https://ift.tt/qOcHGMu
10 Best Church Website Builders in 2022 https://ift.tt/tbgQTSU It’s no news that every church needs a website to increase its reach and keep members engaged in church activities. However, building a church website by yourself can seem challenging if you lack programming knowledge, and hiring good web developers or designers can be expensive. Luckily, you no longer need to be techy to build a church website of your own. With the right tools, you’ll find that this process can be not only rewarding but also fun, too. That’s why in this article, we’ve decided to gather the best church website builders and reviewed them to help you pick the one that’ll suit you best. Table Of Contents Choosing a church website builderTo choose a builder for your church, there are some factors you need to consider: Your audienceYou need to know your core purpose for building a website. Is it to attract new members? To create an online community where members can engage in church activities such as prayer, service, or donations? To sell event tickets? Knowing the purpose of your church’s site helps you identify the features you should look for in a builder. For example, if you mostly plan to feature church activities, you will need to make it easy for members to download existing sermons and live stream programs. On the other hand, if you want a church website that is specifically designed for selling merchandise and event tickets, you will need to have a store. Regardless of the goal for your website, there are some key features you should include:
Ease of useA church website builder should make your life easier, not harder. Therefore, it’s important to pick a website builder that is easy to navigate and has ample resources on how to use it effectively. You’ll also want to check if the tool you’re considering offers a variety of well-designed website templates for churches. These will help you get set up much faster, especially if the design isn’t really your thing. Content managementAs a church, you may want to upload sermons, receive prayer requests and donations, and even conduct live streams on your website to make it easier for your members to engage virtually in your church community. You may also want a place where volunteers or administrators can access additional functions. If this is you, pick a website builder that has a solid content management solution that can achieve all of these with ease. Budget and pricingWhen budgeting for your church website, you should examine whether the website builders you are considering provide the features you want for your dream website. You’ll also want to determine if the plans offered by the website builder incur additional charges for extra features. The most important features to look out for are:
SEO-friendlyHaving a website only gets you so far — it also needs to show up in search results. Pick a church website builder that makes it easy for you to optimize for search so people looking for churches within your location(s) can find you. Mobile-friendlySince most web surfing happens on mobile devices, make sure the website builder supports responsive design, which helps your website adapt to different screen sizes. SupportTo ensure that you can deal with unforeseen issues, pick a church website builder with great customer support. Check their reviews online to see what others say about their support team. You can even reach out to them to see how they respond firsthand. Did you know? GetResponse has just recently won a Bronze Stevie Award for their Sales & Customer Service – available to all our customers, 24/7. Here are the 10 top website builders for churches
1. GetResponse Free Church Website BuilderThe GetResponse Free Website Builder is a hassle-free and cost-effective web builder for businesses and NGOs. Our AI-powered wizard helps you create a unique and beautiful website by asking you simple questions like “What kind of website do you want to build?” and “What type of business do you have?” Based on your answers, the AI builder will recommend features that you can use to start building your website. If you want to add additional features, the website builder has a custom code block feature that lets you add external buttons or scripts. With these buttons, your website can synchronize with services like Paypal and Donorbox to easily collect donations through your website. This will also reduce your church’s dependency on the physical collection of funds from your congregation, which is slow and time-consuming. GetResponse is equipped with everything you need to set up your website and promote it too. You can build your email list, set up email campaigns, run paid ads, launch web push notifications, run webinars, and more all in one place without having to juggle multiple tools. In a nutshell, if you know your main goal for your website is to reach new people and encourage them to visit your church, GetResponse is the best option for you. Pros
Cons
PricingGetResponse has four pricing plans tailored to fit all church sizes and budgets. They include:
Pro tip: GetResponse also offers a 50% discount for NGOs. 2. WordPress.orgWordPress.org is a completely free, open-source software, which means you can modify your church website as much as you like. Since WordPress.org is self-hosted, you own all the rights to the website you create and the data generated within it. You are not limited by terms and conditions, nor do you risk breaking any web rules, which can lead to your website being suspended. For example, website builders like Weebly don’t allow any SEO practice aimed at improving Google rankings. This popular website builder has hundreds of church templates and thousands of plugins and extensions that can expand your website’s functionality. You can add elegant themes through a drag-and-drop editor like Divi. You can track your website stats with plugins like JetPack or perform advanced SEO edits with plugins like Yoast. You can upload sermons, host live webinars, accept donations — the options are endless. The main downside? Most of these plugins and templates aren’t free. Also, because WordPress offers so much customization, creating your church’s site can be intimidating. Once you’re through the building stage, though, everything from content creation and management to uploading media becomes a breeze. Be careful: WordPress.org is often mistaken for WordPress.com, which is a hosting service created by Automattic. These are two completely separate services. Pros
Cons
PricingWordPress is free to download and install. However, you’d have to buy your hosting and domain from another service like Bluehost, HostGator, or Hostinger for your WordPress website to go live. Also, while good plugins and templates are available, they usually come at a price. 3. SharefaithSharefaith offers a website builder created specifically for churches. With this builder, you won’t need to sift through tons of irrelevant templates, such as those for blogs or businesses. Everything from the plugins to the buttons and themes are all specifically for churches. Sharefaith has an intuitive interface for adding media, links, and other features to your website. You don’t need to be a web design guru to use it, nor do you need in-depth coding knowledge to get started. Everything you need to design your website is broken down into six main tabs: App, Content, Design, Settings, Updates, and Help. The Content tab, for instance, lets you create and manage pages and blog posts, while the Settings tab allows you to set up your website name and configure your sermon settings. Sharefaith uses a drag-and-drop editor, thereby allowing you to take maximum control over how your church website will look. Once you are done building your website, they will provide you with a web hosting panel that you can use to add a domain, integrate staff accounts, and manage access. Pros
Cons
PricingSharefaith has six membership plans, three of which include a website:
4. NucleusNucleus solely exists for building church websites. It is especially useful if you need to get a website up and running quickly and with minimal hassle. To build a website through Nucleus, you simply click on the template you want and all the pages you need are automatically generated. With this feature, you can create your website in just minutes without breaking a sweat. Nucleus is also a great choice if you want to store and manage the information gathered from your website in one central hub. It integrates with notable software like Planning Center and Mailchimp to keep track of interactions with group sign-up or event forms. The Nucleus interface is one of the simplest out there, employing a card system where users add pages in block styles. For example, if you want to add a prayer page or donation segment, you would go to the Cards tab. From there, you can add page fields and elements like headings, paragraphs, and text boxes that will enable site visitors to fill in their prayer requests or make a donation. Once you’ve designed the pages through the back-end of the website builder, you can preview how it will look to the public before publishing the website. Pros
Cons
PricingNucleus pricing plans include:
5. SquarespaceSquarespace is a popular website builder that can be used to create various websites. While it is not specifically for churches, it has everything you need to create a church website — from G Suite to PayPal and even built-in SEO tools. This builder has a slightly complicated design, so if you prioritize speed in website building, this might not be the right choice for you. However, the block editor tab is similar to the one used by WordPress, so if you’re familiar with that interface, you should have no problem using it. Squarespace also provides a generous inventory of fonts and color palettes. You can further customize your church’s website by adjusting the spaces between your content, such as headers and descriptions, to give your site an organized look. Pros
Cons
PricingSquarespace has four pricing plans:
6. Tithe.lyTithe.ly’s website builder is an ideal match for churches looking to share real-time clips or livestreams of their sermons. Viewers can also watch past streams on the website or tune in to live chats to catch up on church events. More importantly, Tithe.ly sites synchronize with their Giving app to help church members make donations in seconds. This app is a separate tool that tracks and manages financial information about your church. Tithe.ly also offers data protection through experienced system admins, who monitor and detect unusual activities within the server. These activities are then remedied with periodic updates to ensure you don’t experience any data loss. Pros
Cons
PricingTithe.ly’s has two subscription plans that include a website:
7. Clover SitesClover Sites has a beginner-friendly interface for building a church website. The interface guides you through every step of your site creation. Once you choose to set up your site information, such as the website name, there’s a “Next Step” button that shows you the elements you can add to your site. You can choose to add media content, forms, or links to external websites, and so on. Once you make your selection, you can drag and drop the element onto your website. You can also edit the theme colors and fonts to create an original look. Unlike other website builders, the Clover Sites dashboard offers Easy and Advanced tabs that offer two different methods for creating and editing your website. The Easy tab limits what you can edit to only the essentials so that beginners are not confused and have a clear sense of what they’re doing. Pros
Cons
PricingThe pricing plans for Clover Sites include:
8. Ekklesia360Ekklesia360 is suitable for churches that want to gather and monitor insights on their church members. It is equipped with church management software that lets you track information such as attendance and donations. Similar to other church website builders, Ekklesia360 offers a wide collection of templates to choose from. These templates have already been designed with pages containing the information you’d like to manage and share (staff, events, sermons, etc.). All that’s left for you to do is choose a specific page or section you want to add to your church’s site. At first glance, the editor for this web builder can be intimidating. If you look through their tutorials, you’ll come across terms like “monklet” and “anchor page navigation”. While they do offer detailed setup guides using their templates and features, this may still be overwhelming. To remedy this, Ekklesia360 provides an “Easy Edit” option. When you click on it, you can make changes to your site by navigating through the front end and clicking on the elements you want to change. They also offer a demo version that you can use to practice building your church’s site for 30 days to see if this builder is right for you. Pros
Cons
PricingTo build a custom website with Ekklesia, you must subscribe to one of the following plans:
9. WixLike most other website builders, Wix adopts a drag-and-drop style for adding elements to websites. This makes it user-friendly for both large and small businesses who need to create their website without the stress of dealing with a confusing interface. Wix offers many templates to choose from, which you can then personalize to make your church website stand out from the rest. You can add eye-catching backgrounds, customize the colors and fonts, and configure the widths and sizes of all the elements you add to your website. You can edit your site images directly through Wix, including adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation. Additionally, you can create custom logos to give your church website a more professional look and even set up favicons for your website URL. Wix does offer free hosting, but it comes with watermarks and Wix branding. For example, you’ll have a notice at the top of your site that declares “This site was designed with Wix.com…” Similarly, they offer a free domain, but the URL will include a Wix tag (e.g., https://ift.tt/ywv7Aif). If you prefer, you can purchase a custom website domain (e.g., https://ift.tt/wcS2yR9) either through Wix or through another service. However, to connect to that domain, you’ll need to upgrade to one of their paid plans. Pros
Cons
PricingWix has four plans for website building and management:
10. WeeblyWeebly is one of the most affordable website builders out there. Its pricing plans are suitable for all kinds of churches and church websites, so you are sure to find one that fits your needs. Although Weebly is not exclusively for building church websites, it’s rich in features that can help you create one with ease. An example is its ecommerce support feature that lets you accept donations from your congregation. There’s also an app library where you can drag and drop media players into your website to share audio and video from your sermons. While the features are good, the templates are not as flexible as Wix’s. You can’t drag and drop elements like media or buttons anywhere you want them to go — there are specific positions where you’re allowed to place them. If you try to drop them outside those areas, the website builder will automatically return them to the supported positions. This is fair if you’re not looking for a complex design, but if you want to unleash your creativity on your church website, you might be disappointed. Pros
Cons
PricingWeebly has free plans, which you can use to set up your church website. However, the free plan is limited. In order to access premium features, you’ll need to select one of their paid plans:
Church website builder FAQs:How much does it cost to build a church website?The cost of building a church website depends on :
How do I start a free church website?GetResponse, Wix, and Weebly all offer free domain plans to help you get your website up and running. However, these plans can sometimes be limited. For example, both Wix and Weebly place ads directly on your website. To remove them, you’d need to subscribe to their paid plans. If you are on a serious budget but need more functionality, consider using a free web builder like WordPress.org, and then go through an affordable hosting service such as Bluehost, Hostgator, or Namecheap. ConclusionBy comparing the features and prices of the web builders we’ve shared here, you can find the best church website builder for you. However, publishing your website is just the first step — you’ll also need to promote it so that new and existing members can find and use it. To achieve that, you need to optimize it locally. When someone wants to attend a virtual church service or find a church near their location, they either ask friends or search on Google. Optimizing your website helps potential new members find your church, giving you a leg up against other churches in your area There are several steps you can take to improve your local SEO:
Want to learn more about Local SEO? Here are some more tips for SEO success. And if you’re ready to build your church website today, why not try GetResponse? Get started right away or watch this video tutorial first. Printing via GetResponse Blog https://ift.tt/lD7RiEb September 30, 2022 at 08:21AM
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
April 2023
|