Creating a high-quality website for your church shouldn\u2019t take your focus away from growing your church and leading your worship team. You don\u2019t need a million different features to get the point across.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re trying to grow your church, offer a place where curious visitors can gather information, and maybe tell your community about your story. Beyond that, anything else is the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n
The best website builder for your church will keep things simple, engage your visitors, and make it easy for them to get the information they need and inquire about joining your congregation.<\/p>\n
Regardless of your budget, time constraints, and tech skills – all of these website builders will make it easy and accessible for you to build a beautiful church website on your own.<\/p>\n
Wix is our top choice because it combines all the best elements of every other website builder into one. The drag-and-drop builder makes it so simple for anyone to build a website regardless of your experience. Plus, Wix is a great choice for SEO, so you\u2019ll find it easier to get your congregation in front of new eyes.<\/p>\n
Coming up with these picks is not always easy. We have a highly involved research process that allows us to sift through all the website builders and narrow it down to these seven choices. We base our decision on the following metrics:<\/p>\n
During our research process, we use these metrics to determine whether or not we would recommend a product to our readers. It\u2019s also important to mention that each review is crafted specifically for the industry.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re keeping in mind factors like:<\/p>\n
When we combine all of these research components together, it allows us to generate a list that is not only accurate but also relevant to the industry.<\/p>\n
Continue reading for in-depth and comprehensive reviews of each website builder.<\/p>\n
It was an easy decision to choose Wix as our top choice for church leaders. Wix is so easy to use for anyone regardless of your level of experience, it offers pristine flexibility, and they even have church-related templates to help get the creative juices flowing.<\/p>\n
Wix Pros<\/p>\n
Wix Cons<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re trying to find a website builder that is easy to use for simple websites, then Wix is a great choice. You don\u2019t need any tech skills or web design degree to use Wix and create a beautiful website.<\/p>\n
The best part is, it\u2019s a great choice for churches because of that exact point. Likely, you\u2019re just trying to create a place for people to land online when they search your church, and Wix will help you do that.<\/p>\n
You can use the drag-and-drop builder to pull in things like text boxes, images, and videos without needing to code anything. Best of all, Wix has an artificial design intelligence that will ask you questions about your business and start designing the website for you based on your responses.<\/p>\n
Freedom and flexibility is the key to creating a great website. No two churches should have the same site, and Wix will help with that through their 500 design templates covering all types of businesses. While you are somewhat limited in terms of \u201cchurch templates,\u201d the sheer number of customization options make you feel like you have more templates than you do.<\/p>\n
Once you get beyond the template you can add features like:<\/p>\n
In the event that you do want to add something that isn\u2019t available on the drag-and-drop builder, you have the option to use Wix Corvid<\/a>, which grants you the ability to code features into the website.<\/p>\n Wix App Market: Wix is loaded with more than 200 apps and services covering all kinds of features such as SEO, contact information, and email automation. If you\u2019re trying to turn your website into a \u201clead generator\u201d of sorts, you can easily do that with one of their apps.<\/p>\n Wix SEO Wiz: Ranking is important with your website because you want people to find you easily when they\u2019re looking for a church in your area. Wix helps make that possible.<\/p>\n Wix offers incredible customer service, and you will have no trouble figuring out how to access the support. If you have a problem with your website, there are dozens of buttons located throughout each specific section on your site, so they\u2019ll already have an idea of what problem you\u2019re having before you contact them.<\/p>\n If you would prefer to call or email them directly, you can reach a customer service representative Monday through Thursday from 5 am to 5 pm eastern standard time.<\/p>\n Wix offers four pricing options that you would use for your church website. The pricing goes as followed:<\/p>\n Combo – $13 per month<\/p>\n Unlimited – $17 per month<\/p>\n Pro – $22 per month<\/p>\n VIP – $39 per month<\/p>\n Squarespace boasts incredibly beautiful templates that allow you to create an aesthetically pleasing website that is sure to impress visitors. The website builder might not be as simple to use as Wix, but it\u2019s a great alternative if you\u2019re looking for something with a bit more design capabilities.<\/p>\n Squarespace Pros<\/p>\n Squarespace Cons<\/p>\n Squarespace provides some more advanced features, which is fine if you\u2019re a church leader with a little bit of web design knowledge, but if you\u2019re completely wet behind the ears, you could find this website builder to be too complicated.<\/p>\n Squarespace isn\u2019t as intuitive as Wix, either, which means it might take you a little more time to design the website because the interface is more challenging to understand and operate. The good news is, once you learn how to use Squarespace, you\u2019ll reap the rewards.<\/p>\n Squarespace offers many templates that are absolutely stunning. They make your website look professional as if you hired dedicated web designers to build it for you. While this might sound like a dream to some people, we\u2019re not entirely sure it\u2019s necessary for a church website.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need anything overly fancy (unless that\u2019s what you want) that\u2019s why we decided to make Squarespace our number two choice.<\/p>\n All of the templates are mobile-optimized, so they\u2019ll look great on the phone, and you can also customize everything down to the fonts and colors, so you\u2019re not stuck with templated color schemes and images.<\/p>\n Blogs: While Wix also offers blogging we\u2019re more impressed with the blog platform on Squarespace. They make it easy for you to add valuable information to your website, and with all the SEO features, this is a great way to drive new visitors to your church.<\/p>\n Social Media: It\u2019s important to have a way to integrate your social media into your marketing strategies. With Squarespace, it\u2019s easy to send people back and forth from your website to your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.<\/p>\n Super SEO<\/a>: In addition to all the standard SEO features, Squarespace offers something called Super SEO, which boasts a ton of great SEO features. You can optimize things like title tags, meta descriptions, alt tags, and more. Don\u2019t worry if you don\u2019t know what any of that is because the platform makes it easy.<\/p>\n Squarespace provides a variety of ways for you to get in touch with customer service if you have a problem. You can contact them via live chat anytime during the week, and they offer 24\/7 social support on Twitter and email as well.<\/p>\n One thing we like is in addition to support; they offer many different video tutorials, knowledge areas, and even a community forum where you can ask questions and get opinions.<\/p>\n They might not offer a free plan, but they do have a 14-day free trial. During those 14 days, that should be more than enough time for you to decide if Squarespace is the right choice. Once you make that decision, you\u2019ll have to choose from one of the following plans:<\/p>\n Personal – $12 per month<\/p>\n Business – $18 per month<\/p>\n Commerce – $26 per month<\/p>\n Advanced Commerce – $40 per month<\/p>\n As you might be able to tell, the final two options of the pricing section are for ecommerce stores so you wouldn\u2019t have to worry about those. Choosing from one of the first two should do the trick for most church websites.<\/p>\n Sharefaith is the first church dedicated platform we\u2019re looking at. They\u2019ve helped over 8,000 ministries create a website, and you\u2019ll have the peace of mind in knowing you\u2019re using an exclusive church platform to create yours.<\/p>\n Sharefaith Pros<\/p>\n Sharefaith Cons<\/p>\n The main disadvantage of going with a smaller and \u201cless popular\u201d website builder is that it\u2019s not as easy to use. While it does have a drag-and-drop builder like the rest, it\u2019s not as intuitive and takes a little more time to learn.<\/p>\n The advantage comes when we talk about the design aspect. Since it\u2019s a dedicated church site builder, you get a lot of design components that are sure to work for you. It comes packed with templates and styles that will allow you to appeal to the audience you\u2019re trying to reach. The downside is, you have to pay for a premium package to access all of that.<\/p>\n Another upside is that you get unique features that you won\u2019t find anywhere else. For example, Sharefaith comes with an online tithing tool that you can use to make it easier for people to donate to the church. Instead of having to figure something out on one of the other platforms, with Sharefaith, you can simply plug it in and let it go.<\/p>\n Customer service with Sharefaith looks standard. There\u2019s a phone number you can call as well as a form to fill out if you have any questions. One interesting feature we noticed is that they even have a website migration tool that makes it easy for you to transfer your site from a different builder to this one. They\u2019ll take care of it for you. (at a cost of course)<\/p>\n The biggest downside to Sharefaith is the cost. You need to upgrade to a premium plan to be able to create websites which is $50 per month billed annually.<\/p>\n With that, you get the following:<\/p>\n Weebly is a great starting point for new church plants, but it\u2019s also a step in the right direction for an established church that\u2019s trying to make a name for itself online.<\/p>\n Weebly Pros<\/p>\n Weebly Cons<\/p>\n The good news is that Weebly is pretty easy to use for someone without any experience. You get a drag-and-drop builder that functions like most others. The frustrating thing is that you can\u2019t switch back and forth between edit and preview mode.<\/p>\n The downside to Weebly is the fact that they only offer 40 templates, and very few of them would make a lot of sense to a church. Some of the more minimalist designs might work, but after a while, most church leaders might opt to hire someone to take over for them.<\/p>\n Apps: Weebly boasts more than 300 apps covering the gamut of everything you could want to do with your website. You can even link your Facebook Messenger to your website.<\/p>\n Memberships: Let\u2019s say you wanted to host special prayer groups, youth groups, or bible studies; you can create membership groups directly from the website to make everything more organized.<\/p>\n Customer service<\/a> is available 24\/7 through the use of support tickets. Live chat is available seven days a week, and phone is as well. The website also offers plenty of support centers and community forums to help those who prefer to answer the question on their own.<\/p>\n The reason Weebly even made this list is because of its pricing. They offer the most affordable and straightforward pricing for simple package deals. As we said, confusing church leaders with complicated pricing stacked to the ceiling with features you\u2019ll never use is not the answer. Here\u2019s how it works:<\/p>\n All of these features offer 500+ MB of storage, and if you\u2019re not accepting payments on your website, you won\u2019t ever need the performance plan.<\/p>\n Here we have another dedicated church website builder that offers a unique experience, unlike any other.<\/p>\n Ministry Designs Pros<\/p>\n Ministry Designs Cons<\/p>\n Like all the others, this tool uses a drag-and-drop builder to make it accessible for everyone to build a website. The advantage of this builder is that the tool is incredibly easy to use, and it seems to function almost as easy as Wix.<\/p>\n One of the things that really makes Ministry Designs pop to us is their library of templates. They offer many more templates than some of the other dedicated church website builders, and they look amazing as well.<\/p>\n We haven\u2019t discussed price yet, but for what you pay for this, we were expecting a bit more in the way of features. They offer everything you need, but it\u2019s still pretty standard. You can collect tithes online, store sermons, and even do a live sermon from your website, but many of the other website builders allow you to do that as well.<\/p>\n From the second you land on the website, you\u2019re in good hands. Right when you open the web page, a chat box pops up offering assistance, plus they also do live demos to help you understand how to use the website builder.<\/p>\n The pricing of Ministry Design is a little bizarre and downright confusing. It\u2019s an investment of $1,020 upfront and then $20 every month for hosting. This pricing is totally out in left field and something, unlike anything we\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re focused on creating a church blog, then you\u2019ll want to give WordPress a look. They make it super easy to create a popular blog that not only entertains and engages your audience but ranks as well.<\/p>\n WordPress Pros<\/p>\n WordPress Cons<\/p>\n WordPress is a bit of a challenge if you\u2019ve never used it before. Downloading and installing templates can make you feel like you\u2019re jumping through hoops. There are ways to \u201cpay\u201d your way around it, but if you\u2019re working with a shoestring budget, you might want to avoid that.<\/p>\n WordPress offers a ton of amazing templates, but the only downside is that they\u2019re focused on blogging. That said, you can still create an amazing website using one of the many popular building tools on WordPress, such as the WP Bakery<\/a>, Divi<\/a>, or Elementor<\/a>.<\/p>\n SEO is what makes WordPress tick. It\u2019s a great choice for websites that you\u2019re trying to rank, so if you\u2019re concerned about increasing your visibility online, this will certainly help your church get more visitors.<\/p>\n WordPress offers a great knowledge base that you can use to answer simple questions, but there isn\u2019t a dedicated team to help you via phone, chat, or email, which is a major downside.<\/p>\n The platform is affordable, and while it might not be the best option for church websites, it gets the job done in most situations. The pricing structure is easy to understand, which does not overcomplicate things for church leaders.<\/p>\nFeatures 4.5\/5<\/h3>\n
Customer Service and Support 5\/5<\/h3>\n
Bang for your Buck 4\/5<\/h3>\n
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2. Squarespace<\/a> – Best for aesthetics<\/h2>\n
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Ease of Use: 3.4\/5<\/h3>\n
Web Design 4\/5<\/h3>\n
Features 4\/5<\/h3>\n
Customer Service and Support 4.2\/5<\/h3>\n
Bang for your Buck 4\/5<\/h3>\n
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3. Sharefaith<\/a> – Best exclusive church website builder<\/h2>\n
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Ease of Use: 2.8\/5<\/h3>\n
Web Design 4\/5<\/h3>\n
Features 4.2\/5<\/h3>\n
Customer Service and Support 4\/5<\/h3>\n
Bang for your Buck 3.7\/5<\/h3>\n
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4. Weebly<\/a> – Best for budget website building<\/h2>\n
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Ease of Use:4\/5<\/h3>\n
Web Design 3.5\/5<\/h3>\n
Features 4.8\/5<\/h3>\n
Customer Service and Support 3.4\/5<\/h3>\n
Bang for your Buck 5\/5<\/h3>\n
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5. Ministry Designs<\/a> – Best customer service experience<\/h2>\n
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Ease of Use: 4.3\/5<\/h3>\n
Web Design 3\/5<\/h3>\n
Features 3\/5<\/h3>\n
Customer Service and Support 4.5\/5<\/h3>\n
Bang for your Buck 2.5\/5<\/h3>\n
6. WordPress<\/a> – Best for church blogs<\/h2>\n
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Ease of Use: 3.1\/5<\/h3>\n
Web Design 2.5\/5<\/h3>\n
Features 4\/5<\/h3>\n
Customer Service and Support 1.5\/5<\/h3>\n
Bang for your Buck 4.5\/5<\/h3>\n