JW Congregation Scheduler vs CongPlan
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
JW Congregation Scheduler
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Congregation Scheduler is a self-hosted scheduling and management app for Jehovah's Witnesses congregations. Unlike typical apps, it doesn't send your congregation's data to any company's server: each congregation runs its own free Firebase project, and the app connects directly to it. Nobody but your own administrators - not even the app's developer - can see your data. Independently developed. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society or any official Jehovah's Witnesses entity. WHAT IT DOES - Information board: texts, PDF/image documents, links, with visibility windows - Events and a personal "my upcoming assignments" overview - Life and Ministry Meeting schedule, with direct .epub workbook import and a qualification-aware assignment picker that favors whoever was assigned longest ago - Weekend meeting schedule: talk, speaker, chairman, Watchtower reader, and custom fields - Public witnessing schedule with recurring time slots - Territories: assignment, return with notes, map links, and statistics - Ministry reports: self-service and admin paper entry, publisher records by service year, and an automatic monthly (S-1) summary - Meeting attendance tracking, in-person and online, with monthly averages - Publisher management: identity verification, granular per-section admin roles, assignment qualifications, and emergency contact notes - English, Japanese, German, Polish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish, Czech and Turkish interface HOW SET-UP WORKS An administrator creates a free Firebase project (about 15 minutes, no programming required - full instructions are included) and installs the app's security rules, which decide exactly who can see and edit what. Every other publisher is invited by scanning a QR code; new members start out unverified until an administrator confirms their identity. WHY SELF-HOSTED Congregation records include personal details - names, contact info, ministry activity - that deserve real privacy. By keeping every congregation's data inside a Firebase project that only that congregation's own administrators control, Congregation Scheduler avoids a shared central database becoming the target of a single breach, and keeps you in charge of your own data at all times. The app is free, contains no ads, and does not collect analytics or tracking data of any kind.
CongPlan
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CongPlan brings your congregation's plan to iPhone and iPad: meetings, assignments, field service and public witnessing ā with passkey sign-in, notifications and a plan you can read offline. The app connects you directly to your CongPlan account. For you personally ⢠My Plan: all your own assignments and dates in one list ⢠Assignment with context: date, part, assistant and location ⢠Record an absence without giving a reason ⢠Request a swap: qualified people who are not absent are asked ⢠See open public witnessing shifts and sign yourself up if you are eligible ⢠Congregation announcements with an unread marker ⢠Calendar subscription (ICS): your personal plan in your device calendar ⢠A reminder notification before it is your turn For the planning team ⢠Plan the programme of the Life and Ministry Meeting and the Weekend Meeting ⢠Field Service Meetings with location and conductor ⢠Public witnessing: create locations, weekdays and shifts ⢠Outgoing public talks with speaker, theme and host congregation, including protection against double booking on a weekend ⢠Automatic suggestions leave out people who are absent ⢠Print Center: week and month overview, field service groups and congregation roles as PDF or notice On iPhone ⢠Sign in with a passkey via Face ID, Touch ID or device passcode. There is no password. ⢠First access through the personal invite link or QR code from your admin ⢠Notifications for assignments, swap requests and announcements ⢠Without a connection the last loaded plan stays readable. Changes need a connection. ⢠Links to your plan open directly in the app ⢠14 languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian Access and cost CongPlan is free. A congregation registers once, then the admin invites everyone else with a personal link. Without that invitation or your own registration the app cannot be used. Transparency CongPlan is a private project by Sascha Henning and not an official product of any organisation. The data is held on servers in Germany (Frankfurt). Every congregation sees only its own data. Usage statistics are collected without tracking cookies. The source code is published under AGPL-3.0. Questions: kontakt@congplan.app Guides: docs.congplan.app
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: CongPlan at weekly against JW Congregation Scheduler's fortnightly. JW Congregation Scheduler's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
JW Congregation Scheduler ships an update fortnightly, CongPlan weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | JW Congregation Scheduler | CongPlan |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Weekly ā better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod ā better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 ā better | 17.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Vitezslav Skarda | Sascha Henning |
In-app purchases
JW Congregation Scheduler
No in-app purchases
CongPlan
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is JW Congregation Scheduler free?
Is CongPlan free?
Do JW Congregation Scheduler or CongPlan have ads?
Which is updated more often, JW Congregation Scheduler or CongPlan?
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