When gathering is not an option... Faithlife Equip

Currently, our distancing is the biggest issue we have tackle, being able to interact with deep studies, presentations and the added clarity and transparency for our congregation to manage their giving and relationship with the leadership.

Pros

The possibility to share resources with our congregation, exploit the benefits of online research and collaboration, endless options for spiritual growth; add the possibility to virtually manage the giving of the congregation and creating a safe environment for everyone during these challenging times.

Cons

My only quarrel is the lack of Spanish language for all the tools available, I am certain its probably an issue with other languages. I would strongly encourage Faithlife to quickly develop language packages, I am certain that the Hispanic congregations would swiftly convert into a tool like this, big or small.

Great CCM

Wonderful. I have had to call their customer support too from time to time and they have always rectified the situation quickly and easily. They also are very open to improvements.

Pros

I love that MinistryTracker is web based and easy to access. We use it every week to lo attendance at our weekly events and to log service hours for fundraisers and service events. We use it to text out updates to our kids and parents and it helps us track changes in addresses or phone numbers as the families can log themselves in and change it.

Cons

Their mobile platform leaves a bit to be desired. We love the ability to text our youth but when they reply, it is a bit of a feat to try to log in and text them back an answer. I usually just text from my personal number cause it is so much easier.

Just What Our Church Needs

Our experience has been great. Our customer service rep [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], is the best! I see many of the Faithlife employees responding to questions and comments. They are all very helpful and responsive. We understand that we entered Faithlife at a beta stage, so we expect hiccups here and there. But every issue is dealt with quickly and we are very satisfied. We look forward to future developments and using Faithlife more and more.

Pros

I like the fact that so many products are tied together under one platform (single sign-on). From our website to our social media group to the software we use for worship, it's all housed in one place. We are part of the early access (beta) program so we see many things that are still in development and we get to contribute to future releases and updates. The Faithlife staff is awesome! They are always helpful, very responsive, and they truly want to make the products useful for our church.

Cons

Since many aspects are still in development, there are features that are unavailable and sometimes the programs are buggy. The mobile app is a little clunky at times. My biggest frustration is with notification settings. I want to be able to set my preferences for each group as opposed to one global setting that applies to all groups. This is in development.

Ministry Tracker customer review

We have been customers for Ministry Tracker for the past 8 years. Our experience with Ministry Tracker has been very good. Their customer support response time is very quick and they have always tried to help us resolve our issues. This software has been a valuable tool for our church and we regard Ministry Tracker as a partner in our local church ministry success.

Pros

Comprehensive features. Accessibility from any internet connected machine. The software works well when we use it correctly and consistently. We have more staff understanding and regularly using this database software than any other database software we have owned due to ease of use.

Cons

There are some advanced features that haven't been ironed out just yet. We find little things here and there that we need the software to do that it doesn't do. The Ministry Tracker engineering team is always working to update the software code - so we hope to see some of these additional features added in the future...

Faithlife equip does a great job hitting their target market - churches

While I think it's a great product for larger churches and religious organizations who need a lot of data in a central place, for smaller ones I'd look elsewhere

Pros

Faithlife continues to iterate on their software in ways that best support larger churches who use it.

Cons

For smaller churches it seemed too expensive and took too much time to have someone manage all that needed to be done. Using a manual click counter and a piece of paper seemed to do the trick for a lot less money

Good but could use some more features...

MinistryTracker has served our purposes very well. Its functionality is excellent and stores a lot of information and data in a useful way. However, it could use a facelift to make the presentation of the information more appealing as well as better usage for others to input their information, etc.

Pros

It is easy to use and the layout of the home page is very easy to navigate. The depth of detail and information the database can store is very useful. The breakdown of groups, events, and people is nice and a great starting place for a church database.

Cons

The lack of a public online interface for those in our church to utilize. It also did not have a great user interface to make it easy to utilize. The design appeal could use a major upgrade - it is not very appealing and easy on the eyes to use. It holds a ton of data, which is great, but the presentation of how that data is shown is a bit overwhelming at times.

Bundling has Pros & Cons

Pros

Having so many functions that the church needs to be bundled together in one service and company. Having the church website, presentation software, and database together is great. Having the Bible study tools and the social aspect is a huge bonus.

Cons

The website and functionality is clunky and often slow loading.

Thinking About Changing software companies

This software does not do what we need it to do in our church office. We can't get the financial reports we need. When we asked for the reports we needed we never heard back from Ministry Tracker. Posting contributions is awkward and if you post to the wrong account there is no way to do a bulk correction. The membership section does not interface well with the contribution section and we had to do many end of year reports by hand. Ministry Tracker doesn't let me track the things I need for my end of year membership reports in any easy way. If something were to happen to me, I don't think anyone else would be able to locate the information without a lot of effort. It is very frustrating. We will be switching software soon for the church office. I will say that our youth director is very happy with the software but she doesn't track the things we do.

Pros

Susan who helps with training. I liked that it was web based.

Cons

It has too many layers. Can't edit family info from the member screen. Reports are poor for regular church office use.

Great solution to a common church problem

I've used faithlife for about a year now, and I use it daily.

Pros

Integration is the key to faithlife equip. I use Logos Bible Software, need a slideshow presentation solution for church, and want to keep track of the people in my church and give them a way to communicate with each other. Faithlife equip integrates all that and more! I can study and prepare for my sermon in Logos, send my slideshow to Faithlife Proclaim, and recommend additional study resources, such as a faithlife.TV episode, and keep track of Sunday school attendance, all through faithlife equip! I use it to send emails, texts, and messages to the congregation. The worship team can keep track of their songs and arrangements with faithlife music, and have access to great stock photos. We even have online giving set up, all through the faithlife equip subscription.

Cons

Faithlife Equip is still in the earlier stages of development, so some solutions are still clunky, but the development team is willing to work with any problems, and even implement some suggestions for improvement in the future.

A must have when in ministry to communicate, organize, and collect your peoples information

Ministry Tracker gives me the freedom of having all the information and tools I need to communicate and organize the church body without it being an impossible task.

Pros

Being a Communications Minister, Ministry Tracker has allowed me to stay on top of the never stopping flow of contact info, attendance, and communication that must happen to stay connected. Pros: -Detailed members contact info -Allowance of self maintenance -Easily communicate through email, text, or phone strait from the service - An easy check-in system for the children's ministry to keep things safe. - Even includes financial information if desired -so much more

Cons

The biggest con is just how overwhelming it can seem to get started with it. There is so much it can do it can be hard to know where to start to get full use out of this service.

Great suite for churches

We have been very happy so far and look forward to new features.

Pros

We loved the integration between all of the different products. We also love how it is going to consolidate many different communication apps for us into one package.

Cons

There is a learning curve to understand how the whole layout works. Once you figure it out, it is quite simple but it does take some initial thinking and planning.

Can't imagine doing Ministry without it!

I've been using MinistryTracker for 7 years (back when it started as YouthTracker) and I LOVE it! I'm a youth minister at a large Catholic parish, and this helps me easily track attendance at events, put people in different groups and quickly send emails to specific groups. I cannot tell you how much easier that makes my job!! It is a full database with fields you can customize. And every time I've had a question, they've responded to my email in one day (often in less than an hour). And I've given them a number of suggestions and they have incorporated all of them into the database in later updates, or told me that it's already available! The only thing I wish was better was the email design. I wish it was easier to make the emails look fancier.

Pros

Ability to search on specific criteria and make smart groups (so anyone else you enter into the database with that criteria gets automatically put in that group), and then send emails to them or to those attending particular events.

Cons

Emails are super easy to direct to specific groups, but challenging to make look fancy.

Learning curve, but the end result is worth it!

Pros

We greatly appreciate the seamlessness with which all the Faithlife programs work together. Having Equip meld with Proclaim and the website is a tremendous help and takes a lot of work of my plate!

Cons

It is a process to get our people to move and migrate to faithlife equip, but it is well worth it.

BEST ON A BUDGET SOFTWARE FOR GROWING CHURCHES!!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this software! It's so easy to use and the people are very helpful and nice. I'm so happy with it.

Pros

Extremely user friendly (If you can work a facebook page you can work this software), No IT experience needed, So easy you don't even need training, Affordable ($45 a month), great customer support, Has a lot a features, you dont have to install anything before using it, it works on every web browser, you can view in on a mobile device and even edit on a mobile device, It's clear and to the point.

Cons

In my opinion it needs a make over, doesn't have a task button but they said they are working on it and it suppost to come out next month or so. Doesn't have a bible resource area or a smart map for small groups. You have to pay extra for texting and Calling. Doesnt have a chat room or a mobile APP but you can alway make a short cut and Put it on your home screen.

Great Resources + Connecting Opportunities

We have enjoyed working with Faithlife and have found all of the staff very supportive and helpful.

Pros

We have really enjoyed making Library resources available to the church members as well as FaithlifeTV videos. The ability to have a photo directory and a message board for communicating with the church has been a great feature too. We have been encouraged to see the growth of features and we look forward to a more robust online church management and communication suite.

Cons

The church members have slowly begun making use of the different features that are available to them. There have been great videos and trainings made available by Faithlife, but people have been slow to adapt to the changes. I think this really has more to do with people not seeing the need for it and taking the time to imagine the possible applications for it than with the software itself. Initially, the apps and sites were slower to load than similar sites and some people removed the app from their phones because they felt it was "too slow" and believed it was slowing down their phones. I am pretty sure that was a misunderstanding on their part of how their phone works. We also had people posting to the wrong places initially and that experience may have discouraged their enthusiastic engagement, but those problems have been resolved and people have been making more and more use of the software.

Great customer service and easy to use

Great company, have been with them for years. Do not anticipate changing.

Pros

Love the accessibility of customer service. They are quick to answer questions and help resolve issues.

Cons

Would like to see cumulative report of attendance on all weekly calendar events so that we can keep track of total attendance for all of our events scheduled in one week.

Everything in One Place

I have been able to have open communication with the congregation through the groups' pages. It is easy for the congregation to communicate with one another through either their group page or individually. Using Logos and Faithlifetv in bringing teaching to small groups has been a benefit. Tracking members is very convenient in the directory. Proclaim has been the best Presentation Software we have ever had, it is easy to use even for beginners. Members can access it from home to work in it. It is seamless on Sunday morning. Integration with our current system was an easy process.

Pros

Having one login for everything is helpful. The ease of use for each product--- church directory, giving, web page, social media page, Presentation software, and Bible Study through Logos Bible. Families like Faihtlife TV because it provides Christian entertainment and teaching for children and adults.

Cons

The one difficulty is the fact that everyone has to create an account, so visitors cannot get the postings or check us out for a few weeks before they decide to keep attending.

Ease of Use Makes the Difference

To have one database to be able to send / receive voicemails, emails and texts that is easy to use with excellent customer service support is a dream come true. Plus, Ministry Tracker is affordable and that really makes the difference for us. They are constantly seeking ways to improve and are always at the other end of the phone within a reasonable time period for any questions or problems. While we have experimented with others, we remain with Ministry Tracker because they truly meet our every need so that we can concentrate on our ministries outreaches. Thanks for a job really well done. Using Ministry Tracker has made all the difference in the world for us.

Pros

Functional, efficient and leads to greater productivity. It helps tremendously that we are able to create multiple groups for each congregant. Plus, it is so easy to communicate with everyone from old to young.

Cons

The only add-on for us is a service that allows members to text their tithes and offerings. Young people requested this and Ministry Tracker does not have this functionality...yet.

I tell everyone about it!!

The best, from the sales staff to the customer service rep to the tech support. There are not enough praises to put into words of how everyone goes the extra mile to help out.

Pros

I don't know where to begin. At first, it seems overwhelming but the customer service, the video training, and webinars make it so simple. Have a question reach out and ask and I usually hear back within hours never more than 24hours. Everyone is there to help your church succeed and enter into the 21st century.

Cons

There are little hiccups now and then but when you reach out the Faithlife team jumps into action to resolve any issues.

Great for Youth Groups

Our youth ministry need a way to track attendance. While we wanted to look at trends, we were more interested in tracking who was and wasn't at our church. I also wanted something other people can access besides me to take attendance. Ministry Tracker fits the bill. Our church does not have a database in which we could easily do attendance. So, I needed something that just our Youth Ministry could use that met our needs and was cost-effective. Ministry Tracker fits the bill. It's a great database that doesn't cost much at all. We have tried lots of it's features, and really liked what it offers. Online registration, which we don't use regularly, has worked the few times I have tried it. I've also had great response from Support when I've had to contact them. We primarily use it as a database and attendance tracker and it works fantastic. I would highly recommend ministry tracker to anyone needs a straightforward ministry Davi I need a straightforward ministry database.

Pros

I think it's very straightforward and does a great job of tracking attendance for ministries that may not have access to a larger database.

Cons

The interface is a little dated. It is straightforward, so I like that others can use it.

A Great Software that continues to improve.

As a Church Management Tool set Faithlife Equip is helping us with our E-Giving, Website, Church Management, Presentation Software, as well as some of our Bible Study materials. It has been excellent so far and I look forward to the future.

Pros

In many ways this software has been a game changer. It handles so many of the areas of the church that we needed something in. It even gives us access to their streaming service for several videos, some newer than others for sure, but overall a lot of good material. Below I will list a few of the highlights that I have experienced with Faithlife. * Customer service: This is the biggest pro when it comes to Faithlife. Every software has kinks in the way, but Faithlife has the best customer experience that I have ever seen, they are responsive and take every inquiry seriously. *Quantity: Faithlife Equip is a suite of Ministry tools, which means there is a lot here, and it is nice to see it well constructed under the same roof. Because of this things tend to just flow together better. * Quality: Equip is still a new kid on the block and has some room to grow for sure. However, the stuff they are putting out and pushing into the software has been great. On top of that, when a problem does arise they are quick to work with it, at times even personally with you.

Cons

As with any software, there are cons. In truth however, the biggest Con to Faithlife is just its newness. It's so new not all of their tools are active quite yet. That being said, there are plenty of work arounds as you wait.

Best software I've found for youth ministry application

Overall I love MinistryTracker. I have been a user since the fall of 2015 and find the database is easy to build, organize, and maintain, the attendance and contact tracking functions are excellent. The group text and email functions are great and allow scheduling of messages for later delivery. The report generator is very useful, but I do wish I could layout some templates with totals for repeated use rather than just list view data. The event scheduling and registration management functionality are the primary reason I selected MinistryTracker, these have proven very useful and user friendly. I am a youth pastor and for my purposes this is the best software I've found for managing a youth ministry. The phone app lets me carry contact data with me, locate addresses, and record meetings and notes on the go. There are several useful tools that I use daily and our church is actively evaluating adding areas to convert the whole church to MinistryTracker. Also want to add that the MinistryTracker is staff very accessible and helpful.

Pros

Mobile app, individual attendance tracking, & event registration

Cons

There are functional nuances I would like to see addressed in a future upgrade, but no deal breakers here.

Budget Friendly Database

Ministry Tracker is not the fanciest member database out there, but it has good value. The yearly cost is very budget friendly and provides a solid product. I love that you can upload member photos into the profile- really helps staff and leaders learn student names. The birthday list on the dashboard is great and helps me stay on top of sending out birthday cards. Advanced search and smart groups are helpful tools and though they take thought to get the results you are looking for- it it helpful for planning. Their help menu isn't the most comprehensive, but provides the information needed to understand what each feature does.

Pros

Easy to find the information you want on Administrative portal. Ability to do detailed searches through Advanced Search and download results into Excel. Birthday list on dashboard. Pictures attached to profiles. Church option- we recently opened a second campus and were worried about how to make a note of which campus students attended, thankfully there was already a feature we could use.

Cons

Advanced search can be tricky- there are so many search terms that you have to be specific so you can get the correct results- although I would admit some of the problems are due to database management on my end and not using all the features correctly - like roles.

Great product...excellent database tool!

I opened this tool up for my ministry in 2011. I wanted to make sure we could track both physical and spiritual records of all the people who come through our various programs, as well as send update correspondence to the sponsors, partners, and donors who support us. I can say that our staff has greatly appreciated the ease of use of this console, and we definitely seek to expand the use of MinistryTracker to fit all of our ministerial needs.

Pros

Ease of use, breadth of features. Number of categories to organize different data entries.

Cons

The limits on attachments in the "Communications" tab. Most software allows you to send at least double what MinistryTracker's limits are.

Great Customer Service on a very Good Product

We have been with Ministry Tracker for many years, even before they were called Ministry Tracker and started out as Youth Tracker. From the on set, their service was top notch for all things youth ministry. We use it to record our events, email parents, track attendance, record contacts with students, email leaders, and maintain our database for our ministries. Any time we have had an issue or suggestions of something we thought would be helpful, the customer service has responded quickly and were helpful. Their service is great and their product does exactly what we need it to. You can't ask for any more than that. The only reason I didn't give it five stars across the board was because why have too much for what we use it for. Because of that, it takes a few clicks to get to where we need to go. That was a growing pain for us once they transitioned to Ministry Tracker instead of Youth Tracker. But again, it's well worth your money, even if you use it only for one small part of its capabilities like we do.

Pros

It's ability to have all of our data in one spot and communicate with different groups of people easily.

Cons

We don't use all of it's functions within our church as we use it solely for youth ministry. As a result, we need to have two clicks to get where we need to go often, specifically in updating individuals information.

Basic Pros & Cons

PROS Appreciate that students automatically get moved up with the start of a new school year. Easy to search and find people in the system. Easy to set up new people in the system (most of the time). CONS Can't save drafts of emails. Group emailing feature would be great, but it is limited in the ways we can format it and make it look professional. Have to register staff and volunteers as parents within group to get them copied on emails. Reporting needs to be available without certain family members counted in overall statistics. For example, we wanted to know the percentage of Sunday School attendance, but the number is skewed because the total includes parents and volunteers, not just students. Still struggling with many not receiving the emails at all or emails going to junk.

Excellent support and value; some limitations

We've been using Ministry Tracker at our small church for about 6 months now. It is head and shoulders about the church software we were using previously. I am the administrator of the program, and feel at ease with computer software in general. Many of our parishioners and volunteers have more limited computer experience and confidence, but have been able to use the member portal and volunteer backend of the program with relative ease and limited instruction. We have not used the financial module yet, but find the pledging module useful and straightforward. I would love to see improvement in the calendar / resource & building scheduler; it has some glitchy behaviors that have made it so inefficient for us that we use a separate program just for this function. I would also love the ability to upload my own data from spreadsheets, rather than having to enter all data through the visual interface or contract the company to upload bulk data. We are a Unitarian Universalist church and don't share some language and traditions with many Christian churches. As such, there are fields that we cannot change or remove that are not useful for us (confirmation date, baptism date, prayer request, etc). This has not been a problem for us, but it would be great to be able to rename or remove these fields from our installation one day. This affordable software package has been a boon to our small church, and I thank the energized and engaged engineering, sales, and support teams for their continued work and service.

Great Tool, but does Require Attention

I use MinistryTracker as a contact info database for my youth ministry and to keep track of youth trip logistics. It makes my life a lot easier, but parents and the youth themselves seem to struggle with it on a consistent basis. I have to do a good bit of cleaning up when they do struggle with it, but it's usually a very simple fix on my end and the customer service has been great when it gets too complicated. We got grandfathered in at the $$ a month rate but we only use about 50% of the site's capabilities. There is definite room for improvement along the lines of User Interface, but I would recommend it to anybody in my situation.

Pros

Helps me organize a ton of information and communicate to specific sets of people. Online trip sign up and payment is nice too.

Cons

People consistently struggle when creating their profile. I've had no problem personally in that area, but I constantly have to go in from the admin side to tweak a few things after a new profile shows up.

Great concept with constantly improving performance

Pros

We were one of the first churches to sign on to the early access group for Equip so we've experienced a lot of ups and downs over the past couple years, as expected with a new product. The thing that really attracted us to this platform is how all the different platforms with in Equip integrate with each other. And Faithlife is constantly adding new features to all their products to make them more usable. And their customer support is fantastic. I have gotten to know some of their team so well that I feel like they are more friends than business associates.

Cons

As would be expected with a product that is basically in a beta stage, there have been lots of bugs and issues along the way. That has been frustrating at times. But the Faithlife team has been responsive to most of the issues we've encountered and usually gets them fixed on a timely basis.

Software to Help Equip the Church in the Digital Age

The people at Faithlife are extremely helpful when needing assistance. The software is allowing us to engage people beyond Sunday and to connect with a generation that has grown up with technology.

Pros

The suite of products and services that come with Faithlife Equip are tightly integrated and streamlined to make it easier to keep content up to date and engage with church members, attendees and those seeking information about our church. The software works as an end to end solution throughout the worship service life cycle including posting a recording of the service to the website afterwards. It also provides features for online giving and managing people. Keep people informed with an integrated calendar and newsletters. Help engage people with group Bible reading plans and prayer lists.

Cons

The software is still in it's early stages at the time of this writing so some features are not yet available. Also the performance on it's mobile platform needs to be optimized for slower connections.

One stop shop

I have been a subscriber for Ministry Tracker for years now and have seen other sites that offer similar functionality but I haven't given any others a consideration because of how well it's served us. If there has ever been an issue or something I don't understand the customer service is amazing! I'm super greatful for this site, the service and the time it saves me with ease. Darren Gogolan

Pros

texting; info hub; connection to my calendar; events planning; online payment function;

Cons

I would love for the email functionality to be updated. I don't have much options with configuration on there with pictures and such. (ex. pics cannot be put next to each other only above or below)

Ministry Tracker Review

Great value. Easy to use. Some features aren't user friendly. The biggest downside for us is people's email getting blacklisted and marked "do not email" without our knowledge, so our email subscribers stop receiving email without their knowledge.

Pros

Easy to use, excellent value

Cons

Some features aren't very user friendly and I have to create a "work-around" in order to meet my needs

It’s a no-brainer really.

Overall, I love it. The majority of our congregation is using many different features. They enjoy the Faithlife TV and the lessons that are available.

Pros

Ease of use is the number one this for me. We are a small church with a lot of older generation folks. Yet they are amazed at how easy it is to run the slides on Proclaim for instance. And those that want to dig further, the learning curve is minimal. I really love how well everything syncs. From Proclaim to the Faithlife groups and financial stuff. I really could go on but I don’t have time and you would eventually get bored anyway. This really is a no-brainer. Take the leap. You won’t be sorry.

Cons

I am already a Logos user. So when I heard that Equip offered a license for our pastor I was excited for him. However, he was unimpressed. When he showed me what he has access to it made sense. So I am bummed for him.

Great product. Needs more functionality

Ministry Tracker is a great product with great customer service. They have added many new features over the past few years. However, some of their features such as event registration, still lack any substance to add in specialized questions, conditional logic, etc as many other management software services do.

Pros

Ease of use. Access on the web.

Cons

Registration is lacking. The mobile site doesn't have near the functionality of the website including the ability to use texting and communication features.

review from fumc lamesa tx

Ministry tracker makes it so simple to organize information. I love being able to text my students and parents without having to scroll through a long list of contacts. The only problem for us is the price. it is quite expensive for us to pay for this program every month and we dont use all the features. It would be nice to have a subscription that was cheaper and only covered the features we needed. I recommend this program to every one I know in ministry!

Pros

The ability to text my students

Cons

The price

Ministry Tracker is fantastic! I give it my highest recommendation.

Pros

It's easy to use, has tons and tons of functionality. It's designed from the ground up to make administration of my ministry life easier. In addition, the tech support is easily the best I have ever received from any product. I can't say enough good about Ministry Tracker. I've been in youth ministry for more than 20 years and I wouldn't do it without this software.

Cons

There is nothing about this product that I don't like! It makes my job in ministry easier in every way.

I Would Recommend Faithlife Equip to Any Church

This made the difference in our time and in our worship service. It saved time preparing the presentation / worship service, made the worship service one continuous presentation (a good thing), and then allowed the automatic recording and uploading of sermons and podcasts afterwards. We cannot recommend Faithlife Equip enough.

Pros

Faithlife Equip combines easy-to-use and maintain website hosting with Proclaim and a host of other functions at an incredible price. Faithlife Equip saved us money and a great deal of time. We were able to combine separate functions of: an easy to design and maintain church website, church communication (we're still learning that, but newsletters, online church member collaboration), church calendar, sermon recording and presentation on our website, presentation software that includes the easy importing of Bible verses from the version(s) of your choice, importing song lyrics, church groups, free Bible software for church members, free Christian videos for church members, etc. all in one very inexpensive package.

Cons

Overall, we were very happy with this package. The presentation software took some time to learn, not because it was so hard as we were so used to PowerPoint (and it is unlike PowerPoint, but has many other features). There are a large number of functions and features that just take time to learn, but there is no rush or hurry to use any of them, if and when one chooses to do so.

A ministry must!

I have been using ministry tracker for eight years now. It has been valuable to track our students and to make sure that we are doing our best to reach out to all students. It does take some time to set up the database, but when you have done that it is easy to add new students in.

Pros

It gives clear numbers on growth

Cons

I wish you could call/text through a phone function and automatically record it as a contact.

Best Membership Software

We have shopped around for other membership tracking platforms, and I really think Ministry Tracker is the best. This secure cloud based permissions managed platform is easy to use and to personalize to the needs of your ministry. Attendance, giving, events, and texting are some of the features I appreciate, along with being able to level up every student's grade with one click and create Smart Groups that are integrated with attendance. We have been using Ministry Tracker for 10 years and their costs, (cheaper than every other platform I have seen) have not gouged or inflated as their platform's capacity has expanded. Do yourself and your church a favor by using Ministry Tracker

Pros

Smart Groups, permissions managed, Mass Grade leveling up, intuitive, easy specific reports generating, Texting

Cons

could use an app, and our accountant wanted more out of the money tracking

Lead pastor

We don't like the opening interface or tab system. Wish there was a better way to have opening graph.

Pros

Financial

Cons

Wish it kept groups and people better. Easier to navigate. Easier to detail next steps.

Long time user...big fan

I have been using this software since around 2010 and use it regularly. The feature I use the most is the database for contacting students and communicating with parents. The fact that this software keeps updating and the customer service is a live person every-time. In rated features and functions a little low because they are a little bit difficult to setup with multi-day events and scheduling people and resources. I know that they are working on this though. I wish that the site was a little more sleek and had a more appealing skin...but not a deal breaker. Our church is considering using online giving and although we don't use this I know that it is available.

Pros

Customer sevice

Cons

The look and event planning

Using for 10+ Years

I've been very pleased with MinistryTracker. We use it to oversee a youth ministry with over 1,000 students in our database, including alumni. We can keep track of pretty much everything. The software even enables us to create automatic labels with the students' names, grade, & school when they check in! Customer service is responsive & has even followed through with some of my suggestions.

Pros

Many features, label check in, ability to upload documents

Cons

There needs to a better way to keep track of prices for event registration. Not everyone pays the same for each trip (e.g., a ski trip), but you have to start off with a set price & then add discounts & things like that to get it to 0 for a student. Better to have an individual price each student has to pay based on his/her options & then use that.

Wonderful Software!

We have been using Ministry Tracker for a few years now and love how easy it is and all of the features it gives you.

Pros

Ease of Access

Cons

It does not sync with ChimpMail so I have to enter my email addresses in both databases.

Incredibly all-inclusive software for your church

FANTASTIC customer service. In fact, it's one of the most responsive customer service organizations I have dealt with. What you get for the price is unbelievable. Particularly for a smaller church.

Pros

This software has changed the way we do business in our church. We used to use a wide range of different products (each with their own price tag) for the same applications that we now use Equip for. It has saved us money as well since the combined cost of the other programs exceeded the cost of Faithlife. AND, it adds even more capability for our congregation through Logos Bible Software, FaithlifeTV, Mobile Education courses, and our Faithlife community app.

Cons

We have been using it since the beta version. Occasionally there were quirks that would pop up from time to time but they are fixed quickly. There have been some features that would be useful now but are not yet available. However, the company is always open to new ideas and implementing new things.

Great System

MinistryTracker (MT) is an incredible solution for managing all the parts of ministry. Its tabbed layout makes it easy to move to each module easily and the redesigned pages group useful and related fields together. MT is robust and provide top-of-the-line communications tools, reporting capabilities and self-service portal. I can delegate management to specific workers using the granular security settings and take MT on the go with the mobile rendering on phones and tablets. Our children and youth ministry is becoming more efficient as we expend the use of MT in our daily work in our church. MT handles the administrative work exceptionally well, allowing us to focus on service children and their families. It may sound cliche, but I attest that MT is a blessing. It is worth every dollar! I am a youth pastor at my local church, but I am also a business systems analyst, therefore, I am reviewing on a personal ministerial level, as well as professional technical level. Compared to other products you get all you need and more in MT.

Pros

It is loaded with features and like cloud-based products we get all the latest updates at no additional cost.

Cons

No official mobile app. currently available in mobile version and desktop version. However, the mobile version works well.

MinistryTracker helps support ministry work

The folks at MinistryTracker have been great supporters of our ministry! We received great assistance with the transition. The system helps us a great deal in our communication with various groups, teams and the entire church. Our weekly use to post contributions and produce reports is well liked by our team of dedicated workers. They have made comments about the speed and ease of the data entry. We have used the system to produce a printed directory AND folks have access to see the information with a login to the user side. We would highly recommend the use of MinistryTracker.

Pros

Communication with groups, teams and the entire church We use this to manage the use of our facilities and post the calendar on our public website. Contribution records are easy to use and produce reports. Support folks are very helpful and responsive.

Cons

The giving statement format produces long reports, which we have adapted once we did the download.

An Essential Tool for Ministry in a Digital Age

I have used MinistryTracker for several years and it has become a really great assistant to many of our office and administrative tasks. It allows us to do everything we need to do (contact, mailing, reports, communication) without hiring an additional part-time office position. This software is well worth the money. The customer service is incredible (people not recordings) and once you have entered your data properly there is virtually nothing MinistryTracker cannot assist with.

Pros

search options when creating reports. customizability of fields. attendance tracking is great.

Cons

it takes quite a bit of time to learn how to navigate and to figure out where the various components are in the software.

This is How We Run Our Church

I've been a MinistryTracker subscriber since the very beginning and I have been extremely satisfied with their service. I'm able to get information about our church members on my computer, on my phone and on my table through their web interface. The reporting is extremely helpful and accurate. I would recommend this product to anyone who is looking for a church management package.

Pros

The ease of access and the simplicity of the product.

Cons

The church directory isn't really what we'd like it to be, so that's been a struggle.

Essential Organizational Program

Ministry Tracker is a life saver. It helps me as a secretary to easily access members of the church whom I need to contact. I love how I can send texts using this program as well. I can easily make directories for our leaders in the church and it allows me to print labels for mailing. I highly recommend Ministry Tracker to anyone in ministry.

Pros

Quick access to contact information, easy to use, ability to make labels and directories, ability to text, ability to create groups

Cons

It takes a little time to switch between creating families and personal pages. It would be helpful to more easily enter this information on a single page.

Ministry Tracker has helped us make great annual reports.

We started Ministry Tracker about a year ago when it took us hours to get our attendance, group and event numbers together for our church conference's annual report. It became stressful for many on our staff. This year we had the numbers for youth and children's ministries in a matter of minutes. it has been very validating for me personally as I look back on the year and see not only how many events we organized but how many lives we touched with prayers that God's love has been seen through us.

Pros

Love the reports and reliability of the software. Also - the staff are GREAT whenever I need to call with a question.

Cons

I often wish the system were a little more intuitive so I didn't have to trouble shoot or guess how to set up things the way we need them. I also wish it were easier to set up families in a more streamlined way. When I add a new youth when taking attendance, I often have to log back in before I add the regular kids. I may be missing an easier way, but it's a little awkward the way it's initially set up.