Pastors, church communicators, and church leaders need a reliable and efficient way to collect, organize, and manage church member data. This is data is vital for effective communications, volunteerism, fundraising, and more. A strong and easy to use church management software solution is a powerful tool that can help.
Today, there are many excellent ChMS solutions that offer churches a range of services at affordable prices. As churches begin to understand what services they need, they can identify which ChMS is right for them. Additional features and integrations are also offered that allow churches to scale their ChMS functionality as needed.
The infographic below presents the top 20 most popular ChMS solutions for 2018 and provides ranking data based on the number of users, members, and social media followers.
Here are the 20 most popular ChMS solutions for 2018:
- ACS Technologies
- ServantKeeper
- PowerChurch Software
- ParishSOFT
- Church Community Builder
- CCIS
- Church Windows
- ChurchTrac
- By the Book
- Shelby Systems
- Excellerate
- Fellowship One
- CDM Plus
- Elexio
- Elvanto
- Breeze ChMS
- Churchteams
- Donarius
- Ministry Tracker
- Faithful Steward
[Infographic published by Software Lab on March 27, 2018 via Capterra]
Hi, we have developed an effective church management software which is an ERP for Ministry and Churches. http://www.churchoncloud.com
This list should include Planning Center at planningcenter.com
My church has used Planning Center Services since 2012 and began using all of the apps over the past few years. They are our only ChMS, and we love what Planning Center does to make running ministry a better experience for everyone. They currently offer Services for volunteer scheduling and worship service planning, Calendar for managing events, rooms, and resources, Check-ins for attendance, Giving for donation tracking, Groups for group management, People for membership records, Registrations for event payments, and Church Center for congregation members to access forms, giving, registrations, check-ins, messaging, groups, and more on the web and mobile app.
No list of modern ChMS is complete without mentioning Planning Center.
Agreed, Nate. My church uses Planning Center as well. We will post Capterra’s new top 20 list which hopefully has PCO on their listing. Thanks!
Hi Lauren,
Most if not all the software listed here operates majorly in Europe. However, you might want to consider those of us in African and most especially Nigeria.
Please make research on a fast growing Church management software company in Nigeria “ChurchPlus” http://www.churchplus.co
Lauren, Thank you for the list. Donation management and receipting in Canada has quite different requirements than in the US. Do you know which if any of the providers you’ve listed are Canada Revenue Agency donation management compliant?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Andy, Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure which of the solutions on this list are compliant in Canada. I did do a quick Google search, and it pulled up IconCMO, which I have worked with before. They are great people. Here’s a link to their Canadian compliance page: https://www.iconcmo.com/canada/ Blessings, Lauren
Very good article, i just want to share another great product, Kyrios ChMS (www.kyrioschms.com) is an all-in-one cloud software for church management suitable for any type of church institution that deserves to be keeping an eye on.
RockRMS is great! Open source (free — with requested donation) and great features. Broad adoption — hundreds of churches — including some of the larger churches in the US.
Thanks for your feedback!
Haha, this list is hilarious! PCO not even on the list???’n
Thanks for your comment. Capterra compiled the list. I’m not sure PCO is that widely used for church management software – I’ll reach out to the company to see how many churches they serve. Sincerely, Lauren
We’re currently evaluating CMS solutions and several people have mentioned PCO (Planning Center Online) as a possible solution, especially for worship service planning, which is a critical requirement for us.
Did you ever obtain comparative information for PCO?
Do you have any recommendations for a powerful worship planning system?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks for reading and commenting. I have communicated and used PCO. There are only a few that offer worship service planning and full ChMS. I think the PCO members (ChMS) is a bit limited, so you’ll want to reach out to them to find out all the functionality available. It’s not necessary to connect the service planning software with the ChMS, but can be helpful. Let me know if you have trouble getting through to Planning Center’s customer service. Sincerely, Lauren