Every list of "best church website design companies" I can find was written by one of the companies on the list. Including, if we are being honest, this one.
So let me put my cards on the table first. I am a pastor, and I design church websites. I am on this list, at the bottom, and I have written the same kind of plain description of my work that I have written for everyone else. If that disqualifies me in your mind, that is fair, and the other thirteen entries are still accurate — I have not skewed a single one of them to make myself look better, and in several cases I will tell you outright to go hire somebody else.
What I want to do here is something the other lists mostly don't: compare these companies on the three things that actually determine whether a church regrets the decision three years later.
- What does it really cost — not the headline number, the number after the second year.
- Who owns the site when you want to leave.
- What happens the week you need something changed — because that week is coming, and it is where most church websites quietly die.
Design quality matters, but far less than pastors think. I have seen beautiful church websites that listed a Christmas Eve service from three years ago. That site is not beautiful. It is closed.
The short answer
If you skip everything else, here is where I would point you:
- Nobody in the church will maintain it, and the budget is small. A church platform — Nucleus or The Church Co. Around $29–129 a month, live quickly, and the maintenance question is answered by the vendor.
- You already use a giving or church-management system. Look first at whether it includes a website. Tithe.ly and Subsplash both do, and one bill is worth real money in a small office.
- You have a genuinely gifted volunteer who wants this job. Squarespace or WordPress. Do not pay an agency to do what a willing person in your congregation will do better, because they know the church.
- You are a large or multi-campus church with staff communications people. A custom agency — Sunday Best, Landslide Creative, Freshy. Five figures, three to four months, and worth it at that scale.
- You are a small-to-midsize church, nobody will maintain it, and you want it to look like somebody cared. This is the underserved middle, and it is where I work — but MyChurchWebsite and OurChurch.Com have been serving that same middle for two decades and are excellent at it.
How I compared them
I built this from published pricing pages, the companies' own marketing claims, and public review profiles, checked in August 2026. Where a company does not publish prices, I say so rather than guessing — "contact us for a quote" is itself information about how they sell.
I did not rank by design taste. Taste is real, but it is mine, and yours is the one that matters. I ranked by fit: which kind of church each company is actually built for.
One caveat worth stating plainly: prices change, and several of these companies quote by church size. Treat every number below as a starting point for your own phone call, not a promise.
The comparison
| Company | Type | Typical cost | You own the site? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nucleus | Church platform | ~$39–129/mo | No — hosted | Small/midsize churches wanting simple |
| The Church Co | Church platform | ~$29/mo annual | No — hosted | Fast, cheap, done-for-you setup |
| Tithe.ly Sites | Giving suite + site | ~$19/mo standalone | No — hosted | Churches already on Tithe.ly giving |
| Subsplash | Full ecosystem | ~$99–149/mo + setup | No — hosted | Churches that want an app too |
| ShareFaith | Media + site | Quote | No — hosted | Churches that need graphics weekly |
| Amplify (Ministry Brands) | Church platform | Quote | No — hosted | Churches already in Ministry Brands |
| REACHRIGHT | Design + marketing | ~$97/mo + $2,000 setup | No — hosted | Churches buying SEO and ads too |
| Ministry Designs | Design + platform | Not published | No — hosted | Churches wanting a growth-marketing partner |
| MyChurchWebsite | Custom + own CMS | ~$1,800–3,400 one-time | Content yes, CMS no | Small/midsize custom on a real budget |
| OurChurch.Com | Custom + hosting | Published, tiered | Usually yes (WordPress) | Christian schools and nonprofits too |
| Landslide Creative | Custom agency | ~$5,000–20,000+ | Yes — WordPress | Large churches, dioceses, denominations |
| Sunday Best | Custom agency | ~$9,999–24,997+ | Site yes, Webflow hosted | Large, design-forward churches |
| Freshy | Custom agency | Quote | Yes — WordPress | Churches wanting a big, staffed agency |
| DIY (Squarespace / Wix / WordPress) | Builder | $0–159/mo | Varies | Churches with a real volunteer |
The church platforms
These are the all-in-one products: the website, the hosting, the sermon page, the events calendar, and usually the giving, in one monthly bill. You do not own the site in any portable sense. That is the trade, and for most small churches it is a good trade.
Nucleus is the one I most often point small churches toward when they ask me for a name that is not mine. Around $39 a month gets a purpose-built church site, and their reviews are genuinely strong — 4.8 on Trustpilot, 4.9 on Capterra at the time of writing. Their "Launcher" navigation is an unusual idea that some pastors love and some find odd; look at a live Nucleus site before you commit, because it is a distinctive look and you will be living in it.
The Church Co is the value play — roughly $29 a month billed annually, with a done-for-you build advertised in about a week. For a church that has nothing and needs something honest and current by next month, it is hard to argue with. The sites look like what they are: clean, templated, fine.
Tithe.ly Sites exists mostly to make the rest of the Tithe.ly suite stickier. Around $19 a month standalone is the cheapest real number on this page, and if your church already runs Tithe.ly giving, that consolidation is worth something. Expect steady pressure toward the bundle. That is not a scandal, it is a business model, but budget for the bundle price, not the standalone one.
Subsplash is the enterprise end of this category — site, app, streaming, giving, in one ecosystem, starting around $99–149 a month plus setup. If your church genuinely wants a branded mobile app, Subsplash is a serious answer. If it does not, you are buying a great deal of platform to publish service times. Be honest with yourself about which one you are.
ShareFaith bundles a website with a very large media library — graphics, slides, kids' curriculum. For a church where one overworked person makes the sermon slides on Saturday night, that library may be worth more than the website is.
Amplify by Ministry Brands is the former Clover Sites product, now folded into a larger suite. If your church already runs Ministry Brands software, ask them. If it does not, I would not start here.
The done-for-you design companies
These sit between a platform and an agency: somebody designs the site for you, but you stay on their system.
REACHRIGHT publishes their pricing, which I respect: about $97 a month plus a $2,000 setup fee that they waive at a twelve-month commitment. What you are really buying is the marketing wrapper — local SEO and Google Ad Grant management alongside the site. The Google Ad Grant alone is worth up to $10,000 a month in free search ads for a qualifying nonprofit, and most churches never claim it. If you want somebody to run that, this is a reasonable place to look. (Their blog also happens to be the best-ranked competitor to this article, which I mention because you deserve to know I am aware of it.)
Ministry Designs does not publish pricing, and leans hard on a marketing promise: first page of Google or your money back. Read that guarantee closely before you rely on it — "first page" for which search, in which town, over what period? A guarantee like that is usually written around a keyword you would never have chosen. Their free graphics library is real and generous, and their client claims are the largest on this page.
MyChurchWebsite is, to my mind, the most honest listing in the middle of this market. Founded in 2004, over 650 churches, and — unusually — they publish the range: most projects land between $1,800 and $3,400. Fully custom design, their own church-purpose CMS, and support hours that are frankly better than mine. If you want a custom site from an established company and five figures is not happening, start your search here.
OurChurch.Com has been doing this for over twenty-five years, publishes prices, and serves Christian schools, nonprofits, and businesses alongside churches. If your church has a school attached, that dual competence is worth a call.
The custom agencies
Five figures, three to four months, a project manager, and a site built to your church rather than to a template.
Sunday Best is the design-forward end: Webflow, roughly $9,999 to $24,997 and up, three to four months, and a portfolio of large churches. Their work is genuinely good and their FAQ page is the most thorough in the industry. If you are a large church and design is a strategic priority, they belong on your shortlist.
Landslide Creative is Nashville-based, WordPress, roughly $5,000 to $20,000+, eight to twelve weeks, with a portfolio heavy in Episcopal dioceses and large Baptist churches. They are strong on the boring, important things — site architecture, integrations with church management systems, multi-site setups for denominations.
Freshy is the largest general agency here, with over 2,400 clients and 370-plus five-star reviews, of which churches are one vertical among many. That cuts both ways: real depth and staffing, but your church is not their specialty.
Doing it yourself
I want to defend this option, because the industry has a financial interest in talking you out of it.
Squarespace ($16–99/mo) will give a small church a beautiful, current, mobile-friendly site for the price of a few pizzas a month. Wix ($17–159/mo) is easier to learn and harder to keep looking good. WordPress is free software with $10–30 a month in hosting, infinitely capable, and the most likely of the three to be quietly broken in eighteen months because nobody ran the updates.
None of these have church features built in. You will assemble your sermon page and your giving button yourself. That is genuinely fine.
Here is the test, and it is not about money: is there a specific named person in your church who wants this job and will still want it in two years? If yes, hand it to them and spend the budget on something else. If the honest answer is "well, my nephew said he'd help" — you do not have a volunteer, you have a hope, and you should pay somebody.
Where I fit, and when not to hire me
I build custom church websites — a one-time design fee and a monthly rate that covers hosting, updates, and support. I am a pastor; this started because my own church needed a site and other pastors started asking. I have designed more than a hundred church and ministry websites at this point, and eighteen client sites are live and serving congregations right now. I will send you the whole list — the plain ones included — so you can judge from the set rather than from a curated three. A sample is here.
The two things I do that the companies above generally do not: I design a concept for your church before you pay anything, so you are deciding about your actual site rather than a portfolio; and I connect the finished site to ChatGPT or Claude so that a pastor can describe a change in plain English — "move the Wednesday service to 6:30" — and the live site updates. That second one exists because of the failure mode I opened with. The week you need a change is the week most church websites start dying, and I would rather remove the friction than sell you a training video.
Do not hire me if: you need a mobile app (Subsplash), you need somebody running Google Ads and local SEO more than you need a new site (REACHRIGHT), you are a multi-campus church with a communications director and a real budget (Sunday Best, Landslide), or you have a volunteer who wants the work (Squarespace, and God bless them).
The three questions that matter more than the company
Whoever you hire, ask these before you sign, and get the answers in writing.
1. Who owns the domain name? Not the website — the domain. It should be registered to the church, in an account the church controls, with a church email address on it. I have watched a congregation lose a domain they had used for a decade because it was in a former volunteer's personal account and he had moved away. Everything else is recoverable. That is not.
2. What happens when I want a change? Ask for specifics: how do I request it, who does it, how long does it typically take, and what does it cost? "Unlimited updates" and "we're always here for you" are not answers. "Email us, most things are done within two business days, no charge for text and photo changes" is an answer.
3. If we part ways, what do we walk out with? On a hosted platform the honest answer is usually "your content, not your site." That can be perfectly acceptable — just know it now rather than in year four.
One last thing, pastor to pastor
The best church website company is the one that produces a site which is still true in March of next year. True service times. A real address. A photograph of the people who actually attend. A phone number somebody answers.
I have looked at the websites of more than thirty thousand churches while building my own work, and the pattern is not that small churches have ugly sites. It is that they have abandoned ones — a site somebody built with real love in 2014 and nobody has been able to touch since. The visitor who finds that page does not think "outdated design." They think "I wonder if they're still open."
Whoever you hire, hire for that. The design is the part you will stop noticing after a month. The updating is the part you will live with forever.
If it would help to see where your current site stands before you talk to anybody, I built a free church website score that checks the things visitors and Google both look for — about a minute, no credit card. Two companion pieces, written to be useful whether or not you ever call me: what a church website actually costs in 2026, and twelve traits of the church websites that work.