Honest side-by-side

TrueConnect+ vs.
Planning Center & SubSplash.

The economic case. The feature comparison. And the honest trade-offs — including where we deliberately don't compete. Every claim below is grounded in shipped functionality and publicly-available competitor information.

Payments byStripe
0.8%ACH · capped at $5
PWANo App Store required
NativeQBO & PCO sync

The math

The cost of the stack you're currently running.

Most growing churches we talk to are paying between $700 and $1,500 a month across six to eight different platforms. Here's what that stack looks like — and what TrueConnect+ replaces it with.

The typical multi-tool stack

Six to eight subscriptions

TrueConnect+

Everything on the left. Included.

Service planning + people + giving + check-ins + groups + calendar
Bundled modules at typical mid-size church
$200–$600/mo
Service Planning + Directory + Donations + Childcare System + Ministries + Events
All six workspaces, all real-time, all reading from the same source of truth
Included
Custom-branded mobile app subscription
Native App Store / Play Store app
$300–$500/mo
PWA + push notifications + instant updates
Members add to home screen from any browser. No App Store review delay.
Included
Livestreaming platform
Standalone broadcast service
$79–$249/mo
Livestreaming & Media (broadcast-grade)
Plus sermon library, hot→cold archive, podcasts, and embed widgets
Included
Email marketing service
Newsletter broadcasts + automations
$50–$200/mo
Email Studio + QR Codes
Visual builder, smart segments, workflow engine, trackable QR codes
Included
Workflow automation
Glue between disconnected tools
$30–$100/mo
Tasks, Workflows & Messaging (built-in)
Workflows fire natively across the platform — no glue tool needed
Included
Website builder
To host the giving widget and livestream embed
$20–$100/mo
Public Profile + Embeddable Widgets
Drop into your existing site, or use the public profile as your front door
Included
Typical total$679–$1,749/mo
TrueConnect+ total$379/mo, flat

Plus — also included in $379

Workspaces the typical stack doesn't even offer.

Unlimited staff & ministry-leader seats
Invite every elder, every small-group leader, every ministry director. The price never changes.
Plain-English AI Data Tool
Ask your church data anything — "which members gave consistently last year but dropped off this year?" — get the answer in seconds.
Twelve RBAC roles + per-seat grants + audit log
A real church-staff role catalog. Ministry-scoped permissions. Per-seat grants for one-off needs.
Multi-campus support, included
Campus-scoped data, campus-scoped staff, roll-up dashboards. Not a tier upgrade.
ACH gifts at 0.8% capped at $5
A $5,000 major-donor gift costs $5 in fees instead of $150. Over a year, that adds up.
Hybrid event ticketing in one record
In-person + virtual stream access + bundles. Capacity caps. Per-ticket registration forms.
Background-check tracking for kids volunteers
Expired or missing checks block scheduling. Compliance is built into the assignment flow, not bolted on.
Cross-organization Discover directory
Members follow you alongside every other church they care about — in the same app, with one profile.
The savings

Most churches save $300 to $1,300 every month.

That's real budget freed up. For missions, for staff, for the building fund, for the thing your ministry actually needs more of — not for a tax on running six subscriptions.

Over three years
$10K–$45K
saved on software

Pricing ranges sourced from publicly-available competitor pricing pages and industry-standard mid-size-church configurations. Your actual stack cost may vary. The TrueConnect+ price is fixed at $379/month flat regardless of church size.

Feature by feature

The full comparison.

Green check = full support. Amber dash = partial or add-on. Gray X = not available. Notes clarify when there's context that matters.

CapabilityTrueConnect+Planning CenterSubSplash
Bundle & pricing
All workspaces included for one flat price
No tiers, no module fees, no add-ons. Just one number.
$379/mo
Per-module
Tier-based
Unlimited staff seats
Every elder, every ministry leader, every small-group leader — invite them all. Price never changes.
Tier limits
Tier limits
Free for individual members forever
Members never pay to use the app, the directory, or the giving features.
Service planning & Sunday execution
Service planning + songs + order of service
Service types, recurring dates, song library with CCLI, run-of-show.
Flagship
Worship planning depth (CCLI, keys, parts)
Per-service key/tempo overrides, attention feed, assignments by part.
Most depth
Sermon prep workspace
Manuscript + outline side by side, scripture deep-links, status pipeline.
Production cue list + asset library
Audio, video, lighting, slide cues — role-assigned, tablet-ready.
Volunteer scheduling + assignments matrix
Availability, conflicts, served-recently flags, swap suggester.
Most depth
Engagement & communications
Broadcast-grade livestreaming included
Browser camera or RTMP. In-stream chat, giving, prayer requests. Auto-archived to VOD.
3rd party
Separate tier
Hot→cold sermon archive lifecycle
Three months hot, then deep archive at a fraction of the cost. Demand-driven promotion.
Sermon series + podcast distribution
Group sermons into series, push to RSS for podcast distribution.
Add-on tier
Events with hybrid ticketing
One event record, three ticket types — in-person + virtual + bundle.
Email Studio (visual builder + broadcasts + workflows)
Replaces a third-party email service for member communications.
List emails
Workflow automation engine
Trigger-action automations (form submitted → task assigned, milestone reached → email sent).
Trackable QR codes
Every printed surface becomes a measurable workflow trigger.
Children's ministry & people
Family check-in (parents from phone)
Parents check kids in remotely. Staff dashboard live. Parent SMS at pickup.
Authorized-pickup verification
Per-child pickup codes + photo verification + custody-flag enforcement + audit log.
Background-check tracking for kids volunteers
Expired or missing checks block scheduling.
People CRM + households + lifecycle stages
Member-facing self-update directory + staff CRM with pastoral notes.
Giving & finance
Donations on Stripe Connect (per-org account)
Funds land in your bank, not platform escrow. Standard Stripe rates pass through with no markup.
Their gateway
ACH at 0.8% capped at $5
A $5,000 major-donor gift costs $5 in fees instead of ~$150.
Year-end giving statements auto-generated
IRS-substantiation formatted, delivered in early January without a CSV scramble.
Pledge campaigns + fund accounting
Unlimited funds, capital-campaign pledges with installment tracking.
Outreach
Embeddable widgets for your existing website
Giving, livestream, sermon library, events — one-line embed, origin allowlist.
Compliant raffle infrastructure
State-required disclosures, verifiable random draw, full compliance audit log.
Multi-campus & governance
Multi-campus support
Campus-scoped data, campus-scoped staff, roll-up dashboards.
Twelve RBAC roles + per-seat permission grants
Real church-staff role catalog. Audit log on every change.
Full audit log of every staff action
Analytics & AI
Plain-English AI queries against your church data
Ask "which members gave consistently last year but dropped off this year?" — get the answer in seconds.
Unique
Visual report builder + scheduled reports
Build a report once, schedule it to deliver to your inbox.
Differentiators
Cross-organization Discover directory
Members can follow your church alongside the others they care about, in one app.
Unique
PWA (no App Store install required)
Members install from browser. Updates ship instantly — no review delay.
Church Center
Native app
White-labeled custom App Store app
Where SubSplash leads. We deliberately chose a different path.
By design
Their focus

We won't lie to win a sale.

We re-verify these cells against publicly-available competitor pricing and feature pages regularly. If you find anything misrepresented, email us — we'll fix it the same day. Compare directly at planningcenter.com/pricing and subsplash.com before you sign anywhere.

Honest takes

Three honest cases.

The wins we'll defend, the place we deliberately don't compete, and the place a competitor still has a real edge.

Where we win

Flat pricing, unlimited seats, AI included.

$379 covers everything. Every staff seat, every ministry leader, every elder — invite them all without the platform punishing you for delegating. And the plain-English AI Data Tool that lets the executive admin ask the data a real question and get a real answer is genuinely something neither competitor offers.

Where we don't compete

A white-labeled custom App Store app.

SubSplash sells your-church-only-as-a-native-app. We deliberately don't. We think the better answer is one TrueConnect+ app your members already have for the other churches in their life. If a custom App Store app is non-negotiable for your senior leadership, SubSplash is your platform — we'll be the first to tell you.

Where they still edge us

Volunteer scheduling at the very largest scale.

Planning Center Services has 15+ years of accumulated rotation logic, conflict detection, and chord-chart polish. We have every table stake plus assignments-by-part, but PCO Services has more depth at very large scale. For a 5,000+ person church with five worship teams across three campuses every Sunday, that depth matters. For most churches, our scheduling is already plenty.

Switching is easier than you think

You don't have to cut over on day one.

Most churches we onboard run TrueConnect+ alongside their existing stack for 60-90 days during the transition. No forced cut date. No data hostage situation. Bring what you're ready to bring, when you're ready.

1

Import your people

CSV import with field mapping. Households, lifecycle stages, ministry assignments. Dry-run preview before commit.

2

Wire up Stripe Connect

Your bank account, your standard Stripe rates. Funds settle directly to you — never to a platform escrow.

3

Soft-launch with one team

Pick the team that benefits most — usually worship + production, or kids ministry. Get them comfortable. Expand outward.

4

Members install nothing

TrueConnect+ is a PWA. Members visit your link, add to home screen if they want. No App Store. No install delay.

Migration questions

What it actually looks like to switch.

Honest answers. No concierge promises we can't keep.

Yes. Most churches run TrueConnect+ alongside their current stack for 60-90 days during the transition. You can import people via CSV at any time and decide what to move over on your own pace. We don't force a hard cutover date and we don't lock you in with multi-year contracts. Try us on the parts that matter most first — usually livestream or giving — and expand as your team gets comfortable.

Stop comparing. Start running.

Start an organization account today. Bring your people over via CSV when you're ready, run alongside your current stack for as long as the transition takes, and stop paying the six-platform tax.

No credit card to start. Cancel anytime. We honor refund requests per our refund policy.