Planning Center Alternative
Membership, online giving with no platform fees, groups, events, sermons, and communications — in one app instead of a stack of paid modules. Free forever for churches under 100 members.
Short answer: SoapBox is a free, all-in-one Planning Center alternative for small and growing churches. It combines member management, online giving with no platform fees, groups, events, sermons, and communications in one app — plus built-in AI for discipleship and sermon content that Planning Center doesn't offer natively. It's free forever for churches under 100 members, with paid plans at $50/mo (up to 250 members) and $100/mo (up to 500).
Comparison updated July 2026.
Pricing
Planning Center prices each product separately and scales with the number of people in your database. SoapBox is one flat, mostly-free plan.
| SoapBox | Planning Center | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free forever (under 100 members) | Free tier is limited; paid plans scale by people & product |
| Pricing model | One all-in-one plan | Priced per product / module |
| Cost as you grow | $50/mo (250) · $100/mo (500) | Rises with database size across each module |
| Online giving fees | No platform fee (Stripe processing only) | Per-transaction fee on the Giving product |
| Built-in AI | Included (discipleship, sermon clips) | Not offered natively |
| Regional discounts | Up to 80% off in many countries | Standard pricing |
Planning Center's pricing structure is summarized here as of July 2026 and may change — confirm current pricing on planningcenter.com. SoapBox giving incurs only standard Stripe processing fees; SoapBox takes no cut of donations.
Features
Planning Center is a suite of separate products. SoapBox brings the same jobs into one dashboard — with AI built in.
| Feature | SoapBox | Planning Center |
|---|---|---|
| Member CRM & directory | ✓ Included | ✓ (People module) |
| Online giving & tithing | ✓ No platform fee | ✓ (Giving, transaction fee) |
| Groups & events | ✓ Included | ✓ (separate modules) |
| Church app for members | ✓ iOS, Android & web | Member-facing app (Church Center) |
| Sermon library & sharing | ✓ Included | Limited |
| Communications (push, messaging) | ✓ Included | ✓ (add-on) |
| Built-in Discipleship AI | ✓ Grounded in your teaching | — |
| AI Sermon Clip Generator | ✓ Shepherd plan+ | — |
| Auto social sharing (Amplify) | ✓ Included | — |
| 140+ languages | ✓ Included | Limited |
| Free tier for small churches | ✓ Under 100 members, full features | Limited free tier |
Feature availability reflects SoapBox plans and publicly documented Planning Center products as of July 2026.
The AI difference
SoapBox ships built-in AI: a Discipleship AI grounded in your own sermons and teaching, an AI Sermon Clip Generator that turns Sunday into a week of shareable clips, Pastor Voice Cloning, and Amplify for automatic social sharing in 140+ languages. Most legacy platforms, Planning Center included, don't offer this natively. See AI for churches →
Switching is easy
Most churches switch in a single day. Here's the path.
Export your People (members) and Giving history from Planning Center as CSV files. Everything you need comes out in a few clicks.
Upload your member and giving CSVs into SoapBox. Our team can help map fields so nothing gets lost in the move.
Link your Stripe account for online giving with no platform fees. Donations flow straight into your church's own account.
Send your congregation the SoapBox app link. Members get giving, groups, sermons, and community in one place — free.
Planning Center alternative — FAQ
SoapBox is a free, all-in-one Planning Center alternative for small and growing churches. It combines member management, online giving with no platform fees, groups, events, sermons, and communications in one app, and adds built-in AI tools. It is free forever for churches under 100 members.
Planning Center prices its products separately by module and scales cost with the number of people in your database, and its giving product adds a per-transaction fee. SoapBox is one free all-in-one app with no platform fees on giving and built-in AI for discipleship and sermon content that Planning Center does not offer natively.
No. SoapBox charges zero platform fees on donations. Giving is powered by Stripe and paid directly into your church's own account; only standard Stripe processing fees apply. SoapBox never takes a cut of your donations.
Yes. You can export your member and giving data from Planning Center as CSV files and import them into SoapBox, then set up giving and communications in under a day. SoapBox support can help with the migration.
Set up your church on SoapBox in under 10 minutes. No contract, no credit card, no per-module pricing.