You’ve taught yourself to play the piano and the saxophone, but you are dreading teaching yourself how to use a computer. Or maybe you came from a Mac or Unix background and you’re trying to get familiar with Windows. Software for Church Music Ministry is here to help. We have compiled a list of software that is affordable and easy-to-use so you can spend time on your music ministry instead of reading manuals.
This post is the first in a four-part series on software for church music ministry. Each post will discuss different tools and apps that can improve your job as a music director, worship leader, choir director, or musician in the worship team.
What to look for when choosing worship software
Script/Playlist/ Presentation Order Creation/Editing
Church services typically use a combination of songs, graphics, videos, and countdowns. Sequencing these items should be easy and fast. Ask yourself – how easy is it to reorder a service when the need arises?
Song Importing
How easy is it to import songs into the software? Songs tend to come from various sources (web, email, Word docs, other databases, etc.); how capable and flexible is the software?
Song Editing
Once the songs are in there, how easy is it to edit them? This includes changing words, changing the order, or creating custom verses and choruses.
Song Background Support
Unless you put white text over black backgrounds, the way the software handles background images and video is essential.
Audio & Video Handling
Video playback can include files and DVD; SD & HD; controls and format capabilities. Does it work on different operating systems like Linux, Windows, and Mac OS? Can I use it on mobile devices like Android tablets and iPads?
Speaker Support
We do a lot of sermons, bible verses, graphics, and text slideshows using Powerpoint. How do we do it, and how well does it work?
User Experience (For Training Volunteers)
The most powerful software in the world is useless unless people (in our case, volunteers) can use it. How quickly can non-professional volunteers pick it up and run with it?
Remote Editing
I like to create playlists during the week from my laptop. How easy is it to do this and then move the entire show to the presentation computer?
Price
How affordable is this for a young church plant, and larger churches?
3rd Party Integrations
How well does this play with other church management software? Does it work with other plugins and productivity tools?
Worship Software Functionality
Volunteer (band/worship team) scheduling – Who’s playing and serving, when.
Worship plans – Create unique plans for each service, including details on people, songs, and notes.
Order of service – What’s happening, in what order.
Rehearsal tools – Song library, transposing, and media player
Song & lyric projection – The song lyrics, on screen. Sequencing these items should be easy and fast. How easy is it to reorder a service should the need arise?
Video projection – Videos, and multimedia background graphics and other church presentation tools.
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Overviews of the 10 Best Church Worship Software
Here’s a brief description of each church worship software on my list, showing what it does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.
1. Planning Centre – Best rehearsal tool
Planning Center is a full suite of worship tools you can use to plan, organize, and execute worship services to keep your congregation engaged. It has a volunteer scheduling feature so you can schedule people according to their abilities and preferences. You can also use Planning Center to communicate with worship team members when sending scheduling requests or sending updates through text messages, emails, or push notifications.
Rehearsals are important to ensuring that worship services proceed smoothly, and Planning Center is the best church presentation software for you if you need an excellent rehearsal tool. It has an extensive song library you can use to ensure lively worship services, and you can upload your songs if you want to. Planning Center’s mobile app has an integrated media player so worship team members can listen to audio or watch videos to aid their performance even if they don’t have VLC or other video players installed.
Planning Center pricing starts at $14/month for up to 25 members, and they offer a 30-day free trial. VISIT WEBSITE
2. WorshipTrac – Best for sermon scheduling
ChurchTrac’s worship tool is an excellent aid in planning and executing worship services. You can use it to schedule volunteers, ensuring crucial positions get properly manned. ChurcTrac sends automatic reminders to team members, so they don’t forget their schedules. ChurchTrac allows volunteers to block out dates, so team leaders know when volunteers are unavailable.
If you’re looking for worship software you can use to plan services carefully, then ChurchTrac is a great fit for you because you can use it to create outlines your team can follow. You can share the worship outline you created to worship team members and musicians ensuring you are all on the same page. You can include notations on your worship plans if there are specific instructions.
ChurchTrac Plus pricing starts at $15/month for up to 75 names, and they offer a 30-day free trial. VISIT WEBSITE
3. WorshipTeam – Best song library
WorshipTeam is an online service you can use to run your worship ministry in a centralized location. You can use WorshipTeam to schedule and notify worship team members and musicians so they can accept or decline assignments and avoid conflicts. WorshipTeam is a cross-platform software accessible on your Windows or Mac PC and has a mobile app version that works on Android and iOS devices.
WorshipTeam has an extensive library with more than 14,000 songs you can use to keep your worship services lively and engaging. What makes this even better is that you can upload your songs to your WorshipTeam library, and your WorshipTeam account comes with unlimited storage to upload as many songs as you want. On top of the massive library of songs, WorshipTeam adds new songs regularly, giving you access to the latest worship songs.
WorshipTeam pricing starts at $14/month for up to 5 users.VISIT WEBSITE
4. Worship Planning – Best for volunteer management
Worship Planning is a cloud-based software for planning and organizing worship services. It has a song organizer letting you organize, import, and export songs for use during worship services. Worship Planning comes with file storage, where you can store files and documents in a secure location. You can use Worship Planning to generate virtual music sheets for better organization and to help you save paper.
Volunteerism is at the heart of any congregation, and Worship Planning is the best worship software if you want one with an excellent scheduling feature. You can use Worship Planning to schedule people for multiple services simultaneously, helping you save time working on worship plans during busy seasons. Worship Planning allows the customization of roles if you need to assign human resources to a special role.
Worship Planning pricing starts at $15/month for one planner, and they offer a 30-day free trial.VISIT WEBSITE
5. Sunday Sounds – Best for MainStage worship patches and templates
Sunday Sounds is music software with key templates and song-specific patches you can use to elevate your worship services. It has a massive sound library to create your songs and customize your worship music, including ambient sounds, bass, guitar, percussion, vocals, and synth. Sunday Sounds have pre-programmed templates and easy-to-use workflows so you can spend less time organizing music for worship services and more time ministering to your flock.
Musicians rely on Mainstage to turn their computers into powerful multi-instrument systems, and Sunday Sounds is the best worship software for you if you want to get the most out of your Mainstage. Sunday Sounds has more than 250 worship patches giving you the power to create songs and sounds to give your members a service to remember. It has a built-in Tonic Pad player allowing you to glue together the sound of your band and underscore the quieter moments in your performance.
Sunday Sounds costs $120/year.VISIT WEBSITE
6. MultiTracks – Best for MacOS users
MultiTrack is a collection of digital tools giving you the ability to shape your church’s worship music. It has ProPresenter templates ensuring you have the right lyrics and chord charts for your setlist. Cloud Pro feature gives you a platform to store all your tools and resources for easy access, not just for you but for your entire team.
If you want worship software specifically designed for your iOS and MacOS devices, then MultiTrack is your best option. It allows you to edit, loop, or jump to any section of the track you’re playing so you can customize your music as needed. MultiTrack also enables you to create, edit, and save multiple setlists, so you have a ready-to-use setlist for a wide variety of events and activities.
Sunday Sounds works with Logic Remote Control letting you remotely control basic Mainstage functionalities like adding, selecting, or playing patches.
MultiTracks’ Playback Pro costs $8.33/seat/monthVISIT WEBSITE
7. FellowshipOne – Best integrated ChMS functionality
FellowshipOne is a cloud-based planner for planning worship services anywhere you are. You can use the software to schedule volunteers and employees, ensuring you have enough human resources for a successful worship service. It has a mobile app version that works on iOS and Android mobile devices so you can update worship plans and communicate with worship team members remotely.
FellowshipOne is the best worship software for you if you want one with ChMS functionality. You can use the software to store and manage membership data, ensuring you have updated information on all members. It also has accounting features to help you manage the finances of your church.
FellowshipOne pricing is available upon request.VISIT WEBSITE
8. PraiseCharts – Best online sheet music catalog
PraiseCharts is a worship tool where you can obtain audio backing tracks for your worship songs. You can use PraiseCharts to get song-specific guitar patches, so your songs sound exactly like professional recordings. PraiseCharts also lets you access worship readings you can use on your worship services or stream on your church website.
Sheet music is critical for musicians, and if you want to have access to an extensive catalog of sheet music, then PraiseCharts is the best worship software for your church. With PraiseCharts, you can access lyrics, chords, vocal chart arrangements, and orchestrations for praise and worship songs for your services. This is an excellent resource your worship band can use, especially when learning songs unfamiliar to them.
PraiseCharts pricing starts at $7.35/account/month.VISIT WEBSITE
9. Worship Extreme Music Stand – Best for chord sheets and lyrics
Worship Extreme Music Stand is a chord sheet and lyric app that works on Android and iOS mobile devices allowing users to study their setlist anywhere. This app will enable you to switch between lyrics only, one column chord charts, two-column chord charts, and Nashville number charts so you can use the chord charts your team is most comfortable with. Another great feature worth noting is that you get access to new songs and arrangements from worship leaders worldwide, allowing you to update your music repertoire during worship services.
Worship Extreme Music Stand is the best software solution if you want a reliable source of chord charts and lyrics sheets that your music team can use. Chord charts can help ensure that all members of your music team or worship band play in sync to deliver excellent performances. What’s even better is Music Stand allows users to put notations on digital chord charts so your musicians can customize arrangements to suit your ministry’s preferences.
Worship Extreme Music Stand is a free worship software with limited features, but a paid version pricing starts at $15/month.VISIT WEBSITE
10. Transposr – Best free worship software
Transposr is a standalone worship presentation software from the makers of Planning Center. Its sole purpose is for transposing music sheets and MP3 files. If you want one with more software options like a media library, live streaming capabilities, or functionality to display songs, you might want to check out Planning Center.
Transposr is the best free church presentation software for you if you need to transpose a music sheet or MP3 file to another key. This is an excellent tool for you if you have a worship song in mind and would like to play it using a different key to put your personal touch on it. Transposr is also popular because of its ease of use. Just copy and paste the music sheet or MP3 file to Transposr, and the software will do the rest for you.
Transposr is a free worship tool.VISIT WEBSITE
What is Worship Software?
Now you’ve seen the eclectic mix of worship software in our list; you’ll see it’s a range of software and SaaS tools that make planning, coordinating, and running Sunday services and church services easier and better. It provides tools that support and automate the preparation and coordination efforts of pastors, worship leaders, musicians, and volunteers.
Other worship software for church presentation
If you’re specifically looking for ways to project lyrics, images, and video onto a screen, you’re probably looking for a church presentation tool. Examples are Quelea, Opensong, and OpenLP. For that, check out our complete list of church presentation software.
Use Worship Software to Organize Your Sermons
Cloud-based or downloadable worship software can help you to design presentations, organize songs and lyrics, build Sunday worship schedules, plan out sermons, support A/V needs, and organize volunteers.
What tools do you use for modern-day worship planning? Do you use anything on our list…or plan to in the future? Is there a church software missing here that you would add if you could? Let us know in the comments.
Looking for even more tools to manage your growing church? Here’s a list you can start with: 10 Best Church Finance Software For Payroll & Expenses
Conclusion
The software needed for church music ministry must balance several factors. All instruments should ring out clearly, while not overwhelming the sermon. Music should never be so loud that it cannot be heard during prayer or announcements, yet playing quietly can feel like torture when you’re performing or practicing. The right software lets you find the perfect balance.