5 Top Church Website Companies
Written by Lauren Hunter // March 28, 2012 // Church Websites // 19 Comments
Every church needs a website. This is just a fact of today’s society–the sooner you face that fact, the better. Many people visit a church’s website before they ever even step foot in the door. That’s why having a simple yet functional church website is necessary. Below is a round up of some of the top church website companies out there who serve the faith-based market (not in any specific order):
Elexio Amp Vibe Website
Clover Website
3- Clover Sites - Simple, clean, streamlined and professional websites for churches. Clover has created their own custom church management system (CMS) that is simple for churches to build and design their own sites with ease. [Full disclosure: Clover is a CTT site sponsor]
4-Bridge Element – Awesome websites for growing churches and ministries. Bridge Element has their own custom CMS as well that enables churches to edit, update, change, and control their sites from the backend. Many features for churches of every size – all for $500 setup and $20 per month.
5-Faith Network – Faith Network offers a comprehensive CMS system that includes the management of podcasts, custom designs, social media, blogs, email, calendaring, mobile sites, online donations and newsletters.
There are many other church website companies out there – these are just a few of the most visible church website companies on Google. If you’d like to add a church website company to the list, please leave a comment below and tell us why they’re a great company to work with and what you love about their CMS. Thanks!
19 Comments on "5 Top Church Website Companies"
Thanks for starting this list, there are so many companies out there that provide church websites now, I’d mention 3 more that are also very visible, like http://www.ekklesia360.com/ , http://www.churchcommunitybuilder.com/ and http://www.faithhighway.com/ . For a more comprehensive listing, also see the search engine at greatchurchwebsites.org -> http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/web_content_management_systems_vendor_directory.php
Thanks for your comment! Just to clarify, Church Community Builder is not church website software, but church management software (ChMS) – they sponsor this site. They do integrate their system nicely with some of the church website companies out there by providing a point of entry that is seamless with a church’s website.
Thanks for throwing in the others! Many blessings!
Lauren
I did much research also, and looked at 3 of the companies you listed. I chose FaithConnector (http://www.faithconnector.com) and have been extremely happy. Their pricing is affordable for a small church with a small budget, their customer service is outstanding, and their platform easy to learn and use. Highly recommended!
I agree with Cathy. You cannot do much of a search for church website builders and not feel compelled to evaluate the Faith Connector product. They seem have a very complete (not a partial) product.
As the Communication Manager of Web/Digital Media at Wheaton Bible Church in West Chicago, IL (www.wheatonbible.org & http://www.iglesiadelpueblo.net), I did SOOOOOOOO much research last year as to which church CMS was the best, and I looked at all the big ones, including all 3 you listed here, but the far and AWAY winner is iMinistries (www.iministries.org).
iMinistries has the MOST POWERFUL CMS I’ve seen from a christian organization (I believe it is comparable with WordPress & other large CMS platforms), and they’re a great organization to work with. They even have a Church Management System built in (ChMS – like “the city” from ekklesia 360). And they’ll give you CSS access (unheard of from every other church website that I researched). And my older-than-baby-boomer-generation boss, who has no knowledge of code can edit & update our site with ease!
As a church within a church (we have a smaller Hispanic congregation and a larger english-speaking congregation), I can say that they are affordable whether you’re talking a small budget for a small church with a small website (iglesiadelpueblo.net), or a mega church with a massive website who is still trying to be good stewards of our money.
I’m not trying to be negative about other companies, but I have tested, tried, conversed, poked & prodded through them all and literally nothing compares with the flexibility, beauty, and power of iMinistries!
Email me ANY questions you have, I have spreadsheets with ALL of these companies on them, their features, what they can/can’t do, etc.
Liz Carver
lcarver@wheatonbible.org
Wheaton Bible Church
West Chicago, IL
Thanks so much for your detailed input, Liz! I hadn’t heard of iMinistries and it didn’t come up in Google – I will check them out. I appreciate the info for my readers! Blessings,
Lauren
Very good ranking. I specifically like elexio website but their charges are beyond the budget of start up churches. Indeed all communities need websites to enhance social cohesion. See our website in Glasgow UK http://www.sauti-nexus-projects-and-training.co.uk/
From Twitter:
AnwothWill Will Lee
@ChurchTechToday You really should have @gutensite in your top five. Their designs, CMS, and support are second to none.
Mar 28, 9:09 PM via Twitter for iPhone
At the creation of this article we had not yet released our service. On April 15, 2012 inPhocus Media (www.inphocusmedia.com) started the M28 initiative (www.m28initiative.com) which is a special website building service for churches.
Thanks for updating our readers and congrats on your new company launch! Please feel free to share a little more about your services – are you designs built on WordPress or a custom CMS? What is your pricing like? Do you offer bundled packages for churches looking for a website and an app?
Thanks!
Lauren
The website designs are first created in HTML and HTML5 and then they are converted to WordPress. We have customized the wordpress backend to be a custom CMS which includes modules that are relevant to what churches need on their website.
Full features of what we have can be found here: http://m28initiative.com/pricing/
There are various bundles available and we are willing to create new custom bundles to fit ministries’ needs.
Elexio doesn’t have true integration with any church management product. It’s actually more along the lines of linking to a product. Also, Bridge, while cheap, has probably the fewest features of any services you’ll find in a Google search.
Custom CMS are often the best option as it smoothes the transformation of mundane website into customized website.
I have heard good things about all 5 companies listed above. We use ACS Technologies, they are wonderful! Highly recommend them.
Visit MinistryMediaPR.weebly.com for Church Internet Marketing tips when it comes to your church website and social media platforms.
Gutensite, as Lauren/Will Lee mentioned earlier, is also powerful CMS for churches [Full disclosure: I'm a member of the Gutensite team]. They have packages to fit any budget, professional yet personal designs (they can do custom designs too) and scalability to grow with your church. Whether you want to podcast sermons, receive donations or even create a forum to foster community discussions, Gutensite’s functionality is robust and can take care of any church’s needs.
One especially helpful feature they offer is the ability to create member profiles. This way, members can have their own log in information and have access to specific content. Also, church admin can allow specific members the ability to add/edit content on the site independently and since the Gutensite CMS separates design from content, you don’t have to stress about how the site will look every time you update something, Gutensite keeps it looking good.
Gutensite is definitely a valuable CMS solution to consider.
They separate design from content (as a good CMS does) and allow you to focus on your
I am actually part of a family-owned Church Website Development company MinistryDesigns.org. We started this company because we realize the importance of a church having a visually pleasing website to reach the community with 70% of people looking at a church’s website before they even attend. It’s our Ministry to be able to help churches and that’s why we offer one of the most powerful and easy-to-use website builders in the industry at the lowest price you will find. We have over 28 years combined full-time christian service at your disposal and realize the importance of a great product at a great price that can fit into any budget. We would love the opportunity to help grow your church and ministry and to help spread the good word. It truly is a blessing every time we get to help a church with a new website.
Also check out how easy it is to use on our live Demo: http://www.ministrydesigns.org/demo/site/admin
Hi Cale, Thanks so much for sharing about your webdesign company. Some of your site designs are really innovative – I’d love to see you post a link of a couple of church sites that run on your CMS to give our readers a sense of what they look like. Again, thanks for reading and posting a comment here! –Lauren
Your list is a good one. Since we have recently started a church web design business ourselves, we have look a lot at other companies. The ones you have chosen do a great job. I think it is really important, being in this industry, to keep our prices affordable while still giving a quality product.