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Planning Center Check-Ins

Features
Ease of use
Ease of management
Quality of support
Affordability
Market presence
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Pricing from
$15 per month
Free Trial
Free version
User corporate size
Small
Medium
Large
User industry
  1. Education and training
  2. Public sector and nonprofit organizations
  3. Arts, entertainment, and recreation

What is Planning Center Check-Ins

Planning Center Check-Ins is a church-focused check-in and attendance tracking product used to manage people flow for services and events, especially children’s ministry. It supports kiosk-based and mobile check-in, label printing, and basic attendance reporting tied to household and person records. The product is typically used by church staff and volunteers who need a controlled, repeatable check-in process that connects to a broader church database within the Planning Center platform.

pros

Purpose-built check-in workflows

The product centers on fast, repeatable check-in for services and events, including family/household selection and attendee assignment. It supports common ministry scenarios such as children’s classes, youth groups, and multi-room events. This focus reduces the need to adapt general membership or event tools for on-site check-in operations.

Kiosk and label printing support

Planning Center Check-Ins is designed for on-site use with dedicated check-in stations and optional mobile check-in. It supports printing labels (for example, name tags and matching guardian/child labels) to standardize identification during drop-off and pickup. These capabilities are often required for children’s ministry operations and are not consistently available in general nonprofit CRMs.

Integrated with Planning Center data

Check-in activity ties back to person and household records within the Planning Center ecosystem. This enables attendance history to be associated with individuals rather than remaining in isolated event logs. For churches already using other Planning Center modules, this reduces duplicate data entry and improves consistency across teams.

cons

Not a full ChMS alone

Check-Ins focuses on attendance and on-site check-in rather than end-to-end church management. Capabilities such as giving, broad communications, and comprehensive member lifecycle management typically require additional products. Organizations looking for a single all-in-one system may need to assemble multiple modules and processes.

Best fit for churches

The workflows, terminology, and setup are optimized for church ministry contexts (for example, children’s ministry and service-based events). Nonprofits outside of churches may find the model less aligned with their program structures and reporting needs. As a result, it may not replace a general-purpose nonprofit CRM or volunteer suite.

On-site setup and hardware needs

Effective use often depends on configuring kiosks, printers, and network connectivity at venues. Churches may need to standardize devices and manage volunteer training for consistent check-in operations. These operational requirements can add overhead compared with purely online registration or attendance tools.

Plan & Pricing

Plan Price Key features & notes
10 Daily check-ins Free Permanently free tier; includes full Check-Ins features, unlimited stations, people, and events.
30 Daily check-ins $15/mo. Full Check-Ins features; soft limits allow occasional spikes above plan.
75 Daily check-ins $32/mo. Full Check-Ins features; unlimited stations, people, and events.
200 Daily check-ins $69/mo. Full Check-Ins features.
500 Daily check-ins $115/mo. Full Check-Ins features.
1000 Daily check-ins $179/mo. Full Check-Ins features.
Unlimited Daily check-ins $239/mo. Highest tier; full Check-Ins features; unlimited check-ins.

Seller details

Planning Center
Carlsbad, CA, USA
2006
Private
https://www.planningcenter.com/
https://x.com/planningcenter
https://www.linkedin.com/company/planning-center/

Tools by Planning Center

Planning Center Services
Planning Center Giving
Planning Center People
Planning Center Registrations
Planning Center Calendar
Planning Center Groups
Planning Center Church Center
Planning Center Check-Ins
Planning Center Publishing

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