Planning Center alternative for South African churches
Planning Center is one of the best-known church management platforms in the world. Some of its products aren't offered to South African churches. Here is how it compares with GraceHub, using what each publishes about itself.
Why churches choose GraceHub
- Online giving in Rand, available in South Africa
- SMS that reaches South African numbers
- Main database in Johannesburg
- Section 18A certificates and IT3(d) export
- One workspace, not a separate product per ministry
What Planning Center offers
Planning Center is made by Ministry Centered Technologies, Inc., founded in 2006 and based in Carlsbad, California. It is privately held, and in 2024 it set up a foundation so that the company can't be sold.
It is a family of products: People, Groups, Calendar, Registrations, Check-Ins, Services for worship planning and volunteer scheduling, Giving, Publishing, and Church Center, a free member app shared by its churches.
Each product is priced separately in US dollars. People is free, every product has a free tier, and paid tiers run from $15 to $239 a month per product.
GraceHub and Planning Center compared
What each product offers, from Planning Center's own website and GraceHub's. Checked 2 October 2026.
| Area | Planning Center | GraceHub |
|---|---|---|
| Online giving | Available only to churches in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, through Planning Center Payments, which runs on Stripe. | Members give in Rand through your church's own Paystack account, or Stripe or PayPal, so money settles straight into your account. |
| Text messages | Built-in texting is US only. | SMS through your church's own Twilio account, which sends to South African numbers. |
| Where data is stored | AWS data centres in Virginia, USA. | GraceHub's main database runs in Google Cloud's Johannesburg region (africa-south1). |
| POPIA | Not mentioned when we checked; it publishes a GDPR page. | POPIA settings in every workspace: your Information Officer, your privacy notice and versioned consent at sign-up, with role-based access and an audit log. |
| Pricing | Each product priced separately in US dollars, from free tiers to $239 a month per product. | Billed monthly in Rand, with no contract: cancel any time. Plans are sized to your church; talk to us for a quote. |
| South African tax | Giving is built for US 501(c)(3)-style donations and is not a general ledger. | SARS Section 18A certificates that donors download themselves, and an IT3(d) export for your SARS return. |
| Children's check-in | Check-Ins for children and volunteers, with name tags and parent security labels. | Rotating QR codes at the door, printed name tags with allergy and consent marks, authorised and barred collectors, and lockdown and missing-child alerts. |
| Member app | Church Center, a free member app shared by its churches. | A member app for iOS and Android is in development. Today members use GraceHub in the browser on any phone. |
Where Planning Center is strong
Planning Center may be the better fit for some churches. These are the strengths it highlights.
- People, its member database, is free, with free tiers on every product
- Services is a widely used tool for worship planning and volunteer scheduling
- SOC 2 Type 2 certification
- Support that typically replies within about an hour on weekdays
- Independent, with no investors or debt
Moving from Planning Center to GraceHub
- Export: Planning Center's help centre explains how to export your People database to CSV.
- Import: Upload the file to GraceHub, map the columns, and review the preview and duplicate checks before anything is created.
- Set up roles: Give each ministry the access its work needs, and rename terms to match your church.
- Go live: Move one ministry at a time, or everything at once with our team alongside you.
Planning Center or GraceHub: common questions
Can South African churches use Planning Center Giving?
Planning Center says Giving is available only to churches in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. GraceHub's giving runs through your church's own Paystack account in Rand, or Stripe or PayPal.
Is Planning Center free?
People is free and each product has a free tier. Paid tiers are priced per product in US dollars, so the total depends on how many products you use.
How do we move from Planning Center to GraceHub?
Export your People database to CSV, import it into GraceHub with column mapping and duplicate checks, and our team will help you plan the rest of the move.
Keep comparing
- Online giving: Rand giving into your own account, with Section 18A certificates.
- Member management: People, households, journeys and campuses.
- POPIA for churches: What POPIA asks of a church, with a checklist.
- All comparisons: See how GraceHub compares with other church software.
Try GraceHub before you decide.
Start a workspace, import a sample of your Planning Center data, and see how your team finds it. We'll help you plan the move.
Start your church's workspace or talk to our team.
Information about other products is from their own websites, checked 2 October 2026: Pricing, About, Security, GDPR, Giving overview, FAQ.
Planning Center is a trademark of its owner. GraceHub is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Planning Center. This comparison is based on publicly available information and may not reflect changes made after the date above.