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Church Websites

There are lots of ways to create church websites. Used to be that you had to know HTML code and you had to know how to use the web design software. Now a days you don’t even need software….

Software for Web Editing:

Some of the more popular software used by churches to edit their websites….

  • Microsoft FrontPage:
    • PRO: familiar Microsoft Office interface, visual editing.
    • CON: the look can be a bit “clunky”.
  • iWeb:
    • PRO: easy to use, good-looking templates.
    • CON: Mac only, have to use built-in templates, which are limited.
  • Dreamweaver:
    • PRO: powerful, both visual editing and code-based if need.
    • CON: learning curve can be steep, expensive.

Online Web Editors

Online editors take a bit of set up time, but once set up they have the advantage of being able to be edited by many different users and any computer that has a web browser

  • WordPress:
    • A popular blogging platform. Lots of add-ons make it very customizable.
    • PRO: very customizable, easy to share editing abilities with many users, free.
    • CON: takes some time to set up and customize, can be confusing if editors are not familiar with how to “blog”, not a true CMS (Content Managed System)
    • Churches that use WordPress:
  • Joomla:
    • A popular CMS (Content Managed System) platfrom
    • PRO: customizable, allows many users to edit site content, a true CMS in that content can be managed in various ways (not simply like a blog), free.
    • CON: takes time to set up and customize, can be more difficult to maintain that WordPress
    • Churches that use Joomla:
  • Google Sites:
    • A web hosting service provided by Google. Any Google account can set up the “Pages” service and begin creating and hosting web pages.
    • PRO: easy to set up and maintain, free.
    • CON: templates are limited, have a cookie-cutter feel, and no ability to customize with add-ons.
  • Clover:
    • A Flash-based online web editor, originally targeted only for churches (as of 2010 they now market to any business)
    • PRO: looks very nice, very easy to use, no maintenance involved, includes a mobile version of site
    • CON: expensive ($1000 to start up, then $20/month), Flash-based site has typical Flash drawbacks (unable to search site for example, site is not as usable by disabled users), stuck with limitations of template (ex: titles can only be so long, and title casing is predetermined), can only have 80 pages of content, really requires good knowledge of Photoshop to create a good site (all their demos they use to attract customers are packed with Photoshopped images), no ability to customize with add-ons, promote themselves as a simple CMS, but due to low page limit of only 80 pages and the inability to take a page offline without deleting, it makes for a very poor CMS.
    • Churches that use Cloversite:

Resources for Creating Your Church Website

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