Small Groups
Planning Center Groups vs. Breeze, Tithely, and an intelligence layer
Planning Center Groups, Breeze, and Tithely all do the core job well: a roster, a weekly attendance mark, and a way to message the group. Planning Center is strongest if you already run its other tools, and Breeze (now part of Tithely Church Management in 2025) wins on flat-rate simplicity. The real gap is not the roster. It is whether anyone connects group participation to the rest of a person's life at your church.
I pastored for years before I built software, and I ran groups in three of these tools at different points. Every one of them could tell me who was on a roster. None of them told me, without my digging for it, that the woman who stopped coming to her group had also paused her giving and missed her serving rotation.
What is the difference between Planning Center Groups, Breeze, and Tithely?
Planning Center Groups is the groups module inside the larger Planning Center suite, priced by the number of members in a group. Breeze is a flat-rate, all-in-one platform now folded into Tithely Church Management. Tithely is the broader suite built around giving that now includes Breeze. All three handle rosters, attendance, and group messaging competently. They differ on pricing model and on how much else lives in the same login.
If you already run Planning Center for check-ins or services, Groups is the obvious choice, because your people and households already live there. Breeze appeals to smaller churches that want one predictable monthly price and a short learning curve. Tithely is the natural pull if giving is your center of gravity and you want the rest under the same roof.
| Tool | Pricing model | Best fit | Groups strength | Honest limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planning Center Groups | Priced by members; free up to 15 | Churches already in the PCO suite | Deep ties to check-ins, people, and households | Cost climbs as you add more PCO products |
| Breeze | Flat monthly rate, all-in-one | Small to mid churches wanting simple | Easy for volunteer leaders to learn | Now transitioning into Tithely Church Management |
| Tithely Church Management | Suite pricing, giving-centered | Churches anchored on Tithely giving | One login across giving and groups | Groups is newer than its giving roots |
| Scout | $69 / $99 / $199 per month by size | Teams that want groups connected to everything else | Group participation read alongside giving, serving, prayer | Newer; guided import for non-PCO tools |
I left Scout in that table because this is a buying question and it would be dishonest to hide it. Planning Center, Breeze, and Tithely are all solid at the roster. What I built solves a different problem, which I will get to.
Is Planning Center Groups good for small groups?
Yes, especially if Planning Center already runs the rest of your church. Groups inherits your existing people and households, leaders take attendance from their phones, and the data sits next to your check-ins. For a church already paying for Planning Center, adding Groups is the path of least resistance and the one I would point most pastors toward first.
The catch is the pricing shape. Planning Center bills per product, so Groups is one more line on a bill that grows as you add Check-Ins, Services, and Giving. Within Groups itself, the free tier covers up to 15 members across unlimited groups, then you pay as a group grows past that. That is not a knock on the quality. It is a budgeting reality worth naming before you commit. If groups is the only Planning Center product you would use, the math gets less friendly, and a flat-rate tool like Breeze starts to look reasonable. I wrote more about weighing the whole suite in my Planning Center alternatives breakdown.
Should I use Breeze or Tithely for small groups?
For most small churches, Breeze and Tithely are converging into one answer. Breeze became part of Tithely Church Management in 2025, so the practical question is less "which product" and more "which experience inside the same company." Breeze is the simpler, flat-rate roster, and Tithely is the wider suite that now contains it.
Breeze earns its reputation for being easy. A volunteer group leader can learn it in an afternoon, and the flat monthly price means you are not doing arithmetic every time you add a group. Tithely makes sense if giving is already your hub and you want groups under the same login. On the giving side, it is worth knowing the fees: Tithely ACH runs 1% plus 30 cents, while Planning Center's ACH is 0% plus 30 cents. Card rates vary by processor and plan, so confirm those directly before you decide. If you want the full picture on what online giving actually costs, I broke it down in a separate post.
Can I track small group attendance across these tools?
Yes. Planning Center, Breeze, and Tithely all let a leader mark who attended each week and keep that history on the group record. The friction is not whether it is possible. It is whether your volunteer leaders actually do it on a Tuesday night, and whether anyone reviews the no-shows before three weeks have passed.
I want to be careful with the word "attendance" here, because it carries a lot of weight in church software. What these tools track is group participation, the marks a leader makes on a roster. That is different from a universal headcount of everyone who walked through your doors on Sunday. Most of what matters pastorally lives in participation: who showed up to their group, who served, who gave, who filled out a prayer card. I think that distinction matters enough that I wrote a whole post on participation versus attendance.
To get reliable group attendance out of any of these tools, the steps are the same:
- Assign each group a leader who owns the roster.
- Give that leader a mobile-friendly way to mark attendance during or right after the meeting.
- Set a rhythm (weekly is ideal) so the data does not pile up.
- Have a staff person or coordinator review gaps every couple of weeks.
- Decide who follows up when someone goes quiet, and by when.
Steps one through three, every tool here does well. Steps four and five are where churches fall down, because the roster sits in one tab and giving sits in another and nobody connects them.
What does an intelligence layer add on top of a group roster?
A roster answers "who is on the list." An intelligence layer answers "who is pulling back across everything at once." It connects group participation to giving, serving, check-ins, and prayer requests on one person record, so a leader sees a single pattern instead of five separate lists that nobody cross-references.
This is the one place I will name what I built. In Planning Center, Breeze, or Tithely, a person's group participation lives in the groups module, their giving lives in giving, their serving lives in scheduling. Each is fine on its own. The trouble is that real life does not announce itself in one module. Someone stops coming to group, then their giving lapses, then they miss their serving rotation. In separated tools, that is three small things nobody flags. On one connected record, it is one person who needs a phone call.
Scout reads participation across serving, giving, groups, forms, prayer, and check-ins on a single Person record, then writes it out in plain pastoral language: this person showed up to group every week for a year, gave monthly, and in the last six weeks dropped off the group roster, stopped giving, and missed two serving slots. We mark that "Needs attention" so a coordinator sees it without hunting. That is the layer a plain roster cannot give you, because a plain roster only knows about the roster. For more on catching the people who slip between modules, I wrote a post on exactly that.
If you are leaving Planning Center, our team imports your people, your gifts, and your groups for you, and Tithely and Breeze are guided imports we run alongside you. Pricing is $69, $99, or $199 a month by church size, with about two months free if you prepay annually, and a 30-day trial with no card. I would still tell you the truth I told above: if you only need a roster and you already run Planning Center, Groups is a fine answer.
Frequently asked questions
Is Planning Center Groups free?
Planning Center Groups has a free tier that covers up to 15 members across unlimited groups, then moves to paid plans as a group grows past that. The free version is real and usable for a church running a handful of small groups, which is why so many smaller churches start there before they ever pay anything.
What is the difference between Breeze and Tithely for groups?
Breeze became part of Tithely Church Management in 2025, so they are increasingly the same platform. Breeze is the simpler, flat-rate roster experience; Tithely Church Management is the broader suite that now folds Breeze in alongside giving and other tools under one login.
Can I track small group attendance in church management software?
Yes. Planning Center, Breeze, and Tithely all let a group leader mark who showed up each week and store that history on the group. The difference between tools is mostly how easy that is for a volunteer leader to do on their phone, and whether anyone reviews the gaps afterward.
Do I need separate software for small groups if I already use Planning Center?
No. If you already run Planning Center, Groups is the natural add-on and your people, households, and check-ins already live there. Adding a second groups tool usually creates a sync problem instead of solving one, unless that second tool is reading across your other systems too.
What does an intelligence layer add on top of a group roster?
A roster tells you who is on the list. An intelligence layer connects that group participation to giving, serving, check-ins, and prayer requests on one person record, so when someone goes quiet across several of those at once, a leader sees it as one pattern instead of five disconnected lists.
Nic Moore is a pastor and the founder of Scout. He has personally run small groups in three of the four tools compared here, and still owes a few group leaders an apology for how late he reviewed the attendance.