How Much Should A Church Website Cost?
Cost is a serious issue for the stewards of God’s resources. Churches must carefully weigh the benefits of having a website and the amount of money they’ll spend to have it. Make sure your site is worth it. This article will give you a few practical pointers on what you should (and shouldn’t) be paying for.
How much should you spend?
Too Much
Some people try to solve problems by throwing money at them. Don’t throw money away by overpaying for a website. Sure, you might get a great looking site, but is it really worth $99+ a month?
Ongoing monthly payments aren’t necessary. If you’re paying to use a Content Management System (CMS), you’re paying too much. (Try WordPress, it’s free!) The only necessary monthly payments go to server space for hosting on your domain.
Too Little
When asked how much to spend on a site, some ministries say, “As little as possible.” Although a church can save a lot of money by finding free resources and doing a lot of the work on their own, some skimp to the point that they end up with substandard websites.
It’s worth investing some time and money into your site’s design. For instance, if you’re using WordPress, you should probably invest in purchasing a theme (although it is possible to find some great free themes). If you’re not a web designer, you probably shouldn’t build your own site from scratch. And you should pay for your hosting; don’t have a free site hosted with advertisements.
Enough
We all know that you get what you pay for. Be prepared to spend some money on your site, but consider it an investment. On the other hand, just because you spend a lot of money in your site it doesn’t mean you increase your return on investment.
You can know you’ve spent enough on your site when you have a site that helps your visitors find the information they are looking for in a simple and attractive manner. Find ways to save your money for ministry, but don’t skimp on your site’s design, either.
Like so much in life, the cost of a church website is all about moderation, finding the happy medium between being stingy and being extravagant.
Hard Numbers
To put it very briefly, you can have an attractive website for under $200 for the entire first year if you use WordPress. This includes hosting, CMS and design (also called a theme). You can easily save more than $1000 a year if you do the work to set it up.
What’s it Worth to You?
As I’ve said before, we’re convinced that WordPress is the best option for churches, not just because we’ve chosen to build our business upon it, but rather because it is so powerful and affordable. Even if you choose not to use WP, make sure you’re getting your money’s worth out of your site.
Be a good steward of God’s money!
3 Responses to “How Much Should A Church Website Cost?”
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I totally agree. I’m always surprised when I hear that websites, particularly if they’re from smaller churches, have spent thousands of dollars to get a website going. I think the “technical” part of installing a theme and that sort of thing perhaps scares people, but it’s so much easier then people think.
Yeah, and these themes look great. They’re much better looking than a lot of premium themes I’ve seen and church sites that I’ve seen. No need to spend money which can be used to help others.
Another good thing to mention about hosting, DreamHost has free hosting for registered 501(c)(3) non-profits. We just switched over to them from Brinkster and their uptime and quality is so much better. All around, I think they are the best host for churches.