How does Churchteams compare to Planning Center?

Are you thinking of making a change in Church Management Software?
Read the comments from actual church staff members who have used Churchteams and
other competitor products, when asked to compare Churchteams to Planning Center.

How does Churchteams compare to Planning Center Online?

Rather than our staff answering this question, we thought it would be more valuable to hear from actual staff with experience using or evaluating Churchteams and Planning Center. 

The unedited comments below were posted in our Facebook Community as a response to someone asking for reasons to switch to Planning Center or stay with Churchteams.  

“Churchteams exists to disciple people every day.” – Church Software Consultant

“I’d start with what are the problems you’re (they’re) trying to solve. Many times people blame configuration and training issues on the system when the real issue is that they just didn’t know how to do it in the system. PCO won’t fix that.

Church Teams and PCO think about data and how the church ministries are structured VERY differently. CT is obviously very groups focused – everything is a group, and all features center around the group concept. PCO is very much centered around individuals. PCO is 8 different, separate apps. They have some relationships to each other, but not in the way you would expect. So, if you need to assign kids to their class roster and then check them into that roster, you’ll find that very difficult because PCO only assigns check-in based on age/grade/gender filters.  

As others have noted – PCO support is a different model than almost any other ChMS. They don’t have sales, onboarding, or professional staff. They only have support via email. It’s good, but you’ll probably never speak to anyone above the tier 1 email support agent. Have an idea of something you’d like to see in your software? Churchteams support will add it to a list for you. 

Churchteams is good and capable software – but that’s not it. They exist to disciple people. Every day.”

I realized Churchteams would do everything we needed and wanted.  – Database Administrator, 3500+ weekly attendance

When we were evaluating, we had it narrowed down to PCO and Rock RMS. A consultant encouraged me to check out Churchteams. I realized it would do everything we needed and wanted, more integrated, more easily, and all in one place, except for service planning like PCO. 

Our worship team has used PCO, because its service planning function is really in a class of its own. They kept PCO for service planning and they still do their volunteer scheduling there, but we helped them see that ‘their people’ are our people. We’re all ministering to the same body. They’re all serving with the same body, and our people need to be in one place so we can minister holistically. 

Now our worship team does more and more in Churchteams. It is our central hub. They do attendance for their teams and registrations for their events. Everything in Churchteams. Churchteams is a better choice for all our ministries, not just one. 

At some point, you have to decide which will be a better choice on a holistic level.”

Churchteams has excellent customer service and support. –Church Administrator

 “CT has excellent customer service and support. PC only provides support via email (at least that was the case 2 years ago when we were using it). Also PC charges for each and every feature. CT has a very good built-in email generator, it comes with some great templates, and creating your own is very easy. I am still learning bits and pieces, but I am ever grateful we made the switch.”

 

Contributions and Volunteer Scheduling are so easy with Churchteams. – Church Administrator

“CT allows for Soooo many options. Customer support is off the chain. If you have a problem, they find a way to make it better asap. You can email or text all the things you need to go out. Contributions are so EASY with CT. 99% of your reports can be saved and updated instantly. If you have volunteers who schedule…PCO is a pain for them. Unless someone is wanting PCO to only schedule the service down to the minute along with lighting and audio and music…DON’T. Just don’t switch.

Churchteams doesn’t just support the product, they support you and your ministry.  – Former Church Exec. Administrator, current Consultant: 

“As others have mentioned many times already – SUPPORT is a foundational and critical issue for every single product out there. And “support” is so very much more than just simple break/fix responses. Does your ChMS vendor see you solely as a revenue stream and continually try to “upsell” you or guide you towards more costly options? Or does the company TRULY PARTNER with you and your church, with a deeply held calling and focus, to best serve you as you reach and serve others in a manner that fosters solid stewardship of your limited time, dollars, and resources? 

I have worked with over a dozen different ChMS providers. I can unequivocally say that the service and support provided by Churchteams (and ACS out of Florence, SC) are unequaled – period. Not only do they support their product – they support YOU, YOUR MINISTRY, and YOUR CALLING to serve your community! I have personally worked with Churchteams Support multiple times to resolve issues, learn alternate ways to use their system in order to accommodate a church’s organizational workflow, and work with them to suggest, develop/beta test/troubleshoot, and train and implement product enhancements. 

Time after time, a message sent over to Churchteams support is responded to directly by Senior Churchteams Leadership, frequently Boyd Pelley and Mark Horan directly (I’m actually working through an issue with them right now!). They are extremely generous with their time and expertise and have a personal desire to help you execute the most effective and efficient ministry decisions you make while using their system. And on more than one occasion, they have also freely shared their wide breadth of knowledge within the ChMS market and suggested products or services from alternate competitor vendors who may excel at executing a particular function or feature you require that they don’t offer. 

I would strongly suggest surveying your user base for their top issues with Churchteams – real or perceived – and then get with Boyd or someone at Churchteams and see what they can offer to help you. And – if you do make the decision to leave – they will be just as gracious and accommodating in helping you migrate your data over. But I think you might be pleasantly surprised at what they can offer you.”