem with Planning Center Online. It is the best software available but the cost reflects that. The more modules you add the greater the cost.

Review Source

Chelsea B.  
Photographer  
Fine Art  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "No user friendly "

January 25, 2019

4.0

Pros

It is helpful in scheduling teams for a Sunday morning worship service. Lots of different categories for teams. Easy to store users information.

Cons

I find planning center to not be user friendly. Hard to navigate. The app is confusing. It takes a lot of practice to remember which screen to click when scheduling individuals. It is a software program that takes time and patience.

Review Source

Response from Planning Center

January 28, 2019

Hi Chelsea! Thanks for your honest review! There is certainly a learning curve to all of our apps, especially the Services app. If you are still having issues and would like help in clarifying your workflow within the app, contact our Support team using the helpdesk within the app or by emailing us: support@planning.center. We'd love to help!

NB

Nate B.  
Worship Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Must Have for Churches!"

January 15, 2023

5.0

Pros

Amazing layout and user friendly software for church service planning!

Cons

Software has a bit of a learning curve for new users. Not all mobile phone platforms are supported for texting.

Review Source

RM

Rick M.  
Founder/Director  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Organizing Novice"

July 11, 2019

5.0

I think it is the best church/ministry/business scheduling software on the market

Pros

It allows different departments to schedule teams and then give everyone a chance to adjust their calendars in advance

Cons

I don't do much admin with it - as the leader, I am on everyone's team just so I can see the schedules and who's committed to what.

Switched from

[Google Meet](https://www.capterra.com/p/176572/Google-Hangouts/)

My son recommended it

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Creative Arts Pastor  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Worth every penny, and essential to how we plan and execute our services."

January 19, 2018

5.0

It's our go-to tool for planning and executing our services. Probably the best product I use, that consistently gets better.

Pros

It's simple enough to navigate and use for our basic users, but really handles everything we need or could throw at it. It's great for managing the people on our teams, staying in touch with them, and planning services. Matrix view of our service plans is always open on my computer.

Cons

On occasion, the media player can get buggy. The real-time updates don't always sync up and work correctly.

Review Source

JF

Joshua F.  
Dean of Students  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The Best Ever!"

December 3, 2019

5.0

This software is the best ever. I have been using it consistently for over 8 years and will never not use it. Great functionality and practicality.

Pros

The ability to add music and media attachments to service items and send them to scheduled volunteers is invaluable. We are also able to structure services with great detail and ease through PCO.

Cons

Nothing to complain about here. The only downside to Planning Center is that is seems to benefit creative ministries most, but other organizational and front-end teams may be a little underwhelmed with its functions.

Review Source

Jenna B.  
Musician  
Entertainment  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great management for many people involved in worship services"

August 31, 2021

5.0

It's been invaluable as a guest worship leader at many different churches, helping to communicate with team members and select appropriate songs for the service.

Pros

It's easy to schedule people for different teams involved with the service. It lets you load in songs from their bigger server to easily track CCLI licensing and import chord charts for the musicians, as well as noting different arrangements of songs.

Cons

When you enter a song editor mode, it would helpful to have an easy "back" button to get back to the service you were working on.

Review Source

EM

Evangelia M.  
Social Media Manager  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "There’s nothing like Planning Center "

December 30, 2022

5.0

We love using Planning Center to communicate with those serving as well as scheduling them. On the admins side, we use it to organize our music for worship as well our teams. The program is a little overwhelming at first but once you use it, you get used to it very fast!

Pros

The efficiency of Planning Center is amazing for scheduling, organizing, and communicating our church needs.

Cons

Planning Center can be a bit overwhelming at first.

Review Source

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