At Made By Dave we have designed countless websites for churches and Christian charities. Our clients span various denominations across the globe and include the likes of HTB, Alpha UK, Soul Survivor, Church Revitalisation Trust and the Diocese of St Albans. We well and truly believe that Squarespace is the best platform to support your church’s work, goals and ministry. Breaking away from the trusty 3 point sermon format, we discuss 7 reasons why Squarespace is the best website builder for churches… because - as you know - 7 is the number of perfection in The Bible!

Squarespace is at the forefront of website design. Their layouts have a contemporary, timeless feel due to their beautiful simplicity. They are clean (well thought out and not cluttered) making the navigation incredibly user-friendly. Moreover, they are always staying ahead of the latest trends by constantly adding new designs to their catalogue and updating existing ones. You never have to worry about your website looking out of date. With a few simple clicks, you can opt in to a new design and all the content and visuals of your current website will adapt to the selected format within minutes.

As discussed in our previous blog, Squarespace is geared toward the complete novice. Without the ability to use custom code, websites are limited to the templates provided and can start to feel the same. There are 3.1 million Squarespace designs out there on the world wide web and growing! You could argue that for a church, the primary aim is not to stand out and be a major player in cutting-edge design. Unlike the business world, you are not competing for clients - or rather - stealing congregation members. What you do want to put across is that you are a welcoming community with a defined mission and a set of values. A Squarespace Designer can help you create a bespoke website that truly embodies these principles and really represents the beating heart of your church!

Works on Mobile

When creating a website, part of the build process is to make sure it is compatible on multiple devices. Squarespace automatically does this; it has mobile optimisation built in. There is no need to pay more or spend time working on a separate mobile edition. Plus, the mobile versions are so good, that any need for an app is kind of made redundant. Put that collection money to good use elsewhere we say!

Easy to learn and use

We are well aware that for those who work for a church, the hours are long. Beyond your designated role, you have a jam-packed calendar of events that go on well into the evenings and weekends; Holy Week being the absolute pinnacle! You are also constantly creating space for the unpredictable pastoral needs of your congregation. Unless you are the church’s in-house web designer, spending hours working on or figuring out the website is just not where you want to be spending your time.

A majority of our church clients approached us because they were using a WordPress website which they found too difficult to manage. Squarespace websites are super easy to use and take care of after they have been built. Skimming the surface (like Jesus did, walking on water), the reason is due to the CMS which stands for Content Management System. As it says in its name, this is part of the system that allows you to manage your website's content. Squarespace has the edge with this. With its user-friendly, drag n’ drop, no-code platform editor, users can do tasks such as update pages, add photos or upload the latest church talks with ease. The overwhelming feedback from our clients is the massive difference it has made and the relief of not having to worry about keeping the themes, plugins, or maintenance up to date.

At Made By Dave, we want to empower and equip our clients to run and update their websites all by themselves. Training is provided over video call and usually won’t take more than 90 minutes. Your team will learn the ropes and become good stewards of your church’s website in no time. That said, our team is always on hand to provide any additional support as and when required.

Integrations of Ministry Tools

There do exist church specific platforms out there; the one-stop-shop and all-in-one package for ministry tools. On paper, it sounds great to be able to do all those things under one roof. However, if you are already utilising various social media apps and a separate Church Managing System (CMS) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, it can actually lead to a lot of duplication of tasks, time wasted and unnecessary costs incurred.

We have found that many churches use stalwarts of church administration such as ChurchSuite and Planning Center, in order to keep a record of all of their congregation members. Like Jonathan was to David, Squarespace can be a great friend and support to these aforementioned platforms. Their integration enables features that can really optimise and speed up processes within the life of the church. For example, take connect/home/small groups or whatever your church has named them. Information about these groups will be detailed within Churchsuite. You can make it super easy for congregation members to sign up to these groups by embedding a sign-up form straight to the website. You don’t have to manually process applications for those who cannot get their head around Churchsuite; you are centralising all information to the website. You also don’t have to keep tabs on group capacity as it will be updated in real-time.

Another snazzy feature is event registration. It is common practice for churches to display a calendar of events that are taking place on their website. With a Squarespace platform, you can easily embed event registration or sign-up forms - provided by the likes of Churchsuite - directly onto the website for members to fill out. Furthermore, it is also possible to filter specific information for events aimed at a particular demographic to feature on the relevant web pages i.e. youth or kids.

Squarespace is also a social butterfly! It is so easy to integrate your website with various social media platforms. Take sermons for example. You may want an online compendium of sermons. Rather than loading them to YouTube and then separately to your website, with Squarespace you can embed your YouTube videos directly onto your website. Your sermons have further reach, easier to analyse your data and you only have to upload once. Just like the bread and fish, you can make that software or memberships you are already paying for stretch that bit further!

Support

One of the benefits of going with Squarespace is that it is a big company. That means a large team of many developers dedicated to the continual improvement of the platform and the smooth running and hosting of your website. The reality is that problems can and will occur. You can be rest assured that a company with the sheer manpower and resources of Squarespace, will be a rock in times of trouble.

Low cost

Thou shalt not beat around the bush, churches are not exactly renowned for their endless source of funds. Upon first glance, Squarespace can seem quite expensive with its ‘hosting’ fee compared to other options on the market. But when you delve a little deeper, this price actually covers a multitude of things. Not only do you get the website in and of itself, you are: eligible for any software and security updates; permitted to use any of the new features continuously being rolled out; entitled to 24 hour customer support; and have access to a plethora of video tutorials at your fingertips. This is all covered in one neat monthly payment which makes budgeting and forecasting far easier. If you opt for the annual subscription you can also get a snazzy domain name and email address to match! Also - referring to an earlier point - it is super easy to embed ministry dependent tools such as links to sermons on YouTube at no extra cost.

We are able to offer a 6-month free trial if entrusted to build your website. Typically, we find that we can build the site within this timeframe. It also means you won’t start paying for the website until it goes live. In addition, we are also able to offer a 20% discount off your first payment as we are Squarespace Circle Members.

Hub

A little bit like the earlier point on integration tools, you can add a wealth of information to your website without cluttering it with simple downloadable attachments. Think of documents such as DBS checks, photography consent forms for parents etc. Your website can be a comprehensive source of information for your congregation to access in their own time. Of course, there will always be the exception, but on the whole it will massively reduce your workload in terms of queries on these matters relieving you to focus your efforts elsewhere.

Although Squarespace is not specifically built with churches in mind, from the list above, you can appreciate the whole host of benefits it provides. As mentioned at the start, we have worked with countless churches. Many members of our team have experience working for christian non-profits and international ministries; we are empathetic and accustomed to the needs of churches. Check out our work here.

Still not sure and hesitant on making that leap of faith? Don’t just take our word for it. Beyond our own clients, we have seen so many churches using Squarespace as their website of choice. It’s almost become the default website platform to use, so you can rest assured it is a platform that has proven faithful.

If you are looking to update your church’s website or feel you could get a website that is more fit for purpose for the needs of your congregation, get in touch, and let’s see how we can best serve you!