It can be tough to decide which presentation software is right for your church, so I’ve put together a list of all the best options on the market today.
You’ll see what each option costs, what it does best, and what platforms it’s designed to run on. There are even two completely free church presentation software options on the list.
Free worship presentation software for churches All-in-one display Christian song. (237 reviews) Save. Get visually impressive content on your. Designed for deeper Bible study, join over 4 million users on “The Bible Study App.” Learn from great scholars through thousands of resources including commentaries, maps, and dictionaries all available off-line. If you like to highlight Bible verses, take notes, bookmark passages and have everythin. EpicWorship is a free, open source church projection and presentation software focusing on simplicity. It comes with just the most important list of features without complicating anything. EpicWorship facilitates slide projection with image and video backgrounds (MP4 H.264-encoded only), import of OpenSong Bible formats and playback of audio. BibleShow is a software solution for presenting Holy Scripture verses on any video display device (monitor, projector, TV set, IWB) connected to a personal computer running Microsoft Windows operating system. The application is to be shared free of charge to any user, being developed with the aim to spread the Word of God (Bible) all over the.
This guide should help you pick the presentation software that’s best-suited to meet your church’s needs.
Free Worship Presentation Software
MediaShout 6
Platforms: Mac and PC
Pricing model: purchase outright (as opposed to a subscription)
Cost: $399
What sets MediaShout 6 apart?
Best Presentation Software For Mac
There’s a reason MediaShout 6 is at the top of my list; not only is it affordable, but there are a lot of positive factors that make it a good choice.
Customer support. One of things that sets MediaShout apart most is its 7-day-a-week customer service. No other church presentation software offers such a high degree of support for its users.
Free content included. A MediaShout license comes with more than 2,500 songs with ready-to-go lyrics, and 67 free Bibles. That’s a lot more starter content than other available options.
Multi-screen functionality. While most other options either don’t support multi-screen functionality or require you to spend extra to get it, MediaShout 6 comes with it built in.
Hardware options. The MediaShout team has collaborated with Dell to build a variety of hardware bundles designed with churches in mind.
Built with PowerPoint in mind. Since a lot of churches “graduate” to church presentation software from PowerPoint, it’s great to have an interface that helps PowerPoint users along. MediaShout does just that: the interface is built to be especially easy to understand if you’re used to PowerPoint.
ProPresenter 6
Platforms: Mac and PC
Pricing model: purchase outright, add modules for additional cost
Cost: $399+
What sets ProPresenter 6 apart?
ProPresenter is one of the most widely-used softwares for church presentations. In addition to being popular, there are a few things that make it unique:
Modules. You can purchase additional hardware modules that give the software additional functionality. For example, you can buy a module that lets you present on multiple screens.
Bibles. It doesn’t include quite as many as MediaShout 6, but with 46 free Bibles, you’re still getting a great number of options.
Mobile apps. ProPresenter 6 has several mobile apps different team members can download. These come in handy for controlling the presentation on Sunday morning.
Proclaim
Platforms: Mac and PC
Pricing model: subscription
Cost: $19.95 monthly at the low end, $79.89 monthly at the high end
What sets Proclaim apart?
One of the most unique factors of Proclaim is that it’s made by Faithlife, the creators of Logos Bible Software. The two products are integrated, so that’s a nice benefit for Logos users. In addition to that …
Cloud-enabled. Proclaim allows teams to collaborate on presentations with their cloud feature.
Mobile apps. Like ProPresenter, Proclaim also features mobile apps that can be used to control presentations like a remote control. It also allows presenters to send updates to congregation members who use other Logos apps on their phones.
Pastoral focus. Proclaim was built to give pastors more control over building their presentations from their sermons.
EasyWorship 6
Platforms: PC only
Pricing model: purchase outright
Cost: $499
What sets EasyWorship 6 apart?
Though EasyWorship is only available for Windows, that’s actually part of what makes it special. It’s specifically made for people who have been using PowerPoint.
So if you’re a PowerPoint user, consider this:
Similar layout. If you know how to use PowerPoint, you’ve got a leg up already in figuring out EasyWorship 6.
Works with PowerPoint files. You can import your previously-created PowerPoint presentations into EasyWorship instead of starting from scratch.
In addition to the PowerPoint integration, EasyWorship also integrates with QuickTime so you can play video content in your presentations.
MediaShout Bridge
Platforms: PC (you also need PowerPoint 2007, 2010, or 2013)
Pricing model: purchase outright
Cost: $99
What sets MediaShout Bridge apart?
MediaShout Bridge is a simpler presentation software option for churches who are using PowerPoint and might not be ready to transition to a new software solution.
Upgrades PowerPoint. This plugin works within an existing installation of PowerPoint, and turns it into a tool specifically for churches.
Includes a Lyric library. Bridge gives PowerPoint users a huge arsenal of public domain songs and hymns to use in their presentations.
Includes Bibles. A lot of Bibles—67 versions, to be precise.
ShareFaith Presenter
Platforms: Only for Windows 10 (must also have Office 365)
Pricing model: part of a subscription to ShareFaith Complete
Cost: $71/month (includes more than presentation software)
What sets ShareFaith Presenter apart?
In some ways, ShareFaith Presenter is similar to MediaShout Bridge. It’s a plugin that works with PowerPoint to connect it with other ShareFaith tools.
It’s quite limited on operating system, so make sure you have Windows 10 and Office 365 before pursuing this option.
If your church uses ShareFaith, and you use the newest version PowerPoint, this is a good solution.
Free church presentation software
Among the top options for church presentation software are two that are entirely free: OpenLP and OpenSong. Learn more about the differences between the two free options below.
OpenLP
Platforms: Linux, PC, and Mac
Pricing model: freeware
Cost: none
What sets OpenLP apart?
Aside from the obvious (that it’s totally free), OpenLP does some cool stuff:
Gives you basic presentation functionality. You can create slides with text formatting, images, and various effects.
Remote control. OpenLP even has a remote control feature, so you can navigate through the presentation from any networked device.
Video. You can display and play video files in your presentations—which is pretty cool for an open source program!
Friendly with PowerPoint. You can import PowerPoint presentations into OpenLP.
If you’re not ready to spend money on a presentation tool designed for churches, you can at least start playing around with OpenLP.
OpenSong
Platforms: Linux, PC, and Mac
Pricing model: freeware
Cost: none
What sets OpenSong apart
OpenSong and OpenLP share some commonalities, but OpenSong seems to have been created more with musicians in mind rather than pastors and tech teams. It allows for basic presentation functionality, plus a few other cool things:
Chord chart manipulation. OpenSong lets you play around with chord charts. For example, you can automatically transpose chords to any key—a helpful tool for music teams.
Timed slide loops. Teams can create sets of slides that loop at a predetermined pace.
Since it’s free, there’s no harm in downloading a version to see if it can work for you.
What’s your recommended presentation software?
Has your church found a presentation software your team loves? Let me know in the comments! By the way, if you liked this post, you might also appreciate this directory of free motion backgrounds.
Get ministry news and tips
Ministry Advice compiles and creates select how-tos, resources, and tools for Christian leaders.
You can use the form below to join our email list, and you'll hear from us about once per week.
Success!
Update!
We have created a fresh blog post that lists all of the Church and Worship Presentation Software products available.
Check out the Complete List of Church Presentation Software.
Flat screens and projectors displaying lyrics and Bible texts are more or less replacing printed material at churches and places of worship. Because of increasing competition in the church presentation software market, the software solutions for churches have gotten a lot better and more user friendly over the past few years.
Nevertheless, there are huge differences in how individual churches choose to apply technology in their services and therefore also some big differences in church presentation software – especially regarding features and learning curve, not to mention pricing.
Big churches with multiple projectors, lots of digital content and audio visual effects may need to resort to some of the paid and proven alternatives, like Easy Worship, while other smaller services are well off with a free or inexpensive solution.
If you’re a part of the last group, here’s a list of the best free church presentation software available.
1. SlideDog
As you can add almost any kind of presentation media available, seamlessly fade in and out between them and use the remote feature to control it via an iPad or smart phone, SlideDog fits nicely into the tool belt of many church technicians. Apart from many of the other church presentation solutions, SlideDog has a much easier and more intuitive user interface eliminating the need for hours of training and getting used to the software. Bible verses and songs can be displayed via PowerPoint slides, PDFs or any other media that SlideDog supports.
Webpage: https://slidedog.com/
2. OpenLP
OpenLP is an open source alternative with lots of features for managing and displaying songs, Bible verses, images, videos and more. They support PowerPoint files, but no other slide format presentations. A nice feature is that it facilitates linking songs to audio files for use as backing tracks. It’s written in Python and you can download distributions for almost every popular (and unpopular) operating system.
Webpage: http://openlp.org/
3. VideoPsalm
VideoPsalm has the advantage of being translated into many different languages. It gives you access to more than 10,000 songs and over 90 Bibles. It’s compatible with song and Bible collections from other church presentation software which makes the transition from another product easier. The most important features of VidePsalm are it’s video playback and looping, live editing of lyrics, simultaneous bilingual display and extensive slide formatting options that provide total control over the look-and-feel of slides.
Webpage: http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/
4. Free Worship
Free Worship is a Windows only presentation software rich in features. It allows for displaying of songs, images, videos, bible passages, notes and webcams/video cameras. It supports text overlay on videos as well as zoom and crossfade transitions. Currently there is no provision for playing audio in FreeWorship. However it is possible to trick FreeWorship into playing an audio file by adding it as a video. Other neat features include the ability to export words and service lists to PDF or RTF and a live spell checker.
Webpage: http://www.freeworship.org.uk/
5. Quela
Quelea is a cross platform (Windows and Linux) church presentation software. It has good support for importing songs from online libraries and support several bible formats. You have the ability to display songs, PowerPoint and videos, but it’s their latest Mobile Lyrics accessibility feature that sets them apart from the others. Quela enables you to push out the lyrics to a web page – the lyrics can then be displayed on a mobile device with whatever color combination the user chooses.
Webpage: http://quelea.org/
6. ZionWorx
Zionworx unique feature is their fast integrated song database, letting you display any song in a few seconds (as long as you are connected to the web and BibleGateway.com’s servers are up and running). It offers support for running Microsoft PowerPoint 2000-2007 presentations and is fully compliant with CCLI licensing laws. As most of the other free tools, it uses a dual monitor configuration to display a control panel on one screen while the visuals and song texts on another.
Webpage: http://www.zionworx.org.uk/features.htm
If you’ve tried any of theses church presentation tools, please share your experiences in the comment section.