Comparison

ServicePlanner vs Ministry

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ServicePlanner

This app helps Jehovah's Witnesses manage their ministry and field service activities. It features contact management, activity planning, and a timer for recording time spent. Users can sync data across devices and access a library of publications and videos.

Highlights
  • Dropbox Sync
  • Territory Helper Integration
  • Today Screen with Timer
  • Contact Management & History
  • Contact Filtering & Map View
  • Publication & Video Library
  • Monthly & Annual Activity Tracking
Read full description

ServicePlanner is a Field Ministry and Contact Management app designed for Jehovah's Witnesses. • Dropbox Sync - automatically backup your data and sync across multiple devices. • Integration with Territory Helper. • Today Screen - quick access to the Timer, Videos, Publications, Website Browser, Activity Planner and your scheduled calls for the day. • Timer - record your time spent in the ministry or on "other" work (LDC etc). Tap the timer bar on the Today screen or force touch the app icon. • Contact Management - centrally manage your Calls with a searchable Contact list. Colours are carefully used to indicate the Contact Type and render a heat map showing if your visits are overdue or on schedule. Swipe or long-press on a Contact to quickly reschedule or update a contact. • Contact Visit History & Library - quickly access your call history with a list of previous visits. Colour again is used to visually indicate the Visit Type. Define your Next Visit Date and Plans. A central Library for each contact shows all of the publications you have ever placed with them. • Contact Filtering - powerful filtering allows you to define how you Group and Sort your calls. Search for Contacts using Tags, Language, Locality, Next Visit Date and more criteria. • Map View - get an overview of your Calls, search for addresses, place custom markers for the location of your Car, Territory, Kingdom Hall, your Home and more. You can tap+hold to create a new Contact straight from a map location. • Library - centrally manage Publications and Videos. Optionally add Cover Art to make it easier to visualise items. Video locations can be downloaded for offline use, or streamed to free up storage space. Add items to your Today screen. Note that the Library is empty by default, users will need to populate it themselves. • Websites - use the inbuilt browser to show web content. Bookmark your favourite websites. Supports Reader View with Themes. Reader View supports Chinese Pinyin, Zhuyin, Yale, Sidney Lau above Chinese characters when reading content from the official websites. • Monthly Activity - plan your daily activity with Planned Hours vs Actual Hours. Projected Hours indicate if you are on track with your time. • Service Year - see at a glance your hours per month and a summary of your activity for the Service Year. Projected Hours indicate if you are on target to reach your annual goal. OR ... * "Shared in Ministry" Mode - You can optionally switch both the Month and Annual calendars to just show a green tick when you shared in the ministry, instead of focussing on hours. • Scheduling - define your Annual, Monthly and Daily Hour Goals. These will then be used to track your progress for the Month and Year. Apply your Daily Schedule to your Month and view the Projected Hours - so easy to see if you will get your time in or if you need to alter your schedule. • Witnessing Partners - arrange your partners each day. Contact your witnessing partner by SMS, Phone, or messaging apps. Mark the arrangement as confirmed or not. Icons on the calendar indicate days with arranged partners. Optional integration with iOS calendars. • Reporting - support for multiple Hour Credits and Carry-Over Minutes. Your Monthly Report can be submitted using Email, TXT, Telegram, WhatsApp, LINE, Hourglass or NW Publisher. • "Other Hours" - log your non-ministry hours such as LDC or Branch Consultation work. Up to 5 "Other Hour" categories can be scheduled and planned alongside your Ministry Hours. Configure the category name (eg "LDC") and Reporting options in Settings. --- And this is just the beginning! Please check the website for details and support: www.serviceplanner.app Requirements: iOS 14+ Some mapping features require a connected device. All support and documentation is provided in English. Some cannot locate the app because they search for "Service Planner". The app is called "ServicePlanner".

About

Ministry

This app helps Jehovah's Witnesses organize their ministry. It offers features for tracking hours, return visits, studies, and territory management. Personalization options and secure data storage are also included.

Highlights
  • GDPR mode for safe data recording
  • Monthly and annual statistics
  • Personalized app designs
  • Automatic report sending
  • Pioneer service year overview
  • Interactive territory map
  • Cloud-based data synchronization
Features
Read full description

The App Ministry helps Jehovah's Witnesses organize their ministry. *** IMPORTANT *** Within the app it is possible to financially support the project and the further development, as I have to pay monthly costs. Since Apple does not allow donation links, in-app purchases are intended for this purpose. By donating an amount of money once, which everyone can choose freely, some additional functions are activated in the app. Of course, a donation is not required to unlock the additional functions. Thank you very much for your support and I hope that the app will help you in your service! :) Functions of this app are among others: - GDPR mode: If this mode is activated, the app will only show you areas that are safe in the respective country. Please be sure to enable this feature if you live in a country where you are no longer allowed to record personal information. - Clear monthly and annual statistics on hours, fees, return visits, videos and studies - Personalize your app and choose between different beautiful designs - Send your monthly report conveniently and automatically via email or whatsapp - For pioneers: complete overview of the current year of service and the last years of service in the archive - Pioneers see how many hours they are plus or minus in relation to the year - Setting an individual hourly target - Transferring minutes: In the new month, the system notes whether there are any remaining minutes in the last month and transfers them to the new month. - Easy and fast addition of data by easy left or right swiping - Time recording by stopwatch or manual input - Intelligent calendar to plan service hours, return visits, studies and service appointments - iOS Dark Mode - Load your territory map as a photo into the app so you can take it with you wherever you go. In addition, the app displays an interactive map where you can zoom in and out and move around freely. - LDC & Remote: Capture LDC & remote hours separately and send them in report with - Shortened annual target for pioneers: As a pioneer, you have the option of automatically reducing the annual target by the hours entered for LDC or Remote. You can also manually reduce the annual target by any number of hours, e.g. by crediting it after attending the pioneer service school. - Creation of visits with personal data and the option of creating return visits and/or studies within a clear framework - Create journal routes with automatic recognition of whether someone has already received the current journal - Innovative tile system to edit territories and automatically add a visit if someone needs to be visited again - Graphic, clear bell system for houses with many bells - Cloud-based system: Your data is always the same on all devices - Encrypted and secure data storage Important: This app is cloudbased, so it only works with an internet connection. This has the advantage that the data entered is the same on every device at all times. You have your own account which you can use to log in on any device. You do not have to enter an e-mail address or personal data. For the login, a user name / pseudonym was deliberately chosen, with which you can log in on all your devices. ----------- You have suggestions for further features? Send me your ideas to mail@danielederosa.de, I will consider them for future updates. ----------- You miss a language and would be willing to help with the translation? In that case, please contact me. ----------- I wish you much joy in your ministry and hope that Ministry will help you to organize.

Screenshots

ServicePlanner4 screens
Ministry4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Ministry at Free against ServicePlanner's $2.99. Ministry also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 14.0). ServicePlanner's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and rating (4.7 vs 4.4). On review sentiment, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Ministry is free to download; ServicePlanner costs $2.99 up front. Ministry sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. ServicePlanner asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ServicePlanner holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 186 and 178 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of ServicePlanner's written reviews are positive against 87% of Ministry's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ServicePlanner ships an update every 2 months, Ministry every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
ServicePlanner versus Ministry: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterServicePlannerMinistry
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (186 ratings) — better4.4 (178 ratings)
Positive reviews91.4% of reviews — better86.5% of reviews
Number of ratings186 — better178
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size46 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperiMatt SolutionsDaniele De Rosa

Customer experience

ServicePlanner

All ratings186 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.7%
Negative4.8%
Written reviews162 reviews
Positive91.4%
Neutral3.7%
Negative4.9%

Ministry

All ratings179 ratings
Positive87.2%
Neutral3.4%
Negative9.5%
Written reviews89 reviews
Positive86.5%
Neutral3.4%
Negative10.1%

User reviews

ServicePlanner

From 186 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent app for foreign language field service
  • 🚀 Syncs to NW Publisher
  • 🚀 Clean interface makes recording easy
  • 🚀 Address look up feature saves time
  • 🚀 Useful features make it worth the cost

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
  • 🐛 Difficulty linking with Territory Helper
  • 🐛 Recording 'Not at Home' visits not possible
  • 🐛 Syncing between devices can be inconsistent
  • 🐛 Lacks customization options for some users

Ministry

From 178 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 User-friendly and intuitive interface
  • 🚀 Easy time tracking and reporting
  • 📊 Comprehensive statistics and organization features
  • 🔄 Cloud sync across multiple devices
  • 🎨 Clean, elegant design with dark mode

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Month tracking issues and date synchronization problems
  • 🐛 Data loss and missing information
  • 📱 No landscape mode support (iPad/tablet limitation)
  • 🐛 Return visit feature not fully functional
  • 🔤 Tiny number input fields difficult to read

Bugs and requests

ServicePlanner

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashing or not opening
  • Syncing issues between devices
  • Incorrect translation or localization

Requested features

8 requests
  • Ability to record 'Not at Home' visits
  • Integration with Apple Watch
  • Support for multiple types of hours (ministry, LDC, etc.)
  • Customizable color coding for different visit types
  • Ability to add photos to records
Show 3 more
  • Compatibility with macOS
  • Automatic territory management features
  • Integration with NW Publisher for reporting

Ministry

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • Month display not updating correctly
  • Data loss when not logging out properly
  • Return visit feature non-functional in pro version
  • Time calculation adding extra hours to daily totals
  • iPad rotation lock not working
Show 3 more
  • Password reset requires manual developer intervention
  • Missing data synchronization issues
  • App not rotating to landscape on iPad despite rotation lock being off

Requested features

17 requests
  • Landscape mode for tablets and iPad
  • Return visit location mapping and pinpointing
  • Ability to add custom publications to literature database
  • Phone number integration with calling capability
  • Apple Watch compatibility
Show 12 more
  • Biometric login (Face ID, Touch ID)
  • Report reminder notifications
  • Multiple email address support for report sharing
  • Territory mapping feature
  • Sort return visits by scheduled return date
  • Color-coding for individual calls
  • Keyboard number input option for hours
  • Appointment calendar as dedicated tab
  • Text/email report sending capability
  • Automatic dark mode synchronization with iOS settings
  • 12-hour time format option
  • Private backup functionality

In-app purchases

None

ServicePlanner

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Ministry

One-time3
  • Support 1$0.99
  • Support 2$2.99
  • Support 3$5.99

Questions

Is ServicePlanner free?
ServicePlanner costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ministry free?
Ministry is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ServicePlanner or Ministry?
ServicePlanner is rated higher. ServicePlanner averages 4.7 out of 5 from 186 ratings, while Ministry averages 4.4 from 178 ratings.
Do ServicePlanner or Ministry have ads?
Neither ServicePlanner nor Ministry shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ServicePlanner or Ministry?
ServicePlanner ships an update every 2 months, and Ministry every 3 weeks. Most recently, ServicePlanner was updated on September 24, 2026 and Ministry on August 31, 2026.

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