The best church website builder for most congregations is Tithe.ly or The Church Co. Tithe.ly's Website plan is listed at $19 a month and pairs with free online giving (you pay card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per gift). The Church Co's Basic plan is $29 a month billed yearly, includes online giving and sermons, and comes with free setup on a yearly plan. Nucleus is the most polished, from $65 a month, but its online giving sits on the $199 Complete plan. General builders such as Squarespace, Wix and WordPress.com cost less or start free, but giving becomes an add-on with its own transaction fee. And when the church needs software rather than pages (a volunteer rota with real rules, a member directory families control), Greta.sh is the build-your-own option. Prices were checked on each vendor's site on October 19, 2026.
The monthly price is the number every church compares, and it's rarely the number that decides the bill. Giving fees, setup packages and the plan you need for one specific feature usually matter more. This guide adds them up.
At a glance
| Platform | Free plan | Cheapest paid (as of October 2026) | Online giving | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tithe.ly | No, 30-day trial (giving itself is free) | Website $19/mo; All Access $119/mo | Card 2.9% + $0.30, ACH 1% + $0.30 | Low monthly cost with giving built in |
| The Church Co | No, 14 days free | Basic $29/mo billed yearly ($34 monthly) | Included from Basic | Done-for-you setup |
| Nucleus | No, 15-day trial | Essential $65/mo | Complete plan ($199/mo): card 2.3%, ACH $0.25, US only | Polished sites and next-step forms |
| Squarespace | No, 14-day trial | Priced by country | Donations through commerce, 2% fee on Basic | Design-led churches |
| Wix | Yes, with Wix ads | Priced by country | Payments start on Core | Drag-and-drop control |
| WordPress.com | Yes, with ads and a subdomain | Personal $4/mo billed yearly ($9 monthly) | Payments with a 10% fee on Free, 8% on Personal | The lowest subscription |
| Greta.sh | Free plan builds (5 credits a day) | Starter $5/mo on the welcome offer, normally $20/mo | Built into the app you describe | Custom volunteer, member and prayer tools |
What should a church website include?
A visitor deciding whether to come on Sunday wants three answers in ten seconds: when, where, and what it's like. Everything else serves the people who already attend. Before comparing builders, check each one against this list:
- Service times, address and parking, on the home page
- Sermons, as video or audio, searchable by series
- Online giving, including recurring gifts
- An events calendar with registration
- Volunteer sign-up and scheduling
- Livestream or "church online" access
- A contact or prayer-request form that reaches a real person
Most church platforms cover the top half well. The bottom half is where plans split, and where general builders need extra tools.
How we compared them
We looked at the price of the cheapest plan that runs a real church site, the online giving fees and which plan includes giving, one-time setup fees, how much of the list above each plan covers, and what it costs over three years. Each figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page, read on October 19, 2026. Squarespace and Wix set prices by country, so we link to their plans pages rather than quote a figure that would be wrong for most readers.
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The best church website builders, one by one
1. Tithe.ly – cheapest way to bundle giving and a site
Tithe.ly started as a giving app and still leads with it. Giving is free to set up, with no monthly or setup fees; you pay processing on each gift (credit and debit 2.9% + $0.30, ACH 1% + $0.30, Amex 3.5% + $0.30), and donors can choose to cover the fees. The Website plan is listed at $19 a month. All Access, at $119 a month, bundles giving, church management, the custom app, the website, volunteer scheduling, member directories and worship planning. Text-to-give costs $19 a month on the free giving plan and is included in All Access. Every plan has a 30-day free trial.
Who it's for: churches that want giving and a site from one vendor at the lowest monthly cost. Limits: the pricing page doesn't say whether the $19 Website price is billed monthly or yearly, so confirm before you budget.
2. The Church Co – setup done for you
The Church Co sells the build as much as the software. Basic is $29 a month billed yearly ($348 a year) or $34 month to month, and includes unlimited pages, a sermon and media library, an events manager, online giving and forms. Premium ($49 a month billed yearly, $57 monthly) adds a members portal and directory, a digital prayer wall, small groups and Church Online. Ultimate ($199 billed yearly, $232 monthly) adds a custom app and a fully managed service.
Setup is a one-time fee unless you pay yearly. The Simple package (up to 9 pages) is free with a yearly plan; Essentials is $299, Tailored $799 and Custom $999, the last two including initial SEO configuration. There's a 14-day free period.
Who it's for: churches without a volunteer who wants to build the site. Limits: the pricing page doesn't publish its giving processing rates.
3. Nucleus – polished, but giving costs extra
Nucleus has three plans. Essential, $65 a month, covers the website, The Launcher (a menu of next steps on every page), prayer requests, guided forms called Flows and a people database. Standard, $99, adds sermons, posts and messaging. Complete, $199, adds Nucleus Giving and media. There are no contracts and every plan has a 15-day free trial.
The giving terms are the cleanest here: no Nucleus markup, 2.3% on card gifts and a flat $0.25 on bank (ACH) gifts, with the card cost shown to givers by default. It's available only to churches in the United States.
Who it's for: churches that want a modern site where every page pushes a next step. Limits: sermons need Standard and giving needs Complete, so the $65 headline rarely holds for a typical church.
4. Squarespace – best-looking general builder
Squarespace isn't church software, but its templates make a small congregation look established. There's a 14-day free trial and no free plan, annual plans include a free domain for the first year, and prices vary by country. Donations run through its commerce tools: Basic charges a 2% transaction fee on products, services and donations, and Core and above charge 0% (payment processing still applies).
Who it's for: churches with a volunteer who cares about design. Limits: no sermon library, giving statements or volunteer tools built for churches.
5. Wix – most layout freedom
Wix is free to start, with Wix ads and a wixsite.com address on the free plan; a custom domain and ad removal need a paid plan, and accepting payments starts on Core. Its plans page lists an AI website builder and scheduling and services on Core and above, which can stand in for event registration. Prices vary by location.
Who it's for: churches that want to place every element themselves. Limits: giving, sermons and volunteers are assembled from separate apps.
6. WordPress.com – lowest subscription, highest giving cut
WordPress.com has a free plan with WordPress.com ads, a subdomain and 1 GB of storage. Personal is $4 a month billed yearly ($9 monthly) or $2.75 a month on a 3-year term, and adds a custom domain free for the first year. Payment fees fall as plans rise: 10% on Free, 8% on Personal, 4% on Premium, 2% on Business and 0% on Commerce, plus standard processing.
Who it's for: churches that need a simple site and give through a separate tool. Limits: taking donations on Personal costs more in fees than almost any church platform.
7. Greta.sh – build what the templates can't
Greta.sh isn't a church template. You describe the site and the tools behind it in plain English, and it builds a web app with a database, logins and payments. More on when that's worth it below.
What do church websites really cost over 3 years?
Take a church that receives $2,000 a month in card gifts online, averaging $50 a gift (40 gifts a month). Here's the three-year bill, using each vendor's listed prices:
- Tithe.ly Website: $19 × 36 months = $684. Card fees at 2.9% + $0.30 come to $70 a month, or $2,520 over three years, unless donors cover them.
- The Church Co Basic: $348 × 3 = $1,044, with free setup on yearly billing. Paying monthly with the $299 Essentials setup: $1,224 + $299 = $1,523. Giving fees aren't published, so add your processor's rate.
- Nucleus Complete: $199 × 36 = $7,164. Card fees at 2.3% are $46 a month, or $1,656 over three years, and that's before counting how many givers switch to the $0.25 bank option.
- WordPress.com Personal: $99 on the 3-year term. The 8% transaction fee on $2,000 a month is $160 a month, or $5,760 over three years, before processing.
The pattern is easy to miss on a pricing page. The cheapest subscription is the most expensive way to take donations, because a percentage of every gift outgrows a flat fee fast. At this giving level, a church platform with free or low-fee giving beats a general builder on total cost even when its monthly price is higher.
Two cautions. Both Tithe.ly and Nucleus let givers pay the processing cost, so your share depends on how many do. And re-run the sums with your own giving figure: at $300 a month in online gifts, WordPress.com's percentage is $24 a month and the answer changes.
Is there a free church website builder?
Yes, with real limits. WordPress.com and Wix both have free plans, but each shows the platform's ads on a subdomain address, which looks out of place on a church's front door. Tithe.ly's giving is free with no monthly fee, but that's a giving page, not a website. The Church Co's "we build it for free" means free setup on a yearly plan, not a free site.
If you mainly need somewhere to post sermon notes and news, a free blog may be enough; our free blogging platform comparison covers which ones allow your own domain at no cost.
Registered charities can also check Google for Nonprofits. It doesn't build websites, but it gives eligible organizations access to programs such as Ad Grants, and Google's help page says a church covered by a parent organization's group exemption may still qualify as a separate branch.
Got an idea? Build it now!
Just start with a simple prompt. No coding required: Greta.sh turns your idea into a working app in minutes.
When you want something the templates can't do
Start with the honest point: the church platforms above already cover a lot. Tithe.ly's All Access includes volunteer scheduling and member directories, Nucleus has a prayer wall with private team inboxes, and The Church Co's Premium plan adds a members portal. If those match how your church works, buy one and spend the time on people.
Build when your rules don't fit their settings. A nursery rota that needs two approved adults per room and refuses a sign-up that would leave one. A member directory where each family chooses which details other members see. Prayer requests routed to the pastor for each congregation in a multi-site church, never into a shared inbox. These are app features, and describing them to Greta.sh gets a working version: "volunteers sign up for Sunday slots, the nursery needs two cleared adults per room, and leaders see gaps for the next four weeks." For the scheduling logic underneath, our booking and scheduling app guide covers time slots and double-booking, and our membership site builder comparison helps decide when a members area is really software. If giving is the priority, the donation platform guide covers recurring gifts and receipts.
On pricing, Greta.sh's Free plan gives you 5 credits a day to build; deployment and a custom domain start on Starter, at $5 a month on the welcome offer (normally $20 a month). The trade-off is ownership in both senses: the app is yours, and so is keeping its rules current. It's the same line we drew for wedding websites: templates for the pages, a build for the logic.
FAQ
How much does a church website cost?
From $0 on WordPress.com or Wix free plans (with ads) to about $19 to $199 a month on church platforms, as of October 2026. Tithe.ly's Website plan is listed at $19 a month, The Church Co Basic is $29 a month billed yearly, and Nucleus runs from $65 to $199. Add giving fees and any one-time setup, such as The Church Co's $299 to $999 packages.
Is there a free church website builder?
WordPress.com and Wix have free plans, but both show their own ads on a subdomain address. Tithe.ly's giving is free apart from processing fees, but you need a paid plan for the website itself.
What's the cheapest way to take online giving?
Of the church platforms checked, Nucleus has the lowest listed rates (2.3% on cards, $0.25 on bank gifts) but only on its $199 Complete plan. Tithe.ly charges no monthly fee for giving, with card gifts at 2.9% + $0.30 and ACH at 1% + $0.30. On both, givers can cover the cost.
What should a church website include?
Service times and location on the home page, sermons, online giving, an events calendar, volunteer sign-up, livestream access and a contact or prayer-request form. Check which plan includes each one, because sermons and giving are often a tier up.
Can I build a church website with AI?
Yes. Wix lists an AI website builder that goes from a prompt to a site, WordPress.com offers a guided builder you chat with, and The Church Co's Ultimate plan includes AI sermon transcription. For custom tools such as volunteer rotas or a member directory, an AI app builder like Greta.sh builds the whole web app from a plain-English description.
Choose with your giving numbers
Before you sign up, take last year's online giving, run it through each platform's fees, and add three years of subscription and setup. The answer is often a different tool from the one with the lowest monthly price. If your church needs tools no template offers, compare Greta.sh plans.
