If you manage a village hall, community centre, church hall or scout hut, you have probably spent time researching booking software. Two names that come up regularly are Village Hall Hub and My Hall Wizard. Both aim to make life easier for volunteer committees, but they take quite different approaches. This article gives you an honest, side-by-side look at what each platform offers so you can decide which is the better fit for your venue.
What Is My Hall Wizard?
My Hall Wizard is a UK-based booking platform that helps community venues manage room reservations and availability online. It provides a public-facing booking page, calendar management and some administrative tools. It is a solid choice for committees whose main pain point is handling enquiries and keeping a shared calendar, and it has been used by a number of smaller venues across the country.
What Is Village Hall Hub?
Village Hall Hub is a purpose-built UK SaaS platform designed to be the single tool a volunteer-run venue needs, from first enquiry to annual compliance audit. It combines online booking management with a full compliance dashboard, invoicing, payment tracking, a Martyn's Law wizard, DBS tracking, a grant directory with an AI-powered grant-writing assistant, a document vault, volunteer hours tracking, meeting minutes, a safeguarding incident log and GDPR tools. The goal is to replace the collection of spreadsheets, email threads and filing cabinets that most committees still rely on. You can explore the full feature set on the features page.
Side-by-Side Comparison
The table below summarises the key areas where Village Hall Hub and My Hall Wizard differ. For My Hall Wizard, we have described capabilities in general terms rather than stating specific prices or figures we cannot independently verify.
| Feature | Village Hall Hub | My Hall Wizard |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings & calendar | Full booking management with public booking page, multi-room calendar and availability control | Yes, core offering with online booking and calendar management |
| Invoicing | PDF and email invoicing with payment tracking built in | Limited, basic financial features |
| Compliance tracking | Dedicated compliance dashboard with alerts (Standard and above) | Not a core focus |
| Martyn's Law wizard | Step-by-step Martyn's Law wizard included on Standard and Professional plans | Not available |
| DBS tracking | Full DBS tracker for staff and volunteers (Standard and above) | Not available |
| Grant finder | Searchable grant directory with application tracking | Not available |
| AI writing assistant | AI grant-writing assistant on Professional plan | Not available |
| Pricing | From £12.99/month (Community), £24.99/month (Standard), £39.99/month (Professional). Annual plans available. 14-day free trial, no credit card needed. | Contact for pricing |
Bookings and Diary Management
Both platforms let hirers check availability and submit requests online, which removes the back-and-forth emails that consume so many committee evenings. My Hall Wizard's booking tools are its primary strength, and venues that have used it appreciate the straightforward setup.
Village Hall Hub covers the same ground, with a public booking page, multi-room calendar and availability management, but it wraps those tools inside a broader administrative hub. That means your booking history, invoices and compliance records all live in the same place, rather than requiring a separate system for each task.
Compliance, Martyn's Law and DBS
This is the area where the two platforms diverge most significantly, and it matters a great deal for UK community venues right now.
Martyn's Law, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, places new legal duties on venues with a capacity of 200 or more. Even smaller venues below that threshold are encouraged to follow the standard tier guidance. Village Hall Hub includes a dedicated Martyn's Law wizard on Standard and Professional plans, walking your committee through each requirement at its own pace and generating records you can share with your local authority or insurer if needed.
My Hall Wizard does not currently offer a Martyn's Law feature. If your committee needs to document compliance with this legislation, you would need to manage that separately.
Similarly, Village Hall Hub includes a DBS tracker to record check dates and renewal reminders for staff and volunteers, and an insurance tracker within its compliance dashboard. My Hall Wizard is primarily a booking tool and does not cover these areas.
Invoicing and Financial Tracking
Village Hall Hub generates PDF and email invoices directly from bookings and tracks payment status, so your treasurer can see at a glance which hirers have paid and which have outstanding balances. It removes the need for a separate invoicing tool or a manual spreadsheet.
My Hall Wizard provides some financial functionality but it is not positioned as a full invoicing solution. For committees that already have a separate accounts process they are happy with, this may not be a problem. For those who want everything in one place, Village Hall Hub is the stronger option.
Grants and Funding
Fundraising is a constant challenge for community venues. Village Hall Hub includes a searchable grant directory so you can find funding opportunities relevant to your type of venue or region, track which applications you have submitted and monitor outcomes. Professional plan subscribers also get access to an AI grant-writing assistant that helps draft compelling funding applications, which can be a significant time-saver for volunteers who find grant writing daunting.
My Hall Wizard does not include a grant-finding or grant-writing feature. If securing funding is a priority for your hall, this is an important gap to consider.
Who Is Each Platform Best Suited To?
My Hall Wizard suits smaller community venues whose primary challenge is managing bookings and sharing an online calendar. If your committee is already comfortable handling compliance, invoicing and grant applications through other means, and you simply need a clean, straightforward booking tool, it can do that job well.
Village Hall Hub suits venues that want to consolidate their administration into a single platform. It is especially valuable if your committee is dealing with Martyn's Law preparation, DBS renewal tracking, insurance monitoring, grant hunting or the kind of document management that tends to fall through the cracks when it is spread across email folders and shared drives. Because it is built specifically for non-technical volunteers, nothing requires IT expertise to set up or maintain.
The Standard plan at £24.99 per month is the most popular choice and covers 10 team members, unlimited rooms, compliance alerts, the Martyn's Law wizard and DBS tracking. That compares well with the cost of maintaining separate tools for even two or three of those functions. You can see the full breakdown on the pricing page.
A Note on Data and Support
Both platforms are UK-based. Village Hall Hub stores all data on UK servers, which matters for committees with GDPR responsibilities. Professional plan subscribers receive priority support, and every plan includes a 14-day free trial with no credit card required and no contract lock-in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Village Hall Hub replace My Hall Wizard entirely?
That depends on your needs. If you currently use My Hall Wizard only for booking management and want to add compliance tracking, invoicing, grant tools and Martyn's Law support without juggling multiple platforms, then Village Hall Hub can replace it and do considerably more. If basic bookings are all you need, either platform can serve that purpose.
Is Village Hall Hub suitable for very small village halls with limited budgets?
Yes. The Community plan starts at £12.99 per month and covers up to 3 team members and 2 rooms, which suits many smaller halls. All plans come with a 14-day free trial so you can assess whether the platform works for your venue before committing to anything.
How does Village Hall Hub handle Martyn's Law compliance?
The built-in Martyn's Law wizard, available on Standard and Professional plans, guides your committee through the requirements step by step. It generates documentation you can retain as evidence of your preparedness. As government guidance on the Act continues to develop, the wizard will be updated accordingly.
Can I switch from My Hall Wizard to Village Hall Hub easily?
Village Hall Hub is designed to be straightforward to set up, and the onboarding process is built with non-technical volunteers in mind. There is no contract on any plan, so you can trial Village Hall Hub alongside your existing tools during the free 14-day period before making a final decision.
Ready to see Village Hall Hub for yourself? Start your free 14-day trial today at villagehallhub.co.uk/register. No credit card needed, no contract, and you can cancel anytime.