Church website builder guide: options, giving fees and rules for 2026

What a church website has to do

A church website has one main job: help someone who has never been inside feel ready to come on Sunday. Its second job is serving members with giving, sermons and events.

In a 2016 Pew Research Center study, about half of US adults had looked for a new congregation, and 59% of searchers under 30 searched online (12% of those 65 and older). Most still visited first: 85% attended a service before choosing.

Good church websites cover the basics:

• Service times and the address on the homepage, plus parking.
• A “Plan your visit” page that says what a first Sunday looks like.
• Kids and youth details, such as check-in and ages. Children’s programs mattered to 56% of searchers in Pew’s study.
• Sermons and a livestream. Pew found in 2023 that 27% of US adults watch services online or on TV.
• Online giving one tap from every page. In a 2022 Lifeway Research survey of Protestant churchgoers, 23% gave electronically on the church website, while 53% gave cash at church.
• A phone-first layout built with responsive design.
• Accessible pages: captions, alt text and a keyboard-friendly giving form.

Church website builder options: four ways to get a site

The quick verdict: a general builder or WordPress plus a free giving tool costs the least. Church platforms bundle templates and giving for $19 to $199 a month, and the big suites are quote only.

1. A general website builder

Squarespace’s Donation block takes recurring weekly, monthly or annual gifts, with a “cover the fees” option, multiple funds and donor dashboards, according to its September 2025 blog post. Plans run $19 to $99 a month billed yearly ($25 to $139 billed monthly). Its general card rate is 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic and Core. We couldn’t confirm which plans include the Donation block, so check before you pick Basic.

Wix has a free plan, but it uses a wixsite.com address, shows Wix branding and can’t take payments. Its Donations app takes recurring gifts, and payments start on Core at $29 a month billed yearly.

Some churches skip the builder’s donation tools and link to a giving platform instead: St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery runs on Squarespace and sends gifts to Tithely. See what “free” really includes in our free website builders guide, and the full Squarespace review.

2. Self-hosted WordPress

WordPress is free software you run on hosting you choose. The WordPress.org theme directory lists 88 themes for “church,” and ChurchThemes.com sells church themes from $129 a year.

For giving, the free GiveWP plugin adds a 2% platform fee on top of Stripe’s fee (a paid license removes it), or you can embed Planning Center or Tithely giving. Hosting is separate: Bluehost Starter is $3.99 a month on a 36-month term, then $9.99 a month.

We build on WordPress every week, so weigh our bias. You own every file (10/10 for leaving), but updates and backups are your job. See our WordPress review.

3. A church website platform

• Tithely Sites: $19 a month, with ministry templates, hosting and built-in giving, or included in All-Access at $119 a month. Tithely Giving is free; cards cost 2.9% + $0.30 per gift and bank (ACH) gifts 1% + $0.30.
• Nucleus: $65, $99 or $199 a month, with free setup and no contract. Only Complete ($199) includes Nucleus Giving, which shows givers a 2.3% card cost and charges $0.25 per bank gift.
• Sharefaith: Websites is $60 a month at its regular rate; a $48 promotion for new signups through 11/01/2026 lasts one year. The Suite, with giving and an app, is $185 a month billed yearly at the regular rate.
• ChurchTrac: church management software from $29 to $119 a month by headcount, with an optional website build “starting at $477.” Giving runs on Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30 per card gift.

4. A church suite sold by quote

• Subsplash: Subsplash Giving alone is $0 a month, but the full Subsplash One bundle is priced “based on church size and usage.” Its pricing page lists cards at 2.3% + 30c in one place and 2.99% + 30c in another, so ask which applies. Contracts run one or two years.
• Ministry Brands Amplify: the line replacing Clover Sites; no prices published.
• Planning Center: not a website builder. Its free Church Center pages for giving, events and groups link from or embed in your site. Giving is free up to 10 donations a month, then $15 to $239 a month, with cards at 2.15% + $0.30.

The options side by side

The exit score, out of 10, measures how much of your site comes with you if you switch; see every score in our exit scores tool. We haven’t scored the church platforms. Card gift fees are a kind of transaction fee, and our church website cost guide adds them up with the domain and email over three years.

Which church website builder should you use?

There is no single best church website builder. Based on the published prices and terms above:

• A small church with almost no budget: a free giving tool (Tithely, Subsplash or Planning Center) linked from a low-cost builder or WordPress. For church templates and giving in one place, Tithely Sites at $19 a month is the lowest published church platform.
• A church that wants someone else to set it up: Nucleus offers free setup and no contract; Ministry Brands’ Amplify Pro is built by its staff, by quote.
• A church that cares most about design: Squarespace, used by four of our 15 examples.
• A church that wants to own the site long term: WordPress, with a volunteer or developer who will keep it updated.
• A church already on church management software: start with what it includes.
• A large or multi-site church that wants an app too: Tithely All-Access, or a quote from Subsplash.

How to make a church website, step by step

1. Pick your giving tool first, comparing card and bank fees.
2. Register your domain name in the church’s name, with at least two staff or elders who can log in.
3. Write the visitor pages first: service times, address, parking, kids and a “Plan your visit” page.
4. Add sermons, livestream and events, then a giving button in the header.
5. Test a real gift from your phone.
6. Match your times and address to your Google Business Profile.

Church website design that turns browsers into visitors

Answer the first-Sunday questions

Put times and a “Plan a visit” button at the top. Capitol Hill Baptist Church pairs a “New Here?” link with a Directions and Parking page, and Old St. Patrick’s Church names its free Sunday parking garage and has a “For Anyone New” section covering the elevator, restrooms and greeters.

Make kids’ ministry easy to find

Sojourn Church’s Midtown campus page gives kids check-in instructions by age and floor.

For online viewers, Church of the Village lists its worship time in two time zones with Zoom, YouTube Live and in-person options. See 15 real sites in our best church websites roundup.

The rules a church website has to follow

These are the main US rules as of October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; ask a lawyer or tax adviser about your church.

Giving receipts

For any single gift of $250 or more, the donor needs a written acknowledgment that names the church, states the amount and says whether the church gave anything in return. Email counts, and no Social Security number is needed (IRS Pub 1771).

If a donor pays more than $75 for something that is partly a gift, such as a dinner or concert ticket, the church must tell the donor in writing that only the amount above the ticket’s value is deductible, with a good-faith estimate of that value. The penalty is $10 per contribution, up to $5,000 per event or mailing.

No campaign endorsements

IRS Pub 1828 says churches are “absolutely prohibited” from directly or indirectly taking part in any political campaign for or against a candidate. It treats a post on the church website like printed material, and a church is responsible for the consequences of a link it puts on its site (IRS Pub 1828). Nonpartisan voter registration and voter education are allowed.

Recent events haven’t changed that guidance:

• July 7, 2025: in a joint motion for a consent judgment in National Religious Broadcasters v. Long, No. 6:24-cv-00311 (E.D. Tex.), the IRS and the plaintiffs said a house of worship speaking in good faith to its congregation, through its customary channels and in connection with religious services, about electoral politics viewed through the lens of faith is not prohibited campaign intervention. That was a position in a proposed settlement, not new guidance or a change to Pub 1828.
• March 31, 2026: the district court (the case was then called National Religious Broadcasters v. Bessent) dismissed it without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction under the Tax Anti-Injunction Act and the Declaratory Judgment Act. It did not approve the consent judgment or rule on the First Amendment questions. The plaintiffs appealed to the Fifth Circuit (No. 26-40237); a July 2, 2026 Congressional Research Service report said their opening brief was due July 7. We found no appeals ruling as of October 23, 2026.
• April 3, 2026: the Treasury said it and the IRS will issue more guidance on how the Johnson Amendment, the name often used for this ban, applies to religious organizations, and that its release “will be determined later this year” (Treasury).

We found no new guidance as of October 23, 2026, so Pub 1828 is still the IRS’s published guidance. A website is public, so keep candidate endorsements and campaign links off it.

Music in livestreams

Copyright law exempts performing music “in the course of services at a place of worship,” but that clause doesn’t mention transmissions (17 U.S.C. 110), so streaming worship music needs separate permission. If you stream music, check your licensing.

Accessibility and children’s photos

ADA Title III, the part that covers businesses, does not apply to religious organizations (ADA.gov). Accessibility is still good practice, and our web accessibility entry covers the basics. The FTC’s COPPA rule generally covers commercial sites, not nonprofits, but it treats a photo or video of a child as personal information, and the FTC encourages nonprofits to post a privacy policy anyway. Ask parents before posting children’s photos.

Pre-launch checklist

1. The domain is registered in the church’s name, at a registrar you control.
2. Two people can log in to the site, domain and giving tool (at Tithely, only the Account Owner can cancel).
3. Service times, address and parking match your Google Business Profile.
4. A test gift goes through on a phone, and the receipt names the church and the amount.
5. Event tickets over $75 that are partly a gift show the deductible amount, no page or link endorses a candidate, and livestreamed music is licensed.
6. Sermon videos have captions and photos have alt text.
7. You know what you keep if you cancel.

Getting found after launch

Start with your Google Business Profile: the same service times, address and website link as your site, plus photos of the entrance. Then give each ministry and campus its own page. Our SEO entry covers the basics. Our sister site, SEO PPC Management, covers local SEO.

Where to go next

• How much a church website costs: true 3-year totals, including giving fees on $60,000 a year in online gifts.
• Best church websites: 15 real sites and one idea to copy from each.
• Free website builders: what you really get for $0.
• Running a ministry or charity that isn’t a church? See our nonprofit website guide.

Website guides for other industries: Real estate, Law firms, Dental, Medical, Therapists, Contractors, Electricians, Restaurants, Schools, Salons, Artists, Events, Vacation rentals, Nonprofits, Creators and courses. All industries.