MediaShout vs. ProPresenter

When it comes to church media, things tend to run in trends. One application or method is extremely popular for a period of time and it is adopted by nearly everyone. A certain style of video production or graphic design, a specific software platform or operating system. I have always been resistant to trends, personally. A certain way of doing things should be implemented because it is the best way of doing it, instead of the fact that the “movers and shakers” in the community do it that way.

At first glance, the choice we are presented with when it comes to presentation software is easy. ProPresenter 6 is “The Definitive Choice in Presentation software” it comes with the recommendation of Worship Leader Magazine among others over the 3 years and multiple awards. Conversation over right? Perhaps, but let’s think a bit more about this decision. In my research, including actual extensive use of both products I believe that MediaShout is the better of the two.

Here are a few reasons why:

Features:

MediaShout has a wider range of features in the base product than ProPresenter does.

Do you have multiple displays? Perhaps you are wanting to upgrade in the near future to use some different displays than a regular projector or TV Screen and/or want the ability show off some great graphics across multiple displays? If you have ProPresenter, it’s a $199 upgrade to get the “module” that does what you need. In MediaShout this function is native in the base version. That alone puts it over ProPresenter in my mind.

Does your pastor want to use a certain version of the Bible in his sermons? If you own ProPresenter, you might have to buy it for $15, they have 46 for free but if want use of any of the other 21 versions (for a grand total of 67), $15 per version please. MediaShout on the other hand, has all 67 versions for free in the base version.

Cloud storage is the future of computing, everything is going to the cloud. Both MediaShout and ProPresenter have cloud storage native to their base program. On ProPresenter it’ll cost you between $12-$480 a year for that service. MediaShout however, connects directly to Dropbox, an app that most organizations and people in general are already using. (it will still cost based on your storage capacity but MediaShout isn’t charging you for it.)

Something that I encountered when I was working in church media every day was a staff member or pastor that would make their own presentation for their message. They would get into PowerPoint and make a cute little presentation for you to use, taking that load off of you (so they think). Truth is, these can be a headache to work with, especially if they have embedded video clips into it. In ProPresenter, each slide then needs to be made into a JPEG and then loaded into their software, not to mention their video files (more on that later). MediaShout makes it easy, you simply drag and drop and it just works, it is fully integrated with PowerPoint and it even keeps any custom animations or transitions.

Now that you have fancy new presentation software in the Sanctuary, your next step would be to get something for your other services to use as well. A teen or children’s church service perhaps? Well, ProPresenter owners will please note that their $399 license is only usable on one computer at a time and are encouraged to pay for the $799 campus license if they intend to use their service on multiple computers simultaneously. MediaShout allows you to use one copy over three computers at the same time. That means outfitting your Kids and Teen Ministries with professional presentation software for free, essentially making MediaShout $400 cheaper.

One feature in ProPresenter’s favor is the fact that they have a mobile app for their software on IOS (and finally android as well). MediaShout doesn’t, but I have been working in church media for seven years and I still have no real idea what the application of the app would be.

But enough about features…

Usability:

MediaShout has what they call an in-line editor design. Simply put, you can edit each slide individually and it is specifically designed to be fast and easy. When I was working in church media at an internship I was a part of, this was paramount. Sometimes major changes would be made to the service in the production meeting 15 minutes before service started. I would get out of production with 5 minutes or less to spare so speed was very important. ProPresenter has an editor like this too. But it is very difficult to use and frankly, causes more headaches than it fixes.

The interface on ProPresenter looks pretty to say the least. It looks clean and professional, but there is a steep learning curve, requiring you to remember key commands and features buried under three different menus. In MediaShout we see sweet simplicity, the interface feels like it was designed by Adobe, it is clearly defined and easy to maneuver in. With the 6^th version they added a bit of spit and polish, giving it a sleek look without losing its ease of use.