Church Website Hosting & Platforms

Show the active life of your church

Give someone clear ownership of weekly updates. Remove expired announcements, check service times and forms, and show recent photos of ministries in action. A person who understands both design and everyday editing can make those updates fit together instead of letting the site become a collection of old flyers.

Try it on a phone

Ask a younger visitor and an older member to find worship times, directions and children’s information from their own phones. Use readable type, clear buttons and familiar labels. Pay attention to where people pause or have to zoom.

Write down the weekly edits

List the tasks a staff member will actually do: change service times, add events, publish a sermon and replace a photo. Ask the person who will maintain the site to try those edits in a demo.

Compare the operating models

A hosted visual builder can simplify routine editing. A managed WordPress setup can offer flexibility with an assigned maintenance owner. A custom site can fit specific design needs when a developer handles updates and integrations. Compare total cost including support, renewals and migration.

What should a church budget for?

U.S. budget examples checked November 2026. Confirm renewal rates, billing terms, taxes and eligibility before buying. Keep the domain, website hosting, staff email, file storage and congregation-wide messaging as separate budget lines, even when a provider bundles them.

• Domain. This is the web address people type and the part after @ in staff email. Set aside roughly $15–$30 per year for a standard .com or .org renewal as a planning allowance. Premium names and some extensions can cost more. Check the regular renewal alongside the first-year offer. Compare registrar pricing.
• Website hosting. This serves the website at that address. As a planning allowance, start with $15–$40 per month for a straightforward hosted church site, before design, maintenance or paid add-ons. Ask whether the price includes forms, backups and support.
• Google Workspace. Business Starter is about $7 per user per month with annual commitment, with custom-domain Gmail and 30 GB of pooled storage per seat. Business Standard adds 2 TB of pooled storage per seat. Use Google Drive for files and review eligible nonprofit offers before budgeting. Google Workspace plans.
• Microsoft 365. Business Basic combines custom-domain Outlook email with OneDrive storage and web apps. Budget roughly $6–$8 per user per month as an allowance and check the current billing term. Use OneDrive for individual working files and a team-owned SharePoint library for shared archives. Microsoft business plans.
• Proton Mail. Mail Essentials supports custom-domain email and includes 15 GB of storage per user. For early budgeting, reserve roughly $7–$10 per seat per month and confirm your billing term. Compare Proton Workspace if the team also needs shared file collaboration. Proton business plans.

Buy seats for the people who need their own login. An address like office@ may be an alias or a shared inbox, depending on how staff need to use it. Keep bulletin templates, graphics and event photos in church-controlled storage so the next volunteer can find them. If the suite already includes enough storage, you can budget $0 for a separate storage subscription.

Keep control of the essentials

Document ownership of the domain, hosting, admin accounts and content. Before switching, export or back up content, map old URLs to new ones, and test forms, giving links and mobile navigation.

Frequently asked question

What should the homepage show first?

Make worship times, address and what to expect easy to find on a phone. Give visitors a direct path to directions, children’s information and a human contact.