Information is accurate as of August 2010 but systems are always developing. Click here to return to the main blog page
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Aspect |
Church Insight |
Church Advance |
Church123 |
Church Edit |
| Website | churchinsight.com | churchadvance.net | church123.com | churchedit.co.uk |
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USABILITY |
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Overall ease of use rating (out of 5) |
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Proper WYSIWYG interface |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
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Speed/responsiveness of back office |
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FEATURES |
CI | CA | C123 | CE |
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Overall range of features offered |
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Calendars |
Yes - extensive calendar and rota support with RSS feeds. iCal support |
Yes - very well designed and easy to use. |
Fully integrated support for excellent Google Calendars |
Yes - works like Outlook. |
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Podcast Support |
Yes - extensive media management |
No |
Yes - excellent |
Yes includes 5 files. |
| Media Storage (bandwidth - means amount of downloads) |
0.5GB - 50GB depending on Plan. Plus 25p/month per extra GB with limits on bandwidth (this can add significant costs) | No | 2GB. If extra needed £45 per GB per year but includes unlimited bandwidth | Additional space is £50 per extra 75 audio files |
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Form builders |
Yes - extensive |
Yes - exceptionally good |
Yes - easy to use |
Yes - up to 30 fields |
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Church member management features |
Yes - extensive and class-leading features (not all listed in this document) |
No |
Yes 3rd party bolt-ons available |
Yes - Member logins and subgroups. Rota management |
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Email Hosting |
No - recommend using Gmail |
None (Lite) |
Yes - unlimited |
Yes - unlimited |
| Conference/Event booking | Yes - CI take a percentage fee | Yes CA take a percentage fee | Yes - using 3rd party Eventbrite who take percentage fee | Yes - using 3rd party Eventbrite who take percentage fee |
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E-commerce functionality |
Yes - extensive |
Offer another product that can be integrated |
Yes - integrated support for 2 systems. |
No but has a catalogue system for books, cds etc |
| Blogs | Can easily be made to produce a blog-like page. | No - could manually add 3rd party blog | Integrated support for Google Blogger | No - could manually add 3rd party blog |
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RSS Feeds from the site content |
Yes - extensive |
No |
If specially requested |
No |
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Integrate RSS feeds from other sites |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
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Rotas and Auto reminders |
Yes |
No |
Free 3rd party bolt-ons available |
Yes- Pro version only |
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Forums |
Yes - extensive and |
Can add third party forums |
Can add third party forums |
Yes- Pro version only |
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Polls |
Yes |
No |
If specially requested |
Yes - homepage only |
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Members chat facility |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
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Free templates available |
Yes some - mixed quality. Library of well designed templates for sale from £495 |
10 good quality templates |
Over 200 templates ranging from bland to top quality. |
Free templates available - 50 templates each with 5 colour variations. Of variable quality |
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Password protected areas |
Yes - extensive permissions control |
No |
Yes - very flexible |
Pro version only |
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Email address encoded against spamming |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
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Number of editors allowed |
Unlimited |
1 (Lite) 5 (Classic) |
Unlimited |
Multiple - depends on version |
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Photo Gallery |
No - would need to add link to 3rd party site manually |
No - would need to add link to 3rd party site manually |
Support for 3rd party sites built in |
Yes |
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Integrated Donation Support |
Yes |
No |
No but can use 3rd party PayPal, Just Giving & Charity Choice |
No |
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Automated Bible verse feeds |
Yes |
No - would need to add link to 3rd party site manually |
Uses 3rd party but integrated into the system |
Yes |
| Full details on features | Full details on features | Full details on features | Full details on features | |
| PRICING |
CI | CA | C123 | CE |
|
Plan 1 - £240/yr (40) (Number of church members with log-ins) |
Classic (inc. VAT) |
£195 +VAT per year |
Starting Prices - increase based on church size £149+VAT per yr Pro version |
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| Full pricing details | Full pricing details | Full pricing details | Full pricing details | |
| SUPPORT |
CI | CA | C123 | CE |
| Telephone support | Free and unlimited - have 4-5 people available for support calls. |
Free for one week (Lite) Unlimited (Classic) Unfortunately phones not always answered quickly. |
Yes exceptionally good - free and unlimited phone support | Yes - free and unlimited |
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Email Support |
With plans 2-5 |
Yes - free |
Yes - free |
Yes - free |
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Online Tutorials |
Yes - separate help website with written guide |
Yes with video |
Yes - separate help website with written guide |
Yes |
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Training courses (at additional cost) |
Free single day intro training (in London). Otherwise paid-for courses |
Via web conferencing only |
No. Not really needed as most people find it simple to use |
No. Not really needed as most people find it simple to use |
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Number of employees of the company providing the product. |
Around 20 |
Less than 5 |
Less than 10 |
Less than 5 |
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Online documentation |
Dedicated support website but not really adequate to cover complexity of system |
Yes - with some video tutorials and guided help |
Yes dedicated support website |
Yes - in downloadable PDF format. Good tool tips within system |
| Support site | Support pages | Available once logged in | Support site | |
| TECHNICAL |
CI | CA | C123 | CE |
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Quality of code generated by system |
Terrible - table based and out dated. |
Excellent - fully standards compliant. Complex layouts may need mix of CSS & tables. |
Fully standards compliant CSS. Complex layouts may need mix of CSS & tables. |
Poor - some CSS but reliant on tables for layout |
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Accessibility to disabled users rating (out of 5) |
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Drop-down navigation menus |
Yes |
Requires bespoke coding on template |
Requires bespoke coding on template |
Yes |
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Navigation levels supported in menu system |
Infinite |
Infinite |
Infinite |
3 |
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Ability to edit HTML source code |
Yes but limited to individual components within a page |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes but limited to individual components within a page |
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Bespoke Templating system |
Constructed using a very complicated system via browser |
Designer can add and edit templates themselves |
Designer - creates template and passes to C123 for integration. |
Constructed using a system accessed from the browser. Fairly easy to use but some limitations on design. |
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Search Engine Friendly URLs |
Partial |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
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Set Meta tags on per-page basis |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No - Site wide only |
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Visitor statistics provided |
Yes or can use Google Analytics |
No - use Google Analytics |
Yes - extensive and well presented |
Yes or can use Google Analytics |
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Built-in image optimization |
Yes - auto image re-sizing |
Yes and integrated photo editing tools |
Yes |
Yes |
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Technologies underpinning system |
Microsoft ASP /SQL |
PHP/MYSQL/AJAX |
Microsoft ASP/SQL/AJAX |
PHP/MYSQL |
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Browsers supported by BACK OFFICE Editing System. (Web page will work fine for VISITORS on all modern browsers) |
IE & Firefox |
Firefox |
IE for full features but can use Firefox, Safari & Chrome |
All browsers can be used. PC and Mac |
