1 Why churches look for an alternative
Planning Center is a polished, well-loved product, and we say so plainly. Churches go looking for something else for ordinary reasons: the bill grows as the church grows, each module is its own subscription, and the people records live on someone else's servers.
If that sounds familiar, Free Church ChMS covers the same ground without a subscription. It is not a clone of Planning Center. It is a complete church management system built around the same everyday jobs.
2 How the pieces line up
| You use Planning Center for | Free Church ChMS has |
|---|---|
| People | Member and household records, import from CSV or Excel, and a connector that pulls people from Planning Center. |
| Check-Ins | Children's check-in with pickup security codes, allergy alerts, printed name tags and guardian texts, plus a QR self-check-in kiosk. |
| Services | Order of service, song library and team scheduling. |
| Giving | Gift and pledge records by fund, giving statements, and imports from Stripe, Pushpay, Tithe.ly and Givebutter. |
| Groups | Small groups and ministries with rosters and meeting details. |
| Accounting add-ons | Fund budgets, ledger, bank file import and printable checks. |
3 Where Planning Center is the better choice
We would rather you pick the right tool than be disappointed later.
- You do not want to host anything. Planning Center runs the servers for you. Free Church ChMS needs a web host that runs PHP 8.3 or newer.
- You need native phone apps for volunteers and members. Ours works in the browser and can be added to a phone's home screen, but there is no app-store app yet.
- You want online card giving built in. Free Church ChMS records and imports gifts. It is not a payment processor.
If you can live with those, you keep your money and your data.
4 Moving over
- Request your copy and install it. The install guide takes you through it.
- In Integrations, connect Planning Center with a Personal Access Token and import your people. Or export a CSV from Planning Center and use the Import Center.
- Run both side by side for a few weeks if you like. Nothing is deleted from Planning Center by us.
- Download a backup from Admin, Backup and Migration, so you have a complete copy from day one.
Common questions
Is Free Church ChMS a free alternative to Planning Center?
Yes for the everyday jobs: people, check-in, service planning, groups, giving records and accounting. It is self-hosted, so you run it yourself, and it has no native phone app or built-in card processing.
Can I import my people from Planning Center?
Yes. Connect Planning Center in Integrations with a Personal Access Token to import people, or import a CSV or Excel export. Giving and attendance can be imported from files too.
Will it replace Planning Center Services?
It has an order-of-service builder, a song library with CSV import, and team scheduling. It does not have the CCLI SongSelect integration, since that needs a paid subscription, so songs are imported by file.
What does it cost compared with Planning Center?
Free Church ChMS is free. Planning Center prices vary by product and church size, so check their current price list. Our comparison page lists sources.
Free for every church, forever
No trial, no tier, no credit card. Ask for your copy, and we will prepare it for your church and send it to you. Everything given freely, so your money can go to the people God has put in front of you.
Request your free copy How to install it