Ministry Scheduler Pro is a real church scheduler. If a church already built its Sunday-ministry setup there, stay on it. VolunteerReminder is not trying to replace that.
Optional SMS is $0.02 per message sent or received. That is on their pricing page, fetched September 11, 2026. Texting is available in the U.S. and Canada only. That is on their Plus Edition page, fetched September 11, 2026. Texting is a prepaid balance: 100 free starter messages, then an email prompt when the balance drops to $5. That is in their text-messaging billing help article, fetched September 11, 2026. The license is a separate charge. At the smallest band, up to 100 volunteers, Online Edition is $50 a month and Plus Edition is $65 a month, read off their pricing page on September 11, 2026. Their dropdown, labeled "Show pricing for," runs in 100-volunteer bands from up to 100 through up to 2,000. 100 is the smallest band, so a 40-volunteer church pays the hundred-volunteer price.
The "or received" part is the one that surprises people. A reminder plus a YES reply is two charges. Do that all year and it is not a rounding error. Some coordinators send fewer texts to keep the bill down, which kind of defeats the point.
Online vs Plus
Online lists: flexible scheduling tools, mobile and web based scheduling, online access for volunteers, sub requests, automatic reminders, service notes and resources, and text messages. Their Plus-edition feature table also puts enrollment forms, announcements, rosters, mailing labels, and attendance tracking on Online — a church does not need Plus to print sign-in sheets, track no-shows and substitutes, or run historical reports.
Plus adds: online access for leaders, custom fields, a sign-in kiosk, ministry folders, group scheduling, scheduled announcements, disaster recovery, and API access. The kiosk is the paperless check-in extra, not the attendance feature itself.
SMS is extra on both. After the initial purchase, the subscription renews annually. The initial purchase has a six-month unconditional money-back guarantee. If it is not the right fit, they refund the initial payment in full if you reach out within six months.
Deluxe and Pro
Deluxe is $9 a month (pricing). That covers scheduled reminders for up to 60 volunteers, two texts per shift. It is not a plan for blasting the whole church directory. If that is the job, MSP's meter or a real SMS tool is the honest answer. Normal reminder volume is what the $9 plan is built for.
Pro is $19, up to 150 volunteers, and adds a third reminder plus a substitute finder that texts a small batch at a time (default 10), first YES wins, then the next batch, not the whole roster. YES/NO confirm is optional. Some coordinators do not want to make it easy to say no, and that is fine.
MSP can stay the scheduler. VolunteerReminder can just do the reminders. Start a free trial or email info@volunteerreminder.com.