# Clearstream Reviews **Vendor:** Clearstream **Category:** [Church Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/church-management) **Average Rating:** 4.8/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 174 ## About Clearstream Clearstream is a powerful church texting software designed to help you connect with your people. We've built a tested platform that many of the largest churches in America rely on at scale. Plants and average-sized churches also find Clearstream user-friendly and easy to implement church-wide. We use fast and reliable texting, intuitive features, enterprise-grade analytics, dedicated shortcodes, in-house machine learning, and a REST API that gives you all the power to build SMS into your own applications. Start on our free trial, or if you're a new church plant, use Clearstream free for a year. ## Clearstream Reviews ### 1. User Friendly Tools with Happy Subscribers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rebecca D. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 22, 2024 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearstream is so intuitive to use and has incredible support and documentation. We love the ability to create dynamic lists to narrow down who we want to send messages to. Our subscribers are appreciative of receiving our text updates weekly. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The only downside to Clearstream is that using an emoji costs more credits. However, I'm fairly confident we knew that from the beginning. Clearstream is transparent about costs and what features are available. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have unique gathering rhythms at our church. We meet in a large group format every other week and meet in homes for small groups on the off weeks. Before Clearstream, people felt they were unsure which weekends we were meeting. This allows us to send out updates weekly to let people know where we are meeting as well as links to resources they can use for their small groups. ### 2. User friendly, great customer service! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ashley J. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 21, 2024 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** It is so easy to get questions answered! Customer service has reached out and answered questions and their chat is also very responsive. We signed up for their user friendly email service which makes it easy to design a beautiful email, and we are excited to work towards using the texting feature too! ! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Nothing that we have found so far - we love it! **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Beautiful design and images in emails - we are able to communicate more clearly with our congregation by making weekly calendar emails shorter and more appealing to the eye. ### 3. Clearstream has been an incredible resource to accomplish pastoral follow up & communicate info. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kyle C. | Student Pastor, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 27, 2024 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** What I love best abotu Clearstream, is teh ability to send texts to all our students and as well as send media such as pictures, documents, etc. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** There isnt much to dislike about Clearstream. The system is modern, and easy to use. I love it. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is helping solve the mass text time it takes to text all 150+ stduents we have. I use to spend hours to make texts personal with their names, now its a 5 minute fix. ### 4. Our favorite messaging service! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jesse J. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 07, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Not sure where to start but I came across Clearstream after having issues with other platforms. Out church had tried so many, other companies, that seemed to be what we were looking for, but fell short. Whether Text in Church, Remind, Flocknote, WhatsApp, etc., we tried several. What we were looking for was, affordability, customer service, ease of use, scalability, and if it would intergrate with other programs we use. We initially talked about only using it to communicate important things happening within the church, but I soon realized we are doing a disservice to ourselves by not using all of the available features. So we began to use Clearstream very frequently. Well, I'm happy and grateful to say Clearstream has been phenomenal! before signing up, I was able to hop on a live stream, and see all of the features being offered. after the live stream, I was able to ask any questions that I had regarding the system. Since day one customer service has been extremely helpful and answering any questions. I love the fact that it was so easy to implement it into our current workflows without much change to the backend of our system. A few things I love about Clearstream; 1. Easy to use. Can train anyone how to use in minutes. 2. Creating automated workflows. 3. Intergration with planning center. 4. Ability to create polls and see live results. 5. Can incorporate polls within ProPresenter. 6. Creating unlimited keywords with local number. 7. Customer Service (Well above the others we've used in the past). 8. Pricing. 9. Sending emails through the text service. 10. Having an app. There is probably so much more I can say but I'll wrap this up by saying, Clearstream has been much more than just a texting service. It has allowed me as a pastor to be more creative in my messages, communicate better as a church, drive engagement, etc. It really has become a powerful tool. If you are wondering about Clearstream, I can assure you they have been our favorite service! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The only thing I dislike, and I wouldn't say dislike I would say, could use improvement is the standalone app. while it does allow you to send and schedule messages, I wish it had more administrative options/privileges. there are some things you must do from a desktop that you cannot do in the mobile app. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clearstream solves the problem of communication within the church. I'm sure many have been working in a church and have heard someone say, "I didn't know that was happening." Well, now people can text a keyword and get a text back showing what's happening for the month. We also can push out as much as we want about upcoming events, details, etc. It also helped us solve a problem of helping walk several people through a devotional or time of fasting. Each day we were able to send out an encouraging text, with the bible devotion, and a link to a message or whatever other resource we wanted to add. ### 5. Great mobile app and Planning Center integrated messaging **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nate C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 09, 2024 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearstream is a well polished experience. I hardly ever have any issues. We are particularly fond of the video message feature. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Message history sometimes lacks context as to what someone is replying to. Video links aren't tracked yet, so we can't tell how often a video is watched. The mobile app is lacking some features of the web app such as ability to see incoming image messages. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clearstream helps us better connect with visitors and helps us communicate better about events. We are also using it to send Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary video messages to our members. ### 6. Fantastic Texting Platform **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brett B. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 19, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** This program is intuitive and easy to use. The people behind the scense building & improving this platform do an amazing job responding to suggested bug fixes, feature improvements, and more. Whenever I run into a problem, their customer service team is there to help resolve the issue. Couldn't be happier using this platform! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Including many of the added features (such as videos, pictures, even emojis) cost extra credits. This can eat up your monthly allowance if you're not careful. Because we're on a tighter budget, we don't use too many of the extra features. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** When we first started using Clearstream, we needed a simple, easy method to communicate with our people at church regarding important updates. Specifically, we will sometimes experience the need to cancel services due to inclement weather. Before Clearstream we were having to call individuals and/or email, but that method was not proving to be sustainable as our church grew. Clearstream has been a major help to quickly and clearly communicating with our congregation on important matters of all kinds. ### 7. Grateful for this option! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christina S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 15, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** What I love most about Clearstream is how easy it is to use. We have a team of 6-8 using the texting feature for different reasons and for different groups within our organization. Despite us having different communication styles and different ways of learning, we all find Clearstream easy to understand and navigate. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The things I disliked in the beginning about the Clearstream product are being updated and reviewed all the time. Video and links are so much easier/smoother now than they were when we started out. I love the ease of connectivity between Planning Center and Clearstream - however I do find it a little annoying that a primary contact in Planning Center isn't prioritized by Clearstream with regard to names in the system. For example, a parent lists their mobile number for themselves and their minor children and Clearstream says we are receiving a text from that minor child rather than the adult. Small stuff in the grand scheme of things. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication is key when one lives and ministers in a hurricane prone state. We have utilized Clearstream multiple times for emergency closures and rescheduling info. We also have a commitment-phobic church body. Clearstream has helped us get people registered for events before the deadlines. **Official Response from Abbey Senesi:** > Thanks for your feedback, Christina! We really appreciate you sharing your thoughts on our Planning Center Integration. In regards to Planning Center phone numbers, each subscriber in Clearstream is identified by their phone number. If several people have the same number listed in Planning Center, we'll only sync one of them into Clearstream. If you need something like a primary contact number for a child, make sure it's placed in the "Other" field in Planning Center (we don't pull numbers in this field) to ensure their name doesn't get synced with their parent's phone number. Here's the order of how we prioritize which profile to sync if the number is listed in multiple profiles: Adult w/ mobile number. If there are multiple, we pull the most recent. Child w/ mobile number. Adult w/ matching number (home or work field). Child w/ matching number (home or work field). We're happy to jump on a video call or talk in chat to walk through any questions you have. :) ### 8. Best communication platform right here. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeremy Y. | Operations Pastor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 07, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** The user interface of the platform and the ease of use are the best. Getting everything set up and using the system as well as the accessibility enhance the overall experience. We were able to integrate it easily with planning center. The customer support responsiveness and helpfulness of the customer support team are amazing. Pricing and Value for Money provide a good value for the features and services offered. We use this service daily to communicate with our church members **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I wish you could add better and more custom workflows. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to quickly and easily communicate with our members and first-time guests. As well as gather more info from our users ### 9. Clearstream just keeps getting better **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 24, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** The service is simple to use either on the phone app and the website. Integration with other services like our email service is a nice feature that helps keep all our subsciber lists managable. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Unfortunately, you still can't add messagesto socials from the phone app. This would be a very nice feature for those on the go. **Recommendations to others considering Clearstream:** After comparing other services, you can't beat Clearstream. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clearstream makes it so easy to communicate with my entire congregation with a simple text message. There is no reason for anyone to miss any information. ### 10. Clearstream has been a game changer for communications with everyone in our ministry! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeramy B. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 20, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Being able to send group text out and receive individual responses all from a computer! Ease of use and scheduling is a bonus as well. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The cost is th eonly downside to the service. Wish it was a little cheaper but at the end of the day it makes communication easier and I don't know of a better option. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Always had issues sending parents and my team email about our youth minsitry as the response rate was really low. This has improved sig ups for event and made it easier to communicate with everyone. ### 11. Fast to learn, easy to use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brittany S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2024 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Integration with Planning Center. There are lots of different options for formatting your text. The email option is great, too! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I wish you could hyperlink a word so it wouldn't take up as many characters. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick communication. That we know people receive. ### 12. Good stuff! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gerddy O. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 16, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** It is easy to use and I really like being able to see all of the analytics. I love the ability to create separate recepient lists and also being able to send out different forms of media. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Limitations on length of messages (character count). I also wonder if there could be a new capability to be able to edit/delete messages after being sent. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Church communications overall. Reminders and announcements for things happening soon - especially for private events or ones that aren't for the whole church body. ### 13. Incredible Resource for our Nonprofit Organization! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hannah G. | CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearstream is so simple to use! It has increased our revenue as an organization becuase we are able to stay in better communication with our community! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I wish that Clearstream offered an option for text workflows to continue on and have people added to a workflow after it had already started. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used to lose our members becuase they didn't check their email often. Therefore, they would miss meetings, gatherings, events and more. Now, Clearstream helps us stay in touch with our memebrs and serve them better! ### 14. Excellent texting service! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brooke K. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 10, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** The integration with our church management software makes our job of curating accurate lists to send to easy and efficient. Much better than other texting sofware companies we have used. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** If I had to choose something it would be that the integration is sometimes difficult to access. It takes several times doing it to learn how to add new lists to sync daily. If the integration could be triggered from the Planning Center end like MailChimp is that would be AMAZING! **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** We had a problem with church management software integration but they solved that. They are constantly evaluating and evolving, such as with bringing about video texting, and all of the updates and improvements they have made to it already! ### 15. Thankful for a streamlined way to communicate with our church family **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jacque M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 07, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** I love the Planning Center integration! It's so great to be able to use this to reach our church mid-week in a way more casual than email. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Honestly, not much. If anything is too hard to figure out their sales team is amazing. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allows us to communicate with our church mid-week in a more casual way. It really bennefits our "younger" ministries like College and Students. ### 16. ECIN FCA **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** It is user friendly and when I have trouble getting my file to convert to CSV it gives me an example file to follow. It reaches all the students we are texting. Easy to add a picture. We use it often for a big events, like Fields of Faith, and Camps. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** There really isn't anything that I don't like about it. If there was 1 thing it would be getting my spreadsheet of numbers to match the .csv file. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reaching students in 17 counties across Indiana to let them know about different events that are going on in our area. ### 17. Highly Recommend! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bethany A. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clear stream supports us in being able to effectivly communicate with our congregation. We utalize it for sending in prayer requests, key words for events and parents being able to stay connected while they're kids are away at church events, connection cards, etc. Clearstream is excellent with they're updates and the way they communicate those changes is super streamlined and crystal clear. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** There really isn't anything negative that i've found so far **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Better communication with our congregation ### 18. Texting Made Easy **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jake R. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 07, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** I love that with Clearstrean folks can opt in and you have a record of it. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Keywords can be taken already with the shirt code. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clearstream provides an easy action for our folks to join in. ### 19. LOVE this program! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeremy W. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** We have used it for about 3 years with our church. It is affordable and easily interacts with out church database **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Honestly, we haven't really had many issues. It has been fantastic to use. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** People don't read emails or look at social media. Clearstream provides the BEST method for us to communicate across our church ministries. ### 20. Clearstream makes communicating to and with our folks a dream **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian F. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 01, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** The ability to not only connect to people exactly where they are and have an extradordinarily high read rate, Clearstream allows us to get responses from folks. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The interface has a ton of features, which can be a little overwhelming/has a decent learning curve. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clearstream allows us to communicate quickly and directly with people in a medium that they are sure to read (versus email or other kind of message that gets lost easily). ### 21. Perfect for our mid-sized church **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Angie L. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 29, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** I love being able to text people without everyone who visits the church having my personal phone number. I appreciate the ability to be able to choose to use a short or long code to send a text. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** It is tedious to enter new people individually. I'm not sure what could be done about that, but it's my least favorite thing about it. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping in touch with our people in relevant groups as well as individually. It's also great for texting visitors, which is much more effective than emailing them. **Official Response from Lizzie Reese:** > Hey Angie, Thank you for sharing this feedback with our team! We're glad Clearstream has been helpful for your church communication. I wanted to let you know that you can add subscribers in bulk in a few different ways: you can import a CSV file, integrate with a church management software, or even use signup forms. Here's a little more info on how you can do this: https://help.clearstream.io/en/articles/6319661-how-can-i-add-contacts-to-my-account. If you have any questions at all, please let us know. We definitely want to honor your time by helping you enter new contacts more efficiently. Thank you again for sharing your feedback! :) ### 22. Great service! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Robert A. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** We find the people we are connected to best respond to text messages. Clear stream is our go to choice to make that happen! Easy to text, and easy to get responses. Along with the ability to integrate with other software suites we use and it's a winning combination! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Two things I need clear stream to fix. First, I am always switching to "load desktop version" when I need to do something on the fly because the mobile experience is a bit lacking. Second, how texts come in when someone replies to our marketing messages. They come in horribly chopped up segments and NOT in order! Sometimes I can't even make out what someone is saying. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** I find more people read text messages than check their emails. So to get information out quickly that people will both read, and more will respond to, clear stream makes it happen. ### 23. Clearstream has been very useful in communicating via texts for our ministry **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearstream has integration with CCB, which is a a people management software we use, and all the different types of groupings we have in CCB, have been integrated to Clearstream well. The integration is necessary for us. With options to send digital media files, it makes our texts more dynamic than just simple text. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** This isn't a deal breaker but hopefully Clearstream will alow for .gif files to be used. For certain groups we have and are trying to reach (like youth groups), it will be more appealing. But it is more an "accesorry", rather than a necessary function. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Massive texts and the availability of integration with other Apps have been necessary and useful for us because we need to send Texts to different groups. Also, it syncs with other apps everyday which allows us the assurance that if we forget to manually sync our apps, Clearstream does that nonetheless. **Official Response from Lizzie Reese:** > Thank you for sharing this feedback with our team! We really appreciate you sharing your ideas on how Clearstream can become better, specifically regarding using .gif files. Please feel free to share any other feedback you have in the future! :) ### 24. Easy + Effective way to communicate to the church **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sterling S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 23, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearstream provides a super easy way to send communication out, knowing that everyone on the subscriber list will receive it. I love the simplicity of pointing our people toward a keyword and then building out menus/options using auto responses. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** While the flexibility and quick response is nice, a small organization like Clearstream is regularly changing their product requiring some measure of continued learning curve. Overall, this has pros and cons so it's hard to say that it's truly a dislike. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Previous church-wide communication was done via email, but that had a sub-50% open rate. Using text communication provides a much more effective method for getting messages in front of people. Their workflows also allow for super easy automated interaction with subscribers! ### 25. New video feature is sweet **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** TJ H. | Pastor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 25, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** It is compatible with PC and easy to make groups. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Keywords are limited based upon others using same short number and automation is little more complicated than I would like. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were able to get out churchwide announcements faster, able to make connections quicker with first time guests, and helps for getting people mobilized quick for Emergencies. ### 26. Excellent SMS/MMS solutions for churches **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Josiah W. | Director of Communications, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearstream makes it incredibly easy to send text messages and emails to lists in our ChMS (Planning Center). They also have advanced tools like branching, workflows, and surveys. The UI is clean, the app is great, and sub-accounts make organization easy. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** There really isn't much downside. It's becoming a crucial part of our workflow and communication strategy at this point. Maybe a way to disable a keyword temporarily, and not have it count against the tally of keywords. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allows for quick and easy communication to our whole congregation, or specific targeted groups that are quickly synced via the Planning Center integration. ### 27. Easy to operate system **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Emily H. | Senior Marketing Specialist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 20, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** We've been using Clearstream for several years now, and we love the easy-to-use interface to get campaigns set up. If we ever have an issue, the chat support agents are super helpful and quick to respond. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I can't think of any downsides that we have experienced. We have been able to get quick support on any issues we have had in the past in a super quick turnaround time. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** So we actually do not use Clearstream for church management as we were using the platform before it pivoted to focus on church management. We are a beverage distributor using Clearstream to manage text to win giveaways for our products and in-store activation. ### 28. A big upgrade in text communication **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shanae Z. | Systems Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** The interface of Clearstream is very intuitive. It's my job to train new employees on our systems and Clearstream has been the easiest for new employees to understand. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** We hit the max of 10 subaccounts and have had to start sharing subaccounts between departments. While every employee needing access has their own login, tracking usage between departments is more challenging withing a shared subaccount. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has solved the issue of lost unsubscribes, which the previous texting platform we used had major problems with. Legally, we can't text someone after they unsubscribe. Now that we've switched over to Clearstream, we don't have to worry about tracking unsubscribes in case the system loses them with new subscriber import groups. ### 29. Clearstream Texting Service is a Great Option for your Needs! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Very user friendly - easy to navigate and figure out how to use! Additionally, the preview features before sending out a text are incredibly helpful to see how it will show to your intended audience. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** There is not much that I haven't liked about clearstream. We probably don't use it as much as some companies do, so I can't speak much to this area. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being able to send out our weekly newsletter to our Church body, additionally, allowing people to text in prayer requests and other information to get them involved. ### 30. Excellent Texting Service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** William G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearstream hs been an invaluable communication tool for our church. It is simple to use and schedule texts for our people. I highly recommend and enjoy this service. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Clearstream while being fairly intuitive does at times have a bit of a learning curve. Some tutorials would be helpful **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication to our people! **Official Response from Lizzie Reese:** > Thanks for taking the time to review us, William! If you're ever wanting more info on how to use Clearstream, we're happy to jump on a call or video call to walk through each feature and answer any questions you have. :) Thank you again for sharing your feedback, we really appreciate it! ### 31. Love Clearstream **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alyssa G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 29, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** It is simple to use and has so many different features for texting. It's exactly what we need! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Sometimes I forget to check the website to see if we have received any texts and I don't get notified. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** We want to text from our church line, so Clearstream was the perfect way to reach out to our church body without using our personal cell phones. **Official Response from Lizzie Reese:** > Thank you so much for taking the time to review us, Alyssa! We're so glad Clearstream has been helpful for you and easy to use overall. Regarding notifications, you can enable email or push notifications directly to your phone through Settings in your account. Please let us know if there's anything else we can help with! :) ### 32. Great Tool for Connecting People **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michael D. | Executive Pastor, Discipleship & Strategy , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 20, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** When we wanted to incorporate texting into our church visitor integration processes, we chose Clearstream. We are glad we did! The ability to make unlimited lists, the versatility of having 5-digit and 10-digit phone numbers, and the keyword options make Clearstream an easy tool to incorporate into our team workflows. Key pluses include the ability to use emojis and text messages in Spanish. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The price point could be more affordable for mid-size churches. It would be great if notifications could be sent to multiple email addresses. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reaching out to newcomers and reminding engaged congregants about key church events. ### 33. Clearstream has been helpful in communicating information and events to a wide group of people. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 14, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** I appreciate the use of keywords to help categorize the groups of people we are reaching and meeting their needs. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I don't find the user interface to be the most simplistic and helpful. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clearstream helps me communicate with parents and students about upcoming church events and reminders for ministries that they are a part of. ### 34. Clearstream has been easy to use. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 07, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** The layout of clearstream makes it easy to construct all of our texting needs. The mockup of what your text looks like is also a slick feature. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The limits of how many credits special texts cost. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps get direct access to our church ### 35. Pleased with Clearstream. The functions are efficient and easy to navigate. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alyssa P. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 29, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Integrations into Planning Center and collections of data. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The cost per amount of credits needed to utilize consistent communications. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communications to congregation. ### 36. Great app!! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nathan B. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 20, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Great app! Works well and links to our church management software for sending to a targeted audience. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I enjoy the service and all the features, if I had anything negative to say it would be the cost. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helping us get out urgent messages to our church family as well as scheduling messages to targeted audiences. ### 37. Clearstream SMS | Great Platform **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chanice O. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** I love that Clearstream can integrate with our other systems such as Planning Center, Bit.ly, and Mailchimp. With these integrations we can set up automations across platforms. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Clearstream is a great platform and at this time we do not have any dislikes. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** They help us connect with our ministry members and integrate different lists from planning center. This allows us to provide effective and necessary communication to all parties. ### 38. Clearstream has been a great help to us. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brant A. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearsream helps us communicate quickly to our people. We are able to keep them up todate via text and video messages. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Nothing that I really dislike to mention. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication, helps a lot with communication ### 39. It just works! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sam B. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 09, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** It's straight forward and integrates well with Planning Center! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Cost... For what it is, surely cost could be less. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cost... As we move into an mobile app with push notifications, we will use clearstream less. ### 40. Exactly what we need! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brice F. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Ease of use. Integrations with Planning Center. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** It's a little pricey. Could be more user friendly. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps us communicate with th whole church. ### 41. We love using Clearstream to connect with our church congregation! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Caleb L. | Website Developer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 05, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** It's very easy to add contacts, scehdule text messages, and set up subaccounts for our ministries to stay connected with their people. We have used other texting services before, but Clearstream is a way better value and has been a great support for our ministry! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Sometimes it can be a little difficult to find what I am looking for in the dashboard, but I do always find it. Also, text credits can add up fast if we go over the character limit for an SMS. **Recommendations to others considering Clearstream:** If you are looking for a texting service to help communicate to your church you need Clearstream! **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clearstream helps us stay connected with our church better than we can over other mediums. We are able to send out texts regularly on a schedule, or when something comes up that we need to alert people about quickly. ### 42. Clearstream is super helpful and easy to use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lyndale H. | Senior Pastor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 10, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Support is readily available. It has helped us find a more efficient way to communicate with members. We are getting response and feedback unlike our experience with email and other forms of communication. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Not a fan of the headers that accompany each text. They make it look like text messages are being sent by a robot. It adds a layer of complication to making things feel personal. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** The biggest problem that Clearstream has solved is feedback from members. We consistently get responses to the texts we send out and it has helped our congregation feel more connected. **Official Response from Lizzie Reese:** > Hey Lyndale, Thank you so much for taking the time to review us! We're really glad to hear that Clearstream has been a helpful tool for you in reaching your members! Regarding the message header, I definitely understand how this can be frustrating. Unfortunately, it is legally required, but you can change the header on any message to use someone's name or a specific ministry if that would be helpful to clarify who the text is coming from. For example, "Pastor Smith" or "Student Ministry". If you have any questions at all as you're using Clearstream, please feel free to reach out to us. We'd love to help. :) Thanks, ### 43. Truly a God Send! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** JUSTIN B. | Campus Pastor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** The best thing about this system is the ability to send and receive texts with a click of a button! The migration of information from other platforms is super easy! You can create list for various ministries and only send to those people on that list! Love it! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** The only downside is due to us using the version we are using we share a short code and many of the keys that we used previously have been taken already, But we hope to upgrade soon to get our own shortcode! **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** The problem of being able to get messages and information out to our church members quickly! ### 44. Advanced, sleek, and easy texting communication platform. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jared E. | Lead Pastor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 13, 2021 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** I've used two other texting platforms, and Clearstream is hands down the best in every category. Usability, useful updates, clean and modern look, functionality, 3rd party integrations, pricing, tech support. It's simply the best. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** There is nothing I dislike about Clearstream. **Recommendations to others considering Clearstream:** Clearstream is better than any other competitor. They continue to add value with every monthly update, and I will continue to use Clearstream for the foreseeable future. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** As a church, we needed a platform where we could send out real-time communications as well as provide a way for others to reach out and connect with us. Clearstream helps us keep our congregation connected to the most important communications as well as provide a way for new people to connect with us in a way that allows us to stay organized and never let anyone slip through the cracks. The automations and 3rd party integrations give us everything we could hope for and more. **Official Response from Abbey Senesi:** > Hey Jared 👋 Thanks for taking the time to leave a review. We're excited Clearstream is working so well for you! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out 🙂 ### 45. Reliable and consistent and simple **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2023 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** It's pretty easy to use and seems to be effective for our purposes. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I haven't found a way to do any sort of group chat. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick text communication that is integrated wit Planning Center. **Official Response from Lizzie Reese:** > Hey there! Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We're glad Clearstream has been easy for you to use and helpful overall! Regarding group chats, there is not a way to have a group chat through Clearstream where several people are all able to respond to one another at one time. Thank you again for sharing about your experience, we really appreciate it! ### 46. Best Texting Service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** roger w. | lead pastor, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 25, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** We used another texting service that also linked with CCB Database, this is SOOOOOOO much better. Can't say enough. Love the ease of use and the data afterwards **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I like it all. Nothing that I dislike. I'm very good with the features and use. **Recommendations to others considering Clearstream:** use it. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm able to send an immediate contact to my congregation that they will see and read, who knows if they do this with email anymore.... ### 47. Love the Clearstream team! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kate B. | P, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 24, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** I love the service of the team and the simplicity of the software. It isn't difficult to understand, and when you need some help, a rep is seconds away. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I wish we had the option of using our own local number in combination with the shortcode. I also wish I could see who unsubscribed following a message without having to download and sort a CSV file to figure it out. I wish I could see the day and time each subscriber opted in using a particular keyword. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sometimes my staff members get mysteriously logged out and can't find a quick way to recover our password. We need a visible "Forgot Password" option that allows us to reset, and sometimes that's nowhere to be found on the login screen. ### 48. Great option for any budget! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Matt R. | Teaching & Discipleship Pastor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 24, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** Clearstream makes it easy to communicate with your entire church simply and effectively! I love that you can customize your keywords to the specific ministries you are using them for! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Honestly, I have not identified anything that I dislike. The only complaint I have heard from another ministry is that they wish there was a pricing tier between the $49 and the $99 packages. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Lack of communication was a frequent complaint within our church. No matter how many emails, phone calls, announcements, etc., people still seemed to think there could be more communication. Clearstream solved this problem because most people have their phones on them at all times. Meaning communication is received and often read immediately. ### 49. It's Clear this is the System for Us! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chelsea R. | Connections Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2021 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** We love having the ability to text our church body for last-minute updates, especially with the holiday season upon us. Just last week, we had to cancel an event and quickly and efficiently communicated the cancellation to all attendees! We're excited to use the Polls feature within the youth group soon - they're going to love seeing the results in real-time. Also, the updated sync option with Planning Center is a lifesaver!! **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** Honestly, the only issue I've had with it was trying to text 1 person specifically from Clearstream, who hadn't before texted us, but that could very well be a user error as I'm still learning. (We had a huge raffle contest and wanted to use Clearstream to contact the winners who didn't show up to claim their gifts, but I had some issues with that individual text.) **Recommendations to others considering Clearstream:** 10/10 would recommend - it's been perfect for what we need! **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** Clearstream is helping us solve the problem of last-minute, church-wide communication that's efficient and effective! It also allows us to better engage with our congregation. **Official Response from Abbey Senesi:** > Hey Chelsea 👋 We're glad Clearstream is working well for you. 🙂 We did want to let you know that you can't text a person who is not a subscriber, but you're able to opt people in manually. Go to your subscribers tab, add subscribers, and add manually. That should do the trick! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out and we'd be happy to help. ### 50. User Friendly App That Gets the Job Done **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Public Relations and Communications | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2022 **What do you like best about Clearstream?** The program is super user-friendly, and I like that you can choose a local phone number. I can set up a message in no time, and I especially love that I can create the message on Monday even if I don't need the text to send out until Wednesday at 9:00 AM. That feature is super useful. **What do you dislike about Clearstream?** I do not like the limited character counts. It makes it really difficult to send out information to the necessary people. I wish the character count was more like it is on Twitter. Just know if you use Clearstream, you will either have to be okay with using text lingo (which I hate) or you will have to pay extra for more credits to send out text messages. **What problems is Clearstream solving and how is that benefiting you?** As of right now, I do not know of any specific problem Clearstream is helping me solve beyond simple communication. I like how easy it is to send out mass communication. ## Clearstream Discussions - [Emergency Texting](https://www.g2.com/discussions/emergency-texting) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Clearstream pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/clearstream/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-15+09%3A43%3A18+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=2d170a31-3c76-480e-b004-c67325417bad&secure%5Btoken%5D=3ec4b84eebefba8b91dc8a03d92874aa1c486099d5532717adaa869bd2cc8792&format=llm_user) ## Clearstream Features **Platform Basics** - Membership Tracking - Donation Management - Congregation Communication - Worship Management - Event Planning - Church Accounting **Platform Additional Functionality** - People Management Specific Tools - Event Management Specific Tools **Agentic AI - Church Management** - Autonomous Task Execution - Cross-system Integration - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance ## Top Clearstream Alternatives - [Text-Em-All](https://www.g2.com/products/text-em-all/reviews) - 4.8/5.0 (815 reviews) - [DialMyCalls](https://www.g2.com/products/dialmycalls/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (960 reviews) - [Breeze ChMS](https://www.g2.com/products/yourgiving-inc-breeze-chms/reviews) - 4.8/5.0 (127 reviews)