7 Best Website Builders for Churches : Starting a Church Website

Creating a high-quality website for your church shouldn’t take your focus away from growing your church and leading your worship team. You don’t need a million different features to get the point across.

You’re 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.

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.

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.

What is the Best Website Builder for a Church?

1. Wix – Best for simplicity and ease of use
2. Squarespace – Best for aesthetics
3. Sharefaith – Best exclusive church website builder
4. Weebly – Best for budget website building
5. Ministry Designs – Best customer service experience
6. WordPress – Best for church blogs
7. Site123 – Best for simple and basic websites

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’ll find it easier to get your congregation in front of new eyes.

How We Came up with These Choices

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:

• How easy is it to use?
• Are the design elements aesthetically pleasing, flexible, and compatible for this industry?
• How much does it cost?
• Does it come loaded with features for this industry?
• Is there a readily available customer support team to help with issues?
• How satisfied are customers of this website builder?

During our research process, we use these metrics to determine whether or not we would recommend a product to our readers. It’s also important to mention that each review is crafted specifically for the industry.

We’re keeping in mind factors like:

• Church leaders don’t have a lot of spare time to build websites
• Churches don’t typically have a dedicated marketing or IT person
• Churches are running on a limited budget

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.

Continue reading for in-depth and comprehensive reviews of each website builder.

1. Wix – Best for simplicity and ease of use

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.

Wix Pros

• Highly recommended
• Drag-and-drop builder
• Complete creative control

Wix Cons

• Limited customization once template is chosen
• Pricy at scale

Ease of Use: 4.5/5

If you’re trying to find a website builder that is easy to use for simple websites, then Wix is a great choice. You don’t need any tech skills or web design degree to use Wix and create a beautiful website.

The best part is, it’s a great choice for churches because of that exact point. Likely, you’re just trying to create a place for people to land online when they search your church, and Wix will help you do that.

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.

Web Design 4/5

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 “church templates,” the sheer number of customization options make you feel like you have more templates than you do.

Once you get beyond the template you can add features like:

• Contact forms
• Donation areas
• Surveys
• Sermon audio uploads

In the event that you do want to add something that isn’t available on the drag-and-drop builder, you have the option to use Wix Corvid, which grants you the ability to code features into the website.

Features 4.5/5

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’re trying to turn your website into a “lead generator” of sorts, you can easily do that with one of their apps.

Wix SEO Wiz: Ranking is important with your website because you want people to find you easily when they’re looking for a church in your area. Wix helps make that possible.

Customer Service and Support 5/5

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’ll already have an idea of what problem you’re having before you contact them.

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.

Bang for your Buck 4/5

Wix offers four pricing options that you would use for your church website. The pricing goes as followed:

Combo – $13 per month

• 2GB Bandwidth
• 3GB Storage
• Connect Your Domain
• 30 Video Minutes
• Remove Wix Ads
• Free Domain for 1 Year

Unlimited – $17 per month

• Unlimited Bandwidth
• 10GB Storage
• 1 Video Hour
• Free Domain for 1 Year
• $300 Ad Vouchers
• Site Booster App – $60 Value
• Visitor Analytics App – $60 Value

Pro – $22 per month

• Unlimited Bandwidth
• 20GB Storage
• 2 Video Hours
• Free Domain for 1 Year
• Events Calendar – $48 Value
• Professional Logo – $50 Value
• Social Media Logo files

VIP – $39 per month

• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Everything in PRO
• 20GB Storage
• Priority Response
• VIP Support

2. Squarespace – Best for aesthetics

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’s a great alternative if you’re looking for something with a bit more design capabilities.

Squarespace Pros

• Great SEO features
• Easy to integrate with social media
• Beautiful templates

Squarespace Cons

• Challenging to learn
• Does not have an app store (could be a plus for simplicity)

Ease of Use: 3.4/5

Squarespace provides some more advanced features, which is fine if you’re a church leader with a little bit of web design knowledge, but if you’re completely wet behind the ears, you could find this website builder to be too complicated.

Squarespace isn’t 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’ll reap the rewards.

Web Design 4/5

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’re not entirely sure it’s necessary for a church website.

You don’t need anything overly fancy (unless that’s what you want) that’s why we decided to make Squarespace our number two choice.

All of the templates are mobile-optimized, so they’ll look great on the phone, and you can also customize everything down to the fonts and colors, so you’re not stuck with templated color schemes and images.

Features 4/5

Blogs: While Wix also offers blogging we’re 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.

Social Media: It’s important to have a way to integrate your social media into your marketing strategies. With Squarespace, it’s easy to send people back and forth from your website to your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Super SEO: 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’t worry if you don’t know what any of that is because the platform makes it easy.

Customer Service and Support 4.2/5

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.

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.

Bang for your Buck 4/5

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’ll have to choose from one of the following plans:

Personal – $12 per month

• Free custom domain
• Unlimited bandwidth and storage
• SEO features for site visibility

Business – $18 per month

• Free Custom Domain
• Premium Integrations and Blocks
• Professional Email from Google*
• Fully Integrated E-Commerce

Commerce – $26 per month

• Free Custom Domain
• No Commerce Transaction Fees
• Checkout on Your Domain
• Customer Accounts

Advanced Commerce – $40 per month

• Free Custom Domain
• Abandoned Cart Recovery
• Gift Cards
• Sell Subscriptions

As you might be able to tell, the final two options of the pricing section are for ecommerce stores so you wouldn’t have to worry about those. Choosing from one of the first two should do the trick for most church websites.

3. Sharefaith – Best exclusive church website builder

Sharefaith is the first church dedicated platform we’re looking at. They’ve helped over 8,000 ministries create a website, and you’ll have the peace of mind in knowing you’re using an exclusive church platform to create yours.

Sharefaith Pros

• Plenty of templates
• Church tailored features
• Drag-and-drop builder

Sharefaith Cons

• More challenging to use than some others
• More expensive

Ease of Use: 2.8/5

The main disadvantage of going with a smaller and “less popular” website builder is that it’s not as easy to use. While it does have a drag-and-drop builder like the rest, it’s not as intuitive and takes a little more time to learn.

Web Design 4/5

The advantage comes when we talk about the design aspect. Since it’s 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’re trying to reach. The downside is, you have to pay for a premium package to access all of that.

Features 4.2/5

Another upside is that you get unique features that you won’t 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.

Customer Service and Support 4/5

Customer service with Sharefaith looks standard. There’s 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’ll take care of it for you. (at a cost of course)

Bang for your Buck 3.7/5

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.

With that, you get the following:

• Church sites and three subdomains
• Free hosting and lifetime support
• Unlimited template switching (nice!)
• Giving integration
• Lifetime premium support
• Full media membership
• Website migration

4. Weebly – Best for budget website building

Weebly is a great starting point for new church plants, but it’s also a step in the right direction for an established church that’s trying to make a name for itself online.

Weebly Pros

• Great value
• Tons of apps
• Highly flexible and personalized

Weebly Cons

• Cannot restore websites
• Premium plan needed for many apps

Ease of Use:4/5

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’t switch back and forth between edit and preview mode.

Web Design 3.5/5

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.

Features 4.8/5

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.

Memberships: Let’s 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.

Customer Service and Support 3.4/5

Customer service 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.

Bang for your Buck 5/5

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’ll never use is not the answer. Here’s how it works:

• Personal – $6 per month
• Professional – $12 per month
• Performance – $26 per month

All of these features offer 500+ MB of storage, and if you’re not accepting payments on your website, you won’t ever need the performance plan.

5. Ministry Designs – Best customer service experience

Here we have another dedicated church website builder that offers a unique experience, unlike any other.

Ministry Designs Pros

• An exclusive church site builder
• Experienced customer service
• User-friendly

Ministry Designs Cons

• Expensive
• Limited features

Ease of Use: 4.3/5

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.

Web Design 3/5

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.

Features 3/5

We haven’t 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’s 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.

Customer Service and Support 4.5/5

From the second you land on the website, you’re 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.

Bang for your Buck 2.5/5

The pricing of Ministry Design is a little bizarre and downright confusing. It’s 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’ve ever seen.

6. WordPress – Best for church blogs

If you’re focused on creating a church blog, then you’ll 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.

WordPress Pros

• Great blogging tools
• Affordable
• Loaded with extensions and features

WordPress Cons

• Limited for non-blog sites
• A little complicated without experience

Ease of Use: 3.1/5

WordPress is a bit of a challenge if you’ve never used it before. Downloading and installing templates can make you feel like you’re jumping through hoops. There are ways to “pay” your way around it, but if you’re working with a shoestring budget, you might want to avoid that.

Web Design 2.5/5

WordPress offers a ton of amazing templates, but the only downside is that they’re 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, Divi, or Elementor.

Features 4/5

SEO is what makes WordPress tick. It’s a great choice for websites that you’re trying to rank, so if you’re concerned about increasing your visibility online, this will certainly help your church get more visitors.

Customer Service and Support 1.5/5

WordPress offers a great knowledge base that you can use to answer simple questions, but there isn’t a dedicated team to help you via phone, chat, or email, which is a major downside.

Bang for your Buck 4.5/5

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.

• Free plan
• Personal: $48 per year ($4/month)
• Premium: $96 per year ($8/month)
• Business: $300 per year ($25/month)

7. Site123 – Best for simple and basic websites

The name says it all, Site123 makes it simple for anyone to create an easy to use website.

Site123 Pros

• Super quick to build a website
• 24/7 live chat
• Great for simple websites

Site123 Cons

• Highly limited in features
• Basic designs only

Ease of Use: 4/5

When you sign up for Site123, the tool asks you questions about what you’re trying to accomplish with your website, and then it helps build the site for you. This process makes it that much more simple.

Web Design 2.5/5

Since it’s so basic to use, you’re highly limited in the options you can choose from. If you’re looking for a “run-of-the-mill” church website to provide information to new visitors, this would be a good way to go.

Features 2.5/5

This area is where you might fall flat on your face. Site123 doesn’t really offer any features, so you can’t collect donations or include contact forms on your website. As we said, this is a bare-bones offering for a church leader who is just getting off the ground.

Customer Service and Support 4/5

Site123 offers great support through their live chat and knowledge base forum. You get the quickest response from the live chat, so we would recommend choosing that option.

Bang for your Buck 3/5

Pricing is simple yet, seemingly expensive for the lack of options here. Even though you can barely do anything with the builder, the premium option is $12.80 per month. That said, you could likely get by with the free plan until you’re ready to upgrade away from Site123 all together.

Final Thoughts

So, in the end – what’s the best website builder for a church? We would have to stick to our guns and say, Wix. Wix offers the most features, paired with great customer service, and an incredibly easy to use platform that makes it stand out.