Best apps for worship teams

Worship teams have a range of great apps at their disposal. A lot of apps do a lot of things really well – these guys have been in the space for a while. If you are in a worship team, apps like Planning Center, or PCO, or WorshipTeam.com are pretty much the two most widely used.

Planning Center

Planning Center is like the Salesforce of apps for the church. This might be a good thing or a bad thing. But most churches are happy to sign up for one app that manages website, payments, databases etc and also handles scheduling and managing teams.

Worship teams are unique in this because they require more than just scheduling. Other teams like media, or greeters etc just need to know when they are on. Worship teams however need to prepare. To practice.

It’s in this place where Planning Center falls short a bit. While the rest of the app super serves its audience, the practice app falls short. Way short.

I’ve been using the practice app in Planning Center for as long as it has existed. I’ve never really used it for practice. I just got the set list and then I’d head to YouTube to find the songs, or find it on Apple Music or what not.

The player is just not built for efficient practice and neither is what musicians expect. If I’m practicing guitar and I need to work on a specific part, I have to constantly aim the cursor at the right spot and click to reset the play head. Repeat this 4-10 times per section and it gets pretty tiresome.

If you don’t have an account to the app, then Planning Center is unusable. The only use is transactional.

Planning Center is a pay-per-seat.

WorshipTeam.com

WorshipTeam.com is an app dedicated for worship teams and perhaps offers a better solution from a setlist planning perspective. However, it does fall short when it comes to the meat – letting musicians practice.

I thought I had an account but alas it has expired so I do not have a screenshot. What WorshipTeam.com does well is to help the worship leader plan and prepare quickly. It does take the burden of song licensing and offers songs directly from publishers, ready to use.

WorshipTeam, like Planning Center, is a pay-per-seat.

However, the practice app is not too far off from the Planning Center version.

As with Planning Center, the usage is transactional. If you do not have a subscription, there is no other use or way to use WorshipTeam.com

WorshipTeam.AI

With WorshipTeam.ai, I solved the personal pains I had with both of the above apps. As a child of the 80s and a musician since the early 90s, I had the luxury of learning music by ear. Rewind, listen, learn, and repeat. Over and over again. It was easy enough. But yet painful, but worth it.

With WorshipTeam.ai, creating set lists is a breeze. Also, with AI, building your team is just 1-click. Oh, there is no pay-per-seat. Team members are unlimited.

When a team member signs up, they create a profile and add core competencies and instruments and also add black out dates. When it comes to building a Magic Setlist, AI automatically finds the musicians with the right instruments, and without black out dates and builds your starter band.

All you have to do is to edit or replace a team member or so.

With AI in the name, I have to say, I am not for AI in church and worship – especially when it affects the heart. WorshipTeam AI does not take over any of the heart of worship. It just does the grunt work for you.

The practice app is my favourite. It launches songs in a nice big wave form and allows you to create regions, name them and save them. Load the same song up 3 months later and it loads with your regions. With keyboard shortcuts, we get your hands back to your instrument quickly.

Regions help musicians, even the pros, learn songs in chunks and slowly build on the song. Loop a region and play along and nail it, then on to the next.

Without going too much into the details, WorshipTeam.ai has a host of other features that helps worship teams practice songs and prepare their hearts and show up ready to play and pray and lead.

Also, don’t have a subscription to WorshipTeam.ai? No problem. You can still use it to share your thoughts on worship, connect with other worship musicians and learn, teach, and grow.

The community part of WorshipTeam.ai is totally free. Leaders can even post gigs, find vetted talent, and users can apply for gigs and get paid right on the app. It’s only the setlist app that requires a paid subscription.

Check it out – sign up for free and join the early conversations!

Posted by Conrad Abraham

Hey there. I’m Conrad from Atlanta, Ga. I’ve a passion for worship, In fact, I’ve been worshiping before it was official – or before I accepted Jesus as the one true God and as my saviour.

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