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The best small group software for churches: an honest comparison
By Kyle @ Synodo · Updated 2026-10-19
The short answer: It depends on what groups need between Sundays: a church database’s groups module (Planning Center Groups, Realm) for sign-ups, GroupMe for chat, RightNow Media for video studies, or Synodo to run each group’s study, leader guides and follow-up.
Download the software checklist (print it or paste into a doc)
How do the main options compare?
| Tool | What it is | Strongest at | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planning Center Groups and Church Center | The groups part of Planning Center, the church database, with Church Center as the congregation’s app | Finding and joining groups, event sign-ups, attendance, group chat, and everything else in Planning Center: giving, check-ins, volunteers | How much help leaders get preparing and running the meeting itself |
| Realm | A church management system from ACS Technologies, with groups and the Realm Connect app | Groups inside the church database: attendance, leaders messaging their group, and church-wide reports | How much of the meeting itself it covers |
| RightNow Media | A subscription library of Christian video studies, with a Groups feature | Video Bible studies and small group curriculum, streamed to the whole church | It supplies the content; running groups around your own studies is not its focus |
| GroupMe | A general group chat app | Quick conversation in an app many people already have | No study, no attendance, and the church cannot see its groups |
| Synodo | Dedicated small group software | Running each group: the study as meetings, leaders-only guides, attendance and who to check on, homework and the group’s conversation | Not a church database: no giving or check-in, and no video library of its own |
There is no single best tool for every church. The right one is whichever covers the job your groups actually struggle with.
Which is best if we already use Planning Center?
Keep Planning Center as the database and Church Center as the front door. If groups only need to be found, joined and messaged, Planning Center Groups is enough. If leaders need a shared study, preparation members never see and help following up, add a small group tool that imports from Planning Center — Synodo does, by your own Planning Center tags.
Which is best for video-based studies?
RightNow Media, for the videos themselves. It is a library, so a church that wants groups to also have a leader’s guide, homework and attendance for each meeting often pairs it with a group tool and links the week’s video from the meeting.
Which is best for mentoring or discipleship groups?
A tool built around the meeting rather than the roster. Mentoring and discipleship need the most preparation per meeting and the closest follow-up, which is where a database groups module or a chat app gives the least help. Synodo was built for this, with a leaders-only guide for every meeting and pairing for one-on-one growth partners.
Is a free chat app good enough?
For a group that only needs to talk, often yes. It stops being enough when the church wants every group meeting around the same study, wants to know which groups are healthy, or loses a group’s history and members when the leader who started the chat steps down.
How should we decide?
- Write down the one job groups struggle with most — finding a group, preparing a meeting, following up, or keeping the conversation in one place — and judge every tool on that first.
- Ask whether it works with the church database you already have, and whether an import ever creates the same person twice.
- Ask how members hear about a message — push notification, email or text — and what happens for someone who never installs anything.
- Trial two real groups for a month, including one with a leader who would rather not learn anything new.
Doing this in Synodo
Synodo is dedicated small group software: the study written as meetings, a leaders-only guide for each one, attendance with who to check on, homework, and the group’s conversation, on a phone, tablet or computer. It works alongside Planning Center and is priced per church, for unlimited groups and people.