ChurchPress vs. Internet Outreach Experts: Self-Serve or Pastor-Led

Internet Outreach Experts and ChurchPress share a conviction: a pastor should not have to become a webmaster. Both rebuild from what your church already has online, and both let you update your site by describing the change instead of wrestling with an editor.

The difference is in the relationship. Internet Outreach Experts is a pastor-led team that builds, hosts and runs your site, and you can reach them by email, chat or phone. ChurchPress puts the controls in your hands: you build, review and publish yourself, with real people available for support.

Internet Outreach Experts was founded by Rev. David Baker, an ordained Presbyterian minister, and describes itself as pastor-led church tech since 2013. That ministry background shows in the details: its seven templates are written for specific kinds of congregations, from a close-knit country church to a liturgical parish, a multi-campus network or a sermon-forward teaching church.

Its service goes well beyond the website. Depending on the plan, churches get local SEO and AI-search visibility, a guest activity feed for forms, missed calls and reviews, a reviews aggregator for Google, Yelp and Facebook, a member and family editor portal, Planning Center and Google Calendar integrations, and a Sermon Helper tool. The Professional plan adds a 24/7 AI phone receptionist that answers calls and takes prayer requests, plus a custom-designed website.

It also offers a free builder: enter your church's web address and it rebuilds your site from your own words, sermons, events and photos in about a minute, which you can view and edit without an account or card.

ChurchPress is designed for the church that wants to stay in the driver's seat. It studies your current website for your logo, colors, photos, ministries, service times and voice, and asks you to confirm the key facts before drafting. No site yet? It asks a few questions instead.

It then designs your homepage first, usually in 15 to 45 minutes after about five minutes of questions. When it feels right, one click builds the rest to match, typically Plan a Visit, About and Beliefs, Ministries, Sermons, Events, Groups, Giving, Staff and Contact. Every later change goes to a private preview, with one-click undo and version history, and nothing goes live until someone on your team presses Publish.

The built-in tools focus on the website itself: a sermon library you can fill from a podcast feed or YouTube channel by pressing Sync, events from Google Calendar or a Planning Center public calendar with RSVPs and a check-in QR code, a small-group finder, serving opportunities, and forms that land in an Inbox and email chosen recipients. Owner, Admin and Editor roles let several people share the work.

Seen next to each other, the two services divide the work differently.

The Internet Outreach Experts pricing page, when we checked in October 2026, listed Starter at $49 a month, Standard at $99 a month and Professional at $199 a month, with annual options, plus a Ministry Partner plan from $199 a month. It notes no setup fees, month-to-month terms, and domain setup and site migration included. Please confirm current pricing with them.

ChurchPress publishing is $97 a month or $997 a year under its Founders offer, with the price locked while your subscription stays active, a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment and no long-term contract. It includes managed hosting, SSL, domain connection, unlimited chat updates and redesigns, all site tools and support. Building, previewing and revising cost nothing until you decide to publish.

Internet Outreach Experts is a wonderful fit if you want a pastor-led partner who handles the site, answers the phone, and helps with reviews and local visibility. Its higher plans bundle services, such as the AI receptionist, that ChurchPress does not offer.

ChurchPress fits a church that prefers to direct its own site: a team that wants to review every change in a preview, share editing through roles, and pull sermons and events in from the services it already uses. ChurchPress does not process donations or provide a church management system, member logins or church email, so those stay with your current providers.

Since both services can start from your existing web address, a fair comparison takes one afternoon. Your current site keeps running the whole time, and ChurchPress only changes your address when you point your domain to it.

Try the free Internet Outreach Experts rebuild, then build a free ChurchPress preview from the same site, and ask which way of working suits the people who will actually keep it current.