Planning Center vs. Rock RMS

Planning Center is incredibly helpful if you are in the business of putting on events, performances, or productions. In such situations, Planning Center will help you coordinate with a large group of people, clearly showing who is expected to do what during the order of a service. If you are planning a major event (a wedding service, a major birthday party, a work event, or any kind of production), Planning Center will foster both teamwork and clarity. The only scenario I can envision Planning Center not being helpful would be a more laissez-faire type of event, (like a "come and go" reception).

Incentivized

Rock RMS is a great CMS for churches passionate about technology and innovation. It requires advanced developing skills to operate, which can be a challenge - but there are several partners available for contracting work. Successful usage of Rock RMS opens up the door for endless possibilities - from dynamic and beautiful websites, automations that serve both internal (staff) and external (customer) needs, and unending possibilities for innovative solutions!

• Volunteer Management
• Scheduling
• File Hosting
• Communication tools
• Automated reminders

Incentivized

• Very customizable
• Content channels are powerful
• Web and mobile app integration

• Adding files to an item on a playlist can be hard to find outside of that set.
• Previewing songs on import gives very limited info - can be hard to find the correct one.

Incentivized

• Group Scheduler is missing some key features
• Event registrations aren't the most user friendly
• Security permissions are a challenge as we grow

Planning Center is very user friendly on both the front and back ends.

Incentivized

In my opinion, you will need to have developers on your team, or partner with contractors in order to get Rock RMS set up properly and keep in maintained. I think you will also need to have Rock RMS Super Users who can troubleshoot bugs and handle basic requests from internal staff. There are also several functions that every day staff use which are very user friendly (i.e. Group Viewer, content channels, Group Scheduler, communication templates.)

I've not needed to use Planning Center support. In the few instances that I would have thought would "require support," tips and notices popped up on screen letting me know what was happening. There are very VERY few issues that I've found with Planning Center. The interface has been intuitive and powerful, so I've not needed to use their support service.

Incentivized

At one point, I was presented with both Asana and Trello as helpful tools to facilitate teamwork and collaboration amongst a large group of people. However, when it comes to putting on productions/services/events, Planning Center just seemed to have everything we need. I have never really once given thought to moving on from Planning Center. I'm sure Asana and Trello have much to offer, and I did briefly consider the, but Planning Center (for what we needed) was a grand-slam, home run.

Incentivized

In my experience, Rock RMS is much more customizable, robust, and community focused than PCO. Planning Center's sweet spot is music management and volunteer scheduling, but I think Rock RMS outshines PCO with its integration of web sites and mobile apps, automations and jobs, workflows, and its focus on community. There are tons of free and paid plugins for Rock RMS, as well as multiple Rock RMS partners to choose from.

• Planning Center Services has become an irreplaceable part of our Sunday gathering preparation
• Planning Center Music Stand is an invaluable tool for rehearsal and performance of songs each week
• Planning Center Giving helped us establish easy ways for folks to give online during COVID and beyond
• Planning Center Registrations helped us navigate attendance issues during COVID, and has always been our go-to for gathering information for Events

Incentivized

• Fosters amazing data insights!
• Fast and efficient!
• New innovative solutions always being added!