Assemblea vs Planning Center

Assemblea is web-based church management software for member records, giving, events, attendance, and finances, designed around evangelical and Protestant congregations. Member profiles can link families and record church acts and roles. Event tools support attendance check-in, named guests, child check-in with printed security codes, and a public calendar with an iCal feed. A guided importer has presets for exports from Planning Center, Breeze, ChurchSuite, and ChMeetings, plus a generic CSV option. Members can use a password-free magic link to update profiles, view giving, manage recurring gifts, confirm volunteer shifts, join groups, and browse events. Online donations go directly to the church’s Stripe account; Assemblea charges a 1% platform fee plus standard Stripe processing fees. The maker says data is hosted in the European Union, encrypted, and GDPR compliant. Security controls include field-level encryption for sensitive notes and prayer requests, granular permissions, and a tamper-evident audit trail. Churches can export, restrict, or erase an individual’s data using built-in tools. The responsive product works on phones and tablets without installation. The Free plan costs nothing; paid plans are Starter at $19/mo and Pro at $49/mo.

Planning Center is a church ministry platform with products for people management, events, worship planning, donations, groups, and church apps. People centralizes membership information and ministry activity such as attendance, giving, and volunteering. Services supports worship planning, volunteer scheduling, team communication, and rehearsal tools. Other listed capabilities include group management, event registration, child check-in, and SMS messaging. Free plans are listed for Calendar, People, and Services: Calendar includes one room, People has an unlimited database and reporting, and Services includes five team members and 100 MB of storage. The pricing note lists paid access from $5/mo and a 30-day trial; a member limit of 75 is also listed. Services plans include unlimited feature access, teams, service types, and plans, with pricing based on the number of people accessing the system. The Services app supports iOS and Android phones and tablets, but not Windows devices. Integrations include SongSelect, PraiseCharts, Checkr, Mailchimp, Zapier, and third-party tools; an open API is also available. Planning Center states its products suit churches of any size.