Givebear vs Planning Center Giving. Kiosks, fees and funds, side by side.

Compare Planning Center Giving with Givebear for church donations, donation portals, kiosks, recurring gifts, events, and reporting. See the side-by-side comparison, where Planning Center Giving still fits, and how to migrate to Givebear without breaking donation links.

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Side by side.

Capability	Givebear	Planning Center Giving
Native Planning Center Ecosystem	No	Yes
Dedicated Tap-to-Donate Kiosks	Yes	No
Public Donation Portals	Yes	Basic
Event Ticketing	Yes	Via Registrations Module
Automated donor receipts	Yes	Yes

When Planning Center Giving is the better fit

Planning Center Giving fits churches that already run people, services, and groups in Planning Center and want giving in the same database.

Run your own numbers

The kiosk cost calculator and the platform fee calculator work from your device count and giving volume.

After the gift. Where each one lands.

Planning Center Giving page with a donations dashboard showing batches, fees, and recurring gifts — Planning Center's public Giving page, captured August 2026, showing its donation reporting inside the church database. View the public source

Givebear transactions: each gift with its donor, fund, amount and source, kiosk or web — The Givebear ledger: kiosk and online gifts in one list, each with its donor and fund.

The full comparison.

Last updated June 2026

Planning Center Giving lives inside the Planning Center church database and is priced from $0 for 10 donations a month up to $239/mo for unlimited (verified June 2026). It has no kiosk; in-person support centers on batches and check scanning. Givebear adds a walk-up donation kiosk and fuller public giving pages. Churches committed to Planning Center can keep it for the database and add Givebear in the lobby.

Key takeaways

Planning Center Giving processes cards at a flat 2.15% + $0.30 and ACH at $0.30.
Event ticketing in Planning Center runs through its Registrations module.
Running both systems means year-end statements come from two places unless all giving moves.

Who this is for: Churches already using or evaluating Planning Center; Church treasurers, executive pastors, and finance volunteers who reconcile weekly offerings, building funds, and year-end giving statements, weighing Planning Center Giving against Givebear

Planning Center Giving is a church giving module. In the comparison below, Planning Center Giving has the edge on native Planning Center ecosystem, and the rest comes down to cost and how in-person giving is handled.

Where Planning Center Giving is the better choice

Planning Center Giving offers native Planning Center ecosystem, and Givebear does not. If staff use that every week, leaving Planning Center Giving means replacing it with another tool or going without.

Where Givebear is different

Givebear fits churches that want a walk-up lobby kiosk and fuller public giving and campaign pages, whether alongside Planning Center or in place of its giving module.

Compared with Planning Center Giving, Givebear's kiosk for the church foyer is a 21.5-inch touchscreen with a built-in Stripe card reader, sold once at $999 to $1,099 (wall mount or battery floor stand) with no per-kiosk software subscription.

What to test before you decide

Score both platforms on Planning Center ecosystem dependency, dedicated fundraising page quality, kiosk and in-person giving support, public campaign and event workflows, and receipt and donor reporting needs. Use last Easter or an ordinary Sunday as the test case: set up the same funds and receipt wording in a free Givebear account and check whether it produces the report your board asked for from Planning Center Giving.

How do you switch from Planning Center Giving to Givebear?

Decide whether giving must remain inside the church management system or whether a dedicated fundraising platform can own donor-facing experiences.

Givebear imports contacts and past gifts from a CSV, so the Planning Center Giving export is the first step. Create your funds in Givebear before importing the Planning Center Giving file, since fund names in it do not create funds on their own. Saved cards move only if Planning Center Giving and Stripe support a transfer; otherwise recurring donors restart their gift on your new page, so announce the change a few weeks ahead.

Before cutover, list every place a donor can reach Planning Center Giving: website buttons, email footers, printed QR codes, and event pages. Repoint the ones you control; a printed code that sends donors to Planning Center Giving keeps working only as long as Planning Center Giving keeps that page up.

Practical use cases

Choose Givebear if you need dedicated tap-to-donate kiosks, which Planning Center Giving does not offer.
Stay with Planning Center Giving if your team depends on native Planning Center ecosystem.
Keep Planning Center Giving for online giving and add a Givebear kiosk for walk-up gifts, then decide after a season of both.

Common questions

Does Planning Center Giving support donation kiosks?

No. Planning Center Giving does not sell a donation kiosk, so walk-up gifts need a separate device and usually land in a separate report. Compared with Planning Center Giving, Givebear's kiosk for the church foyer is a 21.5-inch touchscreen with a built-in Stripe card reader, sold once at $999 to $1,099 (wall mount or battery floor stand) with no per-kiosk software subscription.

What is the best Planning Center Giving alternative?

It depends on what Planning Center Giving is not doing for you. If you need a walk-up donation kiosk, which Planning Center Giving lacks, Givebear has it in the same account as online giving. If your team relies on native Planning Center ecosystem, pick an alternative that also has it, or keep Planning Center Giving for that job.

Can I import my donors from Planning Center Giving?

Yes. Export contacts and gift history from Planning Center Giving as a CSV and import both into Givebear. Recurring gifts are separate: saved payment methods transfer only when Planning Center Giving and Stripe support it, so check that before you set a cutover date.

What does switching from Planning Center Giving to Givebear cost?

Givebear charges a flat platform fee from 1.9% to 5.9% depending on plan (one rate online, at kiosks, and on memberships), plus Stripe card processing at cost, with no setup fee and no monthly minimum. To compare with Planning Center Giving, run last year's gifts through both fee schedules and add any per-device or add-on fees each side charges; a Givebear kiosk is optional and only needed for walk-up giving.

Givebear covers donation portal, donation kiosks, campaign pages, event registration, automated receipts, donor records.

See Givebear next to Planning Center Giving.

Book a 30-minute walkthrough. Bring what you run on Planning Center Giving today and we will show the same setup in Givebear: funds, kiosk, receipts and reports.

Your funds, set up the way your treasurer reports them
Where a kiosk would go, and what it costs
The reports your board will actually see

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