ACS vs Planning Center

Tithe.ly

IconCMO

Realm

Text In Church

FellowshipOne

WorshipPlanning.com

Compare ACS and Planning Center based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

Daxko Operations

Complete operations software for member-based nonprofits - integrating programs, billing, and check-ins in one secure system.

StarChapter

StarChapter is an association management software for local chapters, combining membership management, website content, event registration and email marketing

Tithe.ly is a web & mobile based donation platform providing digital giving tools & event management features for ministries & churches of all sizes

ACS is a church management software designed to help churches of all sizes handle finances, members, services, background checks, contributions, accounting processes, payroll, purchase orders, and more on a centralized platform.

Accounting

Accounts Payable

Accounts Receivable

ACH Payment Processing

Application Management

Asset Tracking

Attendance Management

Attendance Tracking

Bank Reconciliation

Budgeting/Forecasting

Built-in Accounting

Child Check-in

Committee Management

Communication Management

Donation Management

Dues Management

Electronic Payments

Event Management

Event Scheduling

Financial Management

Financial Reporting

Fund Accounting

General Ledger

Member Database

Member Directory

Member Portal

Membership Management

Membership Renewals

Member Types

Mobile Access

Mobile App

Multi-Location

Online Calendar

Online Giving

Payment Processing

Payroll Management

Pledge Management

Registration Management

Small Group Management

Third-Party Integrations

Volunteer Management

Website Management

Web-based

Linux

iPhone

iPad

Android

Windows

Basic

Administrative Assistant

Also has various report options that go along with these registrations that are very helpful.   Whenever we have a problem or question, customer support is very helpful and friendly!

Director of Family Ministries

The company itself is working to move customers to newer products (Realm in particular) and current ACS users should get themselves into the cloud ASAP.

We use it every day in our office, but people using it from home often have problems.  

Parish Administrator

Some days we notice it's "sluggish" (may be an internet issue).  

Office Manager

Although we no longer use ACS, it was a great church software for us.

We really liked how easy it was for our members to find each other in the directories

Great customer service and mostly user friendly.

Every module I've used has been fairly user-friendly.  

Worship Pastor

There seemed to be a disconnect between how we were (poorly) implementing the software and struggling with teaching staff and the way in which the ACS team communicated to us and told us to get excited about functionality that never worked in our context because of difficulty of implementation.

Volunteer

They update and upgrade every week to stay relevant.  

Lead Pastor (elect)

ACS does everything we need in church management software!

Director of Finance

Excellent customer service for an older version of the product.

Indépendant 

The ACS software often bugs or slows down when donor files increase.

They have been in the game for awhile and show no signs of slowing down.

The lack of functional expense reporting is lacking given the current state of the art technology.

Owner

When we had talks of switching the software to a new company ACS was so far behind that we wouldnt have even been able to transfer our database into a new system

If you spent a lot of time setting things up and were using it daily, ACS seems to have the capability to have good functionality.

Overall it was a frustrating piece of software when we had to engage with it and people would create their own systems and spreadsheets as work arounds.

Of course, it is not quick to master ACS, but once you have mastered it you have everything you want to know about reports, campaign follow-ups, etc.

Finance Mgr

I also can no longer run event and other income smoothly and directly to a contra-expense.

ACS is dependable, strong and has always delivered.

ACS is also limited on the choice of administrators on who should access this or that.

The new Realm products - For the price they are charging -  we would be as well served with Quickbooks.

Honeslty the software is stuck in the 90s, I am shocked how far behind the programing is, it was not user friendly at all/

To be fair, it's been a few years since I have spoken to ACS customer support and they were friendly and tried to be very helpful at the time, but it wasn't a good experience.

Freelancer 

Its super Fast..The App is Reality fast and Not So complicated!

The product management people have decided that they understand accounting better than professional users.

IT Director 

It was a strong tool for us for quite some time.

Secretary/ Teacher 

Customer Support

Performance and Speed

Church Management

Reporting

Security and Access Control

Ease of Use

Expense Tracking

Accounting and Forms

Features

Cloud Integrations

Small Business

Mid-size Business

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

ACS Technologies

Clearstream

Two-way enabled mass texting, integrations with popular ChMS and other 3rd party apps, multi-management capabilities, text-to-join keywords, automated workflows with conditional logic, native apps, live polls, and dedicated short codes.



Tithely Church Management

Breeze is a cloud-based church management software designed to assist small & mid-sized churches in managing events, donations, follow-ups, volunteers, and more.

Try a free 30-day trial of Breeze today and see why more than 11,000 churches love Breeze!

ChurchTrac

ChurchTrac is a church management software with features for membership management, donation tracking, accounting, reporting and attendance management

Planning Center Giving helps you accept and process all donation types, track trends, and issue statements.

If your church is stuck in a contract with another provider, we'll cover your subscription for FREE for up to 12 months. Apply now at: https://www.planningcenter.com/giving/free 

Access Controls/Permissions

Activity Dashboard

Activity Tracking

Alerts/Notifications

Campaign Planning

Catalog Management

Collaboration Tools

Configurable Workflow

Contact Database

Contact Management

Content Library

Content Management

Credit Card Processing

Customizable Fields

Customizable Forms

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Data Import/Export

Document Management

Document Storage

Donation Tracking

Donor Management

Drag & Drop

Email Management

Email Templates

Event Ticketing

Forms Management

For Nonprofits

For Religious Organizations

Gift Matching Management

Historical Trend Analysis

Image Library

Media Library

Member Communication

Mobile Giving

Personalization

Playlist Management

Receipt Management

Recurring Giving

Recurring/Subscription Billing

Reminders

Reporting/Analytics

Reporting & Statistics

Role-Based Permissions

Scheduling

Search/Filter

SMS Messaging

Summary Reports

Template Management

Usage Tracking/Analytics

Visitor Tracking

Worship Planning

By industry, Planning Center reviewers are most commonly professionals in religious institutions (57%). The most frequent use case cited by reviewers is church management (86%).

Users and use cases

Reviewers appreciate Planning Center’s modular pricing and flexibility, and they value free core features and ongoing updates. However, some users report that costs rise quickly with more modules, and they find tiered pricing and add-on fees burdensome.

Value for money

The Planning Center integrations most frequently cited by reviewers are: ProPresenter (a church presentation product rated 4.6 out of 5 for its integration with Planning Center), Clearstream (a church management product, 5.0), and Mailchimp (an email marketing product, 4.6).

Integrations

Planning Center is a church management program with key features that include worship planning, volunteer management, mobile access, member directory, member communication, online giving, and more.

Planning Center

People

Services

Check-ins

Giving

Groups

Registrations

Communications Director

Helps us track our attendees, schedule volunteers and service positions, and allows us to safely and effectively sign-in children and students in-lieu of a headcount.

Interim Worship Leader

It's extremely effective in scheduling volunteers for Sunday mornings and for equipping them with the resources they need to prepare the week before.

It is difficult to keep the people database under control due to the automatic creation of profiles anytime anyone downloads the app, fills out a form, registers for an event, etc.

Kids Director

This product allows our church to successful run ministries, track member engagement, steward relationships and connection with people, among many other capabilities.

Pastor

The user interfaces for all of their apps are intuitive, and it makes managing and communicating with our members quick and easy.

ACS vs Planning Center Comparison (2026)

ACS

Planning Center

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives