So far we've talked about the goals of a church website and why it should be a living part of your ministry rather than a brochure on the side. Now it's time to get practical. Today we're going to talk about where your website will actually live.
Choosing a platform is one of the most important decisions you'll make in this whole course. It's a bit like choosing a building for your congregation. The right one makes everything easier: welcoming people, making changes, growing over time. The wrong one can leave you frustrated, stuck with a site only one person knows how to update, or paying for features you'll never use.
The good news is that you don't need to evaluate dozens of options or understand code. For most churches building their own site, the decision comes down to a few simple questions, and a handful of trustworthy platforms. Let's walk through them together.
What Is a Platform, Anyway?
A website platform (sometimes called a website builder) is the service that holds your website, shows it to the world, and gives you the tools to change it. Think of it as the land, the building, and the toolbox all rolled into one. You pay a monthly or yearly fee, and the platform takes care of the technical side: keeping the site online, keeping it secure, and making sure it works on phones.
For a church building its own site, the single most important feature to look for is a WYSIWYG editor. That funny-looking word stands for "What You See Is What You Get." It simply means that while you're editing your website, it looks just like it will when visitors see it. There's no code and no guessing.
Most WYSIWYG builders also use drag and drop. Want a photo on the homepage? Drag it there. Want to move your service times above the welcome message? Click, drag, done. If you've ever made a flyer in Microsoft Word or Canva, you already understand the basic idea.
Why does this matter so much for churches? Because the person who builds your website probably won't be the only person who updates it. A WYSIWYG editor means your church secretary, youth pastor, or a volunteer can make changes without calling the "computer person." That's exactly what keeps a website current, and as we learned last lesson, current is what turns a brochure into a ministry.
What to Look For in a Church Website Platform
There are a lot of shiny features out there, but for a church doing it themselves, only a handful really matter. Here's your checklist.
A true drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG editor. If you have to touch code to change a photo, keep looking.
Mobile-friendly templates. Every page should automatically look good on a phone, without extra work from you.
Hosting, security, and updates included. The platform should handle the technical upkeep so your volunteers don't have to.
Multiple editors. You should be able to give several people their own logins, so the site never depends on one person.
Good templates to start from. A clean, professional starting design saves you hours and keeps the site looking polished.
The church basics. Look for easy ways to add events, a contact form, a map, sermon audio or video, and online giving (either built in or through a service you already use).
Honest, predictable pricing. Know what you'll pay each year, including the domain name and any fees on donations.
Real support. When something goes wrong on a Saturday night, you want help articles, tutorials, and a support team you can reach.
Notice that "has the most features" isn't on the list. A platform with a hundred features you'll never use just makes it harder to find the five you actually need.
Easy Drag-and-Drop Platforms Compared
The good news is that you don't need to look at dozens of builders. A small group of platforms are easy to manage, use a WYSIWYG editor, and are trusted by churches of every size. Here are the main ones worth considering.
Squarespace
Wix
Tithe.ly Sites
As well as more
Any of these can give you a good church website. The real differences come down to how much design help you want, how much freedom your volunteers can handle, and how polished you want the finished product to look.
Most of these platforms offer a free trial or a free plan, so you can try before you commit. We'll put that to good use in this lesson's action steps.
Church-Specific Builders, and What to Be Careful With
You'll also run into companies that build websites only for churches. Some of them are excellent, and they often include handy features like sermon libraries, prayer request forms, and built-in giving. They're worth a look, especially if you want an app and giving bundled with your site.
A few honest cautions, though:
Bundles can lock you in. When your website, app, and giving all come from one company, switching later is harder.
Designs can look alike. Because these platforms serve only churches, many sites built on them share a similar look.
There's also one option we generally steer do-it-yourself churches away from: self-hosted WordPress (the free software you install on your own hosting account). It's powerful, but someone at your church becomes responsible for security patches, plugin updates, and backups. If that volunteer moves away, the church can be stuck. It's a great tool for professional developers, but it's not the easiest path for a church team working on its own.
Our Recommendation: Squarespace
After weighing all of this, we recommend Squarespace as a strong platform for most churches building their own website. Here's why.
Squarespace sits in a sweet spot that's hard to find. On one hand, it's genuinely do-it-yourself friendly. Its drag-and-drop editor is clean and simple, and you can see your changes exactly as visitors will. A volunteer with no web experience can learn to update service times, add an event, or post a sermon in an afternoon.
On the other hand, it delivers a higher-quality result than most DIY tools. Squarespace is well known for its professional, modern templates, and its section-based design gently keeps your layout tidy. That means your site looks polished even if nobody on your team is a designer. It's much harder to accidentally create a cluttered or amateur-looking page.
It also checks the practical boxes from our list:
Hosting, security, and mobile-friendly design are all included.
You can add multiple contributors, so the website never depends on one person.
It has built-in tools for forms, events, and online donations.
There's a large library of help guides and tutorials for when you get stuck.
Is Squarespace perfect? No platform is. It doesn't come with church-specific tools built in, so you may connect an outside service for things like giving or sermon archives. We'll walk through exactly how to do that later in the course. But for a church that wants to do it themselves and end up with something they're proud of, Squarespace brings both worlds together better than anything else we've seen.
Full disclosure: I'm not paid by Squarespace, and I don't receive any commission or referral fee for recommending it. This recommendation is based only on what we've seen work well for churches.
Your Five Action Steps for This Lesson
Take a free test drive. Start a free trial on Squarespace and on one other platform from the comparison table. Spend 30 minutes in each editor and notice which one feels more natural.
Do the "volunteer test." Ask someone who isn't very tech-savvy to try changing a headline and swapping a photo in each trial. The platform they find easiest is probably the right fit for your team.
Score each option against the checklist. Use the "What to Look For" list in this lesson and give each platform a simple yes or no on every item.
Build a realistic yearly budget. Add up the plan price on yearly billing, the domain name, and any donation or card fees. Share the total with your church leadership or finance team.
Make the decision and write it down. Choose your platform, record who will own the account (the church, not an individual), and store the login somewhere at least two leaders can reach it.
