If your church uses Planning Center Online (PCO), you’ve probably wished there was an easier way to get your groups, events, and sermons onto your church website automatically. The good news is there are several tools built to do exactly that. The not-so-good news is that they all have very different approaches, feature sets, and price points — and picking the wrong one can mean paying more than you need to, or ending up locked into a full website rebuild.
In this review we look at four tools in this space — Display.Church, The Church Co, PCOWidget, and PCO Chef — and compare them to PCO Embed, so you can make an informed decision for your church.
1. Display.Church
Best for: Events and calendar display with lots of visual customization options
Display.Church is probably the most well-known dedicated embed tool for Planning Center. It specializes in calendar and group widget views, with over 100 design customization options and seven calendar templates to choose from. You set it up once, point it at your PCO account, and it keeps your website calendar up to date automatically.
What it does well:
- A large variety of calendar views (monthly grid, list, agenda, and more)
- Group widgets that let visitors browse and filter your small groups
- Event Alerts — an automated banner that highlights an upcoming event and disappears once it’s over
- Works with multiple calendar sources including Google Calendar and Breeze, not just PCO
Where it falls short:
- Syncs data from Planning Center only once or twice per day
- Plans impose monthly view limits, which means your widget could be throttled during a busy season
- Pricing starts at $15/month and scales up based on the plan tier
- Some users have noted it feels complex to set up, with an overwhelming number of options
- The Planning Center integration was still in beta when some reviews were written, meaning functionality was still catching up
Verdict: A solid, mature product with deep customization — but the daily sync delay, view limits, and increasing cost could be frustrating for a church that wants truly live data without worrying about hitting caps on a Sunday morning.
2. The Church Co
Best for: Churches that want a fully managed website solution, not just embeds
The Church Co is primarily a church website builder that also offers an embeds plan for churches that already have a website. Their Planning Center integration covers events, groups, sermons, giving, forms, and member portals — it’s a comprehensive platform rather than a focused embed tool.
What it does well:
- Deep PCO integration across many Planning Center modules (not just events and groups)
- They build the website for you as part of subscription plans, which is a big time-saver for churches without technical staff
- Supports Church Online, livestreaming, online giving, prayer walls, and more
- Plans start at $29/month for a basic website
Where it falls short:
- If you already have a website and just want to embed PCO data, you’re paying for a lot of features you won’t use
- The embeds plan is an add-on to what is fundamentally a website platform — it’s not designed from the ground up to be a lightweight embed tool
- Requires a subscription to their platform to use their embeds, which means you’re tied to their ecosystem
- Less flexible for churches that want to keep their existing website and just add PCO content
Verdict: An excellent choice if you’re in the market for a complete church website solution and want deep PCO integration built in. But if you just want to add a groups finder or events calendar to your existing site, you’re paying for far more than you need.
3. PCO Widget
Best for: Lightweight event calendar embedding on any website, free to start
PCO Widget is a newer, focused tool that does one thing really well: embedding your Planning Center events calendar on any website with a single script tag. It has five layouts, live data sync, and a genuinely useful “This Week’s Services” mode that always shows what’s happening this week — great for a church homepage.
What it does well:
- Truly live sync — data is fetched from PCO on every page load with no cache delay
- Free plan available with all features included (just a “Powered by PCO Widget” branding link)
- Pro plan at $12/month is very competitively priced with no view limits
- A clever sermon title feature: write “sermon: Your Title” in PCO event notes and it appears on the widget
- Simple data-* attribute configuration — no dashboard login needed after setup
- Works well on Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, Webflow, and raw HTML
Where it falls short:
- Currently focused on events/calendar only — no groups or sermons embed
- Customization is done via code attributes rather than a visual editor, which suits developers but may not appeal to non-technical church admins
- A newer product, so less established than Display.Church
Verdict: A really smart, lightweight tool for churches that primarily want a live events calendar on their site. The free plan is generous and the Pro plan is excellent value. Not the right choice if you need groups or sermon embeds — but hard to beat for what it does.
4. PCO Chef
Best for: Churches that want to share and reuse Planning Center reports, forms, and scripts — with embeds as a bonus.
PCO Chef is a bit different to the others on this list. It started as a hobby project by a pastor-developer to make it easier for churches to share “Ministry Recipes” — pre-built PCO reports, forms, and automations that churches can use and adapt rather than building from scratch. Embed functionality (calendar, groups, registrations) is available but is split between a free and a paid plan (Chef Plus).
What it does well:
- Unique community-driven approach — access reports and forms built by other churches
- Embeds for calendar, groups, sermons and registrations
- Great for church admins who want to get more out of Planning Center beyond just displaying data
- Excellent personalized service directly from the developer
- Unique data feed option available providing access to raw Planning Center data for deeper analysis
Where it falls short:
- Embeds are not the primary focus — they’re part of a broader tool set
- Chef Plus (the paid tier) is required for some embed options
Verdict: A unique and genuinely useful tool for churches that want to get more out of PCO in general. Worth exploring if you’re looking for a community of PCO users sharing best practices.
5. PCO Embed
Best for: Churches that want groups, events, calendars and sermons all in one focused tool with up-to-date data
PCO Embed was built specifically to display Planning Center data on church websites — groups, events, calendars and sermons — without requiring a full website rebuild or a bloated platform subscription. It uses clever technology to ensure the embed never conflicts with your existing website styles, making it safe to drop into any site.
What it does well:
- Covers all four key embed types: Groups, Events, Calendars and Sermons (Publishing)
- Group embed includes a live interactive map, search, tag filtering, and open/closed enrollment badges
- Events embed includes a full calendar view with multi-day event support
- Sermons embed lets visitors watch video and listen to audio directly on the church website
- Stylesheet isolation means zero style conflicts with the existing church website
- Incredible fast rendering of embeds with almost zero delay with no messy iframes or resizing issues
- 30-day free trial, no credit card required to get started
Where it falls short:
- Newer to the market than other products
- Fewer calendar layout options than Display.Church’s seven templates
- No visual design editor — configuration is done through the admin panel
Verdict: A strong cost-effective all-rounder for churches that want groups, events, and sermons covered in a single, focused product that works on any website.
Summary Comparison
| Feature | Display.Church | The Church Co | PCOWidget | PCO Chef | PCO Embed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Groups embed | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Events/Calendar | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sermons embed | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Live sync | Daily | Near-live | Instant | Near-live | Near-Live |
| Works on any website | ✔ | Partial | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free plan | ✔ (limited) | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ (partial) | 30-day trial |
| Starting price | $15/mo | $29/mo | Free / $12/mo | Free / $14.99/mo | $9.99/mo |
| Full website builder | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
Which One Is Right for Your Church?
- You want a fully managed church website with deep PCO integration → The Church Co
- You primarily need a beautiful events calendar with maximum design flexibility → Display.Church
- You just need a live event calendar, fast and cheap → PCO Widget
- You want embeds and the ability to share PCO reports, forms or data across your ministry team → PCO Chef
- You want groups, events, calendars and sermons on your existing website in one focused tool → PCO Embed
PCO Embed is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Planning Center Online. All competitor information is accurate to the best of our knowledge at time of publication.