We are currently on FellowshipOne database with ServiceU for registration/payments. We have had a lot of problems with reports, checkin, and other random items intermittently. We have also had a lot of trouble getting support and, at a few point, ghave been told that “it is the way it is and they can’t help us”. We are looking to switch and have been checkin out ACS, Ministry Platform, and CCB. There are also a lot of people here (primarily kids ministry) who are 100% for going to Planning Center, though they do not seem to be quite where we need them. I was wondering if anyone out there has done a switch from F1 to Ministry Platform?
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Yup! Switched about 2 years ago. Happy to chat if you’d like. Here’s 2 blog posts that might help:
https://www.thinkministry.com/articles/customer-spotlight-granger-community-church/
https://www.thinkministry.com/articles/customer-spotlight-granger-community-church-PT2/
You should seriously consider being a few staff to the Ministry Platform conference in May. That really helped us with our decision making.
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I cant comment on Ministry Platform or Fellowship 1 as they were deemed too costly/complex for a smaller church like ours. I can say that ACS Realm and CCB were our short list finalists and we chose Realm by a nose due to a more flexible data model and unlimited phone support. We are just implementing now and will see if we made the right choice over the next few months. We were on Powerchurch and it did not make our short list due to functional reasons vs the others.
It’s also worth giving RockRMS a look. Lots of F1 folks migrated to it and haven’t looked back…
Thank you, your blog posts really helped me out. we have a lot of the younger staff members pushing for Planning Center but they are just not where we need them to be as a full ChMS and MP is at the top of my list. I would like to get to the conference but, being in Ohio, i’m not sure that I will get approval to make it out in time. We do lknow of a large local church not far that uses and I think we will be making a best practices trip. I would really like to get in contact with you in the future though, since you have made the switch from F1.
When we switched from Logos to CCB, MP was the other finalist for our decision. CCB won out because of superior forms and a couple of other areas. Either product is strong and has pricing based on church size.
MP has improved in areas that were weak when we evaluated, so it may be a good choice now.
One caution with Rock is that many reports and other features built in to other systems have to be created and added to Rock.
MP was better in a couple of areas important for kids ministry, but overall for our needs CCB won out.
We use CCB for most church database functions, including forms, online registrations, payments, giving, groups, etc. We still use Planning Center for worship planning, but most everything else is in CCB.
Planning Center will become a major church database player in the coming years, but are not there yet.
I would recommend setting up demo of both products, and working with a group in your church for initial evaluation. The group should include heavy office users of the system, since they know the pain points of your current one. You also need a vision from leadership about what they wish the system could do.
Lay out a checklist of important features and must haves, then compare the two systems against that.
I am in Northeast Ohio so would be willing to meet with you if that is convenient.
- Greg
This doesn’t directly answer your question, but I just wanted to affirm that you’re not alone in your issues with F1. We’ve had similar problems and haven’t felt they were responsive to problems that seemed to be caused by their system. We considered Ministry Platform, but had sticker shock :), so we’re moving to PCO. We’re a large church and will have to find some work-arounds but our Communications team is asking us to try it so that we can have one database for congregant information.
Brian, do you by chance have a comparison document that helped you all narrow it down, and would you be willing to share?
Nick Nicholaou published this article which may help guide your decision on a new ChMS.
We are approaching our 1 year anniversary of migrating to Ministry Platform from F1.
We are pleased with MP so far, still have a lot to learn, and excited about the future of MP.
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