Whether you are just starting to build your first church website, or you are rebuilding and refreshing a current site, WordPress is a great solution. But there are so many different options for building your church website. You can choose a simple WordPress theme that just gives your site a nice look and feel, or you can pick something more comprehensive, that includes features such as sermon management and an events calendar.
In this article, we will take a look at several different free or cheap WordPress church themes, and compare them based on look and functionality. All of these are hand picked and are the best of the best options out there.
Take a look at them, and let us know what you think.
Pros | Cons |
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has many customization options
has map integration |
may require additional plugins |
We start with our own theme, MyChurch. We created MyChurch as a free option for churches that need church-specific functionality, but can't afford to buy one of the more expensive options. This theme integrates with the free Church Content plugin by ChurchThemes, providing sermons, locations, people, uploads, and more.
The theme is easy to use, mobile friendly, responsive, and best of all: free. It's definitely worth checking out! (And you'll make us happy!)
Pros | Cons |
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is for advanced users
is popular icons 2 column |
may require setup support |
Endurance is an elegant theme created by ilovewp.com. In addition to being clean and contemporary, Endurance is one of our favorite themes because it is SEO optimized, attractive, and skinable.
This theme makes a great choice for a church website because it offers an events box, a donate link, and related images. Endurance is free and doesn't come with any support, so it may require some effort for beginners. Additional stuff included with Endurance are icons, background images, and fonts. Endurance is mobile friendly.
Although it is may require setup support, Endurance will definitely be a excellent complement to your church website.
Pros | Cons |
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is SEO optimized
is mobile friendly is for advanced users background images |
complicated to install |
This theme is titled Charity, and it is offered by Themeshopy. It's designed for an NGO, but it works well for a church because it offers tons of customizations, donation functionality, and additional widgets. Additionally, Charity is SEO optimized, is skinable, and includes multiple layouts.
Additional stuff included with this theme are icons, background images, fonts, a slider plugin, and custom widgets. The free version of Charity is geared toward more advanced users, because it doesn't offer support, and may require some effort for beginners. Charity works well on tablets and mobile devices. It's also translation ready.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
includes multiple layouts | may require setup support |
This theme is titled Faith, and it is also created by ilovewp. This theme is designed for a church, and it offers a volunteer page, a donation link, and several church-related page templates.
We liked it since it is refined and professional. Some of the noteworthy features of Faith include: it is SEO optimized, and includes multiple layouts.
Some of the things that come with Faith are icons, background images, and fonts. This theme is simple to configure, although it does not include support. Faith is mobile friendly.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
is mobile friendly
is popular a slider plugin |
may require setup support |
GivingPress Lite is a good looking theme made by Organic Themes. In addition to being professional and clean, GivingPress Lite is a great theme because it has many customization options, is SEO optimized, offers multiple color choices, is skinable, and includes multiple layouts.
Although GivingPress Lite isn't designed specifically for churches, the theme makes for a great church website because it offers donations, plenty of church related page layouts, and pforessional images.
GivingPress Lite is popular with a large user base, so it is quick and easy to obtain help and support. This theme is a breeze to set up, but doesn't come with support. Some of the things that come with this theme are icons, fonts, a slider plugin, and Retina images. GivingPress Lite is mobile friendly. It is also multilingual.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
includes plugins
is popular |
not free |
This theme is called Salvation, and you can find it from MyThemeShop. This theme makes a excellent choice for a church website because it has a complete PayPal donation widget, an event management system, an audio player for sermons, and 24/7 tech support. While it's not totally free, it is pretty inexpensive.
Some of the major features of Salvation are that it includes plugins, provides built in search, has many customization options, is SEO optimized, has a drag and drop builder, is skinable, integrates with social media, offers free suppport, and includes multiple layouts.
Included with this theme are icons, background images, fonts, a slider plugin, custom widgets, and AJAX functionality. This theme is simple to configure and a snap to use. Salvation enjoys a large user base, so it is quick and easy to find help and support. Salvation looks great on mobile.
The drawbacks of Salvation are that it is not free. Nevertheless, this theme is a perfect option for your church website.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
includes plugins
has many customization options is SEO optimized is mobile friendly icons background images demos |
not free |
Prayer is an attention grabbing theme from CSSIgniter. In addition to being appealing, Prayer is one of our favorite themes because it includes plugins, has many customization options, is SEO optimized, has a 1-click install process, offers free suppport, and includes multiple layouts.
This theme makes a perfect choice for a church website because it offers a complete "sermon management" system, custom widgets, and social integration. This theme is easy to set up and a snap to use. Some of the things that come with this theme are icons, background images, fonts, custom widgets, and demos. Prayer works well on tablets and mobile devices.
Although it is not free (it's pretty inexpensive, though), we chose Prayer due to the fact that it is attractive. We're certain it'll be a great addition to your website.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
is skinable
includes multiple layouts custom widgets demos |
not free |
Our Church isn't totally free, but it costs about the same as a few cups of coffee. Our Church is one of our favorite themes for churches because it gives you the full support and additional plugins of a top premium theme, but it costs almost nothing.
Our Church includes plugins, has many customization options, is SEO optimized, has map integration, has a 1-click install process, is skinable, offers free suppport, and includes multiple layouts.
This theme makes a perfect choice for a church website because it offers sermons, an events calendar, donations, and mapping. This theme is easy to configure and easy to use. Some of the things that come with Our Church are icons, background images, fonts, a slider plugin, custom widgets, and demos. Our Church also works well on tablets and mobile devices.
Other Themes To Check Out
The themes below didn't make our list because they don't directly fit the topic, but they definitely warrant a look.
Pros | Cons |
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includes plugins
provides built in search has many customization options has a drag and drop builder icons custom widgets AJAX functionality |
more expensive than average
not free |
This theme is titled Saved, and you can find it from Church Themes. This theme, and the three that follow, are part of the premium Church Themes collection. These themes have everything you could possibly want in a church WordPress site.
Some of the amazing features: a built in visual design tool, sermon management, event management, multiple locations, staff management, built in podcasting, custom fonts, sermon (and other) archives, permission management, and much more.
This theme is fashionable and highly reviewed. It also includes plugins, provides built in search, has many customization options, has map integration, has a drag and drop builder, has a 1-click install process, offers multiple color choices, is skinable, integrates with social media, offers free suppport, and includes multiple layouts.
Additional stuff included with Saved are icons, background images, fonts, a slider plugin, custom widgets, AJAX functionality, and demos. Saved is popular with a large user base, so it is easy to get help and support. This theme is simple to configure and painless to use. Saved works well on tablets and mobile devices. It is also multilingual.
The drawbacks of Saved and its two sister themes are that it is more expensive than average.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
includes plugins
offers multiple color choices integrates with social media includes multiple layouts is mobile friendly is multilingual a slider plugin custom widgets |
more expensive than average
not free |
This theme is also from Church Themes. Like Saved, this theme, is part of the premium Church Themes collection.
Some of the amazing features included with Maranatha: a built in visual design tool, sermon management, event management, multiple locations, staff management, built in podcasting, custom fonts, sermon (and other) archives, permission management, and much more.
This theme gets top reviews and includes icons, background images, fonts, a slider plugin, custom widgets, AJAX functionality, and demos. Saved is popular with a large user base, so it is easy to get help and support. Like its siblings, it includes support, and works on desktops, mobile, and tablets.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
has a drag and drop builder
has a 1-click install process is skinable is popular a slider plugin AJAX functionality demos |
more expensive than average
not free |
Exodus is another theme from Church Themes. It has all of the same functionality of the two themes above, but the look is somewhat different. See above for more details about this theme.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
includes plugins
has map integration has a 1-click install process integrates with social media offers free suppport is popular is highly reviewed is easy to use icons background images custom widgets |
more expensive than average
not free |
This is another theme from Church Themes. It has all of the same functionality of the themes above, but the look is "urban-inspired". See above for more details about this theme.