Church Digital

For churches · Comparison

Church Digital vs The Church Co

The Church Co builds custom church websites and has a strong portfolio. The biggest practical difference from Church Digital is that The Church Co does not publish pricing on its public site — you have to inquire to see numbers. Church Digital publishes the monthly cost on the plans page. Neither approach is wrong, but they suit different churches.

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Side by side

Church Digital and The Church Co, line by line.

Pricing and terms are taken from each vendor’s publicly listed pages. If anything looks stale, point it out and we’ll update it.

 Church DigitalThe Church Co
Monthly$120–$297/mo, publishedNot publicly listed
Setup feeNoneNot publicly listed
ContractNo contract — cancel anytimeNot publicly listed
Who builds itWe do — custom design, built for youTheir team — custom build
Custom designCustomCustom
If you leaveCancel anytime; your domain and content stay yoursVendor-hosted — the site does not come with you
SupportA human replies within 1 business day — published SLAVendor support from their team

Want the longer read — the study data on The Church Co sites, the honest strengths, and who should stay? Read our The Church Coalternative guide →

Positioning

Looking for a The Church Co alternative for your church website?

The Church Co is a newer entrant — they came up through the 2020s and grew quickly on the strength of a modern, design-forward portfolio. Their go-to-market is agency-flavored: a sales call to scope the project, a custom proposal, and a build that looks closer to what you'd expect from a creative shop than from a templated church-website service.

Who they're built for: churches that want a visually distinctive website, are willing to go through a more involved sales and discovery process, and have the budget flexibility to engage on a quote rather than a list price. The agency model means the work is genuinely custom and the portfolio holds up against a wider design audience.

Who they're not really built for: churches that want to see pricing before they take a sales call, or that prefer a defined plan without round-by-round scoping conversations. The opacity around publicly listed pricing is a real signal here — if a vendor will not publish a number, they're optimizing for the high end of the value range they can negotiate, which can be the right call for some churches and the wrong call for others.

Cost

The actual cost math.

Numbers are current as of early 2026. Pricing moves — confirm rates with the vendor before you commit.

The Church Co does not publish pricing on its public site as of 2026-05-12 — their pricing and plans pages both route through a demo conversation. The only honest answer about cost is: you have to inquire. Third-party reviews (churchcreation.com/the-church-co-review, sampled 2026-05-12) put observed pricing in roughly the $150 to $300+ per month range depending on church size and which of their plan tiers you take (Basic, Premium, Ultimate, with the Ultimate tier adding a dedicated team and a custom app). These are observations, not vendor-published numbers. Always confirm the all-in figure with The Church Co directly.

For a worked comparison at the lower observed end (~$150/mo), year one would be about $1,800 and year two the same, for a two-year total near $3,600. At the higher observed end (~$300/mo), year one is roughly $3,600 and year two the same, for a $7,200 two-year total. Add any setup fee they quote you to year one.

For reference, Church Digital has no setup fee, no contract, and publishes a flat monthly rate — see our current pricing for the number to compare against the observed Church Co range yourself. The lack of public pricing on The Church Co's side means the actual quote you get could land anywhere on that range. Ask specifically about: the monthly, any setup fee, term length, what happens at the end of the term, and what counts as included versus billable updates.

Feature comparison

Feature comparison, with the tradeoffs.

Five places where the two providers actually differ — not a checklist of features, but how each one handles the work in practice.

Design and customization

The Church Co

The Church Co's strongest selling point is the design portfolio. Each build is genuinely custom, the visual language is modern and considered, and the work would not look out of place on a creative-agency site for any industry. If design polish is the primary purchase criterion, they hold up well.

Church Digital

Church Digital also builds custom for each church, on a modern stack with attention to typography, layout, and brand fit. The portfolio is smaller — Church Digital is a smaller operation — but the design ethic is comparable: shape the site around the specific church, not around a theme.

Compare portfolios directly at the visual style level. Both are doing custom work; the question is which design language feels right for your church.

Updates and content management

The Church Co

The Church Co handles content updates as part of their ongoing relationship. Specifics on turnaround time, included scope, and what counts as billable extra work are quote-dependent — ask explicitly when you scope.

Church Digital

Church Digital covers routine content updates with a defined scope as part of the flat monthly plan, spelled out up front so there is no ambiguity.

The published-plan model gives you the rules before you sign. The quote-driven model gives you flexibility but requires you to read the contract carefully.

Performance and SEO basics

The Church Co

Custom builds on modern frameworks tend to perform well on page speed and indexability, and The Church Co's work generally reflects that. Specific stack choices and ongoing SEO support depend on the engagement scope — ask if performance is a priority for you.

Church Digital

Church Digital sites are built on Next.js with Core Web Vitals, optimized images, and structured data (FAQ, local business schema where relevant) baked in by default. Performance baselines are consistent across builds rather than scope-dependent.

Both build on modern stacks. The Church Digital approach standardizes the technical baseline; The Church Co tailors more per project.

Integrations (giving, ChMS, calendaring)

The Church Co

The Church Co handles the standard church tool list — Planning Center, Tithe.ly, Subsplash, RightNow Media, embedded media. Custom builds give them flexibility to integrate unusual tools if the engagement scope covers it.

Church Digital

Church Digital embeds the same standard set — Planning Center, Tithe.ly, Pushpay, RightNow Media, sermon players. Whatever the church already uses, dropped cleanly into the custom design.

Both cover the common stack. Both can handle the unusual case; with The Church Co the unusual case is more likely to influence the quote.

Support model and ownership

The Church Co

The Church Co is vendor-managed: the site lives on their platform, hosted and maintained by their team. End-of-term ownership is quote-dependent and not publicly stated — ask specifically whether you can take the build with you if the relationship ends.

Church Digital

Church Digital is fully managed with no contract — flat published monthly, cancel anytime from your account. The build is on a portable modern stack.

Exit terms are one of the most important questions to clarify with any vendor that doesn't publish them.

Common scenarios

Common scenarios, and how each one tends to land.

Concrete church profiles, the honest fit for each provider, and which way each one leans.

Larger church (500+ attendance) that views the website as a brand expression and has serious design taste.

The Church Co

The Church Co fits this scenario well. The agency-flavored process and design-forward portfolio match the priorities, and a higher quote against a flexible budget tends to land cleanly.

Church Digital

Church Digital can absolutely produce design at this level, but the published monthly rate is structured for a smaller engagement. For a larger custom build, scope would be a conversation rather than a published rate.

Either could fit

Church that wants to see a price before scheduling any sales calls and prefers a defined plan.

The Church Co

The Church Co's discovery model requires a call before pricing. If the church specifically wants to evaluate vendors by their list prices first, this is friction.

Church Digital

Church Digital publishes the flat monthly rate on the plans page. You can evaluate the offer without booking any time.

Leans toward Church Digital

Small or mid-size church (75-250 attendance) with a modest, fixed budget for their website.

The Church Co

The agency model is generally optimized for higher-budget engagements. A small church may get a quote, but it is not necessarily where The Church Co does its best work.

Church Digital

Church Digital is built for this church size. Published rates, no setup fee, monthly does not scale with church size.

Leans toward Church Digital

Church that thinks they might leave the vendor relationship in three years and wants ownership clarity.

The Church Co

End-of-term ownership is not publicly stated by The Church Co. You can ask, but the answer is contract-dependent.

Church Digital

Church Digital publishes its terms: flat monthly, no setup fee, no contract — cancel anytime from your account.

Leans toward Church Digital

Switching

Switching from The Church Co: what it actually involves.

Switching off The Church Co involves the same general work as switching off any vendor-managed custom build: content export by hand, asset migration, DNS cutover when the new site is verified. The site itself is not generally portable as a working build — you would be rebuilding on the new platform.

The term length and any auto-renewal language are not publicly stated, which makes the migration timing question something you have to confirm against the specific contract you signed. Ask before you start the conversation. Domain and email handling follow the same playbook as any vendor switch — if email lives on a separate provider, it is independent of the website cutover.

For most churches the practical migration is straightforward enough; the bigger upfront concern is making sure the contract you sign with The Church Co at the start has the term, renewal, and exit terms you actually want, since you cannot evaluate them from the public site.

Honest fit

When each one is the right pick.

Pick The Church Co when

When The Church Co is the better fit

  • You are open to a quote-driven process and want to talk through scope before seeing a number.
  • You want to evaluate a larger custom-build agency and are comfortable with a more involved sales conversation.
  • Budget is flexible and the design portfolio is the main signal you are buying on.

Pick Church Digital when

When Church Digital is the better fit

  • You want to see the monthly price before any call.
  • You prefer a flat published rate that does not depend on church size or back-and-forth scoping.
  • You want no contract — flat monthly, cancel anytime.

Bottom line

The bottom line.

Choose The Church Co when you have a design-forward priority, a flexible budget, and you're comfortable with a quote-driven discovery process before seeing any pricing. Choose Church Digital when you want to see the price before any call, prefer a published plan over round-by-round scoping, and want explicit, published terms — no setup fee, no contract, cancel anytime. The Church Co competes on portfolio and customization; Church Digital competes on transparency and a defined plan at a lower published monthly.

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What they don't tell you

VendorSetup fee
ReachRight$2,000 setup fee*
Clover Sites~$1,000 build fee
Church Plant Media$499 setup fee
Church Digital$0, ever

*waived only with a 12-month contract

the $29/month sites aren't $29/month

Useful next reads

Keep reading on The Church Co and the alternatives.

Two or three picks from our church insights and tools — sized for someone comparing vendors, not someone who already signed.

Insight

Read: custom church website vs template (when each makes sense)

The honest decision framework when "custom" means different things to different vendors.

Insight

Read the 2026 church website cost breakdown

Real numbers across DIY, mid-tier, custom, and bundled plans — with the hidden costs counted.

Pillar

Read: online giving for churches — overview

The plain-language overview of online giving for churches, since most custom builds still need a giving platform plugged in.

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