ChurchLinker vs Planning Center
An American suite of products (People, Services, Giving, Groups, Calendar, Check-Ins) that many churches assemble piece-by-piece. Here's how the two compare for a UK church today, written by the team behind ChurchLinker. We've kept it honest about where Planning Center is the better fit.
What Planning Center does well
Planning Center's Services product is genuinely best-in-class for music teams and worship planning. The product family is deep and well-known in US churches; their iOS / Android apps are well-built.
Where ChurchLinker is different
- UK-first by default: Gift Aid + GASDS native, GBP, DD/MM dates, UK timezone, UK-hosted data, UK GDPR architecture rather than retrofit.
- UK statutory compliance built-in: DBS lifecycle (30/14/7-day expiry reminders, coordinator inbox, renewal-in-flight pause, umbrella-body portal link, anti-phishing agency card on every member's profile), and a first-class Charity Commission members register with bulk-tick, snapshot reports and AGM-ready PDF.
- One product, one bill. Not five products you have to add separately and integrate yourself.
- WhatsApp messaging integrated, not just SMS / email.
Feature comparison
| Feature | ChurchLinker | Planning Center |
|---|---|---|
| Gift Aid (UK) | Native; HMRC-ready | Add-on / manual |
| Platform fee on giving | 0% | Per-transaction fee on top of processor fee |
| WhatsApp messaging | Built in (Thrive+) | Not native |
| Pricing structure | One bill, flat plans | Per-product pricing, can stack quickly |
| Worship / music team planning | Service plan timeline (drag-drop running order) | PCO Services, best-in-class |
| Music library + chord charts integration | Resource hub for embedded media | Deep music library |
| Sermon AI (summary, Q&A, video clips) | Built in (Grow plan and above) | Not native |
| Public REST API + signed webhooks | Single REST API across people, events, donations, groups, sermons. £19/mo add-on on any paid plan, included on Kingdom | Mature multi-product APIs (People, Services, Giving each separate); generally higher-tier requirement |
| Native mobile app | One app, every plan | Multiple apps per product |
| Free plan | Yes, up to 50 contacts | Limited free tier per product |
| UK data hosting | Yes | US-hosted (with EU subprocessors) |
| Established US church base | UK-focused | Very large US install base |
Best-effort summary. Planning Center updates its product regularly. If anything here is out of date please email hello@churchlinker.com and we'll fix it.
When Planning Center is the right choice
If you're a US church, or a UK church whose worship team is heavily invested in PCO Services for music libraries and chord charts, the integration depth is hard to match.
Try ChurchLinker free for your church
Free up to 50 contacts forever. Migrate from Planning Center via our CSV importer with auto field-mapping. UK support.