Planning Center

If you've served in a church of any size, you know the behind-the-scenes work that keeps Sunday mornings running — scheduling volunteers, managing events, tracking attendance, processing donations, and keeping everyone on the same page. Planning Center was built for exactly that: a modular suite of church management tools designed to take the stress out of ministry administration so your team can focus on people.^1

Founded in 2006 by Jeff Berg and Aaron Stewart while working at a church in Southern California, Planning Center started as a single tool to help worship teams plan services and schedule volunteers — Jeff was updating spreadsheets and retyping run times every week, while Aaron was burning CDs and uploading MP3s for musicians to learn parts. That first tool — now called Services — grew into a complete church management system.^2 In June 2026, the co-founders reflected on 20 years of Sundays, writing: "Two decades of choosing churches over investors, the long game over the easy exit: building and shipping one feature at a time, listening carefully to your needs, growing at a deliberate pace, and staying true to who we are."^3 Today the platform includes 11 integrated products spanning People (free membership database), Services (worship planning and volunteer scheduling), Giving (online and in-person donations), Check-Ins (child and volunteer check-in), Calendar (event and facility management), Registrations (event sign-ups), Groups (small group management and chat), Church Center (custom congregant app), Publishing (custom pages, video, and audio library), Music Stand (digital sheet music), and more — all sharing a central People database so information flows seamlessly.^1

What makes Planning Center unusual in the church tech world is its independence. The company is privately owned, fully bootstrapped, and 100% debt-free — no investors, no venture capital, no sales team. In 2024, Jeff Berg established the Ministry Centered Foundation to ensure Planning Center can never be acquired, even after he steps away, and has since committed to transitioning the company to a non-profit structure. As he wrote: "Selling out to a big corporation contradicts everything we stand for."^4 Planning Center was also the first major church management software company to achieve SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, demonstrating its commitment to data security for churches.^5

For congregants, the free Church Center app (iOS and Android) provides a clean experience for giving, event registration, group discovery, check-ins, messaging, and more — all powered by what the church has subscribed to.^6 In April 2026, Planning Center launched a unified mobile app for church staff, bringing push notifications, dashboards, and task management from every product into one place.^7 Through PicoLabs, staff can connect Planning Center to AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to query their congregation data with natural language. What began as a People-only integration expanded in June 2026 to include Services, Groups, and Registrations, and Planning Center is also available directly in the ChatGPT app store.^8 Also in 2025, Planning Center introduced "Project Phoenix," a comprehensive visual refresh across all products — new gradients, navigation, and styling — now available in open beta.^10

In 2025 alone, churches using Planning Center scheduled over 102 million volunteer roles, sent more than 600 million emails, and registered for over 6 million events.^11 In April 2026, Planning Center joined the Ruby on Rails Foundation as a Contributing Member — a natural homecoming for a platform built on Rails for 20 years (Jeff Berg attended the very first RailsConf in 2006), serving 100,000+ churches with a team of 225.^12

"Planning Center is a life-saver for our organization, freeing up our time to focus on the people that truly matter." — Darien C., Associate Pastor^13

"Our previous software was frustrating and expensive. Support took days and the people were always sleazy and about the sale, while Planning Center support takes minutes and the people are all fabulous." — Steve DePaul, Church Administrator^1

"Since switching to Planning Center, we save so much time managing all of our data in one place. And there is no other ChMS out there that can do what Planning Center can do that offers the low fee structure. That money saved goes right back into your budget for the mission." — Greg Dietrich, Pastor of Administration^1

• Trusted by 100,000+ churches worldwide, with a 225-person team (100+ engineers)^12
• Processed over $30 billion in donations to date, including over $600 million per month^14
• 65% of the team works in Product and Engineering; approximately 40 code deploys per day^2
• First major ChMS to achieve SOC 2 Type 2 compliance^5
• Joined Rails Foundation as Contributing Member (April 2026); Jeff Berg attended the first RailsConf in 2006^12
• Verified First background checks integration for volunteer safety, with federal criminal and alias search add-ons^15
• Church Center app available on iOS and Android with group chat, announcements, and NFC/QR code support^6
• CarPlay and Android Auto support for Services mobile (April 2026)^16
• Project Phoenix design refresh in open beta across all products^10
• PicoLabs MCP integration now spans People, Services, Groups, and Registrations; available in the ChatGPT app store^9
• 2025 impact: 102M+ volunteer roles scheduled, 600M+ emails sent, 6M+ event registrations^11
• Support responds within approximately 1 hour (Monday–Friday)^2
• Open API for custom integrations^1
• CEO Jeff Berg supports Samaritan Aviation on behalf of missionaries worldwide^17

Platforms: Web, iOS, Android (Church Center for congregants; Planning Center app for staff) Pricing: Freemium (People always free; other products offer free tiers with usage-based paid plans; monthly and annual options)