Does your church use ChMS (Church Management Software)?
I would curious to know what percentage of churches use a ChMS solution. This is often overlooked or ignored by smaller churches, as it seems like something only a large or mega church would need.
But the truth of the matter is, a church of almost any size can benefit from using ChMS. The key in that statement would be “use.” Unused programs, apps, and tools never help if they’re never used and never reach their full potential if they’re not fully implemented.
If you’ve ever looked into ChMS, it can be a little overwhelming. There are many to choose from.
For those of you who are already using ChMS (Church Management Software), it would be wise to dig around it a little. You may find it terribly outdated and missing some key features that can be found elsewhere, or you may find there are new features that have been added that you didn’t know about.
No matter the case, there are only a handful of ChMS apps that I would recommend.
Here are the top ChMS solutions—in no particular order:
By the Book
Elexio
ACS Technologies
Church Community Builder
Shelby Systems
Elvanto
ACTIVE Network’s Fellowship One
IconCMO
Excellerate Church Software
I have looked through over 30 different ChMS apps and I have found these to be a great place to start to find the right ChMS solution that fits a church’s unique needs. However, in no way do I think this list is bullet proof. If you are using ChMS that you would recommend, by all means, let us know and we’ll take a look at it. If we’re impressed or find that it is to par with those listed above, we’ll be sure to add it to our list.
What ChMS does your church use?
Nate Cress says
You might consider Planning Center Online. Although they are known mostly for their worship planning software called Services, they have recently launched several other products and now consider themselves a ChMS. NOTE: PCO also integrates with many other popular ChMS software.
PCO and Elvanto are also very similar and worth comparing against each other.
Eric Dye says
Awesome! We’ll take a looksy.
Dave says
We use Breeze CHMS at our church and it’s great!
Eric Dye says
😀
Hannah says
Thanks for the shoutout, guys!! We love that we’re able to serve churches in this way, and can’t wait for the app to go live 🙂
<3 the Elvanto Team
Eric Dye says
:thumbsup:
LeAnn says
I’ve used both Planning Center and Elvanto, Elvanto wins hands down!
Eric Dye says
What makes the biggest difference, in your opinion?
isaac says
elvanto…amazing product…amazing people….always willing help and listen to the feed back of their users!!!!!
Eric Dye says
What could be better than any given app feature? Customer service. 🙂
Anita says
As a Small Groups Pastor, I couldn’t live without Churchteams!
Grant Heckman says
Back in 2011 you wrote about a new ChMS called Rock. I see it was not listed here. Would you not recommend Rock? Just curious.
Eric Dye says
While Rock has more of a learning curve then some, it is worth considering if you don’t mind. They have a wonderful, supportive community surrounding it. While I didn’t include it in the list, they are defeintly worth a look. 🙂
Val says
Has anyone used Planning Center in a large church — like 3-5000 — for a few years? I see they have Check In now. Seems like it is rather new in its additional phases. Mainly want to know if large churches used it and then found it was problematic before we look at a change! We are currently using ACST.