Comparing Church Online Platform
When free stops being
enough to shepherd.
Church Online Platform is free, well made, and a real gift to the church. This page is only about the one thing it cannot do — tell you who was actually in the room.
30 days free · no card · cancel anytime.
Where the two differ
These products are not really competing for the same job. One builds a live experience around your stream; the other makes sure nobody watches it anonymously.
| Church Online Platform | PealCast | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free, and genuinely so — a generous gift to the church from Life.Church. | From $49/mo, because we host and deliver the video and the verified messaging. |
| The stream itself | Wraps a stream you host somewhere else, so the video still lives on that platform. | We host the stream from your own encoder. One place to watch, and it is yours. |
| Who is watching | A live chat and an optional connect card — you learn about whoever chooses to type. | Every viewer connects once with a verified mobile number, not just the talkative few. |
| Follow-up | Prayer requests and chat conversations, handled live by volunteers. | The Shepherd’s Report each week: who’s new, who’s drifted — with names and numbers. |
| Go-live notifications | Not included — your people have to remember, or you use a separate tool. | Built in: email, plus a text and a Church Center push through Planning Center, one tap to watch. |
| Planning Center | Not a per-person watch sync. | Per-person watch history on the member’s record, plus auto-created follow-up cards. |
The chat problem
A live chat tells you about the people who type. In most churches that is a small and fairly consistent handful — the volunteers, the regulars, the enthusiastic. The people you most need to notice are the quiet ones: the family watching for the first time who says nothing, and the couple who watched every week until March.
PealCast notices both, because connecting is not optional-if-you-feel-chatty — it is how you get in, the same way a guest fills out a connect card at the door. One tap, a real mobile number, and they are recognised every week after that without ever logging in again.
Church Online Platform alternative questions
Keep the welcome. Add the names.
Start free and get your first weekly follow-up list within the week.
30 days free · no card · cancel anytime.