The Best Texting Integrations for Planning Center: Clearstream vs. Text In Church vs. Gloo
Planning Center has built-in texting — but if you need keywords, automated follow-up, or two-way conversations, you'll want one of these three platforms.
Your church members are more likely to read a text message than almost any other form of communication you send. Open rates for texting hover around 98%, compared to roughly 20% for email. That's not a marginal difference. That's the difference between your announcement actually reaching people and it sitting unread in a spam folder.
Planning Center does include a native texting option in People. You can send one-way text messages to any list for $5 per month plus $0.02 per credit. It works well for quick announcements to a specific group — a snow cancellation, a reminder about an upcoming event, a note to your small group leaders.
But here's where most churches hit a wall: Planning Center's built-in texting doesn't support text-to-join keywords, automated follow-up workflows, two-way conversations, subaccounts for different ministries, or the ability to push new contacts into a Planning Center Workflow based on a text interaction. If you want any of those things, you need a third-party texting platform.
The three most popular options that integrate with Planning Center are Clearstream, Text In Church, and Gloo. Each connects to your Planning Center People data differently, each has distinct strengths, and each fits a different church profile. Let's break them down.
Clearstream has a deep integration with Planning Center.
Clearstream: The Deepest Planning Center Integration
Clearstream has been a Planning Center integration partner since 2017 and has the closest relationship with PCO of any texting provider. In fact, Clearstream and Planning Center built their Add-On together — you can send and schedule texts directly from within Planning Center People without ever leaving the app.
What makes it stand out
Clearstream is the only texting platform that can create new People profiles and add them to a Planning Center Workflow when someone texts a keyword. That's a big deal for guest follow-up. A visitor texts "CONNECT" to your church number on Sunday morning, fills out a short digital connect card via text, and within seconds they have a profile in Planning Center People and are moving through your First-Time Guest workflow. No Monday morning data entry.
The integration also pulls existing member data from Planning Center in real time. If a known member texts your number, Clearstream looks up their phone number in PCO and syncs their name and email automatically. You never ask a regular attender to fill out a connect card they don't need.
For multi-campus churches, Clearstream can route responses based on a person's Campus ID in Planning Center. Everyone texts the same keyword, but each person gets a campus-specific response.
How to set it up
The person connecting the integration needs Editor, Admin, or Manager permissions in Planning Center. Log in to Clearstream, click Integrations, and click Connect under Planning Center. Authorize the connection, select the People Lists you want to sync, and configure your preferences (exclude child profiles, exclude inactive profiles, real-time syncing). Lists sync immediately and stay updated whenever they change in Planning Center.
For the Add-On, go to Planning Center Account Settings > Integrations and connect the Clearstream add-on. Once enabled, you'll see a "Send text with Clearstream Texting" option whenever you view a People List.
Pricing
Plans start at $29/month for 1,250 credits and one phone number, scaling up to $299/month for 20,000 credits and 11 phone numbers. All plans include unlimited email, all features, and NFC tap tag management. Church plants less than a year old can use Clearstream free for a full year. A 30-day free trial is available for everyone else.
Credits are consumed only by outgoing texts. Incoming texts and emails are free. Longer messages, emojis, and picture messages use more than one credit.
Best for
Churches that want the tightest possible integration with Planning Center. If you need to push guest data into PCO Workflows, route by campus, or send texts directly from within Planning Center, Clearstream is the clear choice.
A solid texting option with great templates and more.
Text In Church: Built for Guest Follow-Up
Text In Church was born out of a church plant, and it shows. The platform is laser-focused on helping churches connect with first-time guests and keep them coming back. It's used by over 17,000 church leaders and has a strong reputation for pre-built workflow templates that let you launch a guest follow-up system in minutes, not days.
What makes it stand out
Text In Church ships with ready-made automated workflow templates for guest follow-up, prayer requests, volunteer recruitment, and more. You don't need to build your text sequences from scratch — just customize the included messages to match your church's voice and you're running.
Every plan includes unlimited keywords and a local 10-digit phone number (not a toll-free number), which can feel more personal to recipients. Text In Church also offers "Talk In Church," a calling add-on that lets staff make calls from the church phone number using their personal cell phone. That's a nice touch for pastors who want to make a personal call without giving out their mobile number.
The Planning Center integration syncs your PCO People Lists and Groups into Text In Church groups. You can configure the sync to run nightly, weekly, on a specific schedule, or instantly when changes are detected in Planning Center. There's also a Planning Center Add-On that lets you send texts from within PCO People, similar to Clearstream's.
How to set it up
In Text In Church, go to Settings > Integrations and click Connect on Planning Center. Authorize access, then select the Lists or Groups you want to sync. Each synced list becomes a group in Text In Church. Set your sync schedule and optionally add keywords and workflows to each group.
For the Add-On, go to Planning Center Account Settings > Integrations, find Text In Church Messaging, and click Connect Add-On. Once connected, you can send texts from any People List using the "Send Text with Text In Church Messaging" option.
One important thing to know: Planning Center is the master database in this integration. If you edit a contact in Text In Church, the next sync will revert it to match what's in Planning Center. Always make changes in PCO.
Pricing
The Basic plan is $31/month (annual) or $37/month for 500 texts and one local number. Pro is $56/month (annual) or $67/month for 1,500 texts and two numbers. Premium is $81/month (annual) or $97/month for 2,500 texts and three numbers. A 14-day free trial is available. Only outgoing messages count toward your limit, and you can buy extra messages in the app if you need them.
Best for
Churches where guest follow-up and retention are the primary goals. If you want to launch a solid texting system fast with minimal setup work, Text In Church's pre-built templates give you a real head start.
Offers a free tier that fits nicely with small to medium-sized churches.
Gloo: The Budget-Friendly Option
Gloo is a broader technology platform for churches that includes texting as part of its Gloo Workspace. The big headline: Gloo offers a free plan. If your church sends fewer than 500 texts per month and you're on a tight budget, that's hard to ignore.
What makes it stand out
Gloo's free tier gives you 500 monthly messaging credits, unlimited groups and workflows, 500 email credits, and one phone number — all at no cost. (This is down from 10,000 free credits, which Gloo reduced in February 2026.) For a small church that just needs basic announcements and a simple follow-up workflow, this might be all you need.
The paid tier, Gloo+, is $49/month ($499/year) and bumps you to 15,000 text credits and 30,000 email credits. It also unlocks workflow menus, recurring broadcasts, polls, up to three subaccounts, and the Outreach New Mover postcard program (44 mailings per month). Gloo+ also includes 55+ digital sermon kits, congregation assessments developed with Barna, and marketplace discounts. It's a lot of extras bundled in.
Gloo integrates with Planning Center by syncing your People Lists into Gloo Groups. It works with Lists specifically, not the newer Groups feature in PCO. You can enable nightly auto-syncing or run manual syncs.
How to set it up
In Gloo Workspace, go to People > Integrations and click Connect under Planning Center. Confirm you have permission to text the imported contacts, authorize with your PCO credentials, select the Lists you want to sync, and toggle nightly sync on. Make sure every person's mobile number is set as their primary number in Planning Center before syncing — Gloo pulls whichever number is starred as primary.
There are a couple of things Gloo does not do with Planning Center: it cannot push new contacts back into PCO People, it cannot add people to PCO Workflows from a text interaction, and it does not have a Planning Center Add-On for sending texts from within PCO. Changes to Gloo groups need to be made in Planning Center, not in Gloo.
Pricing
Free plan: 500 text credits, 500 email credits, unlimited groups and workflows, one phone number. Gloo+: $49/month or $499/year for 15,000 text credits, 30,000 emails, subaccounts, polls, recurring broadcasts, new mover postcards, and marketplace discounts.
Best for
Small churches on a tight budget, or churches that want texting bundled with broader engagement tools like assessments, sermon kits, and mover outreach. Also a good option for testing texting before committing to a paid platform.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Clearstream | Text In Church | Gloo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $29/mo | $37/mo | Free (500 credits) |
| PCO Add-On | Yes (built with PCO) | Yes | No |
| PCO List Sync | Real-time | Nightly / Instant option | Nightly / Manual |
| Push to PCO Workflows | Yes | No | No |
| Create PCO People | Yes | Yes (via sync-back) | No |
| Campus Routing | Yes | No | No |
| Phone Number Type | Local (10DLC) | Local (10DLC) | Toll-Free |
| Automated Workflows | Yes | Yes (pre-built templates) | Yes |
| Unlimited Keywords | Yes | Yes | Yes (limited on free) |
| Video Texting | Yes | No | Gloo+ only |
| Email Included | Unlimited (all plans) | Yes | 500–30k/mo |
| NFC Tap Tags | Yes ($1 each) | No | No |
| QR Code Generator | Yes | No | Yes |
| Free Trial | 30 days | 14 days | Free plan available |
| Church Plant Discount | Free for 1 year | Contact support | Free plan |
Which One Should You Pick?
Go with Clearstream if Planning Center is the center of your operations and you want everything tightly connected. The ability to push guests into PCO Workflows from a text, route by campus, and send texts from within PCO itself is unmatched.
Go with Text In Church if your biggest need is guest follow-up and you want to be running within a day. The pre-built workflow templates and unlimited keywords on every plan give you a fast path to results.
Go with Gloo if budget is the deciding factor. The free tier gets you started, and Gloo+ at $49/month gives you texting plus a bundle of engagement tools that the other two don't include.
No matter which platform you choose, the most important thing is that your Planning Center People data is clean before you connect anything. Accurate phone numbers, well-organized Lists, and clear household structures make every texting integration work better.
We Can Help
If you're not sure which texting platform is right for your church, or if you need help setting up the integration and building your first workflows, we'd love to talk. Threefold Solutions specializes in helping churches get the most out of Planning Center — including the tools that connect to it.
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