- Starting price
- Free for 500 sends/mo; $16/mo for 5,000 sends
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- Web · Planning Center · Canva · Church Center · Hosted pages and embeds
- Developer
- Trivo Technologies LLC / Thomas Harmond
- Launched
- 2025
- Updated
- Aug 9, 2026
The verdict
Flowforth is one of the most coherent communication products for a church already committed to Planning Center. Fresh list membership at send time, four editor modes, custom-field personalization, up-to-100-step automations, category preferences, registration matching, unlimited QR codes, and send-volume pricing solve real ministry friction. The privacy tradeoff is material: Flowforth tracks each recipient’s opens, clicks, statuses, and timeline, and its policy says most live database data is not encrypted at rest. Churches should minimize synced fields, restrict list access, explain tracking, avoid pastoral inferences from unreliable opens, and require a satisfactory security review before treating it as a sensitive people system.
Try Flowforth ↗Opens flowforth.co
Flowforth is an email and lightweight engagement platform built specifically around Planning Center. Founder Thomas Harmond describes creating it after church software forced a choice between expensive enterprise platforms and ministry tools that lacked polish or reliability. The product keeps Planning Center People and lists as the source of truth, then adds email design, automations, signup forms, metrics, public email archives, link-in-bio pages, dynamic and static QR codes, and direct insertion of Planning Center events, groups, registrations, forms, and Church Center links.
Its pricing reverses the usual marketing-platform model. Contacts are unlimited, including people who are unsubscribed, and the church pays for monthly sends. The free plan includes 500 sends with no card and advertises every feature; a current pricing example shows 5,000 sends for $16 per month. One email sent to one thousand recipients consumes one thousand sends. If the account lacks enough credits, the email does not send; paid accounts can upgrade or purchase extra sends that remain valid while the subscription is active.
The feature surface is broader than email alone but stays communications-centered. Editors include drag-and-drop, simple rich text, custom HTML, and Canva import. Automations can start on Planning Center list additions or removals, form submissions, schedules, or manual runs; then send email, wait, branch on list membership, wait for a list condition, send a Church Center push notification, and reuse shared templates across as many as one hundred steps. Signup forms write to Planning Center, while public archives, preference categories, RSS, link pages, and trackable QR codes let one campaign live beyond an inbox.
We reviewed the current product, pricing, feature pages, integration guide, help changelog, privacy policy, terms, DPA, and public status page. We did not connect a Planning Center organization, send live mail, inspect deliverability headers, test every client, validate registration matching, audit security, review a subprocessor contract, or interview customers. Vendor uptime and testimonials are reported as vendor evidence. Because email touches nearly every household and can reveal sensitive ministry interest, our score weighs data minimization and recipient dignity alongside editor quality and price.
✓ The good
- Pricing follows sends rather than database size - unlimited contacts avoid paying repeatedly for inactive or unsubscribed records
- The free plan is useful, not a demo - 500 monthly sends, no card, and the same core feature set can support a small ministry
- Planning Center remains authoritative - people, primary email, and list membership refresh automatically and are rechecked at send time
- Four creation modes fit different communicators - drag-and-drop, simple text, HTML, and Canva import cover polished and personal messages
- Automations are unusually capable for the price - list and form triggers, schedules, manual runs, branches, waits, push notifications, and 100 steps
- List permissions reduce casual overreach - global, category, and per-list rules can limit which senders see which audiences
- Preference categories are better than all-or-nothing unsubscribe - recipients can leave youth or giving updates while keeping a weekly newsletter
- QR codes and link pages are unlimited on free plans - dynamic destinations, placement analytics, branding, PNG/SVG, files, phone, text, and Wi-Fi are supported
- Legal documents are unusually accessible - privacy, terms, DPA, subprocessors, cancellation, refund, and account ownership have dedicated public pages
✗ Watch out
- Planning Center is required to send email - churches on another ChMS cannot use Flowforth as a normal standalone email platform
- Most database data is not encrypted at rest according to the privacy policy - a significant issue when lists and engagement records concern ministry participation
- Recipient tracking is granular - the product records who opened, clicked, bounced, unsubscribed, complained, registered, and when
- Open data remains imperfect - Apple Mail Privacy Protection, security scanners, image blocking, and shared devices can distort individual conclusions despite filtering efforts
- The terms offer no SLA - service is “as is,” can be modified or discontinued, and liability is broadly disclaimed
- The product is young and founder-led - rapid improvements are attractive, but continuity, support capacity, security maturity, and change management deserve review
- Account termination terms are broad - the vendor reserves suspension or termination and recommends exporting before downgrade or deletion
- US infrastructure may require extra review - international churches must evaluate transfer mechanisms, subprocessors, local law, consent, and the DPA
- Powerful automation can scale mistakes - a bad list, merge field, branch, template edit, or reused dynamic QR destination can misdirect many people quickly
Best for
- Planning Center churches that want better email design and automation without copying contact lists into a general marketing tool
- Small and midsize congregations whose database is large relative to monthly sending volume and who benefit from send-based pricing
- Communication teams that need shared templates, permissions, approval workflows, mobile editing controls, archives, preferences, and reliable list freshness
- Churches building visitor, event, membership, group, or volunteer follow-up from Planning Center lists and forms
- Ministries replacing printed short links with branded QR codes whose destinations can change without reprinting
- Teams willing to define consent, tracking disclosure, access, retention, security, and deliverability ownership before syncing people
Avoid if
- Your church does not use Planning Center or is planning to replace it; email sending depends on a connected Planning Center account
- Your security policy requires all customer content and member data to be encrypted at rest with independently verified controls
- You need a mature enterprise SLA, dedicated account team, on-premise deployment, multiple sending regions, or extensive independent assurance
- You want to infer pastoral engagement, faithfulness, care need, or consent from individual opens and clicks
- Your team cannot govern list permissions, sender authentication, unsubscribe law, children’s contacts, automations, public archives, and QR destinations
What Flowforth is
After authorization, Flowforth syncs people, primary email addresses, and lists from Planning Center. New records and changes generally arrive within minutes, a weekly full synchronization catches missed events, and list membership is pulled again when a user sends. Events, groups, registrations, forms, and Church Center destinations can be inserted in content. Permissions can default globally and be overridden by category or list so a youth sender does not automatically gain finance or staff audiences.
A communicator can start with a reusable template or choose one of four email formats. The block editor provides text, image, button, file, video, cards, icons, person, list, chart, HTML, columns, mobile previews, responsive font and spacing controls, merge tags, scheduling, and imported Planning Center content. Public categories can expose a searchable archive and RSS feed, while recipients manage subscriptions at category level. The same reporting applies to visual, HTML, Canva, and simple emails.
The engagement layer records delivery, opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, complaints, suppression, and a timestamped recipient timeline. It attempts to filter automated scanners and Apple privacy prefetches, automatically cleans hard bounces and repeated soft failures, matches mailed people to Planning Center registrations, and permits CSV export. These tools improve deliverability and campaign evaluation; they also create a sensitive behavior history that should not be casually repurposed for pastoral assessment.
Why Planning Center churches choose Flowforth: no export becomes stale between list and send
The strongest value is not a prettier newsletter. It is removal of a fragile handoff. In a general email service, staff export a Planning Center list, import it elsewhere, map fields, miss later changes, create duplicates, and struggle to return unsubscribes or outcomes. Flowforth keeps Planning Center as the people system and asks it for current membership at send time. That reduces wrong recipients, duplicate databases, manual work, and the temptation to grant broad spreadsheet access.
Integration can also increase blast radius. A broad or misconfigured Planning Center list becomes an immediately sendable audience, and custom fields become mergeable content. Define who owns each list, label purpose and lawful basis, exclude sensitive fields from ordinary senders, require previews with test records, approve large or high-risk sends, and pause automated flows during data cleanup. “Synced” means current, not necessarily appropriate.
Email building, archives, and preferences: unusually complete creative control for a focused tool
Flowforth supports visual blocks, simple inbox-like messages, full custom HTML, and Canva Email imports. Teams can save templates and reusable sections, insert Planning Center objects, personalize subject or body from standard and custom fields, preview desktop and mobile, schedule, restore recent versions, and organize sends into public or private categories. A /latest route can always point to the newest public email, and category archives can become searchable, subscribable resources.
Creative flexibility needs accessibility and consent discipline. Use real text rather than image-only Canva designs, descriptive links, alt text, mobile-sized controls, sufficient contrast, logical headings, a plain-text alternative, a visible sender, and an easy preference center. Public archives should exclude private care, children’s details, personal schedules, temporary credentials, and links that assumed an authenticated audience. Search visibility can make an old announcement durable long after staff forget it exists.
Automations and signup forms: powerful follow-up anchored to real Planning Center events
Flows can start when a person enters or leaves a list, submits a form, on a weekly or monthly schedule, or by manual selection. Up to one hundred steps can send email, wait for hours or days, wait until a weekday or list condition, branch by list membership, repeat or run once, and push through Church Center. Hosted or embedded signup forms turn Planning Center forms into subscription paths and record each response back in Planning Center rather than a disconnected marketing database.
Map every automation before enabling it. Identify purpose, owner, entry, exit, suppression, re-entry, time zone, age rules, consent, content approver, and failure alert. Test names, blank fields, household emails, duplicate addresses, midnight list refreshes, list removal, unsubscribe, bounces, Church Center permissions, and a person who requests no follow-up. Keep pastoral outreach human when context matters; a perfectly timed sequence can still feel intrusive or manipulative.
Metrics, QR codes, and link pages: measurable pathways with a surveillance boundary
Reports show send-level rates and recipient-level status; link rankings and registration matching connect a campaign to action. QR codes can be static or tracked, branded, exported as PNG or SVG, repointed without reprinting, and duplicated by placement. They can open URLs, Planning Center forms or events, files, email, phone, SMS, or Wi-Fi. Link pages collect unlimited branded destinations and track which links people choose.
Use measurement at the aggregate level by default. Opens are noisy, clicks reflect curiosity rather than spiritual intent, registration matching can expose sensitive events, and a QR scan can be shared or proxied. Never create a pastoral risk list from “did not open,” confront a person based on a click, or target giving pressure from behavior history. Label dynamic QR ownership, review destinations regularly, publish privacy information near forms, and retire codes whose old printed context could now mislead.
Pricing
Free
$0 — 500 sends/month
No card, unlimited contacts, and the public site says every feature is included. Best for a small list, a ministry pilot, QR/link tools, or occasional targeted email.
5,000 sends
$16/month
The current first paid example includes unlimited contacts, Planning Center sync, automations, link pages, QR codes, and up to 30 team members. One recipient equals one send.
Higher monthly volumes
Sliding price up to 200,000 sends shown
Choose volume on the pricing page. Compare the actual quote at checkout, included users, taxes, overage behavior, and any annual option rather than extrapolating from the 5,000-send tier.
Extra sends
Available to paid plans
Extra credits can be purchased when a paid account runs short and do not expire while the subscription remains active. Without enough credits, an email will not send.
Planning Center
Separate subscription
A Planning Center account is required for sending. Budget the relevant People and connected product costs, plus Canva or other services used in the workflow.
The free 500-send tier is excellent for evaluation because it includes the real editor, integration, automations, link pages, and QR codes rather than a time-limited shell. A church with 100 recipients can send roughly five full-list messages per month; a church with 500 recipients gets one.
At $16 for 5,000 sends, the first paid tier is competitive, particularly because contact count does not change the bill. Model normal newsletters, automated messages, resend tests, confirmation mail, seasonal peaks, multiple campuses, and registration follow-up. “One email” means one recipient delivery, so a weekly message to 1,250 people already consumes about 5,000 sends.
Compare total cost with the Planning Center subscription already required, domain and sender authentication work, Canva, staff time, extra credits, and any migration cleanup. Savings against Mailchimp can be real, but only if the church does not recreate hidden labor through poor list ownership or deliverability.
Cancellation downgrades an account to free at the paid period’s end. Export first. The privacy policy says active content remains while the account is active, deletion after account deletion occurs within 60 days, trashed content can persist across active systems and backups for up to 91 days, and some billing or legal records remain longer.
Where Flowforth falls behind
Encrypt all customer and end-user data at rest with managed keys and publish the migration, backup, rotation, and verification controls; the current policy’s database exception is too consequential.
Publish independent security testing, MFA and SSO options, role and audit-log details, incident history, recovery objectives, and a production service-level commitment for larger churches.
Expose a full data-flow and subprocessor inventory for Planning Center records, message content, link tracking, registration matching, forms, Canva imports, email delivery, analytics, backups, and support access.
Let administrators disable opens, individual click timelines, or registration matching while retaining basic delivery and aggregate metrics.
Add formal approval gates, send limits by role, four-eyes review, emergency pause, and audit trails for high-volume sends, automation edits, dynamic QR changes, and public archive publication.
Expand accessibility documentation and automated checks across builder output, preference pages, forms, archives, link pages, QR destinations, keyboard use, and screen readers.
Clarify account continuity, export completeness, restore testing, founder or key-person risk, support coverage, and what happens if the product closes or a connected Planning Center API changes.
Flowforth vs. Mailchimp vs. Flocknote vs. Planning Center native communication
Flowforth is best aligned with Planning Center data and church-specific follow-up. Mailchimp offers a mature general marketing ecosystem, extensive templates, commerce, testing, and integrations but commonly prices around contacts and can create a second people database. Flocknote combines church email and texting with member-oriented groups and ministry features. Planning Center can send communications inside its workflows, but it is not a direct substitute for Flowforth’s visual email, campaign reporting, public archives, advanced flows, and QR/link suite.
Choose with representative work: build a mobile newsletter, send a simple pastoral note, enroll a new guest, respect a category unsubscribe, handle a shared household address, match an event registration, approve an automation edit, export data, repoint a printed QR code, and investigate a bounce. Compare deliverability, permissions, accessibility, privacy, at-rest protection, integration freshness, support, exit, and total annual sends—not just editor screenshots.
The bottom line
Flowforth is a rare example of useful product restraint. It does not try to replace Planning Center; it makes Planning Center lists communicable. The result is a strong combination of fresh audiences, four editor modes, content imports, one-hundred-step flows, subscription categories, registration attribution, archives, link pages, and editable QR destinations at prices small churches can afford. The security and privacy caveat cannot be a footnote: member data, custom fields, message history, and granular engagement deserve encryption at rest, narrow permissions, retention limits, transparent tracking, and independent assurance. If Flowforth satisfies that review, it is an excellent communications choice. Until then, sync only what is needed and keep sensitive pastoral data out of the marketing layer.
Alternatives to Flowforth
Planning CenterUse native lists, workflows, forms, and messaging when the communication need is simpler and a separate processor is unnecessary.
FlocknoteChurch-focused email, texting, groups, and member communication with a longer market history; compare data sync and pricing.
ClearstreamA mature church texting and email platform strong in two-way messaging, keywords, workflows, and communication operations.
Text In ChurchGuest follow-up and messaging workflows for churches; stronger SMS orientation with different contact and feature economics.MailchimpA broad marketing platform with mature deliverability and campaign tools, but less church-native data flow and often different contact pricing.Self-hosted newsletter and Planning Center workflowMore control for a technically capable team, with substantially more responsibility for sending reputation, compliance, sync, and support.Frequently asked questions
Can Flowforth be used without Planning Center?
You can explore some tools such as the builder, QR codes, and link pages, but the current pricing FAQ says a Planning Center account is required to send email.
Is Flowforth free?
Yes. The free plan includes 500 sends per month with no card and advertises every feature. Contacts, automations, link pages, and QR codes are not separately metered on that plan.
How does Flowforth count an email send?
Each recipient counts as one send. One newsletter to 1,000 people consumes 1,000 monthly sends. An email will not send if the account lacks enough credits.
Does it replace Planning Center People?
No. Planning Center remains the source of truth for people and lists. Flowforth reads current audiences and returns form or engagement-related workflow value around communication.
Does Flowforth track individual opens and clicks?
Yes. It shows per-person delivery, open, click, bounce, unsubscribe, complaint, and timeline details while attempting to filter automated and privacy-prefetch activity. Churches should disclose and govern this tracking.
Is Flowforth data encrypted at rest?
Its April 2025 privacy policy says backups are encrypted but most data living in the database is not encrypted because it must remain ready for use. Ask the vendor for current architecture and remediation before importing sensitive fields.
What happens when I cancel?
The terms say cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing cycle and downgrades to free. Export first; account deletion and backup purging follow separate retention windows described in the privacy policy.
Sources & further reading
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