Digital Church vs Planning Center

Digital Church is a web- and API-accessible suite for managing church online ministry through a website or app. Its website builder supplies templates for more than 20 page types. The event calendar supports free or paid registrations and connections to streaming services. Sermon publishing can pull from YouTube automatically and handle notes, PDF downloads, audio podcasts, and series. The platform also includes online giving, live streaming, forms, and private small-group spaces for communication and sharing worksheets or notes. Forms can use Digital Church, Elexio, or Planning Center sources. Stripe Giving accepts card donations through Stripe Connect and routes them to the church’s connected Stripe account. The Unlimited plan includes hosting, updates, backups, security, and full content management for one website. A native app is not included in that plan but can be added for $49/mo. Plans are billed monthly: Starter is 19.00 USD, Standard 39.00 USD, Premium 59.00 USD, and Unlimited 199.00 USD. A 45-day trial is available, and there is no free plan.

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.