We found a new Realm of possibilities by moving over to this software.
February 28, 2020

We found a new Realm of possibilities by moving over to this software.

Eve Hathaway | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Realm

Realm is the membership database and financial tracking tool used at Maple Grove United Methodist Church. All office employees and many church members use Realm. Realm allows the staff users to run reports, keep track of tithing, business expenses, attendance, groups, contact information, and more. It also provides communication among individual users, among groups, and church-wide.

Pros

  • Tracking attendance
  • Running reports, both financial and membership-related
  • Nursery check-in

Cons

  • At the time of my departure from employment at Maple Grove UMC, there was no way to run a report with children's names listed on the same row (excel sheet) as parents. This made it difficult when we needed to do a merge letter that includes both parents/guardians and children.
  • The process to "roll up" grade levels each year was tedious.
  • This is not my area (finance), but efficiency increased when we moved from Church Windows to Realm.
  • Formatted reports are a huge plus--no need to create a merge document for handouts to be in a usable format.
Before switching to Realm, we used Church Windows. It was outdated and not intuitive. Customer service wasn't great, either--I felt that some of the reps "talked down" to us when we had questions. I hated it. Realm was a significant improvement--updated interface, intuitive, user-friendly. The customer service representatives are friendly, helpful, and able to resolve issues. Drilling down in reports is much easier in Realm because the interface is user-friendly and intuitive. The ability to share reports with coworkers is excellent, too.
Our transition to Realm was fantastic. We had a rep do two days of training with staff. She also provided us with a step-by-step plan for our rollout to the congregation. In addition to the fabulous customer service team, the "help" section of the Realm website is useful--it includes written answers and also video tutorials/webinars. The search function in the help section is built effectively.

Do you think Realm delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Realm's feature set?

Yes

Did Realm live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Realm go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Realm again?

Yes

Realm is a user-friendly, intuitive web-based database manager, great for church membership and financial information. Transitioning was easy--even our 90-year old attendance volunteer made the switch with ease. The customer service staff at Realm is fantastic. As I mentioned before, my one big complaint is the inability to pull a report with children outputted on the same row in excel as their parents.

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