ChurchPress vs. The Church Co: Setup Packages or a Free Preview

The Church Co and ChurchPress both believe a busy church should not have to build its own website from a blank page. The Church Co does this with a team of church designers: you sign up, choose a plan and a setup package, fill out a design form, and its team builds your site. It also gives you a broad platform with giving, an events engine, small groups, a members portal and, on higher plans, a custom mobile app.

ChurchPress does the first build with AI working from your current website, and it lets you see the result before you spend anything. You can build, preview and revise the full site for free, then subscribe only when you want to publish. After launch, changes happen by asking in plain language.

The Church Co has been building church websites since 2015 and says it has worked with more than 5,000 churches. Its pricing is designed around church budgets, and it describes its work as ministry: the goal is for better websites to help more people find a church and find Jesus.

Its process is clear and well documented. After you create an account and choose a plan, you complete a setup request form, its designers build the site in roughly one week, the draft passes an internal review, and then you send revisions. Once revisions are done, you have the same level of access as its team, so you can change anything yourself. When you are ready, you can launch on your own or have The Church Co make the domain changes for you.

A distinctive part of The Church Co is the menu of one-time setup packages. When we checked its pricing page in October 2026, every yearly plan included the Simple setup for free (up to 9 pages, built on a theme). Paid options were Essential at $299 (up to 20 pages, one revision cycle, sermon import from an RSS feed), Tailored at $799 (up to 40 pages, two revision cycles, a modified theme, initial SEO configuration) and Custom at $999 (up to 50 pages, three revision cycles, a custom design). The Custom package is listed as free with a yearly marketing subscription. Listed average turnaround ranges from about one to three weeks depending on the package.

That lets a church match design help to its budget, or follow The Church Co's guide and build the site itself.

ChurchPress starts from the website you already have. It studies your logo, colors, photos, ministries, service times and the voice your church uses, and you confirm the key facts before any draft is made. After about five minutes of questions, it designs your homepage first, usually in 15 to 45 minutes. One click then builds the remaining pages to match, typically Plan a Visit, About and Beliefs, Ministries, Sermons, Events, Groups, Giving, Staff and Contact.

There are no revision rounds to count. You keep asking for changes in plain language for as long as you like, both before and after launch, and each change appears in a private preview with one-click undo. Nothing goes live until you press Publish, and version history lets you restore an earlier published version.

Because the build is free, with no time limit and no credit card, you can show the draft to elders and decide with something real on the screen.

The two approaches next to each other:

The Church Co's pricing page listed Basic at $29 per month, Premium at $49 per month and Ultimate at $199 per month, all billed annually, when we checked in October 2026, with marketing plans from $499 per month. Setup packages are a separate one-time fee unless the free Simple setup covers your needs. Please confirm current pricing with The Church Co.

ChurchPress publishing is $97 per month or $997 per year on the 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 covers hosting, SSL, your domain connection, unlimited plain-language updates and redesigns, every site tool and real-person support, with no setup fee because the build itself is free.

For a church that wants giving, an app and a members area under one roof at a modest monthly price, The Church Co offers a lot of platform. For a church that wants the website done well and kept current without managing it, ChurchPress puts that service into a single plan.

The Church Co is a great fit if you want one platform for your website, giving, members portal and possibly an app, and you like having church designers build the first version from a form. It is also a natural choice if you want managed marketing such as Google Ads or local SEO.

ChurchPress is a good fit if you want to see your new site, built from your existing one, before deciding to pay, and you would rather make changes by describing them than by dragging blocks. It also works well alongside the tools you already use: save your giving page, Planning Center Church Center links or registration pages in Connections, and your buttons point to the right place.

If you are weighing the two, try this: build a free ChurchPress preview from your current website this week, then compare it with The Church Co's portfolio and the setup package you would choose.