Run both side by side
An optional, read-only Planning Center People synchronization links Planning Center person records to existing Church4Christ people.
Planning Center alternative
An open-source Planning Center alternative you host yourself.
Many churches looking for a free or self-hosted alternative to Planning Center, Breeze, Church Community Builder, or similar hosted church software want two things: control over their own data, and a website that shares the same records.
What Church4Christ covers
| Common need | In Church4Christ |
|---|---|
| People and households directory | People & households with CSV import, saved source-column mappings, and export |
| Small groups | Groups with a public directory, join requests, events, and attendance |
| Volunteer scheduling | A monthly matrix with email confirmation, no login needed |
| Service planning | Run sheets, rehearsals, availability, and calendars for services and events |
| Children's check-in | Kiosk check-in with pickup codes and attendance charts |
| Attendance and engagement | Service attendance and explainable activity scores |
| Newcomer and care follow-up | Newcomer queue, prayer wall, and community workflows |
| Church website and CMS | Public site, themes, sermons, bulletins, and page builder |
| Member self-service | Member portal for household, groups, and prayer, on D1 or Supabase |
| Online giving | Stripe giving with an offline ledger and annual statements (Supabase backend) |
| Multiple campuses | Multi-campus with campus-isolated data and roles |
What it does not replace yet
- No native mobile app. Pages work in a phone browser, including check-in and scheduling at 375px wide.
- No SMS messaging. Notifications go out by email.
- No worship song library or song planning. Service Planning covers run sheets and rehearsals.
- Planning Center synchronization is read-only and covers People only.
- It is a foundation your team runs and maintains, not a hosted service with vendor support.
Planning Center and other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Church4Christ is an independent project and is not affiliated with them.
Moving from Planning Center gradually
People review, not guesswork
Ambiguous matches go to human review. People are never merged by name alone or by an unverified contact.
Bring your list with CSV
People and households come across with the CSV importer and its reusable column mappings.
Is it a good fit?
A good fit when
- You are a small or mid-size church, fellowship, or nonprofit
- You worship in more than one language, or want a multilingual site
- Someone technical, on staff or as a volunteer or partner, can own deployment
- You want your data and code under your own control
A managed platform may suit you better when
- You prefer vendor-operated setup, support, and upgrades
- You rely on a native mobile app or SMS
- You need worship song planning today
- No one can own backups, updates, and security
Common questions
Is Church4Christ affiliated with Planning Center?
No. Church4Christ is an independent open-source project. Planning Center is a trademark of its owner.
Does the Planning Center sync write back?
No. It is read-only and covers People. It exists so you can run both systems during a transition.
What does it cost compared to a subscription?
The software is free. You pay Cloudflare (and Supabase, if used) for infrastructure, plus email if you send production email. See the cost page for current numbers.
See it with your own eyes.
Open the demo church in your browser, then read the setup guide when you are ready.