Campium vs Stronghold

Campium brings camp registration, billing, attendance and communication into one platform. It is intended for day camps, sleepaway camps, bungalow colonies, after-school programs and youth organizations. Registration supports custom forms, document uploads, e-signatures, waitlists and session or product capacity limits. Billing includes family balances, card and ACH payments, payment plans, autopay, discounts and financial aid. Staff can record attendance and check-ins or check-outs, while families manage approved pickup permissions. Bus tracking provides a live GPS map, rider status and estimated arrival times. Medication records include dose and staff attribution, overdue-dose flags and access restrictions for authorized staff. The platform also supports staff scheduling, reports, mass email and SMS, announcements, targeted sends and one-way family messages. Contacts can sync with Mailchimp and Constant Contact, and QuickBooks is listed for accounting. Campium offers responsive web access and iOS and Android apps for parents and staff. There is no free version; pricing is discussed with the company, which offers a no-cost demo and setup walkthrough.

Stronghold is a web-based platform for managing youth and student ministries, kids ministries, camps, conferences, retreats, and mission trips. It combines student and family records with attendance, small groups, discipleship milestones, care notes, volunteer roles, and first-time guest follow-up. Safeguarding tools include guardian pickup codes, background-check gating, consent records, medical and allergy notes, headcounts, and incident reports. Camp workflows cover registrations and payments, forms and waivers, cabin assignments, squads, tournaments, schedules, trip check-ins, and secure pickup. Communication options include leader-visible messaging with keyword safety flagging, texting, email campaigns, announcements, and prayer requests; texting and email activate when a provider is connected. Stronghold also provides a white-label website builder and an installable student and parent app. Shepherd AI flags issues such as a drifting student, an uncleared volunteer, or a camper without a cabin. The maker says minor data is leader-only and not shared between churches. A 14-day trial requires no credit card to start. Youth and Kids each cost $29 a month; the Youth + Kids Bundle costs $49 a month.