8 Best Church Website Builders of 2024 (Easy for Beginners)
With the right and best church website builder, you can easily create a website for your church to grow your following. Here are our top five picks!
Squarespace
Wix
Bluehost Builder
Wordpress.com
Weebly
You don’t need coding skills to transform your physical church into a thriving online presence. All you have to do is to select any of the above five picks for the best church website builders, and you’re good to go.
However, you may be curious about the criteria we used to select our top website builders for churches that offer a fast and cheap solution. Here are some key things to consider when searching for the best church website builder.
How to Find the Best Church Website Builder for You
When choosing the best website builder for churches, you must consider the following factors to run your website effectively and accomplish crucial tasks for optimal growth.
1. Budget-Friendly
It would be best to ensure that the website builder you choose fits your budget, depending on your needs and preferences.
You don’t want to exceed your budget or incur losses. Choose a website builder’s plan that provides all the services you need for your church website and has no hidden fees.
2. Ease of Use
With many website builders available, you must be careful when choosing one by ensuring it has an easy-to-use interface and offers different customization options for your church website.
Start by selecting a website builder with various website templates and a drag-and-drop editor that allows you to customize the design hassle-free when adding images, audio, photos, or fonts to match your church’s brand.
3. Essential Features
A great website builder should include all the features necessary for the success of your online church business. Also, you must keep your congregation engaged and updated throughout the week.
Some of these features are:
- Creating a calendar with services or other activities on your website.
- Uploading sermons effortlessly.
- Accepting donations in any form.
- Using marketing tools like social media accounts to attract new members.
4. User Accounts and Permissions
Most beginners may find the church website-building process tedious, especially when doing all the work themselves. They can simplify the process by choosing a website builder that allows them to add user accounts with different permissions.
Therefore, certain church members (volunteers) can help you update your website without giving them complete control.
Best Church Website Builders
Here is our list of the best church website builders in 2023.
- Squarespace – Best Overall
- Wix – Best for Beginners
- Bluehost Builder – Best for Ecommerce Plugins
- WordPress.com – Best for Church Templates
- Weebly – Best for Free Plan
1. Squarespace
Best Overall Church Website Builder
- Free custom domain for one year with any annual plan
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
- You can add contributors to your website
- You can’t accept donations with the first-tier plan
Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that offers the most-stunning website designs for beginners looking to create a unique church website. Although there are no church-specific templates, you can modify Community & Non-Profits templates using an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. With the starter plan, you can add two contributors (users) with some level of control to help with website design. You’ll also get a free custom domain, a video maker tool, and unlimited bandwidth.
Squarespace is the best website builder for churches for its design, and you can add multiple users to help design and upload items on your site. Also, its drag-and-drop functionality makes it suitable for beginners without web design skills.
There is more to this platform than just a pretty face. Churches can create several blogs to share impactful stories and show community and humanitarian services to attract new members. Squarespace’s block editor also simplifies adding audio files, images, and videos to your site.
Key Features
Customizable Templates
Browse the Community & Non-Profits templates and customize each design to fit your church brand with the intuitive drag-and-drop functionality. You can easily add various content types to your website to keep your congregation informed, such as calendars, galleries, and blogs.
Squarespace Scheduling
Add single or multiple calendars on your site and sync appointments through platforms like Google, Outlook, Office 365, and iCloud. You can also use the scheduling functionality to send automatic email reminders to your website visitors.
Marketing Tools
Stand out in any inbox with customized marketing tools to unify your brand voice. Use ready-made email campaigns to reach more people or social tools for Facebook and Instagram to promote or advertise services.
Analytics
By looking at your traffic, geography, and sales, you can understand your visitors and see how your church website grows over time. The insights can help you determine which pages or areas of your website you need to concentrate on to boost conversions and attract more readers.
Logo Maker
Nothing stands out more than a unique logo for your church. Use the simple UI logo maker to create a logo by selecting from an array of icons from The Noun Project. Also, the logo maker is free for site owners with Squarespace 7 or 7.1 accounts.
Pricing
- Mobile-Friendly Websites
- 100+ Templates
- Free Custom Domain
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- 2 Contributors
- Ecommerce Functionality
- Unlimited Products
- 3% Transaction Fees
- Custom Code (CSS & JS)
- Unlimited Contributors
- 0% Transaction Fees
- Point of Sale
- On-site Checkout
- Product Reviews
- Facebook and Instagram Selling
- Abandoned Cart Recovery
- Advanced Shipping
- Advanced Discounts
- Subscription Selling
- Commerce APIs
Read More : Squarespace pricing or Squarespace ecommerce examples
Squarespace has a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. You can use the free trial to test the drag-and-drop builder before purchasing the paid plans.
The paid plans are:
- Personal Plan is ideal for anyone looking to create a church website and add two contributors to help with the design and customizations.
- Business Plan is perfect for upcoming churches because they can access premium blocks and extensions, allowing them to add and accept donations online.
- Basic Commerce Plan is perfect for growing churches since it offers more advanced features like selling on social media with no transaction fees.
- Advanced Commerce Plan is the best for large churches that require a full suite of ecommerce tools for maximum growth.
They also offer an Enterprise Plan with custom solutions for large teams.
2. Wix
Best Church Website Builder With Powerful AI Tools for Beginners
- Easiest to use
- Church-specific website templates
- Multilingual support
- Limited storage in most plans
Wix is a beginner-friendly website builder offering specific church and non-profit templates and a drag-and-drop functionality that simplifies website building. Also, you can accept donations by adding buttons on your website, making it an all-in-one platform for building church websites. Other advanced features include SEO tools, analytics, video hours, ecommerce capabilities, and a logo maker. Unlike other website builders, this platform has a Wix ADI that enables you to create a website instantly by answering a few questions.
Wix is an intuitive drag-and-drop builder enabling church leaders to quickly add images, text boxes, and videos anywhere on the website page. You'll also have complete creative control to add video backgrounds, animations, and scroll effects.
Additionally, Wix is the only builder on our list that helps you build advanced web applications for your church using Velo by Wix. Therefore, you can launch your next web project online with a ready-made infrastructure and attract more church followers.
Key Features
Wix ADI
Answer a few simple questions about your church business and let Wix ADI (artificial design intelligence) create a website instantly. You can also upload your own images to give your new website a distinctive appearance on mobile devices or web browsers.
Social Tools
Boost your church following by connecting all your social media accounts in one place with customizable icons. You can also engage with your visitors whenever you want by using the Wix live chat.
Wix Bookings
Parishioners can easily book confessions and other events using Wix bookings. You’ll also be able to send your clients automatic email reminders to keep them engaged. Accept bookings from your phone using the Wix mobile app, readily available for Android and iOS users.
Blogging
You can edit the pre-made blog templates using a drag-and-drop functionality to create beautiful blog posts that appeal more to your church's audience. Add multiple writers to help you write and share your posts on social media platforms to grow your church blog.
App Market
Power your website by integrating it with over 300 powerful web apps, both free and premium. You can add the apps on your church site in just a few clicks from your Wix dashboard.
Pricing
- Custom Domain
- 1GB Bandwidth
- 500MB Disk Space
- 24/7 Support
- Free Custom Domain
- No Wix Ads
- 2GB Bandwidth
- 3GB Disk Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- 10GB Disk Space
- SEO Booster App
- Visitor Analytics App
- Priority Customer Support
- 35GB Disk Space
- Professional Logo
- Lead-Capture Forms
Wix offers a 14-day money-back guarantee across all the paid plans. You can try the platform risk-free and get a full refund if unsatisfied.
The website plans are as follows:
- Connect Domain Plan is perfect for small churches that want to connect a custom domain and have no issues with Wix ads.
- Combo Plan is best for displaying a good-looking website with no Wix ads. You’ll also get a free domain for one year and 30 minutes of video hours.
- Unlimited Plan is perfect for growing sites that require a lot of content because of increased storage space and one-hour video offering.
- VIP Plan is ideal for large church websites with five hours of video offerings to upload sermons or testimonials and receive priority support.
- 500+ Ecommerce Templates
- Unlimited Products
- Abandoned Cart Recovery
- Sell on Instagram, Facebook, etc.
- 20GB Storage Space
- Multiple Currencies
- Sell on Amazon & eBay
- Modalyst Dropshipping - 250 Items
- Sell Subscriptions
- 35GB Storage Space
- Priority Customer Support
- Unlimited Modalyst Dropshipping
- 50GB Storage Space
- Upload Unlimited Videos
- 500 Auto Sales Tax Calculations
Learn more about: Wix Pricing and be inspired by beautiful examples of Wix
However, you can sell and accept online payments via business and ecommerce plans.
- Business Basic Plan is best for new churches wishing to sell unlimited products or services and accept payments online.
- Business Unlimited Plan is ideal for growing churches that want to list unlimited products or services and add 10 hours of videos on their site.
- Business VIP Plan is perfect for a church with a large congregation that requires more storage space, unlimited video hours, and priority customer care.
They also offer a Wix Enterprise with custom solutions and pricing.
3. Bluehost Builder
Best Church Website Builder for WordPress Sites With Ecommerce Plugins
- Excellent website uptime with a built-in web hosting service
- Free domain for one year for all plans
- Custom WordPress themes
- Basic website designs with limited features
Bluehost Builder offers powerful ecommerce tools for greater success, like calendar bookings, shipping options, and payment processing. Unlike most website builders, Bluehost is a leading web hosting provider, offering your website an excellent uptime guarantee. You'll also get Yoast SEO for free on most plans, which helps your site perform better in search engines. Therefore, it's the best platform to start and grow a successful church website powered by WordPress.
Bluehost Builder is an intuitive drag-and-drop builder based on WordPress and offers integrated web hosting services. Therefore, you can build a church website from scratch and host it immediately.
However, this platform is regarded as one of the best website builders for churches because it offers powerful ecommerce plugins, like customer account creation, booking & appointments, and gift cards. You can also create an online store running on WooCommerce with plugins for selling products online or subscribing to services.
Key Features
Unlimited Listings
You can sell unlimited items or services through a flexible WooCommerce store, giving your followers multiple options when purchasing church merchandise. Therefore, church leaders can list and sell any inventory size and add unique descriptions to help visitors find products quickly.
Ecommerce Features
Launch an online store with free hosting and add all the features necessary for a thriving church, like Jetpack daily backups, secure online payments, and unlimited products. Other advanced features are website analytics, product add-ons, and shipping options.
Free Yoast SEO
With this WordPress plugin, you can improve your marketing efforts by optimizing your blogging content for search engines like Google. You’ll know which keywords to incorporate into your blogs to attract more readers and boost website traffic.
Booking & Appointments
Using this drag-and-drop builder, you can sync your calendar with your website or online store to allow visitors to schedule appointments or reserve services easily. You'll boost engagement with church members without disrupting your busy schedule.
Gift Cards
Boost online giving by adding YITH gift cards to your website or ecommerce store with customizable options that allow you to modify the cards for any occasion. By selling gift cards, you’ll be able to boost your church’s earnings and attract new visitors.
Pricing
- Bluehost-Certified Themes for WP
- WordPress-Optimized Hosting
- Drag-and-Drop Page Builder
- Free Domain Name
- Unlimited Websites
- Free Daily Backups for 1st Year
- 40GB SSD Storage
- Yoast SEO Free
- Unlimited Products
- Store Analytics
- 100GB SSD Storage
- Multiple Payment Options
Read More: Bluehost pricing or Bluehost review
Bluehost Builder has four paid plans:
- Basic Plan is perfect for new churches that want to create a simple website or blog with limited features using an intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
- Choice Plus Plan is suitable for developing churches, and they can create unlimited websites and add privacy and security features.
- Online Store Plan is best for a church that wants to add powerful ecommerce plugins for selling products or services online.
- Pro Plan is ideal for a large church that needs a free dedicated IP address and optimized web resources to reach more followers.
4. WordPress.com
Best Free Website Builder With Church-Specific Templates
- Free version with unlimited users and pages
- Thousands of third-party plugins
- Real-time activity log
- Steep learning curve
WordPress is one of the best website builders that offers unlimited pages and users on the free plan. Therefore, a church leader can get quick assistance from other members when building their free church website. Also, there are different church-specific website templates you can select and customize to build your site. This makes the website-building process much easier than expected. With built-in SEO tools and many third-party plugins for extensive customization, WordPress is an all-in-one platform for building church websites.
WordPress is the most popular website builder for creating a simple or complex church website using church-specific features and many third-party plugins. You can also launch a blog and use intuitive drag-and-drop tools to strategically organize your content and media to attract more readers.
You should know that WordPress.com differs from WordPress.org, a self-hosted WordPress platform. With WordPress.com, you don’t need to purchase a separate hosting service, as with the latter. Also, you don't have to worry about security patches, updates, or backups because it’s a fully managed platform.
Key Features
Themes & Plugins
Find the perfect theme for your church website by searching a collection of free and paid themes. You can also try out several church-specific templates to simplify the website-building process. Then, use third-party plugins to add new functionalities to your church site.
Content Publishing
A church leader can post content to a website with the quick send of an email or even schedule posts for a later date. They can also allow other users to post on their behalf by creating user accounts with different roles and permissions.
Monetization Tools
Accept donations by collecting payments for just about anything with WordPress monetization tools. You can also use premium contact blocks to create an in-kind donation program on your church website, exclusive to certain members.
Form Block
Collect contact details from your site visitors by creating and inserting a block as a contact, event registration, appointment, or feedback form. You can add form blocks on web pages or posts by dragging and dropping them on the desired area.
Stats & Insights
Track your visitors from the minute you publish content using Jetpack Stats to determine what content your congregation members find most engaging to keep them interested. You can also use Google Analytics to get comprehensive website data and metrics.
Pricing
- Lots of Free Themes
- 24/7 Email Support
- 6GB Storage
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- No Ads
- Premium Themes
- 24/7 Chat Support
- 13GB Storage
- Add Custom CSS
- WordAds Monetization
- Install Plugins & Themes
- Built-in SEO Tools
- 200GB Storage
- Stronger Security & Performance
- Integrated Elastic On-Site Search
- Unlimited Products
- Inventory Management
- Frictionless Checkout
- Top Shipping Carriers
- Accept Payments in 60+ Countries
WordPress has a Free Plan that enables you to try out the CMS and blogging software, but it comes with ads.
The paid plans are:
- Personal Plan is perfect for basic church websites that want to connect a custom domain name and remove WordPress ads.
- Premium Plan is best for growing churches because they can use powerful design tools to customize their site to look professional and unique.
- Business Plan is suitable for professional church websites as it allows them to install thousands of plugins and cloud tools for optimal growth.
- Commerce Plan is great for selling products or services and processing payments through an online store.
5. Weebly
Best Free Church Website Builder With Solid Marketing Features
- Free plan with ecommerce and marketing tools
- Free SSL certificate on all plans
- Built-in support for accepting donations
- The free version comes with Square website ads
Weebly is the best platform for building a church website on a budget since it offers a free plan with features like unlimited products, Square gift cards, and lead capture capabilities. With the help of this drag-and-drop builder, you can completely modify template designs to create a professional, mobile-friendly church website. You can also use the built-in ecommerce support to accept donations through your website, but there will be transaction fees.
Weebly is a great website builder with a free version that can help you build a free church website. Using the free version, you can add helpful marketing features like lead capture, SEO, and Instagram feed to attract more followers.
However, if you want to connect your own domain name, remove Square ads, and add more features, you’ll need to purchase the premium plans. You can set up an online shop for your church to sell anything, including digital goods, to give your congregation various shopping options.
Key Features
Blogging
Start a fantastic blog for your church in just a few minutes by modifying the free blog templates using the drag-and-drop interface. You can access a media library that lets you use free images to engage your readers. Also, blog posts can be modified to look good on mobile devices.
Ecommerce
With the free version, you can sell unlimited items and use ecommerce features like a shopping cart, inventory management, and coupons. But premium plans offer more advanced features like abandoned cart emails that allow you to send reminder emails to customers who don’t complete purchases.
SEO
Add powerful SEO tools to your church’s site to rank higher on search engine results. Use meta-descriptions and SEO-friendly HTML formatting to create appealing content that generates more reads and shares on social media platforms to attract new followers.
Forms
Use a drag-and-drop online form builder to create custom contact forms, surveys, and RSVP lists. You’ll have various data-gathering options that let you connect with your visitors to give them unique engagement.
Mobile Apps
You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use Weebly’s mobile apps to manage your church site from anywhere. From your mobile device, you can check your site stats and reply to contact form emails to stay connected to your visitors.
Pricing
- 60+ Mobile-Friendly Templates
- Sell Unlimited Products
- SEO Tools
- Chat & Email Support
- No Weebly Ads
- Free Domain
- Unlimited Storage
- Phone Support
- PayPal Payments
- Request Reviews via Email
- Abandoned Cart Recovery Emails
- Priority Support
Read More: Weebly pricing
Weebly has a Free plan for basic websites. You can use free tools for SEO, lead capture, and Square gift cards to attract more church followers.
The paid plans are:
- Personal Plan is best for churches with less tech-savvy staff who want to connect a custom domain for a website.
- Professional Plan removes Square ads and offers a free domain, unlimited storage, and advanced site stats.
- Performance Plan is ideal for large churches that need unlimited storage and a full suite of ecommerce features for optimal growth.
Are There Other Church Website Builders?
Many website builders didn’t make our list of the best church website builders as we focused on ease of use, value for money, and design quality. However, it's worth mentioning a few builders that are designed specifically for building church websites.
Here are three other church website builders.
1. ShareFaith
ShareFaith offers a church website builder that has helped over 8,000 ministries create professionally-designed and ministry-focused websites. You can view demo sites and test several template designs to ensure they fit your church's site needs and preferences.
Some church-specific features are uploading audio and video sermons, a built-in calendar for listing services, and ShareFaith Giving for accepting donations and tithes through your website.
The drawback is the pricing because you must purchase the “Web + Media” package at $50 per month (billed annually). Therefore, ShareFaith is not the best platform for churches on a tight budget.
2. Ministry Designs
Ministry Design is a powerful and flexible church website builder trusted by over 39,000 churches worldwide. It has a team with a background in church ministry that ensures you get personalized services when creating a church website to reach more people.
During onboarding, you'll receive an hour-long phone call. Then, unlimited training from the support team until your church website is ready.
Some of its key features are 1000+ church designs, free migration, easy SEO tools, and an online giving platform for receiving donations and other pledges. You can also upload sermons, create a calendar, and manage all your email lists from your dashboard.
The drawback is that you’ll need to pay an upfront fee of $1,000 plus $20 per month for hosting to use the Ministry Design website builder. You can get the same features and more for a much lower price when using other website builders like Squarespace or Wix,
3. Nucleus
Nucleus is the central hub for building church websites with free tools like The Next Steps Launcher for instant access to church-related activities and Nucleus Prayer for sending out prayer requests.
Use the 30-day free trial with no credit card required to try out more products like Flows (build forms), Giving (take donations), and Web + Sermons (upload sermons).
The drawback is that most of its products demand a substantial monthly fee for each to use them. For instance, Web + Sermons costs $129 per month, Giving starts at $29 per month, and Flows at $29 per month.
FAQs
You can quickly create a website for your church by choosing website builders with free plans like Weebly and WordPress. However, you’ll have to deal with annoying website ads and can’t connect a custom domain. Luckily, you can solve these issues by upgrading to a paid plan.
Alternatively, you can use a platform with a free trial, like Squarespace, to try out the builder.
Start by selecting a website builder with an easy-to-use interface, a drag-and-drop functionality, and tons of website templates like Wix. Then, choose a website template and drag-and-drop elements like testimonial blocks and photo galleries onto website pages to create a simple church website.
To get started, check out some inspiring church website examples.
It depends on the first impression or message you want to convey to visitors when they view your church website. It’s best to include the pastor's name, church location, contacts (email, social, or phone), and brief church history to attract new members.
You can add dedicated website pages to upload sermons or testimonies, display a calendar with a list of church services or events, and include a donation page.
What Is The Best Website Builder For Churches?
With our review guide, you can choose the best and easiest website builder for your church community and create a website with a professional look and essential features to attract new followers online.
Our selection process focused on ease of use, customizable website templates, and value for money to help beginners launch a simple or complex church website without writing any code.
Here are our top five best church website builders again:
Squarespace
Wix
Bluehost Builder
WordPress.com
Weebly
Explore Further
- How to Create a Website in 10 Steps
- Squarespace Website Examples
- Beautiful Wix Websites Examples
- Wix vs. Squarespace
- Wix vs. Weebly
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Anastasia Belyh
Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.
Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.