For churches · Church web hosting
Hosting · domains · who owns what
Hosting is the part of a church website that used to be a separate bill and a separate headache. For most churches today it is neither. Here is what hosting actually is, when you need to think about it, and when you do not.
What it is
A website is a set of files. Hosting is the always-on server that stores them and hands them to a visitor's phone when they type your address. Ten years ago a church bought hosting from one company, a domain from another, and a website designer separately. That is where "church web hosting" as a shopping category comes from.
Today almost every church website product bundles hosting into the monthly fee. You are not choosing a host; you are choosing a platform, and hosting comes with it.
Who includes it
The Church Co, Nucleus, Tithe.ly Sites, ChurchSpring, Sharefaith, Subsplash, Clover Sites, Wix and Squarespace all host the site as part of the plan. No separate hosting bill, no server to manage.
WordPress is free software. You choose and pay a host separately, roughly $5 to $30 a month at current introductory rates (observed 2026-08-19), with renewals often higher, and someone has to keep the plugins and PHP version current or the site slows down and eventually breaks.
A built-for-you church site should carry hosting, security and updates inside the flat fee. Church Digital does: $120 a month flat, no setup fee, no contract, and the founding rate makes the first 6 months $60 a month. If a proposal lists hosting as a separate line, ask why.
Your domain name (yourchurch.org) is a $10 to $20 a year purchase you keep in your own registrar account no matter who hosts the site. Keep it in the church's name and a church email, never a volunteer's personal account.
When it matters
Then you own the hosting decision, the renewals and the maintenance. A managed WordPress host costs more and saves the most time; a $5 shared host is fine until the day it is not.
Slow church sites are usually oversized images and plugin build-up, not the host. Our 2026 study of 1,734 small-church websites found 93.4% of small-church sites were at least set up for mobile, but "set up" and "fast" are different things. Fix the images before you pay for a bigger server.
If the hosting account, the domain, or the site login lives with a person who is moving on, transfer them to church-owned accounts before they go. This is the most common way a church loses its website.
Common questions
Not sure what you are paying for
A free five-minute walkthrough of your homepage, including the honest speed read. No pitch, no call required.
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