Wix for churches: an honest review — and the done-for-you alternative
Wix is the second-most-common platform fingerprint among the 2,000 small-church websites we studied in 2026, behind only self-hosted WordPress — 245 churches in our sample use it. And Wix the software is genuinely capable: a real editor, a huge template library, and an entry price of $17/month on annual billing.
But a church website isn’t a software purchase — it’s a weekly chore. The numbers below are what DIY looks like in the wild: most Wix churches keep up, and a meaningful share quietly don’t. The difference is rarely the tool. It’s whether anyone owns the job.
From our 2,000-church study
What we found in the wild
Of the 245 Wix church sites in our 2026 study:
- showed an update within the last year
- 77.1%
- had a working online giving path
- 64.9%
- made service times findable
- 82.4%
For context, across all 1,930 reachable sites in the study: 74% showed an update within the year and 67.3% had working giving. This is correlation, not causation — a platform doesn’t make a church diligent, but diligent churches cluster on certain platforms. Wix has no church giving built in — churches wire up a third-party platform themselves — so the giving gap is partly about what the platform includes, not just diligence. See the full study →
What Wix does well — for real
A genuinely capable editor
Drag-and-drop that actually works, hundreds of templates, and an app market that covers most of what a church site needs. A motivated volunteer can build something respectable in a weekend.
Low, published entry price
Wix publishes its prices: Light at $17/month and Core at $29/month on annual billing (checked 2026-07-16), with a free tier to try before buying. If your time is free, Wix is one of the cheapest respectable ways online.
No church-software lock-in
Wix is a general-purpose platform. Your account, your login, your call — no church-vendor sales process, and a volunteer who learned Wix at work already knows the tool.
Where churches struggle with Wix
The update burden lands on a person
22.9% of the 245 Wix church sites in our study showed no update within the last year. That’s not Wix failing — it’s what happens when the volunteer who built the site moves away, changes jobs, or just gets busy, and nobody inherits the login.
Giving is an integration project
Wix doesn’t come with church giving — someone has to pick a platform, set it up, and wire it in. 35.1% of the Wix church sites we measured had no working giving path, the widest giving gap of any platform cohort over 100 sites in our table.
The plan you want is rarely the cheapest one
The $17/month sticker is annual billing on the entry tier; month-to-month runs $24, and features churches commonly want push toward Core at $29/month or beyond. Still cheaper than done-for-you — but the sticker isn’t the bill.
Nobody is checking
DIY means no one’s job is to notice the broken giving link, the last-year sermon series, or the Christmas banner in February. On a done-for-you plan, noticing is literally what you’re paying for.
Wix vs Church Digital, side by side
| Wix | Church Digital | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $17–$159/month billed annually ($24–$172 month-to-month) — plus your volunteer’s hours | $120/month flat — published, whole price |
| Setup fee | $0 — the setup is your time | $0, ever |
| Who builds the site | You (or a volunteer), in the Wix editor | We do — custom design, built for you |
| Who updates it | You — every sermon, event, and photo | We do — email us the change |
| Contract | Monthly or annual plans, self-serve | None — cancel anytime, from your account |
| Online giving | A third-party embed you choose and configure yourself | We connect the giving platform you already use |
Wix pricing checked 2026-07-16: Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159 per month on annual billing ($24/$36/$46/$172 month-to-month). Wix renders prices in-browser, so we cross-checked wix.com/plans against multiple current third-party pricing roundups — prices move, confirm at wix.com. Church Digital pricing is our published price list.
Who should stay on Wix
Wix is genuinely the right call for some churches. Stay if:
- A volunteer or staff member loves Wix and updates the site weekly. Don’t take a working system away from the person making it work.
- Your budget is truly capped near $17–$29/month. Wix is honestly cheaper than we are — if your time is free.
- You want hands-on creative control more than you want the job done for you.
One flat price
Website
A custom-built church website, hosted and maintained for you.
$120/mo
- Custom design for your church
- Service times, sermons, giving, events
- Hosting and updates included
- Live on your own domain
$0 setup · no contract · cancel anytime
Common questions
- Is Wix good for church websites?
- Yes, with one condition: someone at your church has to run it. In our 2026 study, 77.1% of the 245 Wix church sites showed an update within the year — most keep up. But 22.9% didn’t, and 35.1% had no working giving path. The software is capable; the question is who owns the job.
- What does Wix actually cost for a church?
- As of 2026-07-16: Light $17/month, Core $29/month, Business $39/month, and Business Elite $159/month on annual billing — month-to-month runs $24 to $172. There’s a free tier with Wix branding. Most church sites fit Light or Core; confirm current prices at wix.com, because they move.
- Why did Wix church sites score lower on giving in your study?
- Partly because giving on Wix is an integration project — the platform doesn’t include church giving, so each church has to choose a provider and wire it in, and some never do. One honest caveat from our own study writeup: this is correlation, not causation — the platform doesn’t make a church diligent, but diligent churches cluster on certain platforms.
- Can you move our Wix site to Church Digital?
- Yes — we rebuild your content on a custom site we design, build, host, and keep updated for $120/month flat, $0 setup, no contract. For a typical church site the content set is small enough that the rebuild is quick, and your domain points to the new site when it’s ready.
- Should we just stay on Wix?
- If someone at your church genuinely enjoys running it and the site stays current — yes, stay, and we mean that. If you’re not sure how your site is actually doing, grade it first with our free website grader; it’s instant and doesn’t ask for an email.
Not sure yet? Grade your current site first.
Free and instant — paste your church’s address and get a 0–100 score across eight checks, benchmarked against the same study quoted on this page. No email required.