c-SPOT vs Ministry Planner

c-SPOT is a free, open-source service-planning application for small churches. It organizes Sunday and midweek services and other events, including orders of service, staff, resources, songs, and event details. Song materials can include lyrics, scores, and guitar chords, with OnSong format for musicians. Songs and other items can be shown as slides, including offline from a local cache; presentations can be controlled by a casting device such as Chromecast or a synced smartphone. Role-based permissions govern changes and access to some information, and users can communicate by email or internal messages. The project tracks song use for CCLI reporting and links to SongSelect. It runs on the web and listed desktop and mobile platforms, or can be hosted on a user's own web host. Self-hosting calls for console access, Composer, Git, a database, and configured mail-server connectivity. The responsive web interface requires an up-to-date browser and JavaScript. Synchronized lyrics, chords, or sheet music across devices work only on Apache servers.

Ministry Planner is a web platform for church planning and administration, combining service planning, volunteer scheduling, team chat, online giving, and a church website. Its planning tools connect a teaching calendar and series library with service plans and personalized mobile run sheets. Volunteers can accept or decline assignments through secure RSVP links without creating an account or installing an app. Listed integrations include two-way sync with Planning Center, sync with Church Community Builder, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. A free tools option allows one standalone tool per church account, with limits that vary by tool; paid plans start at $49.00 per month, and a 30-day trial is listed. Online giving has no monthly fee, but each gift incurs a 0.5% Ministry Planner charge plus Stripe processing fees. The company says church data is encrypted in transit and at rest, churches can export it at any time, and it is not sold or shared. AI features include an assistant, smart imports, and engagement predictions; data is stated not to train models. A congregation app is listed as coming soon.