Service times a visitor can find in five seconds, directions that open on a phone, this week's message, the calendar, a giving link and a real person to contact — from $999, with the copy written for you and everything in the church's name.
A church website has two readers. A visitor wants to know when you meet, where, what to expect and who to ask. A member wants this week's message, the calendar and the giving link. Neither is complicated. Church sites go wrong by being out of date, by hiding the service times in a PDF, and by being built by a volunteer who has since moved away. We build church websites in Grand Rapids at a fixed price from $999, write the copy from one call, and register everything in the church's name so the site does not depend on us or on anyone else.
On the first screen, in text, with the seasonal changes stated. Not in a poster image, not in a PDF, not only on a social media post.
The address linked so it opens in a phone's map app, plus the things a first-time visitor worries about: where to park and which door.
Sermons or messages embedded from wherever you already publish them, so the site shows the latest one without anyone uploading a file.
A clear link to the giving provider the church chooses. The provider is a third party; more on that below, because it is the part most designers gloss over.
A calendar or a plain list, whichever the church will actually keep current, with the next few things first.
A name, a phone number that dials on a tap, an email that reaches a person, and a short form tested end to end into the office inbox.
Someone new to the area, or new to church, is deciding whether to come on Sunday. The first thing they see should be the service times and the address, in text a phone can read aloud and a search engine can index. A page that opens with a slogan and a full-screen photograph, with the times three scrolls down, loses the person the site exists for.
How long the service runs, what happens with children, what people wear, whether there is coffee, and what to expect if you have never been. This is the page that turns a search into a visit, and it is the one most church sites do not have. On the Starter package it is usually the second of the three pages.
If your messages are already on a video platform or a podcast host, the site embeds them from there. That keeps the site fast, keeps the church's existing audience where it is, and means the newest message appears without anyone touching the site. Video hosting is a third-party service and its fees, if any, are the church's; we do not host or edit video.
A giving link belongs in the header and on its own short page that says what the money goes to. Events need an owner: a site that lists a Christmas Eve time from two years ago is worse than one that lists nothing, because the reader no longer trusts anything on it. We say below who updates what.
Small groups, youth, music, outreach, and the staff and leadership with a face and a name. These are what push a church from three pages to five or eight, which is the line between the two packages.
Congregations include people who read on a phone at arm's length and people who navigate with a keyboard. Readable text sizes, contrast that holds up, and tap targets big enough for a thumb are part of how we build, and the accessibility page lists exactly which of those we test on the pages we publish, and what we cannot promise.
Online giving runs through a provider the church chooses — a giving platform or a payment processor with its own account, its own fees, and its own receipts and year-end statements. We do not process donations, hold funds, or sit anywhere in that flow. What we build is the connection: a link, a button, or an embedded form the provider supplies, placed where members will find it and tested so it opens the right thing.
Two practical consequences. First, the provider's subscription or transaction fees are the church's, the same as any paid app you ask us to connect; they are not part of our price and we will not pretend they are. Second, the choice of provider is the church's to make, with its own treasurer and its own bank, and we will say plainly when a question about fees, receipts or tax statements is one for the provider rather than for a web designer.
Two of the three website packages fit most churches. The full cards are on the web design page; this is how they map to a congregation.
Up to three pages, mobile-first: a home page with the service times, address and the latest message; a "new here" page; and a contact page with a form and click-to-call. On-page SEO and Google setup are included, so the church's Google Business Profile — the listing that shows on the map when someone searches nearby — points at a site that agrees with it. Right for a congregation that needs to be findable and current and does not need a page per ministry.
It can be paid as $149 a month for twelve months instead of $999 up front. At the twelfth payment the site is yours outright and the payments stop; hosting, updates and edits are included the whole time. If you stop early the site comes down, we hold it for 90 days, and the buy-out stays open. Paying up front is cheaper — $999 once against $1,788 over a year — and the monthly plan exists so that price is not the reason a church waits, not because it is the better deal.
Five to eight custom pages with copywriting, on-page SEO, local schema, reviews and analytics. For a church that is ministries, groups, events, messages, giving, leadership and contact — each with its own page so each can be found on its own. Half now, half at launch.
A custom tool is rarely what a church needs, and we will say so rather than sell one. It exists for the case where it is — a room or event booking tool, for instance — and pairs everything in Business with one tool built for that job.
Managed hosting and security, monthly edits and updates, uptime and performance monitoring. Optional; see "keeping it current" below for the alternatives.
We write the copy; you do not hand us finished text and hope. Three rounds of revisions are included, and anything after that is quoted before a minute of work happens. A fixed price and a date in writing before you commit, and no hourly meter. The church owns all of it at the end: code, content, domain, accounts. Cancellation before work starts is a full refund of the deposit; after work starts you pay only for work done. The affordable web design page goes through what the cheapest package does and does not include, and what Grand Rapids web designers charge puts these prices against published local rates.
Photography and logo design. Most churches already have a logo; if yours does not, logo work is quoted separately. For photographs, you supply them or we use stock. Real photographs of your own building and your own congregation do more than any stock image, and getting a few is the one piece of homework we will ask for. Domain and third-party fees: the domain name, the giving provider, video hosting, and any paid app you ask us to connect. Hosting after launch, unless you take a care plan; a static site can be handed to you to host free, which is worth knowing on a church budget.
The failure mode of church websites is not design. It is the site nobody can change after the person who built it moved away. So the site is registered in the church's name, and there are three ways to keep it current, chosen before launch rather than discovered after.
You do it. Changes after launch are yours to make, and we show you how. Service times, an event, a new message link: small edits a church administrator can make. We do it. The care plan from $199 a month covers hosting, security, monitoring and monthly change requests, so the office emails the change and it is done. Or it is already covered. On the $149-a-month plan, hosting, updates and edits are included for the whole twelve months.
Whichever you choose, the message embed and the giving link are built so they need no upkeep: the newest message appears on its own, and the giving page is the provider's to run.
Website projects rarely stall on design or code. They stall waiting on photos and copy, and a church project has a second hazard: a committee of six, each with a note. Our article on why website projects stall explains the first problem and how we invert the process so it cannot happen: one recorded 20-minute call, then we write the whole site from it and from what you already have. Nobody fills in a content planner.
The second problem has a plain answer. Three rounds of revisions are included, and feedback is given by clicking on the draft and typing, so a committee can comment in one place rather than by forwarding emails. Decide before the first call who signs off, and the three rounds are enough. How long a website should take says where the weeks go on a typical project, and the answer is the same for a church as for a business. The engineering that makes the site fast and the form arrive is on the web development page.
One call with whoever speaks for the church, a written proposal, a draft to comment on, and a handover in the church's name.
Twenty minutes with the pastor, the administrator, or whoever will sign off. You describe the church; we keep the recording so nothing is lost.
Scope, price and a date, in writing. 50% to start, or the monthly plan on a Starter site.
Click anywhere on the draft and type. Three rounds of revisions are included.
Domain, hosting and logins registered to the church from day one, with a walk-through of how to make changes. 50% on launch.
Yes. The build happens over a call and a shared link, so a church in Rockford, Holland or Kalamazoo gets the same site as one downtown; the town changes the local search setup, not the work. The work is done remotely for anyone in the United States. There are separate pages for Kent County and West Michigan.
Yes. Changes after launch are either yours to make — we show you how — or covered by the care plan from $199 a month, which includes monthly edits. On the $149-a-month plan, hosting, updates and edits are included for the whole twelve months.
We connect the site to the giving provider the church chooses, as a link or an embedded form the provider supplies. The provider is a third party: its fees, its receipts and its year-end statements are between the church and the provider, and we do not process donations ourselves.
Yes. Domain, hosting, code, content and every login are registered in the church's name from day one. If a volunteer leaves or you change designers, nothing goes with them. A static site can be handed to you to host free.
On the Starter site, yes: $149 a month for twelve months, then the payments stop and the site is yours outright. If you stop before then the site comes down, we hold it for 90 days, and you can buy out the remaining balance at any time. Paying up front is cheaper: $999 once against $1,788 over a year.
Tell me the church, the service times, and who will look after the site. I'll tell you which package fits, what it costs in writing, and what you can leave out.