Building a church website can be expensive, and cost you a lot of time as well. It’s not something you want to throw together at the last minute. A well-designed website should be thought about and organized. This is where a church website builder comes in to help. They take the second-guessing out of creating a unique and functional website.
The best church website builders offer guidance and take away the stress during the entire process. Many of these church website builders offer ready-to-go templates that have customizable features. Church websites are just as important as any other website, so they should be treated with importance and care.
Whether you want to create a simple or complex church website, we’ve compiled a list of some of what we consider the best website builder for churches. Some website builders offer free plans, while most require a monthly or yearly payment. Knowing your budget for a church website builder is important before deciding which one you want to use.
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes
Table of contents
What to Look for in a Church Website Builder
Church website builders come with tools specifically designed for what churches need. When you start the process of building a website from scratch, it can feel overwhelming. There’s a lot that goes into a church website. So what exactly do you want from a website builder?
Customer support
An important and often overlooked aspect when searching for a church website builder is customer support. You want to work with a company that wants to work with you. It’s a big undertaking, to create a website. So make sure that the company you choose has real experts working and able to answer any questions that you have as they come up.
User friendly
Put yourself into the shoes of your congregation. Are the templates easy to use and easy to navigate? Some website builders are not suited for churches and all that the websites need. As well as a new guest going onto the website is the process of creating the website with the company easy to understand?
Pricing
A very important thing to consider when choosing the best church website builder for you is the pricing. Some websites offer free trials and some website builders even offer free website creation. However most websites with premium features that you’ll want to use require payment. Consider your budget before finding the best website builder. More than just website creation, you’ll want to understand what else the website builder provides such as web hosting and web domain. The function that each website builder provides will also determine the cost.
Best Church Website Builders
The best church website builder is the one that fits your needs best. No website is superior to the other, as they all serve and provide different but similar functions. That’s why it’s beneficial to try out a few different website builders and talk to their customer support.
REACHRIGHT
REACHRIGHT’smission is to build church websites that help you reach more people online. Our focus is specifically for Church websites, as opposed to a general website builder site. A team of highly skilled artists designs each site to make sure that each website is unique to your church website needs.
REACHRIGHT focuses on building a mobile-based site first since 63% of website traffic comes from mobile rather than desktop. Your site will be SEO focused to ensure that your website will come up in a search among thousands of other churches. We work with you to ensure your website is the best it can be. REACHRIGHT has a support team ready to answer any questions you might have! We make the process smooth and it’s an easy church website builder.
Pricing:
Our pricing starts at only $97/month and currently we are waiving the setup cost when you bundle in another service.
WordPress
WordPress is an incredibly popular website builder. It’s very versatile, being a fully custom site. There are SEO tools, social media tools, as well as monetization tools to implement online giving should you so desire. The first year is free with a custom domain name with any annual paid plan. WordPress focuses on extensibility, performance, security, and reliability.
Pricing: Pay monthly or pay annually with varying tier options.
- Free
- Personal: $36 per month
- ad-free
- Premium: $108 per month
- premium themes
- Business: $324 per month
- install plugins
- unrestricted bandwidth
You can start for free to get an idea of whether or not this is the church website design for you and your needs. As previously mentioned, WordPress implements Google Analytics into their site to give site analysis. WordPress is a great website builder for your church website, that has nearly all the features you could possibly need.
Ministry Designs
Ministry Designs has a simple four step process to get you started on building a custom website design. First pick your kit, which is a pre-optimized design as a great starting point. Then, migrate any existing content you have on a current church website. Next, they will optimize your content and build out an SEO strategy for your website, and finally, they have tools in place to help people engage with your website. Ministry Designs is a great option for beginners!
Pricing: They have two pricing options using their Omega website-building tool
- Omega Lite $57 per month
- full website builder
- free online giving
- Omega Plus $97 per month
- 20 page migration
- design kits
- landing pages
Tithe.ly
With Tithe.ly you can start creating your church website in minutes! It’s perfect for beginners or expert web designers on any budget. This is a great church website builder as it specifically caters to churches and their needs.
Tithe.ly will allow you to pick one of their church website templates from one of their many options from great web designers. Their drag-and-drop builder makes the process simple. Add dozens of features that make your website unique and completely yours. They also make it easy for you to embed a live stream or premier into your church website.
This church website builder offers a few different options. Not only do you have the option to build websites with them, but they also provide church apps, messaging, and church management software.
Pricing:
Sites – $19 per month with free set-up cost
Church Apps – $89 per month with $149 set-up cost
Messaging – $19 per month
ChMS – $71 per month with $149 set-up cost
All-access to Tithe.ly features – $119 per month with a $149 set-up cost
Wix
Wix gives you complete and total website design freedom. They implement a drag and drop builder technology that lets you move around everything you need to create a beautiful website. Upload your own images into photo galleries, and organize sermons in an easy way. Just as with the other websites listed above, you can customize just about everything to fit your needs.
Pricing:
- Combo: $16 per month
- 2gb storage space
- Unlimited: $22 per month
- 5gb storage space
- ad vouchers
- Pro: $27 per month
- 50gb storage space
- professional logo
- VIP: $45 per month
- 100gb storage space
- priority customer care
Share Faith
Share Faith is a church website design company with creative-team quality without large prices. With over 100,000 church graphics, mini-movies, and worship backgrounds, Share Faith is a great choice. Not only do they help design the best church website, but they can provide curriculum as well. They have a church management software that will allow you to focus on the members of you congregation. Share Faith has an online giving function, as well as a live streaming capability.
Pricing: To learn more about their payment options, see their website for inquiries.
Clover Sites
Clover Sites is a very popular website builder that specializes in creating easy-to-use custom Church websites. With ready-to-go templates, beautiful themes, and additional add-ons, Clover is a top choice. They provide options for a basic church website, app features, graphics, text, and emailing systems, as well as live streaming for church online. Their main focus is to help you with communication, generosity, engagement, and easy management.
Pricing Plans: They have 4 tiers of pricing plans for whatever works best for your ministry.
$34 a month + $500 set-up fee
- Church Web Design
$50 a month + $500 set-up fee
- Church Web Design, App, Media
$99 a month + $500 set-up fee
- Church Web Design, App, Media, People
$159 a month, no SET-UP fee
- Church Web Design, App, Media, Live Streaming
Aboundant
Aboundant is a great church website builder that has many unique and creative layouts. They operate with layouts rather than themes to ensure complete flexibility with the drag and drop builder. This website builder has big features that empower discipleship such as an events calendar, online giving, form builder, and sermon casting. Aboundant has fully customizable footers so you can easily include maps and social media integration.
Pricing:
Thrive – $180 per year
Transform – $336 per year
Professional – $98 per hour
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a great free option if you’re not ready to commit to a price. They offer a free basic website design, with options to upgrade with more features. GoDaddy lets you add on features as you grow and need them. You are able to create the website, while GoDaddy takes care of the hosting, maintenance, and software updates. It can be nice to choose a free option to create your church website before fully committing.
Pricing:
- Free
- Basic: $9.99 a month
- custom domain name
- Premium: $14.99 a month
- 25,000 email marketing send-outs
- Commerce: $16.99 a month
- discounted and promotional features
- Commerce Plus: $29.99 a month
- all features
Jimdo
Jimdo is another great church website design company to consider. This platform follows a portfolio style. This website platform is great if you are looking to create a simple website. Not every church needs a website with a lot of tabs. You can also connect other social media platforms you might already have. Jimdo has a free option, with the chance to upgrade at any time. This is a fantastic option if you aren’t looking to spend a lot of money, as the pricing options listed below are very reasonable.
Pricing:
- Play: Free
- all base features
- Start: $9 per month
- domain included
- ad-free
- Grow: $14 per month
- SEO
- visitor stats
- personalized support
Nucleus
Nucleus has options beyond simple website design. Their Next Step Launcher is free for all churches. The Next Step Launcher is a free tool that is incorporated into the website making it easy for guests to get to what they need. Nucleus Giving costs 5x-20x less than the average platform. They take out fees that you would otherwise have to pay, helping you keep 100% of your congregations tithe.
Pricing:
- Next Step Launcher: Free
- Nucleus Prayer: Free
- Nucleus Flows: $29 per month
- Nucleus Giving: Starts at $29 per month
- Nucleus People + Messages: $29 per month
- Nucleus Web + Sermons: $129 per month
- Nucleus Media: $49 per month
Squarespace
Squarespace is a widely used website company that provides fully customizable templates. With several different pricing plans, they also offer a free trial with no credit card required. You’ll also receive a free custom domain name with the first year of an annual payment plan. Squarespace is an all-in-one custom management system. Squarespace offers the help of their experts. Simply follow the instructions listed on their website to get started. You provide the specific instructions, general outline for design and hire one of their talented website designers.
Pricing:
- Personal: $16 per month
- free domain name
- Business: $23 per month
- advanced website analytics
- Commerce (Basic): $27 per month
- Commerce (Advanced): $49 per month
Weebly
Weebly is a free website builder, with pricing options that vary so you can upgrade the features you need. With integrated social media marketing, Weebly helps to drive traffic to your website. Designed as a blog platform, they have an easy-to-use drag-and-drop feature, as well as fully customizable options. Weebly provides a 24/7 help center to answer any questions in the design process.
Pricing:
- Basic: Free
- basic use
- Personal: $10 per month
- custom domain name
- Professional: $12 per month
- unlimited storage
- remove ads
- advanced site stats
- Performance: $26 per month
- priority support
Landslide
Landslide Creative has 3 phases to help you create a unique church web design. With strategic planning, they get you started with a LaunchPlan. Next, they bring your design to life with a BuildOut. And then continue optimization with integrated digital marketing.
Pricing: To find out pricing, go to their website and enter your information.
Summary
Whether you choose a free church website builder or one that requires monthly or yearly payments, you can’t go wrong with any of these that we recommend. The best church website builder is the one that suits you best. Take your time and don’t rush the process!
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