church tech

ChurchTrac vs Planning Center: free vs paid

By Michael Tribett · July 3, 2026 · 7 min read

A church plant with no budget and a church running a five-piece worship band every Sunday do not need the same software. ChurchTrac and Planning Center were built for those two different churches, and the honest comparison starts there, not with a feature checklist.

Key takeaways

ChurchTrac offers a genuinely free tier for churches up to about 75 people, with paid plans starting around $9 a month, and includes fund accounting, a website builder, and a mobile app as standard.

Planning Center's People database is also free at any size, but the full stack most mid-size churches run, People, Services, Giving, and Check-Ins, commonly runs $150 to $300 a month.

ChurchTrac is the strongest budget all-in-one for churches under roughly 2,000 members that want one system covering membership, giving, and basic accounting without stacking modules.

Planning Center wins decisively on worship-team scheduling and integration ecosystem, both areas where ChurchTrac is functional but not built to compete.

Neither system shows relational health. FlockConnect adds that layer on top of either one, connecting to ChurchTrac by CSV import and to Planning Center with a native two-way sync.

Quick answer: ChurchTrac or Planning Center?

ChurchTrac is the stronger choice for a small church, a new church plant, or any congregation under roughly 2,000 members that wants one affordable, all-in-one system covering membership, giving, fund accounting, a website, and a mobile app without paying for separate modules. Planning Center is the stronger choice for a worship-driven or growing church that wants best-in-class service planning, a large integration ecosystem, and the flexibility to pay only for the modules it actually uses. The honest tiebreaker is what a church's top priority actually is: total cost of ownership at a small size, or worship-planning depth and ecosystem breadth as it grows.

What ChurchTrac actually is

ChurchTrac has been in the church-software market for more than two decades, longer than most of its budget-tier competitors, which gives it a maturity that newer low-cost entrants have not had time to build. It bundles membership management, giving, event planning, fund accounting, a church website builder, and a mobile app into a single subscription, positioning itself as a true all-in-one rather than a suite of separate add-ons.

Pricing model. A free tier covers churches up to about 75 people. Paid plans scale with database size and start at a low monthly cost, commonly cited around $9 a month for small churches, rising as the database grows. Confirm current tier pricing directly with ChurchTrac.

Best for. Small churches, new church plants, and congregations up to roughly 2,000 members that want one predictable bill covering membership, giving, and basic accounting without assembling a stack of separate tools.

What Planning Center actually is

Planning Center's modular structure was covered in depth in the ultimate church management software comparison: a suite of separate products, People, Services, Giving, Check-Ins, Groups, and Calendar, each turned on as a church needs it.

Pricing model. Per product, starting at $0 for People. A mid-size church running the full common stack typically lands between $150 and $300 a month. Confirm current per-product pricing with Planning Center directly.

Best for. Churches with an active worship team, growing or multi-staff churches that want modular control over cost, and any church that wants to pay for exactly the modules it uses.

Where ChurchTrac genuinely wins

Price is the obvious answer, but it is not the only one. ChurchTrac's fund accounting is a real strength: churches running multiple designated funds, memorial gifts, or basic budget tracking get accounting features baked into the core product rather than bolted on or requiring a separate tool like QuickBooks. Its website builder and mobile app are included standard, which for a small church replaces two additional subscriptions many competitors would require separately. For a church watching every line item, that bundling is the whole value proposition, not a minor convenience.

Where Planning Center genuinely wins

Worship-team scheduling is the clearest gap. Planning Center Services remains the category leader for building rotations, managing setlists, and coordinating rehearsal logistics for a band or choir, a depth ChurchTrac's scheduling tools were not built to match. Integration ecosystem is the second clear gap: Planning Center exposes documented APIs and webhooks that a wide range of other church software, FlockConnect included, connects to natively, while ChurchTrac's broader integration list is thinner, generally covering accounting tools like QuickBooks and basic connections to Planning Center and Mailchimp rather than a wide third-party ecosystem.

The honest tipping point

Below roughly 2,000 members, and especially for a church plant or a congregation with no dedicated worship band, ChurchTrac's bundled pricing and included fund accounting usually deliver more value per dollar than assembling an equivalent Planning Center stack. Above that size, or for any church where worship-team scheduling depth genuinely matters, Planning Center's modular structure and stronger Services product tend to justify the higher cost. A church should also weigh the integration question directly: a church that plans to connect several other specialized tools over time will find Planning Center's ecosystem the safer long-term bet.

Where FlockConnect fits with either

Neither ChurchTrac nor Planning Center was built to show whether the people they track are actually connected to each other, which is the specific gap FlockConnect, a Church Relationship Manager, exists to close. It does not compete with either system and does not run giving, membership records, or scheduling of its own.

For a church on ChurchTrac, FlockConnect connects the same way it does for any system other than Planning Center: CSV import. A church exports its people from ChurchTrac and brings that file into FlockConnect to add a per-person connection and isolation view, a pastoral interaction log, and care-partner distribution on top of the records ChurchTrac already holds. Planning Center remains FlockConnect's one native, two-way integration, covered in getting the most from Planning Center for pastoral care.

About the author

Michael Tribett is the founder of FlockConnect, a Church Relationship Manager built to help pastors see who is connected and who is drifting. He holds a Master of Divinity in Christian Ministry from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he focused on missions and discipleship, and he serves as a small group leader at his church in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. FlockConnect is an official Planning Center partner.

Frequently asked questions

Is ChurchTrac free? ChurchTrac offers a genuinely free tier for churches up to about 75 people. Paid plans start at a low monthly cost, commonly cited around $9 a month, and scale with database size. Confirm current pricing with ChurchTrac directly.

Is ChurchTrac good enough to replace Planning Center for a growing church? For churches under roughly 2,000 members without a complex worship-team scheduling need, ChurchTrac is a credible all-in-one replacement. Churches with an active worship band or a need for a broad third-party integration ecosystem generally outgrow it and find Planning Center's depth worth the higher cost.

What is the biggest difference between ChurchTrac and Planning Center? Bundling versus modularity. ChurchTrac bundles membership, giving, fund accounting, a website, and a mobile app into one flat-priced subscription. Planning Center is a modular suite priced per product, with the strongest worship-planning tools in the category and a much larger integration ecosystem.

Does ChurchTrac include fund accounting? Yes, fund accounting is a core, built-in feature of ChurchTrac, which distinguishes it from many budget competitors that require a separate accounting tool like QuickBooks.

Can FlockConnect connect to ChurchTrac? Yes, through CSV import, the same path FlockConnect uses for every church management system other than Planning Center. A church exports its people from ChurchTrac and imports that file into FlockConnect to add the relational layer.

Which system has better volunteer or worship scheduling, ChurchTrac or Planning Center? Planning Center, specifically through its Services product, which is widely regarded as the category leader for worship-team scheduling. ChurchTrac's scheduling tools are functional for general volunteer coordination but were not built to match Services for a band or choir rotation.

Does a small church really need Planning Center's integration ecosystem? Usually not immediately. A small church with simple needs rarely feels the absence of a broad integration ecosystem. It becomes relevant once a church starts connecting specialized tools, such as a relational layer like FlockConnect, background-check services, or advanced communication platforms, where Planning Center's documented APIs make those connections easier to build and maintain.