Campwise vs Stronghold

Campwise is cloud-based software for summer camps and conference centers, with modules for camp operations, staff, conferences, donors, and point of sale. Camp management handles online and manual registration, billing, housing and grouping, transportation, and activity scheduling. Staff tools cover online applications, references, contracts, and background-check integration with Protect My Ministry. Conference management includes guest groups, facility and resource reservations, food services, events, and calendars. Donor features include online giving, campaigns, donor history, volunteer tracking, pledges, and customizable receipts and thank-you letters. The POS module supports camper-account and walk-in purchases, inventory, barcode scanning, and unlimited devices. Mobile apps are listed for tasks including registration lookup, transportation check-in, camper medical information, activity lookup, conference calendars, donor lookup, camper check-in, and POS. Reports are customizable and can be scheduled automatically; exports include Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Campwise states that real-time credit-card and e-check processing is PCI Level 1 compliant and that payment details are not stored in its database. Pricing is on request, with a flexible monthly lease or upfront payment. It is available for Android, iOS, macOS, and web.

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.