WorshipDeck vs FreeWorship
Compare WorshipDeck with FreeWorship, the free Windows church presenter with an optional Pro upgrade.
No credit card required
The short version
Neither product wins outright. Here is the honest split before you read any further.
Choose WorshipDeck if
- Operators are on Mac, Chromebook, Linux, or a phone
- A hosted library beats using Dropbox as a database
- You want Ezra, sermon notes, and live service edits
- A cheap Fire TV stick should be able to drive a screen
Choose FreeWorship if
- The booth is Windows and the budget is zero
- You already have a FreeWorship song database you like
- Pro's SongSelect and CCLI reporting are what you need
- A synced folder between Windows PCs already works
WorshipDeck and FreeWorship, line by line
Competitor details checked
| WorshipDeckThis is us | FreeWorship | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting set up | ||
| Install and devices | Any modern browser on any OS. Optional Android TV, Fire TV, and a Windows or Mac display host. | Windows only. |
| Where the library lives | One church cloud workspace. Sign in anywhere and it is already there. | A local file database, often parked in Dropbox. |
| Bringing existing decks in | Drop in PowerPoint .pptx or Keynote .key and keep editing. Lyrics and services are rebuilt natively. | Imports from OpenLP, EasyWorship, and others. |
| Prep during the week | ||
| Team prep during the week | Invite the team and everyone opens the same library in a browser. | Keep a shared folder in sync yourself. |
| Scripture and songs | Church-approved Bibles with dual-translation insert, a read-only global catalog, and church-owned ChordPro songs. No SongSelect. | Free Bible and song imports; SongSelect on Pro. |
| AI and media tools | Ezra drafts slides, sermon notes, and lyric arrangements. You approve or skip every change. | Your own local media files. |
| Sunday morning | ||
| Live edit without stopping screens | Yes. Fix a slide or reorder the service from present mode without touching what people see. | The operator edits at the booth machine. |
| Outputs and multi-screen | Local browser windows, Android TV, Fire TV, and multi-monitor desktop hosts, each able to show its own variant. | Audience and stage display. |
| If the booth computer fails | If the display hosts still work, sign in on another laptop, Chromebook, or tablet because the church library is not stored only on the failed operator. Monitors hosted by the failed computer need another host. | Another Windows PC, plus the file. |
| Cost and fit | ||
| Pricing model | Subscription. Starter and Church include the same features and differ only in capacity. | Free core app with optional Pro. |
| Best fit | Volunteer teams on mixed devices who want one shared library and no booth-PC dependency. | Free Windows booths, especially in the UK and EU. |
Scroll the table sideways to see both columns.
FreeWorship is a capable free Windows presenter with an optional Pro unlock, popular with UK and European churches. WorshipDeck is a multi-device web workspace — an alternative to FreeWorship for churches whose real constraint is that only one machine in the building can run the software, and only one folder has the current songs.
Who FreeWorship is for
FreeWorship is a Windows desktop worship presenter with a free core app. Pro adds SongSelect, CCLI reporting, Google Slides items, and other extras, sold as a per-PC subscription or a one-time site licence. Their official pages describe a file-based database, dual-screen and stage display, and imports from other lyric applications including OpenLP and EasyWorship. Churches commonly sync that database folder through Dropbox. Confirm current Pro pricing on their site.
That is the right tool when the booth is Windows and staying Windows, the budget is zero, or the church already has a FreeWorship song database worth keeping.
What changes when Windows stops being a requirement
Two constraints tend to drive churches off FreeWorship, and neither is about features.
The first is the operating system. Volunteers own MacBooks, the church office runs Chromebooks, and the youth pastor has a tablet. WorshipDeck runs the full editor and live console in a browser on all of them — see web-based.
The second is the shared folder. A file-based database synced through Dropbox works right up until two people open it, or the sync conflicts, or the person with the current copy is away. A hosted church library removes the whole category of problem.
What you also pick up along the way:
- Live changes without stopping. Reorder the service, fix a lyric, or annotate over the screen mid-song. See live presentation.
- Per-screen output. Content variants send different content to different displays from one deck, and presenter views put chords and speaker notes on stage devices only.
- Ezra for the first draft. Sermon notes become a draft deck and lyrics get arranged into sections, always as a proposal you approve. See Ezra AI.
- A cheap second screen. A paired Fire TV or Android TV stick drives a lobby or overflow display without another Windows PC. See wireless displays.
Where FreeWorship still wins
Zero cost, again, is not a small thing. If the church has no line item for presentation software, FreeWorship presents Sunday for nothing and WorshipDeck does not.
Its importers are also better than ours. FreeWorship reads song libraries from several other applications, which is exactly the migration help WorshipDeck cannot offer. If your value is a decade-old song database, that asymmetry matters.
Pro's SongSelect and CCLI reporting have no WorshipDeck equivalent. We store a CCLI number for the credits slide and stop there.
FreeWorship also keeps its Sunday file local on that Windows machine. WorshipDeck's desktop app can present offline after an online sync: presentations and services marked Ready offline can start after an app restart and run on the booth's paired monitors. FreeWorship remains more self-contained when a local file with no church-workspace sync is the requirement.
And if the Dropbox routine genuinely works for your team and nobody is complaining, there is no prize for changing it.
Moving your Sunday over
Budget the time for songs and nothing else. There is no FreeWorship importer, so lyrics go into songs as ChordPro. Do the songs you actually sing — most churches discover the live rotation is a fraction of the database, and rebuilding forty songs is a couple of evenings rather than a project.
Sermon and announcement decks are quicker: drop existing .pptx or .key files into the presentation library and they import as editable decks. Review fonts and embedded video before one goes live. If you were using FreeWorship Pro's Google Slides items, download those as .pptx and import them the same way.
Keep the Windows install for a few weeks. It costs nothing, and having a known-good fallback makes the first couple of Sundays much less tense.
Related comparisons
The other free installers worth reading are WorshipDeck vs OpenLP, which also runs on Linux, and WorshipDeck vs VideoPsalm for Bible breadth. Churches ready to pay for an installed app instead usually compare WorshipDeck vs EasyWorship.
Related
WorshipDeck vs OpenLP
Compare WorshipDeck with OpenLP, the free open-source church presentation app for Windows, Mac, Linux, and FreeBSD.
WorshipDeck vs VideoPsalm
Compare WorshipDeck with VideoPsalm, the free Windows worship software known for huge Bible libraries and bilingual display.
WorshipDeck vs EasyWorship
Compare WorshipDeck's browser church library with EasyWorship 8 for Mac and Windows volunteer booths.
Web-based church presentation software
WorshipDeck's editor and live controls run in the browser. Prep and present from Windows, Mac, Chromebook, tablet, or phone, with Android TV, Fire TV, local browser, or multi-monitor Windows and Mac outputs.
Common questions
No install, no seat to activate
See how it feels on your own Sunday
Bring in a PowerPoint or Keynote deck, build one service, and decide for yourself whether FreeWorship is still the right home for it.
No credit card required