Best website builders for churches (2026)

Service times and a plan-your-visit page at the top, a map and the car park, giving with monthly gifts, this month's events with sign-ups, last Sunday's sermon playing on the page, the pastors and what you believe. Our guide to starting a church covers the paperwork, the giving platform and the first year.

Building and previewing one can cost nothing on most builders here; a live site on your own domain costs money on every one, and the cost question below gives each builder's own US price. The church platforms ChatGPT names charge for the ministry tools around the site, and none of them is scored here: Tithe.ly's own pages (read October 26, 2026) price its website builder at "$19/mo" and say it comes with the "Sermon library, events calendar, giving, prayer walls, and more—already integrated"; Subsplash prices by proposal, with "Subsplash Giving is available for $0/mo with no setup costs or hidden fees"; Google's listing of The Church Co's page (the page itself refuses automated reads) says "We build church websites for free". Zarla is free to build and preview, and you pay when you publish, on the Premium plan. An agency build is the other route, and costs what an agency charges.

Describe the church in a sentence, service times and town included, and let the builder write the first draft; then add the pastors, the giving link, this month's events and last Sunday's sermon, connect your domain and publish. The first-draft test above shows which builders write the whole site from the description, and Zarla's church website builder does it in about 30 seconds, with the plan-your-visit form and the contact page in place. A volunteer can do the rest in an afternoon.

The answer at the top of this page, computed from the nine tests: the builder with the most points leads, and the table shows every mark. The church platforms ChatGPT named first, Tithe.ly Sites, Subsplash and The Church Co, aren't scored, because they're ministry platforms with a website inside, and the question below sets out what their own pages say they include; if your church already pays for one of them, its site is usually the right call. If you don't, the general builders scored here take gifts, events and sermons on the site, and the marks show which take them without another tool.

It's a different purchase: the platform runs giving, the app, the sermon library and the member database, and the website comes with it. Tithe.ly's own site (read October 26, 2026) says its builder is "Built for ministry. Not for developers." at "$19/mo"; Subsplash's pricing page says it will "provide a simple, yet detailed pricing proposal" and that "Subsplash Giving is available for $0/mo with no setup costs or hidden fees"; The Church Co's page refuses automated reads, and Google's listing of it says "We build church websites for free". None of the three is scored here. A general builder is the right call when the church wants the site first and the giving through a platform it already has; the giving, events and sermon tests above score how much of that the website does on its own.

A nonprofit's needs overlap: donations with monthly giving and events with RSVP are scored on both pages. Our best website builders for nonprofits adds the blog and newsletter test and leaves out sermons; this page adds sermons that play on the page, because a first-time visitor listens before they come. A food pantry or a charity run by the church reads as a nonprofit; the church itself reads here.

In the US, no: a church is tax-exempt by statute without applying, and a gift to it is deductible whether or not the IRS has sent a letter, as our church guide sets out; Form 1023 is optional, costs $600, and the short form is closed to churches. What the donor needs is a written acknowledgment for any gift of $250 or more, to deduct it, which the giving platform usually sends. Outside the US the rules differ: in the UK a church claims Gift Aid through HMRC's recognition as a charity, and whether it must also register with the charity regulator depends on where it is and its income; in Australia a basic religious charity registers with the ACNC. Confirm the details with your accountant and your state's rules on sales-tax exemption.

Wix, on these tests: 15 of 18 to Squarespace's 13. Both take gifts with monthly giving built in and both play audio on the page; the difference is events and the chat: Wix Events takes RSVPs and sells tickets on the site and its AI edits and adds pages by chat, where Squarespace's events are a calendar you keep with tickets through another company's tool, and its AI chat edits text and images but adds no pages. Squarespace is the one the church designers name for the look, and that's real; it isn't one of these tests. The table above has every mark, and the order is computed from them rather than chosen, so read the scores rather than take our word for it.

Building and previewing one can cost nothing; a live site on your own domain costs money on every builder here. Wix has a free plan on a wixsite.com address, and Core, its cheapest plan with bookings, is $29/mo billed yearly. Squarespace Basic is $19/mo billed yearly after a 14-day free trial, and online booking is a separate Acuity Scheduling subscription. WordPress.com Personal is $4/mo billed yearly; photo uploads on its forms come with Business, $25/mo billed yearly, and booking comes from a plugin. GoDaddy prices Websites + Marketing by country. Zarla is free to build and preview, and you pay when you publish, on the Premium plan. These are each builder's own US prices, read on its pricing page on September 28, 2026.

With Zarla, the first draft takes about 30 seconds: every page, written for your church, including a plan-your-visit form, a contact page and a map. What's left is your service times, the pastors and your giving link. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and WordPress.com can also write a first draft with AI; how long the rest takes depends on how much you set up yourself. We haven't timed them side by side yet.

Wix, Squarespace and WordPress.com have it built in. It takes another tool or a workaround on Zarla (no donation form; set-amount payment links, or embed your donor platform); GoDaddy (PayPal donate buttons or a GoFundMe section; no donation form). We read each on the builder's own pages on October 24, 2026, and re-checked them on October 26, 2026.

Wix, Squarespace, WordPress.com and GoDaddy have it built in. It takes another tool or a workaround on Zarla (no music player; videos play; paste a Spotify or Bandcamp embed). We read each on the builder's own pages on October 24, 2026, and re-checked them on October 26, 2026.

Yes: Wix placed first of five here, with 15 of 18 points. Of the tests that are particular to churches, it gets a tick on "Online giving, including monthly gifts", "Events with RSVP or tickets" and "Sermons that play on the page". The catch: bookings need the Core plan rather than the cheapest one, and pages for each town you serve are yours to write.