For churches · Budget
Published prices · checked 2026 · no setup fee
Every church website is affordable on the brochure. The question is what you get for the number, and what it costs your team in hours after launch. Here is the honest ladder.
The ladder
A builder's free tier or a Facebook page. You get a subdomain or ads, no church features, and a site that reads as temporary. Fine as a placeholder for a plant. Not the site people should find when they search for a church.
Squarespace and Wix entry plans billed annually (vendor pricing pages, checked July 16, 2026). Good templates, hosting included, no church features: giving, sermons and events get bolted on with third-party tools, and a volunteer does all of it.
Church-specific builders as published in June to July 2026: Tithe.ly Sites from $19 (plus a $149 setup), The Church Co from $29 billed annually, ChurchSpring $79, Nucleus $99 with giving another $49. Giving and sermons built in; you still do the work.
Church Digital: custom design, hosting, and every update handled, no setup fee, no contract. 50% off for the first 6 months ($60). This is the tier where nobody on staff has to be the website person.
The number that matters
Monthly fee times 36, plus setup fees, plus the add-ons you will actually turn on, plus the volunteer hours. On that math a $19 builder with a setup fee and a giving add-on lands within a few hundred dollars of a $99 plan, and both land near a flat monthly that includes the work.
Our 2026 study of 1,734 small-church websites adds the part the stickers hide. Sites spending $12 a month or less (144 sites) had working giving 62.5% of the time and had been updated within the year 72.9% of the time. Sites over $20 a month (101 sites): 82.2% and 88.1%. The $13 to $20 band (765 sites) sat between at 70.5% and 80%. Correlation, not causation, but cheap sites are disproportionately the stale ones.
Where it goes wrong
A $149 to $999 setup on a $19 to $29 plan doubles the first-year cost. Ask for it in writing before comparing monthly numbers.
Giving, messaging and media at $49 each on top of a $99 plan is a $250 site. Count the ones you will actually use.
The site is only affordable while someone maintains it for free. When they stop, it is the most expensive site you own: current in nothing, and costing you first-time visitors every week.
Common questions
Want the real number for your church
A free five-minute review of your homepage, and a straight answer on whether a builder would do it or whether it needs a rebuild. No pitch, no call required.
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