Most teams are running four tools. We would rather you ran one.
Planning sits in one app, the charts in another, the screen in a third — and the hour you are actually playing usually has no tool at all. Songware is the one that covers all four corners, and this page says honestly where it does not win.
Kept accurate on purpose.
Competitor features re-checked September 7, 2026. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will change it — this is a small world and everyone talks.
| Songware | Planning Center | OnSong | BandHelper | WorshipTools | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | |||||
| iOS · iPadOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Windows · macOS · Linux | Yes | No | No | No | Presenter only |
| Browser, nothing installed | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| While you are playing | |||||
| Synchronised live session | Yes | Partly | Partly | Yes | On Pro |
| Transposes the whole team at once | Yes | Per player | Per player | Partly | On Pro |
| Hand leadership to another player | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Song requests from the band, mid-set | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Getting songs in, and out | |||||
| AI import from photos, PDFs, a ZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| ChordPro · MusicXML · iReal | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Lyrics on a second screen | Yes | No | No | No | Presenter only |
| Audio takes recorded onto a song | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Where we do not win | |||||
| Volunteer scheduling and rostering | No | Yes | No | Partly | Yes |
| MIDI, backing tracks, light cues | No | No | Partly | Yes | On Pro |
| Licensed song catalogue | No — by design | Via SongSelect | No | No | Via SongSelect |
Nobody on this page is bad software.
They are good at different things. Here is when you should keep using them, in the words we would use in a conversation.
Planning Center
The standard for church administration, and better than us at every part of it — rostering volunteers, rehearsal audio and stems, the rest of the modules. Music Stand puts the charts on an iPad or an Android tablet and Services LIVE shows the team which item the service is on; but each player transposes their own chart, nobody changes the key for the whole band mid-song, and there is no desktop app, no projection and no chart reader in a browser. It plans the service; it does not run the stage. Plenty of teams keep it and add Songware for the hour the band is actually playing.
Cost is the other half: Services is free for five team members, then priced by headcount, and Music Stand is another $5 a month on top. What looks like $15 rarely stays $15, and for a church outside the US it is often out of reach entirely.
OnSong
Genuinely the best chart reader in the category — ChordPro, Nashville numbers, auto-scroll, an enormous loyal base. If everyone in your band has an iPhone or an iPad, it is a fair fight and you should try both.
The catch is one word: iOS. The moment your drummer shows up with an Android, it stops being a team tool.
BandHelper
A serious tool for working bands with a rig: MIDI triggering, backing tracks, light cues per song, solid sync between members. If your show is automated, it is ahead of us and we are not pretending otherwise.
For a band that just needs charts everyone can read, its interface is showing its age, and there is no AI import or lyric projection.
WorshipTools
Five free products — Presenter, Charts, Planning, Community and Rehearse — that together cover more of the church than we do, at a price that is hard to argue with. Charts reads ChordPro and PDFs on iOS, Android and the web, a leader can change the key on every connected device, and Presenter on a Mac or a PC does the screen, with a stage display and a phone remote. If your church wants one vendor for the office, the stage and the wall, try it.
Read the Pro column before you count on the free tier: connecting devices in Charts, the stage display, the phone remote and the MIDI actions are all Pro. Presenter is macOS and Windows only, the chart reader has no desktop or Linux build, there is no AI import, no leader handover and no song requests — and it is built for a church, not for a covers band.
ProPresenter · EasyWorship
Real production software, and the right answer for a room with cameras, a broadcast and a dedicated operator. Songware’s presentation does lyrics, media and a countdown from the set you already have.
If a licence is on your list mostly so somebody can put words on a wall on Sunday, take that line out of the budget and try ours first.
- Not a competitor
CCLI SongSelect
SongSelect supplies licensed content; Songware supplies the workflow around your own charts and arrangements. We are not a catalogue, we do not host or distribute anyone’s copyrighted lyrics, and we never will — your library is whatever you put in it. If you hold a CCLI licence, keep it. The two sit side by side.
The only test that settles it is one rehearsal.
Open the web app on whatever is in your hand, build one set, and run it with the people in the room. Nothing to install for any of them.
Open the web appProduct names belong to their owners. Nothing here is an affiliation or an endorsement.