the honest comparison
SignUpChurch vs. Planning Center Registrations
If your church runs on Planning Center, Registrations is already there, and it's great at what it was built for. This page is about the sign-ups it wasn't built for, and how SignUpChurch fills that gap without leaving Planning Center behind.
| Feature | SignUpChurch | Planning Center Registrations |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Sign-up sheets: serve shifts, potlucks, meal trains, RSVPs, carpools | Event registration: classes, camps, retreats, paid events |
| People have to log in to sign up | Never, even when you ask for a phone number | Optional per signup, but turned on automatically whenever a signup collects personal info (like a phone number or address) or a payment |
| Lands in Planning Center People | On Pro ($24/mo): matched by email or created new, and existing records are never overwritten | Automatically — it's the same database |
| Pick a shift from a list of time slots | Dated slots, each with its own spot count; volunteers can take more than one | Selection types with capacities; picking several dates needs split registrations, which only work on Simple Count signups |
| Potluck dishes & meal trains | Built in: public notes show who's bringing what | No dedicated meal-train or bring-an-item sign-up |
| Embed on your church website | Iframe & popup embeds on every plan | Link only — signups can't be embedded |
| Waitlist | Automatic on every plan: the next person in line is offered an opened spot by email | Available; admins move people off it by hand |
| Register a whole household at once | One sign-up per person ("How many?" can hold extra spots) | Yes, household members in one registration |
| Collect payments | Not offered | Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay & ACH (2.15% + $0.30 per card transaction) |
| Pricing | Free (3 active sheets, unlimited sign-ups) · $12/mo · $24/mo, flat | Free up to 5 attendees, then $15–$239/mo, priced by your biggest upcoming signup |
| Works without a Planning Center account | Yes — any church, any ChMS or none | No — it runs inside Planning Center |
Planning Center Registrations details and pricing from planningcenter.com and Planning Center's help center as of October 2026. Names and marks belong to their respective owners.
better together
Why Planning Center churches add SignUpChurch
No login wall on the casual asks
Registrations asks people to log in to Church Center whenever a signup collects a phone number, an address, or a payment. For a potluck or a parking-lot shift, that's often where people give up. SignUpChurch never asks volunteers to log in.
The sign-ups Registrations wasn't built for
Meal trains, dish lists, carpools, and a month of greeter shifts don't fit neatly into event registration. They're exactly what SignUpChurch sheets are for.
Still lands in Planning Center
On Pro, every sign-up is matched to the right person in People by email, or created fresh. Link a sheet to a Services team and volunteers are scheduled onto the matching plan as Unconfirmed.
real talk —
When Registrations is the better pick
We’d rather you pick the right tool than pick us. Keep using Registrations for anything that takes a payment (camp, a retreat, a conference), for events where one parent registers the whole family, and for anything you want in People with no extra plan. SignUpChurch doesn’t process payments, and it isn’t trying to replace Planning Center. It’s for the sign-ups that end up in a group text or a Google Sheet because Registrations felt like too much.
Questions churches ask
Is Planning Center Registrations free?
Only for small signups. Planning Center prices Registrations by the number of attendees in your biggest upcoming signup: free up to 5 attendees, then $15–$239/mo, plus 2.15% + $0.30 per card payment (per Planning Center's pricing as of October 2026). SignUpChurch's Free plan has no attendee limit: 3 active sheets with unlimited sign-ups.
Do people have to log in to Church Center to register?
It depends on the signup. Each Registrations signup has a "Require login" setting, and Planning Center turns it on automatically whenever the signup collects personal information (like a phone number or address) or a payment. Logged-in registrants verify with a six-digit code sent by text or email. On SignUpChurch, volunteers never log in, even when the form asks for a phone number.
Can I use SignUpChurch and Planning Center together?
Yes, and that's how most Planning Center churches would use it: Registrations for official, paid, or household events, and SignUpChurch for the sign-ups that don't fit. On Pro ($24/mo), every SignUpChurch sign-up is matched to a person in Planning Center People by email or created new, and sheets linked to a Services team schedule volunteers onto the matching plan as Unconfirmed.
How is this different from Planning Center Services signup sheets?
Services signup sheets are for people already on your teams: only team members assigned to a needed position can see them. A SignUpChurch sheet is a public link anyone can use, so it works for recruiting new volunteers and for events that aren't on a Services plan.
Can I embed a sign-up on our church website?
SignUpChurch sheets embed on your site (iframe or popup) on every plan. Planning Center lists Registrations signups as link-only, so you'd link to Church Center instead.
Try it with your next potluck
Your first sheet is free — no credit card, no ads, live before the benediction. Paid plans start at $12/mo.
Create your first sheet — free