5 Best Church Website Builders 2023

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Aside from engaging your current members, building a website with the right platform could be especially beneficial for growing your church’s following. Plus, given the events of the past few years, having an online presence is now more important than ever. 

Even so, you might not have the time or budget to commit all your waking hours to building a website. And that’s okay! Website builders offer a fast and cheap solution – these are online platforms that help you create your very own website, without needing any tech skills.

5 Best Church Website Builders

  1. Wix Best overall church website builder
  2. Squarespace Best for beautifully designed church websites
  3. GoDaddy Best for creating a church website quickly
  4. Weebly Best for building a church website on a budget
  5. Jimdo Best for creating a simple church website

Compare the 5 Best Church Website Builders

The table below shows the key features, so you can choose the best website builder for your needs. You can use the arrow at the top of the chart to bring in other platforms to compare. We’ve started you off with the top three: Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy.

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Wix

Squarespace

GoDaddy

Weebly

Jimdo

Overall Rating
Our overall ratings are based on the average score of all ratings combined.
4.8
Overall Rating
Our overall ratings are based on the average score of all ratings combined.
4.7
Overall Rating
Our overall ratings are based on the average score of all ratings combined.
4.4
Overall Rating
Our overall ratings are based on the average score of all ratings combined.
4.0
Overall Rating
Our overall ratings are based on the average score of all ratings combined.
3.6
Free Plan or Free Trial

Free plan

Free Plan or Free Trial

14-day free trial

Free Plan or Free Trial

Free plan

Free Plan or Free Trial

Free plan

Free Plan or Free Trial

Free plan

Starting from

$16

Starting from

$16

Starting from

$6.99

Starting from

$6

Starting from

$9

Accept Donations

With an app

Accept Donations

Built-in paid upgrade

Accept Donations

Via PayPal

Accept Donations

With an app

Accept Donations

Built-in paid upgrade

Event Bookings and Scheduling

With an app

Event Bookings and Scheduling

Built-in paid upgrade

Event Bookings and Scheduling

Basic Calendar

Event Bookings and Scheduling

With an app

Event Bookings and Scheduling

Embed Google calendar

Ease of Use
4.4
Ease of Use
4.0
Ease of Use
4.1
Ease of Use
3.4
Ease of Use
3.4
Design Flexibility
4.4
Design Flexibility
4.7
Design Flexibility
4.3
Design Flexibility
2.5
Design Flexibility
3.1

We’re pretty proud of our research process, because not many sites can say they’ve carried out such in-depth testing before making recommendations. Here’s how our in-house research team go about finding the best website builders on the market.

Every single builder goes through our thorough research process. We investigate important areas such as:

  • Ease of use
  • Design flexibility
  • Value for money
  • Feature quality
  • Help and support
  • Customer satisfaction

This helps us rate and compare the builders fairly, focusing on important factors that users have told us matter most.

We even get groups of everyday people to test the builders out and give us feedback, which we then analyze. This helps us:

  • understand exactly how easy (or difficult) beginners find the builder
  • uncover any issues within the builder
  • judge customer satisfaction

We’ve applied this process to over 50 website builders so far – all so we can bring you the most accurate results and recommendations!

For this article, we’ve particularly focused on certain criteria that we think are especially important for anyone building a church website, such as ease of use. Additionally, we’ve kept an eye out for relevant features such as a donation function, event bookings, and scheduling.

Still got questions? Read our report on How We Conduct Our Website Builder Research for a more detailed explanation.

We wanted to separate the good from the bad, and discard the downright ugly altogether. That’s why we carefully carried out in-depth research, testing, analyzing, and comparing our results until we could confidently say that these are the best church website builders on the market.

This article will compare these church website builders, pin down exactly what each of them is best for, explore their features and prices, and more. To do this, we’ve particularly focused on elements that we think are especially important for church websites, such as ease of use, the ability to accept donations, event bookings, and scheduling.

In short, we’ll help you decide once and for all which builder is the best choice for your church.

#1. Wix

Best overall church website builder

Wix came top of the class in our research, combining ease of use with professional features and stunning designs – and most importantly, it’s super easy to use. Check out its rating below!

Editor's Choice

Wix

Best overall church website builder

Outstanding

4.8

out of 5
  • Easiest to use
  • Quality features
  • 800+ templates

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $16 - $159 / month

Pros

  • Most popular in user testing
  • 12 church-specific templates available
  • Extensive support knowledge base

Cons

  • Can’t change template once site is live
  • Less storage space than other options
  • Most expensive starter plan
Read Review

Wix Overview

Wix is a popular website builder with amateurs, businesses, and even celebrities – and it’s a firm favorite of ours, too! In fact, it’s our highest-rated website builder, achieving a score of 4.8 out of 5 in our testing overall. It’s a drag-and-drop website builder, meaning it couldn’t be easier to use – you simply drag elements like pictures, text boxes, and videos to wherever you want them on your page. Here’s a bit more info about Wix’s drag-and-drop editor.

Wix isn’t a specialized church website builder, but it does have specific church and non-profit templates for you to choose from. You can add donation buttons, contact, and events pages, share blog posts, and even post sermons on your site.

Wix Pricing

Wix has a free plan, but to use your own domain name, you’ll need to upgrade to one of Wix’s four paid plans. The cheapest is the $16 per month Light plan, but for better resources, we recommend the $27 per month Core plan – this is still affordable for most and will allow more traffic to your site.

Unfortunately, value for money is the one area where Wix falls down in comparison to its competitors. Although its prices aren’t through the roof, they are still more expensive than others. But since the pricing updates, Squarespace’s entry plan now costs $16 per month too, which is the same as Wix.

Still, Wix didn’t perform so well in this category, earning a score of 3.4 out of 5 in our research. However, there is a silver lining! Wix may be more expensive than other builders, but it has an ace up its sleeve – Wix achieved the best feature score out of all the website builders we tested. This is great news if you want to build a church website that has the power to do lots – those extra features could be instrumental in the way your congregation experiences your church.

logo-wix-100x100

Want to Use the Best Overall Church Website Builder?

Wix came top of the class in this category, and for good reason! Try it out for free today and see for yourself.

Further Information

  • Does Wix sound like the ideal match for your church’s needs? Find out more in our detailed Wix Review
  • Discover which plan is right for you in our in-depth Wix Pricing

#2. Squarespace

Best for beautifully designed church websites

Squarespace can’t be beaten for its stunning designs. But it’s not just a pretty face – take a look below to see how it scored in our testing.

Squarespace

Best for beautiful designs

Excellent

4.7

out of 5
  • Best template designs
  • Best quality features
  • Not as easy as Wix

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $16 - $49 / month

Pros

  • Most beautiful template designs
  • Quality events booking features
  • Restore deleted posts for up to 30 days

Cons

  • Slower site speed
  • Offers fewer apps than Wix
  • Doesn’t autosave your work
Read Review

Squarespace Overview

With its high score of 4.7 out of 5 in our design category, Squarespace wows its users with its high-quality, sophisticated template designs. If you have large images or want a truly professional-looking site, Squarespace is your top choice.

It’s not quite as beginner-friendly as Wix, but that doesn’t mean it’s difficult. In fact, in recent years, Squarespace has become easier than ever due to improvements to its user experience (UX) and a more streamlined editor. These changes have seen its ease of use score increase by 14.6%, and it now stands at 4 out of 5.

In terms of design, Squarespace doesn’t have specific church website templates. Instead, browse through the “Community and Non-Profit” templates to find your perfect match – we particularly recommend the Clarkson template!

Squarespace has amazingly high-quality features, all of which are already built-in. For example, with the Clarkson theme, you’ll find donation, mission, and volunteering pages automatically included.

No matter which theme you choose, you can be confident you’ll end up with a professional, sleek, and powerful site to engage your visitors.

Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace provides good value for money and is an ideal second choice if Wix is a little outside of your budget. Its cheapest plan costs $16 per month, but we’d recommend choosing the $23 per month Business plan, as this lets you accept donations through your website.

squarespace logo

Want to Build a Beautiful Website?

Squarespace is definitely your answer. It has the best designs on the block!

Further Information

#3. GoDaddy

Best for creating a church website quickly

GoDaddy is an easy-to-use builder that’s perfect for getting you online quickly, without sacrificing quality or professionalism. Take a look at how we’ve rated it below!

GoDaddy

Best for creating a website quickly

Excellent

4.4

out of 5
  • Hands-off ADI building
  • Speedy setup
  • Good for basic sites

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $2.99 - $469.99 / month

Pros

  • Quickest way to build a website
  • Good if you're not tech confident
  • Good marketing tools

Cons

  • Limited creative control
  • Websites can look similar
  • No advanced SEO tools on cheaper plans
Read Review

GoDaddy Overview

If you want to build a professional-looking website and get online quickly, GoDaddy is an excellent choice. Thanks to its Artifical Design Intelligence (ADI) builder, you’ll be set up in no time. All you need to do is answer a few questions and hey, presto! You’ll have a ready-made website.

Speedy, easy-to-use, and stylish, our research endorses GoDaddy’s performance. Overall, we awarded it a score of 4.4 out of 5, which is an 11.6% increase on its pre-2021 score. This improvement has catapulted it into our top three favorite website builders, making it a serious contender for building your church’s website.

So, why do we like it so much? Well, there are a few reasons, not least of which is that its designs are surprisingly modern, especially considering that GoDaddy chooses your template for you based on a few questions! Although not quite as stunning as Squarespace’s, the simple, clean layouts lend themselves well to GoDaddy’s ADI functionality, and there’s still plenty of room for you to make your own changes.

This is a triumph for GoDaddy, given that this builder used to be pretty underwhelming in this department. The strides it’s made to change this have resulted in a design score of 4.3 out of 5, which is a 14% increase from its old score.

Of course, there are still areas for improvement, and it’s hard to ignore that GoDaddy’s customizability isn’t as good as Wix or Squarespace’s. The templates are more restrictive, and the drag-and-drop freedom is limited. However, you can easily add new sections, such as a donation box, calendar, or contact form, with just a few clicks.

GoDaddy Pricing

In terms of value for money, our research scored GoDaddy 4.3 out of 5 for its affordability. It offers four plans, the cheapest of which costs $6.99/month. It also offers a free plan, too, which is ideal if you need to keep your costs low, or you want to take GoDaddy out for a spin before you fully commit.

However, we wouldn’t recommend staying on the free plan forever. You won’t be able to use a custom domain, and your website will display GoDaddy branding at the top of your homepage. The point of your website is to attract people to your church, so you want it to look as professional as possible. Adverts and a GoDaddy subdomain don’t exactly help with this!

As a result, we recommend upgrading to the $13.99 Premium Plan. You’ll get increased SEO tools and the ability to connect a custom domain. Even better, those pesky ads will disappear, too!

godaddy logo

Like the Sound of Getting Online Quickly?

GoDaddy’s ADI builder is one of the speediest ways to build a church website without compromising on design. Give it a go free today!

Further Information

#4. Weebly

Best for building a church website on a budget

Weebly is a drag-and-drop builder that’s ideal for building a simple, straightforward website. Its strength lies in its unbeatable affordability, but check out its full rating below to see the full picture.

Weebly

Best for building on a budget

Very Good

4

out of 5
  • Cheap plans
  • Simple editor
  • Dated designs

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $10 - $29 / month

Pros

  • Features that grow with you over time
  • Budget-friendly price plans
  • Larger app store than Squarespace

Cons

  • No church-specific templates
  • Less creative freedom than Wix
  • Lower design quality than Squarespace
Read Review

Weebly Overview

With an overall rating of 4 out of 5, Weebly is perfect if you want to build a basic, no-nonsense church website.  Rather than an ADI builder like GoDaddy, Weebly follows the traditional drag-and-drop format, à la Wix and Squarespace. The process is pretty simple, although some parts can feel a bit clunky!

Unfortunately, though, Weebly’s designs are disappointing. Although still clean and minimalist, its templates feel outdated compared to the likes of Squarespace, and customization is limited. You can’t just drag them anywhere like you can with Wix. Instead, you’re forced to work within the structure of the theme you’ve chosen, which can be frustrating.

Finding your perfect theme might be tricky, too,  as there’s no search feature and no community or non-profit website template category to narrow down your options.

Plus, because there are no tailored templates, you also don’t get tailored features – you’ll need to pick your theme carefully to get built-in donation pages, for example. Luckily, you can preview your theme before committing, and change your theme even after publishing your site.

For these reasons, Weebly scored a disappointing 2.5 out of 5 in our design category.  However, it’s not all bad. If design is your worst nightmare, Weebly could be perfect for you. The lack of creative control will come as a pleasant relief, and if you’re of the opinion that looks aren’t everything, we’re sure you’ll be able to find something amongst Weebly’s small collection of templates to suit your taste!

Weebly Pricing

Weebly’s undeniable strength is its affordability and value for money. In our research, it was the only builder to score a perfect 5 out of 5 in this category.

It has a free plan and three paid plans, ranging from $6 to $26 per month. We don’t recommend sticking on the free plan for too long – it has limited features, doesn’t let you connect a custom domain, and displays adverts on your site.

For a professional website for your church, you need a paid plan.

We recommend the $12 per month Professional plan because it’s the cheapest plan to remove adverts from your website, which is essential for getting taken seriously online. You also unlock features such as a free domain and unlimited storage, which is ideal for uploading media such as sermon recordings or community videos.

The reason we don’t recommend the $6 per month Personal plan is because it displays adverts on your site and comes with limited storage space, like the free plan. The Professional plan gives you a much better chance of building a trustworthy and memorable website for your church.

weebly_ecom_logo

Looking For The Best Value Church Website Builder?

Weebly scored top marks in this section, so you can be sure you’re getting a good bang for your buck! Get started today for free, or upgrade to the $12 per month Professional plan.

Further Information

  • Read our full Weebly Review to find out more about this builder’s features, templates, and more
  • Do Weebly’s prices sound too good to be true? Read our Weebly Pricing Review for more information

#5. Jimdo

Best for creating a simple church website

Jimdo is a basic church website builder that’s best for creating simple websites, rather than anything complex or flashy. Continue reading to find out about its strengths and weaknesses.

Jimdo

Best for creating a simple website

Good

3.6

out of 5
  • ADI Builder
  • Poor help and support
  • Lags behind competitors

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $9 - $24 / month

Pros

  • Extremely affordable plans
  • Very hard to make a design mistake
  • Quick way to build a website

Cons

  • Only has email support
  • Less features on offer
  • No built-in marketing functions
Read Review

Jimdo Overview

Jimdo made our list of the best church website builders because of its simple approach to website building and relatively low starting prices. Like GoDaddy, Jimdo is an ADI builder that’s ideal if you’re short on time or design experience.  If you choose this platform, you’ll be able to set up a quality website in an afternoon.

That said, it only received a customer score of 3.4 out of 5, and you may have noticed that it ranks last on this list. That’s because, although it has everything you need to create an attractive website with minimum effort, it’s lacking on the feature front.

It comes with all the basics, such as good SEO tools and built-in social media feeds – it even has a logo maker. However, there are some big things missing. For example, Jimdo doesn’t come with an app store, has limited marketing capabilities, and doesn’t support a blog, either. In fact, compared to Wix, Jimdo’s features score of 1.9 out of 5 is 61% worse off.

Additionally, Jimdo’s templates are extremely structured – in other words, you have less freedom to drag-and-drop elements around than you would with, say, Wix. The upside of this is that the rigid templates mean it’s super hard to make a design mistake, but on the flip side, it’s pretty difficult to ensure your church’s unique identity shines through.

Jimdo Pricing

Like Weebly, Jimdo’s strongest area is the cost of its plans. In our value for money category, it scored 4.8 out of 5, putting it in the top five builders in this area. This is due to the fact that not only does Jimdo offer a free plan, but it also has two very affordable paid plans, starting from $9 per month.

When it comes to choosing your plan, Jimdo’s free plan is a good tool to get started with. But it only offers 500 MB of storage, so you’ll likely outgrow it pretty quickly.

If you decide to upgrade to a paid Jimdo plan, we recommend the $9 per month Start plan. It’s a really good starting price, and comes with a custom domain and the removal of ads, plus a decent amount of storage (5 GB).

logo-jimdo-100x100

Like the Sound of Jimdo?

Jimdo is ideal for getting online quickly and cheaply. You can get started today from just $9 per month.

Further Information

Are There Any Other Church Website Builders?

The five builders we’ve discussed here are the best church website builders – they stand out for their ease of use, top design quality, and powerful value for money.

That said, they’re not the only church website builders out there, and it’s always worth giving every option a look before making your final choice. So with that in mind, here are a few more platforms that didn’t quite make the top five.

1. Sharefaith

Starting price: $50 per month

Sharefaith homepage inviting visitors to sign up
Sharefaith has plenty of church-specific features, but its prices are higher than most.

Sharefaith is a church-specific platform with built-in features, including sections to upload and share sermons. Amongst its many other services, Sharefaith boasts its own church website builder, which has helped over 8,000 ministries create their own websites – that’s pretty impressive!

You have the advantage of knowing all Sharefaith’s themes will be suitable for a church website – it’s just a case of picking one that suits your church and congregation. The designs are pleasing and stylish enough, but can’t challenge Squarespace in terms of design.

The downside of Sharefaith is its pricing. To build a website you’ll need its “Web + Media” package, which costs $50 per month (billed annually). This includes free hosting, template switching, and a giving and donations platform – all of which you can get with Squarespace or Weebly for a fraction of the price.


2. Ministry Designs

Starting price: $1,000 activation fee, plus $20 per month

Ministry Designs homepage with buttons to direct visitors to its resources
The Ministry Designs team prides itself on its background in church ministry.

Every member of the team at Ministry Designs has a background in church ministry, meaning you get a very tailored service geared towards your specific needs. But what about the tech side of its product?

Ministry Designs’ features are pretty standard. They include blogging tools, podcasts, and video backgrounds. Its templates are appealing, if not totally cutting edge in terms of design. All-in-all, there’s nothing to write home about, but lots of helpful features to get you started.

Before signing up, make sure you’re happy making an investment – Ministry Designs is only a viable option if you have $1,020 ready to pay upfront. You pay $1,000 as a one-time fee, then $20 per month for hosting. This does mean you’re not locked into a contract, but this pricing is pretty steep compared to other builders.


3. Nucleus

Starting price: $99 per month

Nucleus homepage featuring the company's purpose and mission: to be the central hub for your church
Nucleus provides you with an online place to manage your church.

Nucleus promises to be an all-in-one central hub for your church, inspiring action from your followers. Its mission revolves around “Next Steps” to keep new and existing members engaged and active with your church.

While building a central hub may sound complicated, Nucleus makes it easy for everyone with its drag-and-drop design tools and app integrations.

However, all this convenience comes at a price – for the whole package, you’ll need a spare $199 per month. The website builder on its own costs $99 per month, so we definitely recommend making use of Nucleus’ 30-day free trial first!

Best Church Website Builders: Summary

By now, you should know which of these five builders is the rock you’ll build your church website upon. 

We’ve looked at features, designs, pricing, and ease of use for each builder to give you the best idea of which one is right for your church. In case you’re suffering from information overload, here’s a quick refresher.

5 Best Church Website Builders

  1. Wix Best overall church website builder
  2. Squarespace Best for beautifully designed church websites
  3. GoDaddy Best for creating a church website quickly
  4. Weebly Best for building a church website on a budget
  5. Jimdo Best for creating a simple church website

Whether you’re as comfortable with technology as you are with Sunday sermons, or prefer unpacking the complexities of the Bible rather than the mysteries of coding, we’ve found the best builders for the job.

Wix tops our list as the best all-around church builder, thanks to the fact that not only does it have everything you could need, it’s easy to use, too. If design is your top priority, however, we’d suggest checking out Squarespace for beautiful templates and high-quality features. Saying this, we know that not everyone has the time to sit down and find their way around a busy website builder, so in that case, we recommend GoDaddy for getting online quickly.

Best Church Website builders: FAQs

Ultimately, it depends on the needs of your church, but we think Wix is the best website builder for churches overall. It’s user-friendly, easy to set up, and it’s a great all-around solution. Anything your church website needs? Wix can handle it!
You can get your church website started for free with Wix or Weebly since they both offer free plans! However, your website will include ads and you won’t be able to have a custom domain name, so we’d recommend upgrading to a paid plan as soon as possible for a more professional appearance.
Wix, hands down! It aced the ease of use round in our testing, proving itself to be both extremely beginner-friendly and customizable. This is great, as it means you don’t have to compromise on quality just because you can’t code! GoDaddy is also a fantastic choice for ease of use if you want a builder that creates the website for you.
Both Wix and Weebly have free plans, so you can start building your church website without parting with a single cent. We always recommend upgrading to a paid plan for a more professional site – Squarespace and Wix have the cheapest ad-free starting price at $16 per month.
This really depends on your needs – if you value design, for example, Squarespace is better than Sharefaith. If you want very specific help and support, then Ministry Designs or Nucleus will be better than Wix or Weebly.
It’s best to keep your domain name short, relevant, and easy to remember! Try to make your domain as close as possible to the actual name of your church – for example, Spires Church might have a website called www.spireschurch.com.
No! Hosting is included in all of the website builders included in our list (except for Ministry Designs), so you don’t need to worry about finding your own hosting or paying extra for it. You can just build your site, sit back, and relax, knowing that’s all being handled for you.
That’s entirely up to you! However, there are a few things we’d recommend including to attract new members. For example, it’s important to make sure you list where your church is located, as well as the name of the pastor. It can also be useful to share a brief history of your church, and the values that are important to you. Additionally, make sure visitors can find your contact information, too.

Other than this, you can decide what other pages you add in. You might want a dedicated area of the website to upload your sermons, or perhaps you’d like a page just for donations. It’s a good idea to write down everything you want to include before you start building.

Written by:

I’m the Content Manager here at Website Builder Expert, which means I read and edit nearly all the content we publish, and work with our wonderful writers and researchers to bring you the best possible advice for achieving your online goals. Over the past five years I’ve built demo websites using all the website builders we review, so I have the experience and expertise to help you out. You’ve got the experts on your side – I’m here to help you reach your online goals, and enjoy the process too!

Researched by:
natasha_willett

I love to understand human behavior and the cognitive biases that drive us to do what we do. For over nine years I have worked as a mixed method researcher – research using a mix of numerical data and personal experiences – across a range of sectors, from insurance and policy development to finally arriving at Website Builder Expert five years ago. Fascinated by consumer decision-making, I meticulously built our leading ranking methodology to explore where providers like Wix sit within a competitive industry and what value they truly bring to our audience.
As a member of the Market Research Society, I’m an advocate for high ethical, commercial, and methodological best practices. All of this combines to give you the most ethical recommendations based on real data.

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