Are you tasked with developing a website for your church? It could be a difficult project for a novice web designer or developer.

It’s good to know that there are many options to design your church’s website that appears amazing and achieves everything you want it to complete.

Read more: Best Gumroad Alternatives (Cheaper + More Powerful).

In this post, we’ll compare some of the most effective church website builders who can help you build an online church site without writing codes.

How to Find the Best Church Website Builder for You

If you’re deciding on the church’s website builder you should choose, it is important to search for options that will help you achieve important aspects.

Create a calendar. You must include your usual services and other events that you can list on your site.

If you want to upload speeches on your website, you’ll require a straightforward method.

Multiple user accounts and access rights: You likely prefer to have specific congregation members (volunteers) able to make site changes as necessary without making the website accessible to everyone.

Enabling members to sign up and log in: It is possible to provide some information, such as minutes of your church’s meetings, restricted to church members.

Accepting donations If you plan to collect donations on your website, ensuring that the church’s software can support this is essential.

Design and Templates Choose an online builder with an array of church-specific templates. It should also include an easy-to-use design customization tool that lets you modify your design, upload photos, alter colors, etc. You can build your church’s website to match your church’s brand.

In this regard, let’s review the advantages and disadvantages of the top churches’ website builders so that you can pick the right program for your needs.

WordPress

WordPress.org is the top software for creating churches’ websites. It’s the top website creator in the world and runs over 40% of the websites accessible on the web.

It is important to note that WordPress.org, sometimes called “self-hosted WordPress,” is distinct from WordPress.com (mentioned in the post). 

WordPress is a free web-based website-building tool offering users complete control over the features needed to construct a web-based site. Since it’s self-hosted, owning a domain name and hosting is necessary for constructing a WordPress site.

Pros:

• WordPress provides hundreds of church layouts and templates (themes) that you can use for free and paid. It is our top pick of the top church layouts that work with WordPress.
• There are plugins to provide the features your church’s website will likely require. For example, you may require to use the Sermon Manager plugin and any of these donations and fundraising plugins on your church’s site.
• WordPress offers more than 59,000+ completely free WordPress plugins similar to your site, allowing you to include additional features, for example, Contact forms, image sliders, and much more.
• There are many well-known WordPress page builder plugins, such as SeedProd, Divi, or Beaver Builder, to make unique church sites without writing any codes.
• WordPress allows you to create multiple user accounts for as many users as possible. The accounts can be set up using distinct roles and rights, which means you could restrict admin access to several individuals.
• With WordPress, full control is on the website. It’s unnecessary to fret about advertisements on your website as you would with web builders, whether free or expensive.
• There’s an enormous community of support within WordPress which makes it simple to seek help whenever you require assistance. 

Cons:

• It would be best to take care of changes, backups, and security yourself. There are a lot of WordPress plugins that will assist in this process, however.
• WordPress may be a difficult task when just getting started. There’s likely to be some growing process.

Pricing:

WordPress can be used for free. However, you’ll have to purchase a domain and hosting for your website. The price of a domain name usually ranges between $9-$15 per year. Web hosting typically starts at $7.99 per month.

Read more: CRM vs. CMS: How to Use Both for Your Online Business.

The good news is that Bluehost, a well-known web hosting provider, has partnered to give our customers a free domain and a 60 percent discount for hosting. You can start an online church site for $2.75 monthly.

Note that using WordPress in conjunction with the major hosting services is possible. If there is a reason you’d like to switch to an alternative hosting service, we recommend SiteGround or one of these leading WordPress hosting firms.

Web.com

Web.com is one of the top options for the all-in-one website solution. Web.com offers web hosting; therefore, you do not need to purchase it separately.

Web.com provides thousands of pre-designed designs and a drag-and-drop builder to alter any style. Additionally, you have access to thousands of images. It makes it simple and fast to design a church’s website.

Pros

• Web.com is priced at $1.95 per month. It includes the free domain. It is an excellent option for churches with small numbers or a limited budget.
• It’s extremely easy to design your church’s web page. Type in “church” for the website you want to create, and you’ll get given appropriate stock photos that you could utilize. Then, you can click on one or two options before making your site.
• Support is available 24 hours a day. Contact their support team via either email or live chat. The live chat support team is very helpful and prompt in responding.
• The layout and style of your website can be modified in virtually every way you could imagine. Web.com offers a vast collection of photos to select from. You can upload your pictures.
• While there’s no specific donation option, designing and selling items easily is possible. Create products that are titled “Donation” in different amounts.
• Each plan has an unrestricted domain, corporate email addresses, no-cost backups, security options, analytics, and other features.

Cons

• Having multiple users for your site is impossible, even when you’re on one of those paid-for plans. If you wish for other users who edit the website, you must provide them with a username and password. It can lead to the security of your site being compromised or people accidentally deleting pages from the website.
• Web.com provides all the tools needed to build a basic church site. However, it’s not equipped with the advanced and powerful customization tools which WordPress has offer. The blog, for instance, options are limited.
• Changing to a different platform is difficult because Web.com is a private site builder. The only option is to rebuild your website entirely from beginning to finish.

Pricing

Web.com starts at only $1.95 each month.

The eCommerce program starts at $3.95 per month. It can be beneficial if your church plans to sell items, event tickets, or other items on the Internet.

Gator by HostGator

Gator is an additional all-in-one web builder. It makes it an excellent choice if you’re trying to keep your website as easy as possible. It is possible to choose between a variety of designs for your website.

Your site is fully hosted with HostGator, One of the most popular Web hosting services worldwide.

Pros

• Your site will have the ability to have unlimited pages, space, and bandwidth on your website. That means you won’t have to be concerned about running out of storage space or paying a fee for a site that receives many visitors.
• Domain name registration is available at no cost (for twelve months), regardless of what plan you’re using. In addition, if you’ve purchased a domain from an alternative registry of domain names, You can join it with your website.
• Support is available 24 hours a day via live chat, telephone, or email.
• There are over 200 templates to choose from. They can be customized, but you cannot change templates entirely.

Cons

• In contrast to Wix and WordPress, Gator does not offer free plans, and you can’t get a free trial.
• There’s no simple way to take donations on your website unless you’re paying for an eCommerce service.
• Pricing isn’t always clear. Your site will result in you paying significantly more than expected when time passes.

Pricing

The most affordable Gator plan starts at $3.84/mo and is upfront two year payment. If you’d like to pay per month, you’ll have to pay $4.99/month.

Please note that the stated costs apply to your website’s “first term” only. Therefore, if you select the $4.99/month option, you’ll end up paying $9.99 starting from the next month.

Sharefaith

Sharefaith is a well-known website builder specifically for the church. It’s a dedicated platform with a support team to help you get started website.

Pros

• There’s a wide variety of church web templates that you can pick from. They’re all specifically created for church use, so you’ll not have to go through many irrelevant templates.
• Testing out the web builder tool for free without paying anything is possible. Select a template you would like to test.
• Sharefaith can transfer your old site at no cost (so you have paid an annual fee).
• There are various images, including banners, for your website to pick from. Additionally, you can add your photos to be used on your website.
• It is easy to add audio or video sermon recordings on your site. Using these recordings, you can decide who delivered the sermon and the kind of series it was part of.
• Its built-in calendar feature allows you to list services and other occasions.
• When you have a website, you’ll also be able to use Sharefaith Giving. It makes it simple to receive donations and tithes via your website.
• The membership includes access to the Sharefaith media library with over 90,000 images, graphics, video clips, and more.
• Add additional members to your Sharefaith site by using the ‘Advanced tools.

Cons

• Sharefaith certainly isn’t a cheap web-based builder available and will likely not be a good fit for church groups with a limited budget.
• It’s only the functions of the features Sharefaith offers. Contrary to WordPress, it doesn’t give you access to extensions and plugins.

Pricing

Sharefaith charges $45/month when you pay per year or $50/month paying monthly for the “media + web” plan. It is the minimum plan you could purchase to set up a website.

It could be worthwhile If you’re looking to take advantage of many of the features available to professionals, including the capacity for uploading sermons.

Ministry Designs

Ministry Designs is another site specializing in providing sites specifically for churches.

Pros

• There’s a wide selection of beautiful designs to pick from, all of them are 100% mobile responsive. It means they will look stunning on mobile devices and computers.
• Training is unlimited, and the assigned “Ministry Success Representative” will use screen-sharing technology to demonstrate the exact steps to create your site.
• The initial call and the support you’ll need to create your website.
• Ministry Designs is very geared specifically for church use and can add sermons to the site, make an agenda, or build and manage your email lists.
• It is possible to have several account users for your website. There are 3 user accounts you can use for free or even more if you pay an additional fee.
• The customer support was prompt and helpful. Contact them via the website’s live chat without being required to sign up.

Cons

• It will cost you a substantial initial fee. Hosting isn’t cheap regularly, either.
• These templates don’t have to be superior or better than those you’d utilize in other (much less expensive) website builders.
• Ministry Designs doesn’t create or design your site for the benefit of you. They guide you through the process, making use of their templates.

Pricing

Ministry Designs charges $1,000 upfront for their support and software. Then, you’ll pay $20 per month for hosting regularly.

There’s a significant cost to be paid. It could be worthwhile if your church requires a web presence. However, doesn’t anyone with the skills and technical expertise to create one? It’s not the need for hands-on assistance.

Nucleus

Nucleus is an all-in-one church website builder featuring a variety of helpful tools, such as the ability to upload sermons and make email lists.

Pros

• The trial period is 30 days. The trial period doesn’t require the use of credit card information. Suppose you require more time to review the web-building tool, just contact Nucleus to provide you with additional time.
• Nucleus provides “scholarships” for smaller churches or those just starting. If your church struggles to pay for Nucleus’ regular payment plans, you should inquire about these options.
• There’s a wealth of useful documentation and support via live chat.
• Nucleus was designed to function as a “central hub” for your church. The focus is on registration forms to ensure you’ll have one place people can visit.
• You can join a Facebook page to chat about building a church website with people using Nucleus.
• After signing up to Nucleus, you’ll also gain access to their extensive library of videos. It is important to note that only a tiny amount of them are accessible for free during the trial period.
• You can use many pre-made social media posts for your social media platforms. They all have text overlays and are accompanied by the captions suggested by experts.

Cons

• The customer support staff is open from 9 am to 5 pm, which may be a lengthy wait to get a response at certain times.
• To collect donations, you must pay a fixed amount to use this service through RebelGive. It is beneficial if you get many donations from your website.
• There is currently no way to allow several users on your website. We asked the support team for clarification; they told us the feature would be implemented at some point shortly.

Pricing

Nucleus will cost you $125/month if you pay monthly or $99 If you decide to pay in advance for a whole year.

There is no need to shell out additional if you expand your site. There is a flat cost that grants you access to the entire features.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is an all-in-one hosted platform built on the same programming language as WordPress.org.

It’s easy to be confused regarding the distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. One of the most important things to remember is WordPress.com is a business offering where as WordPress.org is free and open-source software.

There are some limitations to what can do WordPress.com, and the free plans are quite restricted, so we usually suggest WordPress.org. Although, WordPress.com can be the ideal choice for certain circumstances.

Pros

• WordPress.com hosts your site; you do not have to worry about updates, backups, or security. All of this is handled for you.
• There are a myriad of themes (designs) that you could select for your site. Many choices are both premium and free and suitable for churches.
• Paid plans can be inexpensive if you’re in a pinch for money.
• It’s easy to transfer from WordPress.com to WordPress.org at some point in the future. It helps you keep the options available.

Cons

• Your site can’t be customized at the same level as possible with different website builders.
• WordPress isn’t equipped with an interface that allows drag and drop, similar to other website builders, making it difficult to work with.
• The free plan is limitless and lacks assistance.

Pricing

The plans for paid are relatively affordable, beginning at 4 dollars per month (billed annually) to get a unique domain name and 24-hour assistance.

If you’d like extra options, the Premium plan costs $80 monthly (billed annually).

Weebly

Weebly is another all-in-one web builder. Most users find it user-friendly and have many templates you can start with to build your site.

Pros

• The designs on Weebly are completely editable via drag-and-drop functionality. It’s extremely user-friendly and simple to learn, even if you have not created a web page previously.
• The eCommerce feature is built in, and you can use it to accept donations. But, Weebly charges an additional 3% fee for transactions made via your site.
• It’s possible to use an App Center, which you could utilize to include additional functions to your website. For example, you can include various audio players to include sermons or other content on your site.
• Support is available all day via email and at extended hours (6 am until 6 pm (PST)) through live chat. If you’re subscribed to the Pro plan or greater, it is also possible to call their number.
• Suppose you’re in the Pro plan or above and want to create an area of membership on your website. It allows you to secure the information you want only people from your church to access.

Cons

• Weebly isn’t equipped with the AI-creating procedure. It could take a little longer to build your website.
• The applications you can install aren’t as extensive, and you will not receive the same pertinent features as you can using other web builders. There’s not a particular “sermon” app, for instance.

Pricing

The paid plans begin at $6 per month (billed annually). However, it won’t permit you to eliminate ads. You’ll have to buy the professional plan, which costs $12/month, to delete ads and unlimited storage.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a well-known web-based website-building tool that also offers a complete platform.

Read more: Best WooCommerce Alternatives – Better Solution for Specific Needs.

It’s user-friendly and supports several users. It could be very useful if you’d like to have many users managing your church’s website.

Pros

• It’s simple to include videos, photos, or audio files through the block editor of Squarespace. It is particularly useful for uploading sermons on your website.
• There are a lot of templates to choose from on Squarespace.
• The trial is free. The trial, without having to input the details of your credit card.
• A wide selection of fonts from Squarespace is useful to ensure your website’s fonts match those you’re printing on printed material.
• Contributors can be added (other users) to your site as well as have some level of control over the permissions they can have. The Personal plan lets two contributors on your site. However, the other plans allow unlimited.
• Squarespace manages images easily, making it easy for your photos to appear stunning on different gadgets. It is possible to browse and select the best images for your free download from Unsplash inside Squarespace, the site itself.
• If you’re using the Business plan or above, you can accept donations via your site using the block ‘Donations’ on your page.

Cons

• The templates aren’t Squarespace templates that are specifically crafted for churches. The “Community & Non-Profits” templates may be a good beginning point. However, you’ll have to tweak the templates a great deal.
• There are a few third-party extensions that are available on Squarespace. However, they are not as numerous as on a different platform such as WordPress.
• If you’re using the Business plan rather than an eCommerce one, Squarespace is charged a 3.3% contribution charge. It is added to the fees paid by the payment processor.

Pricing

The Personal website plan costs 12 dollars per month (if you make payments each year).

It is recommended to go with the Business plan at $48/month (also payable annually). It gives you access to high-end blocks and extensions and the ability to receive donations.

Expert Pick: Which is the Best Church Website Builder?

WordPress is by far the most effective website builder available to churches. There’s a reason for it to be the most used website builder worldwide, powering nearly 43% of all websites available.

It includes a variety of church templates as well as design customization options which you can utilize to design your church’s web page without having to write any programming.

In terms of cost from a cost perspective, Bluehost is the most economical offering with the price. Bluehost web hosting package includes a no-cost domain, as well as the option of a free SSL.

Using well-known WordPress plugins, it is also possible to quickly add features like donations, sermons, contact forms, photos and memberships, email marketing, and much more.

For creating your church’s website, follow our step-by-step tutorial on creating your website using WordPress (video with video).

If you’re looking for an alternative to WordPress, we suggest you use the Web.com Website Builder. The basic plan allows you to build a complete website for your church while operating on a restricted budget. It’s easy to utilize, even if not a tech.

This article should help you understand the top church website developers and wants to read more post please click on mybloggingidea.