Choosing between Amplify Giving and Planning Center Giving comes down to donor experience, recurring gifts, reporting, and how much implementation support your team wants. Compare both platforms, and see how Amplify Giving — Ministry Brands’ dedicated church giving software — pairs multi-channel giving and fund-level reporting with guided implementation and donor import support.
Illustrative representation of Amplify. Actual product interface may vary.
Head to head
Both Amplify Giving and Planning Center Giving help churches modernize how they collect and manage donations, but they differ in the kind of experience, support, and ecosystem each one emphasizes. Use this overview to compare the giving capabilities, pricing approach, implementation model, and transition considerations most likely to shape your decision.
Amplify Giving is designed for churches that want giving tools connected to practical finance and donor-management needs, with support for online giving, recurring gifts, reporting, donor transition planning, and implementation guidance. It sits inside the broader Ministry Brands ecosystem alongside church management, accounting, mobile app, and website tools.
Planning Center Giving is designed for churches using or considering the Planning Center ecosystem, especially teams that want a self-serve giving module with published pricing, donor records connected to Planning Center People, and giving activity managed inside that environment. It also publishes U.S. processing fees for online donations.
Guided implementation and donor import support vs. a self-serve setup model with public help resources.
A broader set of payment types and giving channels vs. publicly listed card and ACH processing.
Quote-based pricing shaped around your church vs. published donation-volume tiers.
Side by side
A side-by-side view of the giving capabilities churches evaluate most, from donor experience and fund designation to payment options and implementation support.
| Capability | Amplify Giving | Planning Center Giving | Key Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donor experience | Online, mobile, and text giving options, with customizable giving forms and donor account access | Giving through the Church Center app and web experience, with donor access to giving history and statements | Amplify Giving offers multi-channel giving with implementation support. Planning Center centers the donor experience in Church Center. |
| Recurring gifts | Recurring giving supported, with donor import support available during implementation | Recurring donations supported in Church Center; donors and administrators can create and manage recurring gifts | Both support recurring gifts. Compare transition support, donor communication, and payment method handling. |
| Reporting and funds | Giving reports, donor activity, fund tracking, exports, and reporting visibility for church finance teams | Reports and filters for donors, funds, campus, pledge campaigns, payouts, and donation types | Both offer reporting. Compare reconciliation, payout visibility, exports, and reporting depth. |
| Payment options | Supports multiple payment types, including cards, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, crypto, and Anonymous Giving | Publicly lists credit and debit card and ACH processing for U.S. online donations | Amplify Giving lists more giving methods in this comparison. Planning Center publicly lists card and ACH processing. |
| Pricing and fees | Quote-based pricing through Ministry Brands | Published subscription tiers based on donation volume, plus U.S. processing fees | Planning Center publishes usage tiers. Amplify Giving pricing reflects church size, workflow, implementation, and support needs. |
| Implementation | Guided implementation and donor import support available | Self-serve trial, public help resources, and donation history import tools | Amplify Giving offers assisted implementation. Planning Center emphasizes self-serve setup and public documentation. |
Comparison reflects publicly available positioning as of publication. Confirm current capabilities and pricing directly with each vendor.
Why Amplify Giving
Churches often compare giving platforms when donor experience, reporting, reconciliation, or support needs have changed. For finance and stewardship leaders, the question is not simply whether a platform can process online donations — it is whether the tool supports the way the church receives gifts, tracks funds, answers finance questions, and guides donors through a smooth giving experience.
Feature by feature
Compare the giving features that shape donor experience, finance workflows, reporting, and platform transitions.
Amplify Giving supports recurring gifts so donors can complete a one-time setup and give on an ongoing schedule. Donor import support is part of the implementation experience, helping churches plan how recurring giver relationships are handled during a giving-platform transition. Planning Center Giving supports recurring donations through Church Center, where donors can create recurring gifts from the app or web experience and administrators can create or edit recurring gifts from a donor profile. Churches moving from another platform should plan how donors will update or re-establish recurring gifts when needed.
Amplify Giving supports online giving, mobile-friendly giving experiences, customizable donation pages, text giving, recurring gifts, donor account access, and multiple payment types, including cards, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, crypto, and Anonymous Giving. Planning Center Giving gives donors a Church Center app and web experience where they can give, view donation history, and download statements, and publicly lists U.S. credit and debit card and ACH processing for online donations.
Amplify Giving gives church staff visibility into donor activity, transactions, recurring gifts, reports, exports, and fund-related giving data, including views that support multi-campus or multi-fund reporting needs. Planning Center Giving publicly describes reporting by donors, funds, campus, pledge campaigns, payouts, and donation types, and offers payout reports that help churches reconcile deposits with bank accounts or general ledger records.
Amplify Giving pricing is provided through a Ministry Brands quote. The platform supports multiple payment types, and churches should evaluate the full cost of the relationship, including platform fees, processing fees, implementation support, donor import support, and reporting needs. Planning Center publicly lists U.S. processing fees for online donations, including credit and debit card and ACH bank transfer rates, and describes subscription pricing based on the number of donations tracked in Giving each month.
Ease of use and implementation
Switching church giving software affects donors, staff, finance workflows, and reporting habits, so ease of use matters during setup and after launch. Amplify Giving emphasizes implementation support and donor transition planning rather than a purely self-serve setup, while Planning Center documents a self-serve model with public help resources, a free trial, and donation history import tools.
Use the demo process to review onboarding, staff training, giving data import, recurring donor planning, reporting needs, and post-launch support before making a decision.
Churches switching giving platforms should plan recurring donor communication carefully, since saved payment details and active recurring gift setup may require donor action.
Churches with lean staff may value a self-serve setup. Churches with complex giving data or active recurring donors should plan the transition carefully and ask what support is included.
Integrations and ecosystem
Amplify Giving can connect with relevant Ministry Brands products to support giving workflows, reporting, donor records, mobile engagement, websites, and accounting. That helps churches see how giving fits into daily ministry operations without expanding the comparison beyond giving software.
Donation records connect with church management records to reduce manual data entry.
Giving data supports reconciliation and finance workflows.
Giving connects to a church’s branded digital experience.
Online, mobile, text, kiosk, and in-person giving use cases.
Plain-language questions return summaries and visual insights.
Planning Center
Planning Center Giving connects with Planning Center People and the Church Center experience. For finance and accounting workflows, churches should review available exports, payout reports, API capabilities, and any third-party tools already used by the finance team.
Pricing and value
When comparing church giving software costs, look beyond subscription fees to what is included, what support is available, and how much staff time the platform requires. Amplify Giving uses a quote-based pricing model, giving churches space to evaluate the full relationship alongside platform needs, implementation support, donor import support, reporting requirements, support access, and payment processing. Planning Center uses a published Giving pricing model and U.S. processing-fee structure, so churches should compare listed tiers, processing fees, included features, donation volume, and staff time against the full scope of support and services they need.
Key questions to ask any giving software provider before you compare total cost.
Who each fits
The right fit depends on your current systems, staff capacity, donor expectations, and giving goals.
Switching
Churches comparing Planning Center Giving with Amplify Giving often want clarity on the same transition questions. A giving-platform switch should be planned around donor history, recurring gifts, saved payment methods, fund designations, exports, staff training, and donor communication.
Churches should ask how donor records, gift history, fund designations, and payment details are handled during implementation. Amplify Giving’s donor import support gives churches a guided path for discussing these questions before making the change.
Recurring gifts require careful planning in any platform change. Ask each provider what can be imported, what donors may need to update, and how the church should communicate the transition.
Compare onboarding, training, support channels, timelines, and post-launch help before committing to a migration plan.
Customer proof
After switching to Amplify Giving, Glorious Light Church saw a 90% increase in donations after introducing online giving through the platform.
The customer support has been phenomenal! There are several different ways to learn about every aspect of the system. There are tutorial videos, expert lead video training sessions, articles for every aspect of the system, and a customer service phone line for more immediate issues. The ability to reach a person and speak to them individually about a question or issue is a rare gift today.
Ministry Brands’ solutions allowed us to have people give who have never given before. I don’t know that there’s a better place for small churches.
What I really like and appreciate is your customer service. We had some things we had to learn and understand, and the people who helped us with that were very patient and helpful in making that happen. We were able to get up and running quickly because of that.
Moving to a single software platform just makes it easy to invite other people in to assist us and help us. It also takes away a lot of the headaches we had in terms of the different deadlines we had for when our contracts renewed and keeping up with our different payments. It’s really simplified our lives in so many ways. If anybody’s on the fence, get a demo. I promise you you’ll be happy with what you see.
Answers
Start with the giving workflow: donor experience, recurring gifts, fund designation, reports, payment options, pricing, and implementation support. Then review the details that matter most to your finance team and donors.
Planning Center prices Giving by published usage tiers, while Amplify Giving pricing is shaped around the church’s giving workflow, implementation needs, and support requirements. Churches should compare subscription costs, processing fees, implementation support, reporting needs, donor import support, and staff time rather than subscription price alone.
Recurring donor transitions depend on the platforms involved, stored payment data, donor permissions, and the implementation process. Amplify Giving includes donor import support, while Planning Center supports recurring donations through Church Center and documents donation history import tools. Churches should plan donor communication before any platform change.
Ask whether reports show giving by donor, fund, date range, campus or location, payout, and donation type. Also ask how reports export and how easily the team can reconcile gifts with accounting records.
Ask to see the donor giving flow, recurring gift setup, fund designation, reporting, payout or deposit visibility, exports, implementation plan, support options, and pricing assumptions. A good demo should answer both donor-experience and finance-workflow questions.
See how Amplify Giving compares to Planning Center Giving and explore the features, integrations, and workflows that matter most to your church. Request a personalized demo to discuss your giving needs and migration questions.