CareNote is web-based pastoral care software that takes in care and prayer requests from forms, email, Care Number voicemail and SMS, and church management system forms, routes them to staff and volunteers, and tracks the visits, notes and follow-ups that result. It syncs with Planning Center, Breeze, CCB and six more. Here is how it compares with the other pastoral care tools churches ask us about, using only what each vendor publishes.
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CareNote
Care and prayer requests arrive on their own from forms, email, Care Number voicemail and SMS, and Planning Center forms.
Volunteers accept and report back by email or text without a login; every paid login includes 3 free.
Automations route each request by care need, care group or on-call schedule.
Call or text a real person in the US for help.
CareNote is $15 per login per month, or $10 per login per month billed annually. Every paid login includes 3 volunteers at no charge; more volunteers are $5 per month for a bundle of 5, about $1 each. Volunteers never need an account. CareNote Plus is an optional add-on from $49 per year by team size.
Notebird is pastoral care software for churches, synagogues and ministries that keeps care updates, follow-up tasks and milestones in one shared record per person, synced with Planning Center, Breeze and Church Windows.
Where it falls short
No care request intake: no forms, no email to request, no voicemail or SMS intake
Prayer requests are logged as updates, with no prayer list or prayer digest
Every volunteer is a paid seat; no way for a helper to act by email without a login
No automations, routing rules or SMS to the team documented
Pricing: Notebird charges per user: $12 per month for the first user, $8 per month each for users 2 through 9, $6 per month each for users 10 through 19, and $4 per user at 20 or more, quoted on request. Annual billing is discounted, but the annual figure is not published. Every plan includes the full feature set. A Small Church Scholarship is offered to churches under 200 in weekly attendance.
Undershepherd is a pastoral care tool for solo pastors, pastoral teams and care teams that stores member details, logs conversations, assigns tasks and sets reminders, with imports from Planning Center, Breeze and ChurchTrac.
Where it falls short
No reporting or dashboards documented
No SMS or email to the team; reminders only
Every volunteer is a paid user; no email-only helpers
Native mobile app is still "coming soon"
Pricing: Undershepherd is $10 per month for a single user, or $9 per user per month on the multi-user discount. The minimum number of seats and the annual prices are not published. A Small Church Discount is available on request, and there is a 30-day no-questions refund policy.
FlockConnect is a "Church Relationship Manager" for pastors and care teams that tracks presence, follow-ups and care reports beside an existing church management system, with a two-way Planning Center sync.
Where it falls short
Only Starter is purchasable; SMS, connection health and the Collie AI are "coming soon"
Planning Center is the only direct church management system sync
No care request intake by form, email or phone; care reports are typed by the team
Care partners must log in; no email-only volunteers
Pricing: FlockConnect Starter is $9 per month or $89 per year, flat, with unlimited pastors, leaders and care partners and no church-size cap. Collie plans with SMS and the AI assistant are listed as coming soon at $49, $99, $179 and $299 per month by active adults, and from $499 per month for networks and multi-site churches.
OurChurchCare is a care-tracking web app for deacons, elders and care teams that assigns families to a primary contact, logs each contact and flags families that are overdue.
Where it falls short
No church management system sync; CSV import only
No messaging to members or the team, by design
User and family caps on the Basic and Standard plans
Reporting is a coverage percentage and a weekly digest
Pricing: OurChurchCare has three plans: Basic at $9 per month ($90 per year) for up to 5 users and 100 families, Standard at $24 per month ($240 per year) for up to 20 users and 500 families, and Premium at $49 per month ($490 per year) with unlimited users and families. Annual billing is two months free. Small or rural churches can ask about a discount.
Enter the people who sign in and the volunteers who help. Each tool is priced from its own published rates.
CareNoteUs
5 logins at $15; all 15 volunteers are included (3 free per login).
$75/month
NotebirdCare Team
20 users on the published ladder; the $4 rate at 20 or more users is quoted on request. Every volunteer is a paid user. Annual discount is not published.
$140/month
UndershepherdMulti-User Discount
20 users at $9 per user per month. Every volunteer is a paid user. The minimum seat count and the annual price are not published.
$180/month
FlockConnectStarter
Starter is one flat price for unlimited users of any kind. SMS, connection health and the Collie AI need a Collie plan ($49 to $499 per month by active adults), which is not yet purchasable.
$9/month
OurChurchCareStandard
20 users fit the Standard plan (up to 20 users and 500 families). Volunteers count as users. Annual billing is two months free.
$24/month
Prices read from each vendor's pricing page on November 9, 2026.
Every tool on the same rows
Yes DocumentedPartial PartialNo Not documented
Feature
CareNote
Notebird
Undershepherd
FlockConnect
OurChurchCare
Care notes, visits and interaction log
Yes: Ten interaction types, including visits, hospital visits, calls, texts and emails
Yes: Care Updates with custom types, photos and files
Yes: Interaction log per person
Yes: Interaction log plus eight guided care report templates
Yes: Contact log by phone, text, email and visit with outcomes
Follow-up tasks with owner and due date
Yes
Yes
Yes: Unlimited tasks and task reminders
Yes: Follow-ups with owner, due date and reminder
Yes: Follow-ups with priority, due date and assignee
Milestones and life events with reminders
Yes: Custom categories, shared across people, in the daily Beacon Report
Yes: Birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms, yahrzeits and custom types
Yes: Life events with reminders
No: Not documented on their site
Partial: Birthday reminders only
Daily email of who needs attention
Yes: Beacon Report every morning
Yes: Early Bird email
No: Not documented on their site
Partial: Weekly brief on Collie plans, coming soon
Partial: Weekly email digest and "due this week" warnings
Care request intake: forms, email to request, Care Number voice and SMS
Yes: Web forms, Planning Center forms, email to care request, Care Number voicemail and SMS
No: Not documented on their site
No: Not documented on their site
Partial: Member booking link and emailed assessments; no request forms, email or phone intake
Yes: Planning Center, Breeze, Church Windows; CSV from others
Yes: Planning Center, Breeze, ChurchTrac; CSV import
Partial: Planning Center two-way; Notebird and CSV import from others
No: Works alongside Planning Center, Breeze, Tithely and ChurchTrac; CSV only
Reporting and trends
Yes: Care Pulse Report, seven more reports and an AI report builder
Partial: Printable Care Reports and Care Trends; export to CSV
No: Not documented on their site
Partial: "Insights" listed, not described
Partial: Coverage dashboard and percentage
Mobile access
Yes: Installable web app with web push notifications; no App Store listing
Yes: Mobile web app added to the home screen; no store download
Partial: Mobile-friendly web with home-screen install; native app coming soon
Partial: Attendance from a phone; no app described
Yes: Progressive web app
Private or restricted notes with role permissions
Yes: Per-note visibility, Privacy Dashboard, three roles plus Huddle users
Yes: Restricted Updates and role-based permissions
Partial: Granular privacy options claimed; roles not documented
Yes: Per-note visibility; care partners see only assigned people
Partial: Admin, staff and volunteer roles; per-note privacy not documented
Spanish language
Yes: Spanish interface available
No: Not documented on their site
No: Not documented on their site
Yes: English and Spanish
No: Not documented on their site
Migration in from your current tool
Yes: One-click Notebird import; CSV import with AI header mapping
Yes: Free spreadsheet and CSV import
Yes: CSV import and white-glove data import on the single-user plan
Yes: Notebird import and CSV import
Yes: Bulk CSV import
Phone support
Yes: Call or text a real person in the US
Partial: Priority email and chat support on the Care Team plan
No: Not published
No: Not published
No: Email support; phone not published
Each vendor column reflects what that vendor documents on its own site. Hover a mark for the detail, and see each full comparison for notes and sources.
What is the best alternative to Notebird for churches?
For churches that want care delivered, not only documented, CareNote is the closest Notebird alternative. It keeps the same shared care record of notes, tasks and milestones, and adds care request intake from forms, email and the Care Number, volunteers who act by email or text without a login, prayer lists and automations that route each request. CareNote also has a one-click Notebird import, so your people and care history come over intact.
Is there a free pastoral care software for churches?
None of the five tools on this page has a permanent free plan. CareNote has a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and every paid login includes three volunteers at no charge. FlockConnect Starter is $9 per month flat. OurChurchCare and Undershepherd offer small-church discounts on request.
Can a church management system replace pastoral care software?
A church management system is built to keep membership, giving, groups and attendance records. Pastoral care software is built around the work of care itself: taking in requests, assigning them, following up and seeing who has not been reached. Most churches keep their church management system as the record of people and add CareNote alongside it, synced, so care requests and follow-ups have a home of their own.
Does CareNote replace Planning Center or Breeze?
No. CareNote works alongside them. It syncs your people from Planning Center, Breeze, CCB and six more church management systems, turns Planning Center forms into care requests, and keeps the care notes, visits and follow-ups that a church management system is not designed to track.
Which pastoral care tools let volunteers work without a login?
Of the five tools compared here, only CareNote documents volunteers who act without a login. CareNote volunteers accept assignments and report back by email or text. Notebird, Undershepherd, FlockConnect and OurChurchCare each document volunteers as users who sign in.
How do I move my data to CareNote?
Connect your church management system and CareNote syncs your people automatically. Coming from Notebird, use the one-click Notebird import. From any other tool, export a spreadsheet and the CSV import maps your columns with AI. Our team will help with your import for free, and you can do all of it during the 14-day trial.
Ready to deliver better care for less?
Start your free 14-day trial. No credit card required. Bring your Notebird data over in one click, or sync from Planning Center, Breeze and seven more church management systems in minutes.
