Planning Center alternative · Windows · macOS · Linux available now - Android · iOS early access
Keep Music Stand. Bring your own songbook too.
Music Stand reads the charts in this Sunday's plan, inside the church's Planning Center account. BandBinder is the songbook you own: every chart you've ever fixed, on Windows too, fully offline with no login, with rehearsal notes anchored to the exact lines they're about.
Why worship musicians look for a Planning Center alternative
| Feature | Planning Center Music Stand | BandBinder |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iOS, Android, macOS (Apple Silicon), visionOS, web from a plan - no Windows | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS |
| Who it's for | The team scheduled to a plan, inside the church's Planning Center account | You - and any band you play in, worship or otherwise |
| Your library | The plans you've been scheduled to; nothing kept afterward | Everything you've ever added, on every device, yours to keep |
| Offline | Caches the last 10 viewed plans; needs a connection to load a plan the first time | Performance Mode: fully offline, no login, from your own library |
| Practice workflow | No line-anchored notes, no rehearsal display, no count-in | Practice notes on the line, rehearsal-room display, BPM count-in |
| Pricing | $5/month add-on on top of the church's Services plan; volunteers pay $0 | One per-band plan; members join free |
1) Great for Sunday. Not yours afterward.
A volunteer sees only the plans they've been scheduled to, on a profile a church admin created inside the church's account. There's no personal library, and nothing carries over to that same musician's Friday-night band. BandBinder's library is yours from the start - it goes wherever you play.
2) No Windows, same gap as OnSong's Apple lean
Music Stand runs on iOS, Android, macOS on Apple Silicon, and visionOS - Planning Center's own docs say it isn't compatible with Windows devices. If your team's rehearsal laptop is a Windows machine, BandBinder is a straight download of the same app used on every other device.
3) The practice loop it doesn't have
Music Stand's media player, per-part audio, and Ableton Link metronome are built for the service itself, not for learning the song beforehand. There's no note pinned to a lyric line, no rehearsal-room display, no count-in at the song's own tempo. Practice Mode adds all three; Performance Mode then strips it back for the platform - big type, fully offline, no login.
4) Bring the charts you already license
Music Stand pulls charts from CCLI SongSelect, PraiseCharts, and similar licensed sources your church already pays for - BandBinder doesn't and won't supply licensed catalogue content. Bring the charts you already have permission to use: BandBinder imports ChordPro, plain text, and PDF.
Bring your library across
Step 1: Gather the charts you already have
The library belongs to the church's plan, not to you - there's no personal library to bring across. Start with the charts you already hold rights to: PDFs from your church's licensed sources, plain text, or ChordPro.
Step 2: Import the whole folder at once
In BandBinder's Songs list, choose Import folder of songs... and point it at that folder. It reads ChordPro, plain text, and PDF, flags anything already in your library so you don't get duplicates, and imports everything you leave checked in one action.
Step 3: Share it with the team
Invite the team with a band code - volunteers join free, however many rotate through week to week. See how it works for worship teams. Also dealing with OnSong or BandHelper? There's a separate comparison for OnSong and one for BandHelper.