A few years ago, building a website meant finding and hiring a professional web developer to get the job done. It could cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars and making any changes or updates to the site construction would be burdensome and costly. If you were in the market to build a new website for your church, then this was intimidating and frustrating.
Today in 2017, things are a lot different. Website builders have come a long way. Building your own website has never been easier. No longer does your church need to lay down a huge chunk of cash and wait months for a new outsourced website. Now you can have a new website up and running in less than 10 minutes.
My number one recommendation for building a church website is Squarespace. I have been designing websites with Squarespace for over 5 years. I am continually blown away with how easy they make it to create a professional website that meets all of the latest design trends. A lot of website builder companies have come and gone. There are even companies dedicated to being website builders for the church. Unfortunately, their features pale in comparison to Squarespace. Over the past decade, Squarespace has proven itself as a business and dominates the website builder market. Here are 5 reasons why it is the best website builder for your church.
Reason #1 - Easy to use
I personally feel that every pastor needs to understand basic web design. It’s the modern day version of the printing press. If you consider yourself a communicator, you must understand how to build and maintain a website. Squarespace is perfect for this because you do not need to learn how to code. It is so intuitive that you could just learn as you go or simply spend a few minutes watching some basic tutorial videos. I always like to say, if you have the capability of logging into Gmail to check your email or Facebook to make a status update, then you have all the technical capability you need to build a website with Squarespace.
Reason #2 - Beautiful design
Squarespace dominates the website builder world when it comes to beautiful templates that meet all of the latest design trends. You never have to worry about whether or not your website is out of date because Squarespace does all the hard work to keep things fresh. They are regularly coming out with new templates and refining older ones. If you decide to update your template to a whole new look within Squarespace, it takes only a few minutes to accomplish.
Reason #3 - Automatic Mobile Optimization
All of Squarespace’s templates come with mobile optimization built in. You do not need to edit a separate version of your website in mobile. I would even argue that having a website on Squarespace completely eliminates the need for a church app since the user experience of Squarespace in mobile is better than most apps.
Reason #4 - Easy integration with ministry tools
If you need online giving, event registration, other forms on your website, Squarespace makes it extremely easy to do, especially if you use church management software like Planning Center. If you need to host sermons on your website, embedding your sermon podcast player or video player takes seconds.
Reason #5 - Low Cost
Churches should not skimp on their digital communications budget, but the reality is cost is always a factor. With Squarespace you have the most powerful website builder at an insanely low cost. Depending on the size of your site, a month-to-month subscription costs only $16-$26 a month. You do not pay any large setup fees and you can cancel at any time. If your church cannot afford that, you have some bigger issues to deal with.
I could go on about why Squarespace is the best website builder for your church, regardless of size. I have seen too many churches both large and small waste thousands of dollars outsourcing web development and ending up with sites that may look cool but they have terrible user experience. Do not waste your time and your church’s money. Build your church website using Squarespace.
P.S - This is not a paid endorsement of Squarespace. I am just passionate about churches making the right choice with their online communications.