Planning Center Alternatives (2026): An Honest Comparison
Quick summary: The main Planning Center alternatives in 2026 are Church Planner (churchplanner.ca, flat ~$7 to $14 USD/mo all-inclusive, billed in CAD, built in Canada), Breeze/Tithely Church Management (flat $72 USD/mo with giving included), ChurchTrac ($9 to $90 USD/mo tiered by people tracked), and Tithe.ly All Access ($119 USD/mo bundle with app and website). Planning Center itself runs a typical 150-person church $160 to $180 USD/mo across modules. Church Planner is the lowest-priced unlimited flat plan; ChurchTrac has the lowest entry price; Tithe.ly is the most complete bundle. Pricing verified July 2, 2026.
Let's start with the honest part: Planning Center is good software. Over 80,000 churches run on it, the products are polished, and the free People database is a genuine gift to small churches. If it fits your church and your budget, you can close this tab with our blessing.
But you searched for an alternative, which means something isn't fitting. You're in the right place. One of us builds church software for a living (full disclosure: Church Planner, the first option below, is ours), and we still wrote the comparison we'd want to read: every price verified against official pricing pages on July 2, 2026, every trade-off named, including our own.
Why churches go looking for a Planning Center alternative
Talk to churches that switched and the same three frustrations come up again and again.
The modules add up faster than your budget. Planning Center prices each product separately, and each one climbs its own tier ladder as your church grows. A typical 150-person church using five modules lands around $160 to $180 USD a month. We walk through the receipts in what Planning Center actually costs.
It's more system than you need. Ten products is a lot when what you wanted was a volunteer schedule and an attendance sheet. Somebody has to administer all of that, and in most small churches, "somebody" is a volunteer with a full-time job.
USD pricing hits harder outside the US. Canadian and international churches pay the sticker price plus exchange, every month, forever.
If any of those sound like your church, here's what the field looks like.
Planning Center alternatives at a glance
| Pricing model | Monthly cost (USD unless noted) | Best fit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Church Planner | Flat, all features | ~$7 or ~$14 (billed in CAD) | Small to mid-size churches that want planning, scheduling, and attendance without module math |
| Breeze (now Tithely Church Management) | Flat | $72 | Churches that want one simple all-rounder with giving built in |
| ChurchTrac | Tiered by people tracked | $9 to $90 | Budget-focused churches comfortable with a leaner interface |
| Tithe.ly All Access | Flat bundle | $119 | Churches that want ChMS, app, website, and giving from one vendor |
| Planning Center | Per module, tiered | ~$45 to $240+ | Larger churches using many modules deeply |
Church Planner
What if the whole thing just cost one number? That's Church Planner: one subscription, every feature, no tier ladder to climb. Premium works out to about $7 USD a month (100 contacts), and Pro is about $14 to $15 USD a month with unlimited contacts, SMS and email reminders, and every future feature included. Yes, the sticker says $9.99 and $19.99, because prices are in Canadian dollars. For US churches the exchange rate works like a permanent discount.
Your Sunday lives here: plan the service, schedule the band and the nursery team, take attendance from three phones at once, and let the automatic reminders chase volunteers so you don't have to. Worship teams also get a free ChordPro converter and transposer, no account needed.
For Canadian churches: Church Planner is the one option on this page that bills in CAD. You pay exactly $9.99 or $19.99 with no exchange surprise, and it's built and supported in New Brunswick by people who serve in church every week.
Now the honest bit about our own product: Church Planner does not do donation processing, event registrations, or a congregation-facing app yet. If any of those is a must-have today, one of the options below will fit you better, and we'd rather tell you that here than after you've migrated your data.
Best for: small and mid-size churches whose week runs on service plans, volunteer schedules, and attendance, and who are done doing module math.
Breeze / Tithely Church Management
Breeze earned its reputation by being the simple one, and the pricing matches: $72 a month flat, unlimited people, giving included. It now belongs to Tithe.ly and sells as Tithely Church Management (same product, new name), and it remains one of the easiest systems for a volunteer administrator to learn in an afternoon.
Watch the add-ons, though. Text messaging past 250 messages a month costs $10 per 500, and worship planning tools are a separate $29 a month, which stings if scheduling bands is the main reason you're shopping.
Best for: churches that want one friendly all-rounder with giving built in and don't lean heavily on worship planning.
ChurchTrac
The budget champion. ChurchTrac prices by how many people you track: $9 a month covers 75 names, scaling to $90 for unlimited, with accounting (+$15) and messaging (+$7) as optional add-ons. For that money you get a surprising amount, including giving, check-in, and worship planning in the base price.
The trade-offs are real but manageable: the interface feels a generation older than the rest of this list, and the "names" meter quietly penalizes you for keeping good records. Worth knowing: the old free plan is gone, so 75 names now costs $9.
Best for: churches where budget is the constraint and a leaner look is a fair trade for the lowest entry price anywhere.
Tithe.ly All Access
Want everything from one vendor? All Access bundles the Breeze-based ChMS, giving, text-to-give, worship tools, a church website, and a church app for $119 a month. Considering the app alone costs $89 bought separately, the bundle math is actually good if you'll use most of it.
That's the catch: you have to use most of it. If you really just need the ChMS core, you're paying for a website and app that sit idle.
Best for: churches that genuinely want ChMS, app, website, and giving from a single vendor and will use the whole stack.
Or stay with Planning Center
Also a legitimate answer, and we'd be a poor guide if we pretended otherwise. If you're multi-campus, run heavy event registrations, or your worship team lives inside Services, Planning Center's depth is hard to match. And because there are no contracts, you can trim instead of leaving: audit which modules you actually use each month against the tier you pay for. Most churches that do this find at least one subscription running a tier higher than their real usage.
How to choose
Forget the feature grids for a minute and picture your actual week. If Sunday runs on volunteer schedules and attendance sheets, a flat-price planner (Church Planner, about $14 USD) does the job for a tenth of a full stack. If online giving is the center of gravity, Breeze at $72 or the Tithe.ly bundle makes more sense. If every dollar counts, nothing beats ChurchTrac's $9 door. And if you're big enough to use five Planning Center modules deeply, Planning Center probably stays.
Whichever way you lean, take the free trial and run one real Sunday through it. An hour with your own service plan tells you more than any comparison page, including this one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Planning Center alternative? It depends on what drives your Sunday. For planning, scheduling, and attendance at a flat price, Church Planner. For an all-rounder with giving built in, Breeze. For the tightest budget, ChurchTrac. For a full bundle with app and website, Tithe.ly All Access. There is no single best; there is a best fit for how your church actually works.
What is the cheapest Planning Center alternative? ChurchTrac starts at $9 USD/mo for 75 people. Church Planner Premium is about $7 USD/mo with a 100-contact limit, and Pro is about $14 USD/mo unlimited, which makes it the lowest-priced unlimited plan on this page.
Is there a Canadian alternative to Planning Center? Church Planner is built, hosted, and supported in Canada and bills in CAD, so Canadian churches pay sticker price with no exchange added. Planning Center, Breeze, ChurchTrac, and Tithe.ly all price in USD. Church Planner serves churches on both sides of the border; US churches simply pay the converted (lower) amount.
Does Planning Center have contracts? No. Planning Center, Breeze, ChurchTrac, and Church Planner all offer month-to-month billing with no cancellation fees, so switching is a data question, not a legal one.
Can I try these before switching? All five offer free trials: 30 days for Planning Center, Breeze, ChurchTrac, and Tithe.ly. Church Planner offers a free trial plus two months free on yearly billing.
Pricing verified July 2, 2026 from each vendor's official pricing page. Planning Center, Breeze, Tithe.ly, and ChurchTrac are trademarks of their respective owners. Church Planner is not affiliated with any of them. Found something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.