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Whatever type of leader you are at your church, finding strategic ways to lead your team through apps and key tools can make a huge difference! We understand this so we’ve found the top apps and tools that will help your team excel! Bonus: most of them are free.
Top apps and tools for worship teams
Some of these tools are available on desktop and some on either or both Android and iOS devices.
Evernote (Desktop, iOS, Android)
We all have ideas in the planning of worship, but where do we keep them all and how do we share them with ease? Evernote can take everything from an audio clip, snapshot from your phone, or bookmarked web page and tag them for future retrieval.
iOS App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Android App– Free download with in-app purchases.
Desktop – Free download
Scannable (by Evernote) (iOS)
Evernote becomes even more useful with this iOS app that allows a photo from your phone to act as a scanner and save your music as a PDF. This work’s well for music, but also receipts where you can save them and forgo the wrath of the business office at church.
iOS App – Free download.
Playback (iOS)
Multitracks.com offers premium, original artist master stems to use for rehearsal and live worship applications. There is even a free version of their app, but the paid version allows live editing of the tracks you purchase which may be important when flexibility is needed.
iOS App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Spotify (Desktop, iOS, Android)
Spotify works well when planning a worship set. While I suggest you buy the music you use, in planning it is useful for making playlists and sharing them with your team. Alternatively, you can make a playlist that is shared with your congregation so they can find the music you sing in services.
iOS App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Android App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Desktop – $9.99/month.
G Suite (Docs, Drive, etc.) (Desktop, iOS, Android)
Google Doc allows many workflow and storage issues to be solved. Share a document that many can edit or see at the same time. When you are planning worship, this becomes helpful in keeping track of changes and more. As far as storage, keeping large files located here also allows you to share them easily and securely when needed.
iOS App – Free download.
Android App – Free download.
Desktop – Free usage.
Music Memos (iOS)
On the iPhone, simply hit record and leave bits of songs. Or, use the tempo and other items and watch the app spell out your chords. Once an idea is worth saving or sharing, you can do so in the cloud and collaborate endlessly. Songwriting becomes more efficient this way.
iOS App – Free download.
Soundcloud (Desktop, iOS, Android)
Whether you need a place to leave public audio files such as songs or podcasts, or private unfinished work, this app can easily handle uploads. If you use a desktop recording app like Logic Pro, you can even upload directly from in-app.
iOS App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Android App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Desktop – Free plans and plans up to $12/month.
SoundMeter X (iOS)
Need a handy decibel meter and other audio tools at your disposal? Faberacoustical’s Soundmeter offers these tools, including easy ways to share the data. You can even tag your location and tweet the readings. For the audio engineers on our teams, this app may prove to be extremely helpful.
iOS App – Free
YouVersion (Desktop, iOS, Android)
The Bible is the center of our faith and worship so to have an online Bible app like this serves the purpose of not only our planning but can be used within our worship services. Try encouraging your congregation to swipe to the right verse if they left their Bibles behind that morning.
iOS App – Free download.
Android App – Free download.
Desktop – Free usage.
Goodreads (Desktop, iOS, Android)
What are you reading? What is your team reading? Goodreads offers an online book club of sorts. Your team can see what you as a leader read and interact with your reviews and comments. You can also keep track and share where to get the book with ease. Books are great tools for worship teams because it provides unity as well as insight in worship.
iOS App – Free download.
Android App – Free download.
Desktop – Free usage.
Dropbox (Desktop, iOS, Android)
We all need to save and share large files. Dropbox offers scalable options to use their program. Make a folder of data shared, or simply send a link to distribute a file. Either way, your team will have access to your resources.
iOS App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Android App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Desktop – Free up to Custom pricing depending on need.
BlueLetterBible (Desktop, iOS, Android)
Bible study is surely part of leading worship. This app allows multiple translations to be read side by side. And, you can reference Strong’s number system to look up original languages. The app is also free. One of the key tools for worship teams, Scripture. Without Scripture, what is your basis for worship?
iOS App – Free download.
Android App – Free download.
Desktop – Free basic usage.
Podio (Desktop, iOS, Android)
Workflow can get complicated the larger your ministry gets. Podio is a clean, well-designed option to manage multiple creative projects. Instead of endless emails, the chat system allows only the pertinent people to receive notifications for an item in progress.
iOS App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Android App – Free download with in-app purchases.
Desktop – $24/month for full access for your entire team.
Basecamp (Desktop, iOS, Android)
Basecamp is another choice for project management. Like Podio, you design workflow to match the people and deliverables as you try to keep people on the same page. With 52 weekends a year, you literally have 52 projects to manage. Tools for worship teams don’t necessarily have to deal with music, organizing your singers and coordinating practices sometimes turn out the be the greatest battle.
iOS App – Free download for use with membership.
Android App – Free download for use with membership.
Desktop – $29/month up to $3,000/year.
Trello (Desktop, iOS, Android)
Trello is another project management tool that is primarily marketed to businesses. As we know too well, worship ministry has a lot of similarities. Think of worship ministry like a project that your church needs to add to the overall service. Trello allows you to neatly track multiple items or “cards” and share those with anyone on your team. The system will integrate with 3rd party tools for worship teams (Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive) so you can manage multiple platforms in one interface.
iOS App – Free download.
Android App – Free download.
Desktop – Free or up to $20.83/per user per month
Pinterest (Desktop, iOS, Android)
Pinterest is a collaborative site to share ideas. When you feel stuck creatively, find out what others are doing in similar situations to help you with your solution. Pinterest is free and easy to use, primarily image-driven content immediately grabs the users attention and prompts them to dive deeper into an article. This is one of those tools for worship teams that serve a creative purpose as opposed to music production.
iOS App – Free download.
Android App – Free download.
Desktop – Free.
GarageBand (Desktop, iOS)
GarageBand is a whole music creation studio right inside your Mac — with a complete sound library that includes software instruments, presets for guitar and voice, and virtual session drummers. An intuitive interface makes it easy to learn, play, record, create, and share your hits worldwide. It’s never been easier to make music like a pro.
iOS App – Free download with in-app purchases.
TonalEnergy Tuner (iOS, Android)
What’s a worship team when they are all out of tune! The TonalEnergy Tuner is designed for all individual practice and/or large ensemble rehearsals to improve sound quality and intonation.
iOS App – $3.99.
Android App – $3.99.
Next Steps
Hopefully, you have found at least one app or tool that will help your team excel! To further the success of your team, check out the Church Relevance Course Shop.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2016 and has been completely updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
