Many churches today are using screens to replace expensive songbooks. This is a great long term cost saver as new songs can just be added to the software instead of having to buy new songbooks.
When first looking at this option, however, many churches give up because the popular software is expensive. (ProPresenter starts at $400 and EasyWorship is $500 or there are subscription options that run from $15/month for churches under 100 members and go up from there)
But there are Cheaper and even FREE options out there!
That said there are advantages to paying for the popular software (We use ProPresenter at our church) - Most commercial software works very well and has extra options that may not be in free software and the companies also offer tech support. Please research what is best for your church.
But for most churches there is no reason to use the paid software when getting a digital media program off the ground - the free software should do everything you need when you are getting started and then if you find you need the extra features of paid software then you can buy it later.
The software we used to use before switching to ProPresenter at my church is OpenLP ( openlp.org ). It is fairly user-friendly and can display song lyrics, images, PowerPoint slides, and has its own slide system that can be used for sermon titles. It is Free and Open Source.
Other Free options include (but are not limited to):
VideoPsalm https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/ Free to use but closed source
Quelea https://quelea.org/ Open-source
Lyricue https://www.lyricue.org/ Open-source but development has been off and on (as of this writing the newest version is from Sept. 2017)
FreeWorship https://freeworship.co.uk/ "Freemium" and closed source
OpenSong http://www.opensong.org/ Open-Source
*What's all this about open or closed source? The simplest way to put it is that open-source programs have all the source code that makes them work available for the public to read or to download and modify as they see fit. You don't have to worry if the software might be uploading anything or spying on you in any way because the code is in the public view. (Not that it is common practice with worship software but with closed source software you have only the creator's word that it won't do these things.) Also, Open-source software is free forever - the developers cannot ever charge you for it or for updates. They may charge for offsite or premium services (cloud-based services or other such items that cost the developers money to operate or premium tech support options). This is a basic overview of Free Open Source Software if you want to learn more please see https://opensource.com/open-source-way and https://www.fsf.org/ (note that I do not agree with all opinions expressed by these organizations)
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