To the unfamiliar, web apps can be understood as software that is accessed via the internet. That is, you can access the program wherever you have a connection to the internet - you don’t need to install it on your computer.
There are lots of benefits to using web apps - their availability, their low cost (many are free or accessed for a small monthly fee), the fact that updates or improvements are automatically applied (i.e. you don’t need to buy a newer version of the software). I enjoy discovering new web apps and considering how they can be applied to the many areas of ministry.
At the recent Create conference I shared some of the web apps that I have discovered that have useful applications for ministry. Here’s a list of 30 - if you have discovered other web apps that have been helpful in your ministry, I encourage you to share them with us.
Surveys, polls & sign-up forms
- Wufoo (personal favourite! I’ve also written about its applications for ministry several times here.)
- PollDaddy (great Twitter integration available)
- Micropoll (untested but recommended here)
Organising meetings
- When is Good (its beauty is in its simplicity!)
- TimeBridge
- Doodle (I haven’t tried it, but it looks promising)
I’ve also written about these tools and others in ‘Find a time that suits everyone’.
Reputation management
- Google Alerts (personal favourite)
- BrandsEye
- SocialMention
- YackTrack
To read a guide to using Google Alerts, check out ‘What’s your community saying about you?’
To learn more about SocialMention and YackTrack, check out ‘A new type of search engine emerges’.
Mass communication
- CoTweet (great for team tweeting)
- MailChimp
- Campaign Monitor
- Toodle
- Breeze
Asset management
Website analytics
- Clicky (personal favourite)
- Google Analytics
- CrazyEgg
Collaboration
- Google Docs
- Google Calendar
- Zoho (personal favourite)
You might also be interested in ‘10 reasons to throw out your paper diary’, ‘Will your church join LA city council?’ and ‘Planning the year ahead with Google Calendar’.
Password management
- Passpack (untried, but recommended)
- Pastor (not a web app, and for Mac only, but my personal favourite)
- Clipperz (untried, but recommended)
- KeePass (again, untried, but recommended. This is for Windows only)
Task management
- Things (not a web app, and for Mac only, but my personal favourite)
- Remember the Milk
Collecting and organising notes
- Evernote (personal favourite)
- Shovebox
- Google Notebook
People management
This is still a work in progress! My trialling of church databases has gone on the backburner recently (my apologies), but I do intend to finish this series by the end of the year. To see what’s been said so far, check out ‘Search for the ideal church database - Part 1’, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. Also see ‘The list: 32 church database solutions’.
