Faithlife Proclaim reviews

Proclaim worship presentation software is an excellent solution for any size Church!

Opmerkingen: Overall, I'm quite impressed with Proclaim. It has changed our worship service by Leaps and Bounds, and made me more efficient getting my work done during the week. There are so many features yet that we have not even begin to scratch the surface on, but I'm excited for the future in hopes that we will dig deeper and begin to use them.

Pluspunten:

What I love most about Proclaim is that it is so intuitive with the layout and how things are put together. It doesn't take a computer genius to be able to lay out a presentation. Also, the person left to run the presentation during the service needs to know nothing more than how to Progressive slide forward or backward. It's really that simple! Proclaim is even made it super simple by integrating our work subscriptions, Bible versions in scripture, along with song lyrics within the software. It is literally a one-stop-shop. What used to take me over 2 hours to do in illustrator, Photoshop, and PowerPoint, I can now get done in about 30 minutes and Proclaim. The customer service is also outstanding! Each time that I have emailed them, I've gotten a reply back usually the same day with a personalized email addressing my specific question. No Scripts or faceless reply to

Minpunten:

One of the things I like least about this software is the dependability of the sinking upload feature. I can work on a presentation at home, and press the sync feature leave my laptop open for a couple hours, and it still won't show up on the church computer several days later. We end up having to share the actual presentation file through Google Drive in order to make sure that everyone has access to the file that they need. I wish that there was a way that I could actually see the progress of a file being synced and know what it is 100% uploaded and ready to collaborate with. The other thing that I don't like about the software is that all the art, song lyrics, and in-depth Bible study stuff are all extra subscription cost. Period. In addition to the money that is spent each month on Proclaim itself. For a small church, this can be quite an expense and not everyone is able to pay it. The church that I attend is about 30 to 40 people on a good Sunday, and they do pay for the Proclaim software, but I end up having to pay for all the artwork subscriptions myself just so that I don't pull my hair out trying to put presentations together. The basic artwork included with Proclaim is lackluster at best.

Excellent choice for church presentation software

Opmerkingen: Proclaim is a great package and highly recommended. It's getting better over time and works well for our church.

Pluspunten:

Proclaim is multi-platform and has a cloud-based component, such that it's easy to create service presentations at home and then use them at church. All that's required is that the Proclaim software is installed both places and logged into the same group. Overall, it's pretty easy to use and many things are obvious to find and use. It has enough customizability that it should be usable by both small and large churches alike. Service content is editable in a freeform editor, with changes instantly previewed on slides to the right. It's super easy to see how changes affect what will be displayed to the audience.

Minpunten:

The biggest drawback is the song database and organization. You can't organize songs into different collections, nor can you see all of the songs in your database in one place in order to do organization, cleanup, etc. When you pull in a song to your service order, you are editing that song everywhere it might be used, so you have to be careful about changing verse orders, words, attribution, etc. Additionally, song titles must be globally unique within the church group. In other words, you can't have two songs named identically where one is a congregational version and the other is a choral version. You have to differentiate somehow via the name. Faithlife has indicated they are working on a major upgrade to the song organization features, so I am hoping that this gets much better in the near future. Editing backgrounds, adding images, and editing smartmedia is a little confusing at first, so it really takes some getting used to. This aspect of the product could be made better.

Love this Product!

Opmerkingen: We absolutely love this product. We have been using this product for about 5 years now. We can use it in all aspects of ministry (adults, kids, youth) without buying more than one license. Also if you use logos, you can send your sermon slides over to proclaim.

Pluspunten:

This program is east to use for small churches. Most of the video items you can set to start on their own. Depending on what you use it for, you can use with just one operator.

Minpunten:

Some of the slide images are boring. Not much backgrounds to choose from with the base package. You need to subscribe to the media packages to get better included slides.

Especially good for church plants

Opmerkingen: We love the ease of this product and the price is great other companies charge way too much for similar service

Pluspunten:

If you don’t have someone who has experience with pro presenter this is the ticket…easy to use and extremely reliable

Minpunten:

It doesn’t seem as advanced as pro presenter and doesn’t offer as many services. I do wish we had known that it has to sync before service but i think that is user error not the company

Great for church use

Opmerkingen: Our church switched from PowerPoint to Proclaim a couple years ago, and overall it's been a good choice for us. While I wish there was bit more ability to edit designs or add design items, the additional church-specific tools offered by Proclaim are really great and time-saving. The Bible and song databases are robust and keep our team from having to manually input a lot of that content.

Pluspunten:

Faithlife Proclaim is designed specifically for churches, so there are certain features that are intentionally included that fit my professional setting.

Minpunten:

There are less design editing/manipulating abilities than a product like PowerPoint.

Proclaim Native-Cloud Ease

Opmerkingen: I used Proclaim for several years but switched to another product during the COVID pandemic due to the other product's ability to stream a service easily. I came back to Proclaim for performance reasons, and I had to do some interesting things with OBS to create a stream that included live video and slide data from Proclaim. Since Faithlife has finally created an alternate slide screen where I can modify the slide data with live video in the background, I absolutely love Proclaim.

Pluspunten:

I love the fact that Proclaim is natively cloud-based and any edits I make to a service presentation are instantly replicated to any other device with Proclaim on it. I also love the responsiveness of the slides to slide changes. It doesn't matter if the background is an image or 50mb video loop, the slides change is instant. I have used other product that have a .5 sec - 2 sec delay and you wouldn't think that makes a difference but in song lyric changes or during a pastor's sermon it's an eternity.

Minpunten:

The feature to stream directly to a RTMP feed from a Mac. This has been available on the Windows platform for a while, and I have been patiently waiting for this for several months now.

Why We Use Proclaim

Opmerkingen: Faithlife Proclaim has solved our projection issues. It is easier to build our Presentations as well as having the ability to use non-technical volunteers to operate it. Our Sunday Morning Presentations have been seamless.

Pluspunten:

Proclaim is web-based so everyone on the team has access to it wherever there are. It has proved the easiest Projection System that we have ever used. Even first time users have no trouble catching on and running the program. Proclaim continues to improve with new features. It has a generous amount of images for backgrounds, it includes surveys, games, announcements, and it becomes a digital bulletin with a Connection Card. Changes can be made while 'on air', videos are easy to import, the song database is easy to use. A light board can be connected to the songs themselves.

Minpunten:

So far, after 2 years, we have not experienced any cons

Great Cloud Based Projection Software

Opmerkingen: Proclaim is a robust solution to our weekly data projection needs. While not cheap to purchase, quality comes at a price and so Proclaim represents good value for money. I have never known Proclaim to crash during a presentation which has always been one of my fears.

Pluspunten:

Proclaim manages the data projection in our church. I love the way the software handles various types of media seamlessly. No third party software required. The ability to edit or insert service items on the fly without disturbing the live presentation in another great strength. We sometimes need a last minute person to run the software. Proclaim is so intuitive to use I can grab someone with basic computer skills and they can manage the service presentation.

Minpunten:

There is nothing I really dislike about this software.

Struggled with Media

Pluspunten:

This is easy to use and great for collaboration, as multiple people can work on the same presentation.

Minpunten:

This software just wasn't reliable with different media sources, and was just slower than the main competitor out there, so we ended up switching.

Proclaim for Church

Opmerkingen: Overall we love using Proclaim. The ability to have everything cloud based and to add all of our volunteers to our team without any extra cost is great! Our volunteers are able to create slides at home and they sync directly to our church computers without any problem. We love Proclaim!

Pluspunten:

We love using Proclaim at our church. We use it for all of our presentation needs. We use it for our sonf service, as well as our preaching times. The integrations with CCLI makes creating song slides easy while the integration with Logos Bible software makes exporting slides over extremely easy. It's also great that if our preacher uses Logos software, they can control the slides directly from their message document.

Minpunten:

The editing of slides and content is a little hard to use and doesn't always work the way that you want it to. Their custom slide layouts have never really been of much use to us and their content library is not the best unless you want to pay for the partnerships that they have with other media producers.

Everything in ONE, easy to use package

Opmerkingen: Our overall experience has been great! We've loved making use of it, and will continue for the foreseeable future.

Pluspunten:

We originally moved to proclaim because of the ease of use. Everything is so clearly laid out and really well labelled. Gradually features have been added at just the right time. Our sermons are now recorded using proclaim and immediately uploaded to our website! We regularly used the Pro Media package, but even the free media was exceptional. One super useful feature, is how easily Proclaim connects to songselect and other databases. We make full use of the ability for multiple team members to edit presentations. We're still figuring out all of the features, but it's been incredible to see how the software has developed over the years and all of the features that they've added.

Minpunten:

On occasion, it can feel like features have been implemented but not totally thought through, however, this is usually fixed very quickly as users feedback.

A very good option

Opmerkingen: Overall it is the best experience I have had using this kind of application. It has a cost but it is worth the price.

Pluspunten:

What I like the most is the fact that I can prepare all the material in advance from anywhere in my laptop and when I come to the church to use, it is there and it works.

Minpunten:

Some times is har to control it remotely. I use my phone on he pulpit or a tablet but it dosen't work all the time. I would say 8/10 times works fine.

Proclaim: A Great Cloud-Based Presentation Solution

Opmerkingen: They have been very pleasantly work with and responsive.

Pluspunten:

The ability to install this software in minutes on an unlimited number of Macs or PCs is invaluable. Even more so, is the ability to work on a presentation with multiple team members simultaneously from remote locations. Cloud syncing is a huge plus of this software. The user interface is straightforward and intuitive; so much so that you actually feel inclined to use the software and be creative while doing so. The ability to edit a slide real time while not going “off air” is great.

Minpunten:

It does lack some of the customizability that more complex software, like ProPresenter, provides. It would be nice to send true transparencies out instead of needing to key a background color out (having more background color choices for keying would also be great). Sometimes the presentations can be a little laggy when scrolling, but this is by no means a show stopper.

Proclaim for Youth Ministry

Opmerkingen: On the whole, I have really enjoyed using Proclaim and it has brought a level of professionalism and ease to presenting information to the students in our Youth Ministry on both Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. This has been a fantastic tool!

Pluspunten:

I love how easy it is to integrate a slide presentation made on Apple Keynote into an overall Sunday morning presentation. I can produce my sermon slides and they can easily be added to the slides for the songs that we are also sining that morning.

Minpunten:

It can seem a bit daunting at first; but honestly, this is easily overcome. Proclaim seems to be highly intuitive, actually.

Administration of Faithlife Proclaim

Opmerkingen: I love the software. It is easy for me to train others on the software. It is easy to make changes on the fly.

Pluspunten:

I like the ability to work from home and then synchronize with the final product at church. I like that the software is designed for Church. The ease of making slides saves time compared to making a competitor work. The seamless working with Logos software is helpful.

Minpunten:

Recent upgrades have eliminated most of my concerns. It is confusing at times when 2 or more are using the program at one time.

Faithlife Proclaim

Opmerkingen: The product enables us to produce a quality worship experience for our members and guests.

Pluspunten:

The product is easy to use and multiple users can collaborate via the cloud.

Minpunten:

Initial setup took longer than expected.

Much better than Power Point for Church Services

Pluspunten:

The models help a lot if there is no graphics designer in your team.

Minpunten:

I think 90% or more of the media is English only and I live in Brazil.

Proclaim software for a small church

Opmerkingen: Proclaim has been very good for our church. Now that the need for a live stream has become essential, Proclaim plus OBS has made it relatively painless to have both the speaker and the slides on the screen at the same time.

Pluspunten:

I first started using Proclaim because I needed the ability to see my notes along with with slides but yet show just the slides on the screen. PowerPoint will do this but Proclaim has so many more features and the options are continually upgraded. I use Logos from Faithlife for my sermon creation exclusively. the sermon editor in Logos seamlessly transfers my notes and slides directly into Proclaim. Then I just have to tweak the slides as needed. Because it is cloud based, the worship and or song coordinator can put the song slides in separately as their part of the program. This is only the tip of the "iceberg" as far as the options that are available and continue to improve. A big or small church can use this program efficiently for their service. The pricing relative to membership is a big plus for our church.

Minpunten:

The software has come along way since it's beginning. You will need a steady throughput of 3-5 mg or more from your ISP for it to work efficiently. Although, it is possible to present offline. A good share of the bugs that I was having have been worked through by the Faithlife staff. I really have no complaints at present.

An All-In-One Solution

Pluspunten:

Proclaim’s stand-out feature is convenience. Being cloud-based, it allows our team to work from wherever they are. The sermon recording feature makes our podcast unbelievably simple, and the smart media helps us to create diverse, professional slides with ease.

Minpunten:

The features for live streaming, like only showing the foreground of a screen, are not quite ready for prime time. There is also no way to pick channels coming off of a device like a digital sound board for sermon recording.

Great program that is easy to use and perfect for beginners

Opmerkingen: Overall, Proclaim has been the easiest software to use in regards to presentation software like ProPresenter and MediaShout. It has great connectivity functionality and has been making strides towards being wireless and having excellent cloud integration!

Pluspunten:

I currently use Proclaim and it has been very helpful for my organization (religious institution) in planning our services. I use another, similar software as well and so it is interesting to see the similarities and differences with each. What I like MOST about Proclaim is its MOBILITY... I can literally download the software onto my laptop and work on it anywhere I go. If I have a last-minute adjustment to make, I just open my computer, make the change, and it shows up on all other devices logged into my Proclaim account, including the main computer at my organization. That is definitely my favorite part of the software!

Minpunten:

I don't really have anything negative to say about Proclaim, but if there was one thing to pick on, it would be the lack of media options. I expected the software to come pre-loaded with default media like still/moving backgrounds, wallpapers, audio files, etc, but there hasn't been much selection. HOWEVER, there is available media for purchase... which has ended up working out when needed in a pinch.

Helping Church Share the Gospel

Opmerkingen: The integration with CCLI has been a huge help in song lyric look up and licensing needs.

Pluspunten:

This software is easy to use and maintain. Once you have a template in place, we simply replicate the template and tweak each week swapping out songs and sermons. The ability for multiple team members to edit is a big plus as we use a team to contribute weekly.

Minpunten:

Only thing I can think of is the timing of upgrades...there have been times it decides it needs to update on Sunday morning. Which for a church is the worst time possible. So if they could enable some way to prevent updates on Sunday that would be great!

Proclaim Review

Pluspunten:

I love the connection between Proclaim and Logos integration. Transferring my sermons are a breeze.

Minpunten:

There is nothing that I don’t like about the product.

Better and Better

Opmerkingen: Our ministry operates smoothly because of this software. The accessibility from the cloud makes it easy for us to collaborate and get the service in order before we get there on Sunday morning.

Pluspunten:

I really like how much the software team is updating the product every release. The software itself is much better than many alternatives in this space. I really like how it saves the edits you've made to certain song lyrics and allows you to reuse old slides just with a quick search.

Minpunten:

It would be great to have a master template for the look / feel / design of the slides and then build off from it. For now we just named one of the days "Master..." and if you need to pull a song or a sermon slide you just search for that and reuse it. The sermon slides are cumbersome but when you get to know how it works it's not too bad. They finally allowed for lists of words to appear like PowerPoint presentations show them (one line at a time) and that was my biggest beef before. There's still a learning curve.

Cloud Based with Great Features

Opmerkingen: Proclaim has been great for us in running our worship services.

Pluspunten:

The ability to work from home or anywhere with W-fi and the ability of the team to see what I have put in to the service is great. The remote capability to be able to advance the slides from a phone or tablet are excellent.

Minpunten:

The media library is growing but it is a little bit limited unless you pay for the Proclaim Pro Media as well.

Hard to Change, But the Added Features Are Worth It

Opmerkingen: Proclaim became the center of our worship service. Via Proclaim we projected announcements, Scripture, song lyrics, and sermon slides all in one package, and afterwards Proclaim would automatically upload the sermon slides and audio to our website (and as a podcast). It has made life so much easier for us as a small church.

Pluspunten:

We like that Proclaim has a large number of features that are integrated into the application: Importing Bible text, importing song lyrics (even more if one has a CCLI license), and automated recording and uploading of sermons / podcasts to the church website (if one has a Faithlife Site, which we do). Collaboration was a big deal for us too, as our song leader could edit his music lyrics from home while I edited my sermon outline slides. Amazing.

Minpunten:

The hardest part of Proclaim for us was how it was so unlike PowerPoint, which is what we used before. Proclaim does not have the complex design capabilities. Proclaim focuses really on one idea per screen, instead of multiple bullet points. One one learns to work around and through the clunkiness, it actually becomes second nature to use.