--- title: "Planning Center Texting Cost: The Real Monthly Math" description: "Planning Center meters texting at $0.02 per 160-char credit plus a $5/mo number fee. The real monthly math, next to a flat $9 scheduled-reminder plan." canonical_url: https://volunteerreminder.com/alternatives/planning-center md_url: https://volunteerreminder.com/alternatives/planning-center.md last_updated: 2026-08-18 --- # What texting volunteers through Planning Center actually costs **Planning Center's built-in volunteer reminders go out as email, or as email-to-text through carrier gateways that its own help docs say reach only certain carriers. Real, deliverable texting is a separate, metered product: $0.02 per 160-character credit in People, plus a flat $5/month toll-free number fee — roughly $11 to $13 a month in texting alone for a mid-size volunteer team, on top of your Services subscription.** We build VolunteerReminder, so we are not a neutral party here. Every Planning Center number below is sourced to their own help docs or pricing page, and further down we say plainly which churches should keep exactly what they have. If you coordinate volunteers at a church — nursery, ushers, AV, coffee, worship team — there's a decent chance you already live in Planning Center. It's the market leader for a reason. The question this page answers is narrower than "is Planning Center any good": it's what it costs to make sure this Sunday's team actually sees the reminder. That answer has a meter in it. [[TOC]] ## How does Planning Center send texts? **The free way: carrier gateways.** Scheduling texts can go out over a "free email-to-text service called SMS gateway, which is only available through certain mobile carriers" ([help.planningcenter.com](https://help.planningcenter.com/en/144875-texting-in-planning-center.html)). Their current help article now names Verizon and AT&T as having stopped supporting SMS gateway texts ([help.planningcenter.com](https://help.planningcenter.com/en/142891-set-up-and-respond-to-text-notifications.html)). In practice that means it works for some volunteers, on some carriers, some of the time. When it doesn't work, nothing bounces and nobody tells you — the 9 a.m. nursery volunteer simply never hears from you, and you find out at 8:55 on Sunday morning. **The reliable way: metered credits.** Deliverable texting runs through the People product at **$0.02 per 160-character credit**, plus a flat **$5/month** toll-free number fee charged to maintain the number — it "remains $5/month" whether you register for outgoing messaging, Text2Give, or both — with a credit card on file ([help.planningcenter.com](https://help.planningcenter.com/en/139180-set-up-text-messaging.html); [help.planningcenter.com](https://help.planningcenter.com/en/144875-texting-in-planning-center.html)). Two cents is not a lot. The arithmetic is what gets you. ## What does texting a volunteer team actually cost? Take a church with **40 volunteers** across four teams — nursery, ushers, AV, coffee — each serving about twice a month, with **two reminders per serve**: one a few days out, one the day before or the morning of. - 40 volunteers × 2 serves/month × 2 reminders = **160 texts a month** Then the detail that doubles the bill. One credit covers **160 characters**. A reminder that actually tells a volunteer what they need to know — who, what, when, where, and who to text if they can't make it — runs past 200 characters, so it bills as **2 credits**. - 160 messages × 2 credits × $0.02 = **$6.40/month** - Toll-free number fee: **+$5/month** - **Texting subtotal: about $11.40/month** — before anyone replies, before the scramble to fill Sunday's gap, before Christmas and Easter. That sits on top of Services. Planning Center's free tier covers only 5 team members, and paid Services tiers scale with team size — the prices observed on their site run $15/$32/$69/$115/$179/$239 a month as the team grows ([planningcenter.com/services](https://www.planningcenter.com/services)). A 40-volunteer roster lands around the $32 tier. **Realistic all-in for scheduling and reliably texting a 40-volunteer roster: roughly $43 a month, metered.** More in busy months. And the meter is the real problem, not the total — coordinators start rationing reminders to protect the credit balance, and rationed reminders are exactly how you end up with an unstaffed check-in desk. (If you want that priced for your own church, our [volunteer no-show cost calculator](/tools/no-show-calculator) will do it, no email required.) ## Why does a whole texting add-on economy exist? The strongest evidence that Planning Center's built-in texting leaves churches wanting is that a market grew up to fill the gap. | Add-on | Price | What you get | Source | |---|---|---|---| | Text In Church | $37–$97/mo (month-to-month; about $31–$81/mo billed annually) | 500–2,500 messages/mo | [textinchurch.com/pricing](https://textinchurch.com/pricing) | | Confirmed.Church | $20–$60/mo | 500–4,000 credits/mo of reply-to-confirm volunteer texts; one-time $15 10DLC carrier fee; works only with Planning Center | [confirmed.church](https://confirmed.church/) | Clearstream is a third option worth knowing about — a general church-texting platform with a Planning Center integration ([clearstream.io](https://clearstream.io/blog/planning-center-add-on)) — though it's positioned as a broad communication tool rather than a reminders-only add-on. The US entry plan is $29 a month for 1,250 credits and one phone number; incoming texts and email are not metered ([clearstream.io/pricing](https://clearstream.io/pricing)). Churches pay $240 to $1,164 a year for these, mostly to do one thing: get a text in front of a volunteer and hear a yes back. Confirmed.Church's own pitch explains the appeal — "97% of texts are opened and read within the first 3 minutes vs. 20% of received emails" ([confirmed.church](https://confirmed.church/)). That's their figure, not an independently verified one. It matches what coordinators say they see, which isn't the same as proof. If your church runs Ministry Scheduler Pro instead, the meter is sharper: **$0.02 per SMS sent *or received***, on top of the license, so a reply-to-confirm loop bills both directions of every yes ([ministryschedulerpro.com/pricing](https://ministryschedulerpro.com/pricing)). That math is on [the head-to-head](/compare/planning-center-vs-ministry-scheduler-pro). ## What does the flat-rate version look like? VolunteerReminder does the volunteer-reminder part and nothing else. **[Deluxe](/pricing) is $9 a month** for scheduled text and email reminders to up to 60 volunteers, two texts per shift: - **Scheduled shift reminders over real carrier-grade SMS** — not email-to-text through a gateway that some carriers honor and others quietly drop. - **One price instead of a meter.** Planning Center bills $0.02 per credit plus $5 a month for the number. Deluxe bills $9. Your church shouldn't need a calculator to work out whether it can afford to remind the nursery team. - **No volunteer accounts and no app.** Reminders arrive as ordinary texts and emails — nobody installs anything or remembers a password, which matters when half your ushers have a flip phone. - **Recurring rotations are the core model.** Set the nursery, usher, AV, and coffee schedules once; they repeat, and the reminders go out on their own. - **Carrier registration (A2P/10DLC) is handled for you at the platform level** — the compliance step that gets do-it-yourself texting from a personal phone or a Google Voice line silently blocked. You never register a brand or campaign yourself, and no carrier or number fees land on your bill. Texts go out over the platform's registered number, and a volunteer who replies STOP is unsubscribed across the platform. Worth being blunt about what the $9 is not, because the contrast with a credit balance invites the wrong idea: **Deluxe is not a bulk-text plan and not a per-message credit pack.** It sends scheduled reminders for shifts already on the rotation — two per shift. If the job is texting the whole church directory at nine at night about a canceled service, that's a mass-texting product and we aren't one; Planning Center's People credits or a tool like Clearstream is the honest answer there. If the job is Sunday's nursery, AV, and coffee volunteers remembering without anyone chasing them, that's this. **[Pro](/pricing) is $19 a month** for up to 150 volunteers, a third reminder per shift, and the substitute finder: when someone drops out, it texts a batch of your bench — you set how many people are in a batch and how long it waits — and the first YES takes the shift. If nobody answers, it moves to the next batch. It does not blast the whole roster. **[Basic](/pricing) is $3 a month** for email and calendar reminders to 40 volunteers, if you're not texting yet. Annual billing on Deluxe and Pro is $90 and $190 — about two months free — and every plan starts with a **30-day free trial and no credit card**. If your rosters live in event sign-up sheets rather than a church system, [how we compare with SignUpGenius](/alternatives/signupgenius) covers the same metering problem in that corner of the market. ## Who should stay on Planning Center? Plenty of churches, honestly. If you use Services for what it's genuinely good at — worship planning, the song library, chord charts, service orders, scheduling the band — keep it. Planning Center is a solid church operating system, and we are not one. The math on this page matters for two groups: 1. **Churches paying for Services mainly to schedule and remind volunteer teams.** You're buying a worship-planning suite to get a reminder sent. As one competing vendor's guide puts it, you can end up paying "for growth they haven't reached" ([kidddo.com](https://kidddo.com/blog/planning-center-alternative)). 2. **Churches already on Planning Center who bolt on a $20–$97/month texting tool** just to send reminders and collect confirmations. That line item alone is two to ten times a flat $9 plan. And keeping both is normal. Planning Center for worship planning, VolunteerReminder for the nursery, usher, coffee, and greeter rotations. Many tools, one job each, is a fine way to run a church. ## How do you add this without leaving Planning Center? You don't switch anything. Keep Planning Center for worship planning and scheduling, and add VolunteerReminder only for the teams where reminders and no-shows are the actual pain. Send us your rotation and roster, or build it yourself in a few minutes. Your volunteers do nothing at all — the next reminder simply arrives as a text. **[Start your free trial](/signup)** — 30 days, no credit card. Or compare the tiers first on [plans and pricing](/pricing). If you want a second opinion on whether this fits your teams, email us how the church runs: [info@volunteerreminder.com](mailto:info@volunteerreminder.com). ## FAQ ### Doesn't Planning Center include free texting? It includes email-to-SMS carrier-gateway texting, which Planning Center's own docs say is "only available through certain mobile carriers." Deliverable texting through People costs $0.02 per 160-character credit plus a flat $5/month toll-free number fee, and a useful reminder usually runs past 160 characters, so it bills as two credits. ### What does 200 texts a month cost on each? Planning Center: 200 two-credit messages is about $8, plus the $5 number fee — roughly $13 a month, on top of your Services tier. VolunteerReminder Deluxe is a flat $9 for scheduled shift reminders, up to 60 volunteers and two texts per shift, which is the volume the plan is built for. ### Are VolunteerReminder's texts unlimited on the $9 plan? No. Deluxe is $9 a month for scheduled shift reminders: up to 60 volunteers, two texts per shift. It is not a bulk-text plan and not a per-message credit pack. If the job is blasting the whole church directory, Planning Center's People credits or a real mass-texting tool is the honest answer. ### Can we keep Planning Center and use VolunteerReminder too? Yes, and many churches do. Keep Planning Center for worship planning, the song library, and service scheduling, and use VolunteerReminder for the nursery, usher, AV, coffee, and greeter rotations where reminders and no-shows are the real pain. Nothing has to be switched off or migrated. ### Is VolunteerReminder a church management system? No. No giving, no check-ins, no song library, no service planning. It schedules recurring volunteer shifts and texts people before they serve. That's the whole product. ### Do volunteers need an app or an account? There is no app. Reminders arrive as ordinary texts and emails, so nobody installs anything or sets a password — which is precisely why the reminders get seen, including by volunteers with a flip phone and no email. ### What happens when a volunteer drops a shift? On Pro, the substitute finder texts a batch of your bench — you set how many people are in a batch and how long it waits — and the first YES takes the shift. If nobody answers, it moves to the next batch rather than texting the whole roster. YES/NO confirm is optional on Deluxe and Pro. ### Do you handle the carrier registration (A2P/10DLC) for church texting? Yes. Registration is handled for you at the platform level, so you never register a brand or campaign yourself and no carrier or number fees land on your bill — unlike Planning Center's $5/month toll-free number or Confirmed.Church's one-time $15 10DLC fee. Messages go out over the platform's registered number, and STOP replies unsubscribe a volunteer across the platform. ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](https://volunteerreminder.com/sitemap.md) for every public page.