Choosing the right ChMS is crucial—after all, no one wants to invest time and money into a system only to discover that it’s missing a key feature or its setup just doesn’t align with your day-to-day needs.
A good ChMS should streamline your operations and equip your church leaders with all the tools you need to further your mission and more effectively serve your community.
To help you make a confident, informed decision about the best ChMS for your needs, we’re comparing One Church Software with other leading church management systems. In this post, we’re focusing on Planning Center Online—highlighting key differences and showcasing the capabilities that make each software stand out.
Whether you’re choosing your very first ChMS or considering making a switch, read on to see how these two systems stack up!
1) Groups
In your church, you likely have many different types of groups, such as:
- Sunday school
- Youth groups
- Support groups
All these groups function a little bit differently, and each one requires a varying amount of follow-up and communication.
In addition to these more formal groups, you’ll likely find that plenty of other unofficial groups naturally form in your day-to-day church work. A ChMS’s group features can help you keep group communication organized as you perform routine tasks like:
- Sending out segmented emails
- Keeping key members updated on events
- Welcoming first-time visitors
One Church Software offers great flexibility when creating and managing groups. With customizable group types and categories, churches have the freedom to define groups however they see fit. Whether it’s a group for First-Time Guests, Newsletter Subscribers, or any other unique category, you can create and organize groups in the way that fits your church’s needs.
Planning Center Online has primarily focused their groups solutions on small groups. For many churches, this can feel like a more limited and rigid structure, as it does not allow them to make varying group classifications.
2) Check-Ins
A check-in feature allows you to streamline the process of taking attendance at church events. Having flexibility and customization within this feature helps you tailor it to your needs and make processes more convenient for your volunteers and parents.
One Church Software gives you complete control over your check-in system. It’s easy to limit check-in access to a specific group. For example, you can ensure only members of the “blue” group (or those of a certain age) can check into a particular room, providing a more secure, flexible, and personalized experience. Whether you’re ensuring all attendees are present before an activity begins or confirming that children have been safely checked in by their parents, our check-in features provide clarity and peace of mind.
Planning Center Online offers basic check-in features that allow you to sign members in based on categories like age, gender, or class. However, this system doesn’t currently offer the level of customization you would need to limit check-ins to specific groups, which can be a drawback for churches that have a lot of people and moving parts to manage.
Learn more about One Church Software’s attendance tracker here>>
3) Integration Partners
When your ChMS integrates easily with third-party platforms and applications, it allows your teams to make use of additional tools and services.
One Church Software offers several integrations. PraiseCharts, MortarStone, Protect My Ministry, and Mailchimp are among the most notable to date. Our developer-friendly Application Programming Interface (API) and Webhooks empower you to integrate third-party applications while sending real-time information. Complete with custom authentication keys and two-way system communication, One Church Software ensures smooth, secure, and efficient connectivity across your tools.
Planning Center offers an impressively wide collection of integrations, such as Clearstream, Slack, Gmail, Mailchimp, Asana, Trello, Text In Church, and more. Just like One Church Software, the setup of this platform’s API allows for external applications to send data to and receive it from Planning Center. This flexibility makes Planning Center a popular choice for churches who place a high priority on integrating third-party software and apps.
Another capability unique to Planning Center is their Music Stand product—this is not a third-party integration but a useful internal tool that helps musicians annotate and step through sheet music with a foot pedal. Currently, One Church Software does not offer an equivalent feature.
4) Accounting and Reporting
Financial transparency and tracking matter! Just check out our How to Add More Transparency to Your Church Finances in 2025 guide and you’ll see why. A robust accounting system helps churches track exactly where every donation is being used.
Similarly, an on-demand and fully customizable reporting system helps you pull data to show what’s working and what’s not for your church, as well as easily answer any queries you have to gain actionable insights.
One Church Software offers a robust Fund Accounting system that empowers churches to manage their finances with clarity and precision. Our accounting solution supports fund allocation, making it easier to track income and expenses across different categories, which helps ensure accountability and transparency in your church’s financial operations.
Meanwhile, our fast, powerful, and user-friendly reporting tools allow you to run ad-hoc reports and gain real-time insights on the data you need to succeed. You can even schedule recurring reports to be sent automatically to save you time.
Planning Center Online lacks an accounting solution, which means that churches who use this software often rely on third-party integrations or manual processes to track their finances. Thanks to Planning Center Online’s robust integration capabilities, churches can find ways to mix external financial tools with their ChMS—but this process does involve a few extra steps and considerations.
When it comes to reporting tools, this software’s options are more on the minimal side of the spectrum, which can make it more challenging to gain valuable insights into church operations.
Learn more about One Church Software’s online giving>>
5) Onboarding and Customer Support
If you’ve ever had an issue with a ChMS in the past, then you know just how important it is to get support as quickly as possible so you can resolve the problem—ideally in as little as 1-2 interactions.
One Church Software offers quick, reliable customer support and one-on-one Zoom training sessions to ensure your team is equipped to use the platform effectively. We also provide comprehensive data migration services as well as robust chat and phone support.
Planning Center Online offers support solely through the medium of email. They claim to offer customer support response times of approximately one business hour. Onboarding for this ChMS takes place via email and leaves the user to manage the setup on a largely independent basis.
6) Fully Branded App
In today’s day and age, it’s important to be at people’s fingertips with one tap. But app development is expensive, and it can be hard to strike a balance between cutting costs and having the power to customize an app that looks and feels like your church.
One Church Software gives your church the option to create a fully branded mobile app that showcases your church’s unique identity. Your app will stand out in the app store, helping you build a stronger connection with your community.
Planning Center Online provides a “container app” which means your church is listed among many others. For churches that don’t mind having a simpler, shared app experience rather than a fully customized one, this system provides a functional solution.
7) Multi-Campus Functionality
If your church operates across multiple campuses, there are a few unique features you’ll need in order to make sure your ChMS works seamlessly across all your locations.
One Church Software provides an organic structure for managing multiple campuses that allows you to easily organize and segment your database by each campus. This makes it simple to track and manage your church’s growth across different locations.
Planning Center Online offers a version of multi-campus functionality that only allows users to create categories for people, events, and rooms. However, these categories are isolated to their own modules and are not linked together for greater metrics and tracking across all campuses.
8) Advanced Settings for Administrators
Just because everyone on staff has access to your ChMS doesn’t mean they need to be able to see all of the data stored within it. With a good ChMS, you’ll be able to have control over who can see what and only give people access to what they need for their role.
One Church Software offers an extensive range of permissions and access controls for administrators, ensuring that only the right people have the right level of access to sensitive information. Whether you’re managing a large team or need specific roles to have restricted access, the advanced settings give you complete control over who can see, edit, and manage your church’s data. This level of customization helps maintain security and ensures smooth operations.
Planning Center Online offers limited granularity in permissions, which has the potential to hinder efficiency and privacy control for churches that require more precise oversight across user access and securities.
Choosing the ChMS that will work best for your church is essential for long-term success. We hope this breakdown has given you more clarity if you’ve been considering the unique strengths offered by Planning Center Online and One Church Software.
When it comes to pricing, some church leaders are drawn to Planning Center’s modular structure, which lets customers pay only for the software tools they intend to use.
On the other hand—as our name embodies—our approach here at One Church Software centers around providing a fully integrated, all-in-one suite of tools.
While the à la carte pricing options provided by Planning Center Online offer users a great deal of flexibility, this structure requires you to use multiple web apps for different church management tasks—which can feel confusing and disconnected. With us, all your church’s data and functionality live under one roof, allowing for a more cohesive and streamlined experience.
Our team is committed to helping you make sure One Church Software is the best option for your church. Whether it’s testing our software completely free for 30 days or talking to one of our friendly team members one-on-one, we are here to help you make a decision you feel 100% confident about.
One Church Software is an award-winning, cloud-based ChMS focused on providing superior customer service and an all-in-one software solution. Try out our 30-Day Free Trial, no credit card required.
