Your church website is really the digital welcome mat for your church. There, both regular and new visitors get access to important information about your services, faith, and how they can get more involved. In this article, we'll walk you through six of the best website builders for churches so you can find what works best for your church.
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Did you know that 80% of people will check your church’s website before they even walk through your doors? Having a great website – and making a great first impression – is so important.
Your first step is to find the right website builder for your needs. But with so many website builder options on the market, it can be tricky to decide which one best suits your church’s needs.
In this article, we’ll look at six fantastic website builders that will make creating your church website a breeze.
Let’s dive into our list!
Over 42% of the internet is built by WordPress. With reasonable pricing and easy-to-use themes, WordPress is a great choice for churches looking for something reliable.
Because WordPress is Open Source, meaning anyone can download and customize their code, there are several plugins people have made for nonprofits and churches on WordPress. Here are some of the best –
We have a list of the 9 best WordPress donation plugins for nonprofits – access it here.
Donorbox seamlessly integrates with WordPress via its free donation plugin. You can embed a donation form, add a popup donation form, and also use a catchy donation button on your website to attract more donors. It takes only 5 simple steps and makes for a quick and easy donation process for your online donors!
Check out this video to see how easy it is:
Pricing ranges from $0 to $45 a month, depending on your needs. There’s also an Enterprise plan option with customizable pricing. All paid pricing plans come with free domains, so we recommend going for the paid options to make your website look more professional.
While there aren’t any specific discounts for nonprofits or churches, WordPress is a great option because it’s so cheap to get started with a professional website.
With a wide range of pricing and thousands of beautiful themes to choose from, WordPress is our number one choice for church website building.
Because it’s Open Source, people will continue to come up with useful plugins and tools to make WordPress one of the most dynamic website-building choices for anyone out there. Especially for nonprofits and churches. It’s a builder that can grow as you grow!
The other perk is how easy this website builder is for non-experts to use. You don’t have to know how to code to use their drag-and-drop building interface, so whoever is responsible for setting up your website can easily make something attractive and usable, as long as they understand the basic features of the builder.
Although Weebly is typically more focused on commerce, it’s an excellent tool for church websites because of how easy it is to get started.
Weebly is great for churches because it offers three ways to add a donate button:
You can embed your Donorbox donation form on Weebly in a few simple steps. Simply copy the embed code from our tool and use it on your Weebly website. Here’s a detailed guide to help you. Here’s an example from The Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Rockies.
You can also add a donation button to your Weebly site. It’s also very simple with our quick copy-paste code available on the tool. Follow this guide for more information.
Finally, you can also add a popup donation form to your Weebly site for your church. Your website visitors will click a button and your donation form will appear instantly to make giving easy and quick.
Learn all the steps in our tutorial video here.
Pricing ranges from $0 to $26 a month. You can save money by choosing to be billed annually instead of monthly. We recommend starting with the Professional pricing level, which is $12 a month billed annually or $144 a year.
Although Weebly no longer offers discounts for nonprofits or churches, they are still worthwhile because they’re so affordable to get started.
A year at the Professional pricing level is only $144 – that can easily be covered by donations from your congregation. You can learn more about what each level includes here.
Weebly offers solid tools to create customized websites for a variety of needs. Having multiple ways to collect donations gives your church (and your donors!) many options.
The key to a solid church website builder is flexibility since your needs will change and shift as you grow. Weebly provides flexibility with customizable tools and templates.
You don’t need a tech expert to set up your Weebly site. A basic understanding of how to embed templates and widgets will make your website more functional.
Wix has tools to build many different kinds of sites, so is a great option if your church wants to think outside of the box.
Wix is a great choice for churches because of their beautiful, quick-install templates designed for all types of organizations. But they also have dedicated templates for churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues! You can browse these templates here.
People in the Wix community are always building new templates, so you can find one that best suits your church’s branding – and you can always build your own, too!
Donorbox makes it easy for you to add a customized church donation form to your website. You can build a donation form and use the automatically generated code to embed it into your Wix website. Here’s a guide to help you get started.
Your church can also easily add a donation button to your Wix website that will either take donors to the Donorbox-hosted donation page or open up a popup donation form right on your website. Check out the instructions here.
We also created the below tutorial guide for the visual learner in you –
Their plans start at $16 a month for personal use and go up to $45 a month for the VIP plan. They also have Enterprise plans available. We think the Pro plan is the best value for churches, which costs $27 a month or $324 a year.
They also have nonprofit pricing via TechSoup –
To get the TechSoup discount, you’ll need to have official 501(c)(3) status for your church.
Wix is great for churches who want a lot of power under the hood of their website. Websites on Wix are a great option for larger churches, but smaller churches can find plans that work, too!
Their templates are known for being easy to use, and it’s great that there are already so many templates for churches and other religious organizations. This makes getting started much easier because you don’t have to build a website from scratch.
Plus, if the person building your website isn’t an expert, it’s helpful to have a template to make sure your website looks as beautiful and professional as possible. This is a pricier option, which is why it’s #3 on our list – but we do think the features are worth the price in the long run.
Squarespace is known for being a user-friendly e-commerce website builder. It has great tools for churches of all sizes.
Squarespace has a Community & Nonprofits section in their template library filled with options that can easily be used for churches. You can explore that here.
You can add “blocks” like a donation block, blogging block, e-commerce block, and more to personalize your site to serve your church’s needs.
Even though Squarespace accepts donations, those donations are subject to transaction fees and then you’ll have to manually enter your donations into your donor management software.
With Donorbox, all donor information gets automatically stored in the Donorbox database. It remains secure for you to access and segment as you want, and you can also integrate with CRM tools for more effective use of data.
Plus, Donorbox lets you ask your donors to cover the processing fees, which most donors love to do to help their church.
You can embed your donation form on your Squarespace website easily by copying and pasting the embed code from Donorbox to your website. Follow the instructions here. We also let you add a donation button to Squarespace. Find the steps to implement it here.
The below video makes it even easier for you to get started –
Add a Donation Form to Your Squarespace Website
Pricing ranges from $16 a month for a personal plan to $49 a month for a commerce plan when paid on a yearly basis. Paying month-to-month is also an option. There isn’t a nonprofit pricing option.
If you don’t plan on selling a lot through your website, we recommend the Business plan, which costs $23 a month or $276 a year.
But it should be noted that all transactions come with a hefty 3% transaction fee, so if you do plan to sell you should upgrade to the Commerce Basic plan for $27 a month.
Squarespace is a popular choice for churches because of how easy it is to set up a website without any coding knowledge. The platform makes it easy to add and remove content to keep your church website fresh.
Plus, the different blocks mean you can build the site functionality you need without having to think too much about widgets and plugins. However, the transaction fees can be steep, depending on your plan and how much you plan to sell on your website. Their templates are also not as well-developed as others on this list, but they provide a great starting point.
ShareFaith offers a suite of tech for churches. Their website builder was made with ministries in mind so it has several handy features for churches.
They have a large portfolio of demo sites that you can explore, with themes you can use for your own website. You can explore that portfolio here.
For the website and media plan, pricing is typically $55 a month or $660 a year, billed monthly or annually. They do have great sales though, like the 30% off Spring Into Easter Sale. You can also sign up for a 15-day free trial to demo their website builder and other apps.
With a portfolio full of attractive examples, their church-specific features make them a competitive choice. It’s helpful to work with a website builder made specifically for churches – especially one with such a strong customer support program!
This means that you could have them build your website for you – which is ideal for churches who are afraid to DIY or want something more hands-off.
The pricing can be a concern for some churches, which is why we’ve listed it at #5.
Nucleus is a website builder for churches with a module-based approach to creating a website your congregation will want to use.
Nucleus’s focus is on centralizing all parts of your church communication into one easy-to-use website. This avoids the chaotic messaging common on church websites. Their card-based web design helps accomplish this. And makes it easy for you to build up your website with only the features you need now, with plenty of room to grow in the future.
Each module has its own pricing. The Web + Sermons module, which includes the website builder, costs $129 a month or $1,548 a year.
This is the most expensive option on this list, but Nucleus offers other free tools like their Next Steps Launcher and Prayer board. You can also try their products for 30 days for free!
While the priciest option on this list, Nucleus helps churches streamline their websites which can result in way more interactions from your church members.
They offer more church-specific features than you might need, which is good if you grow in the future. They’ve definitely thought out which kind of design works best for churches, and their card-based approach is both attractive and easy to navigate.
You’ll want to be sure you have a solid way to accept donations to make sure your website does everything your church needs.
Here are some things to look for when you choose a website builder for your church.
Ultimately you want to choose the website builder your church can afford in the long term.
Consider your plans – do you think you’ll grow in the future? Will you need a website builder that can scale with you? And will this website builder be able to help you with that growth affordably?
Since nearly 50% of church donations are made with a card, it’s so crucial to have a website builder that lets you easily collect donations online.
The best way to do that is to embed a donation form and have a donate button that stands out.
Donorbox donation forms are easy to embed on most website builders. You can enable recurring giving to bring in more regular donations – and make tithing a breeze for your congregants.
Features like QuickDonate™ and UltraSwift ™ Pay make repeating a one-time donation and checking out a smooth process respectively, which results in more donations overall for your church.
A streamlined donation process results in more donations which can help you do your important work. That’s why it’s so important to keep fundraising in mind as you choose your website builder. Learn more about how Donorbox helps churches in the video here –
Donorbox MinistryMatters - Learn More!
Consider the comfort level of the people who will be using the website builder for your church. Are they familiar with tech, or is this a whole new process?
If they’re less familiar, you’ll want to go with a website builder known for customer service, or even one that has experts to help you get started.
Your church’s website is the online home for your church. It’s where people go to get first impressions, information, and connections. That’s why it’s crucial to build your website to be attractive and easy to use!
Website builders take the hard work out of the process. Any of these 6 website builders would be great for building your church’s first website or revamping an old site. And with Donorbox, the all-in-one online fundraising solution for churches and nonprofit organizations, integrating with most of them, accepting tithes will be easier than ever before.
Donorbox helps thousands of churches collect more donations both online and in person! With sleek online donation forms built for weekly tithing, mobile giving tools like Text-to-Give and QR codes, and even donation kiosks with Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, there’s a secure way to capture donations from every donor’s preferred way of giving. Learn about all our features on the website.
Sign up to start fundraising today.
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Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower