Looking to build a church website in 2024? Look no further! Check out our list of the best church websites of 2024! Use them for inspiration to design your church’s website or hire a web designer that specializes in church website design. If you're building your church's website, refer to our guide to designing the best church websites.
Best Church Websites of 2024
- Elevation Church
- The Austin Stone
- Motivation Church
- Vous Church
- River Valley Church
- Church of the City
- Anchor Church
- The Meeting House
- Bay Hope Church
- Brooklake Church
Elevation Church
Website: elevationchurch.org
I’ve been following church websites since 2018. I’ve read many blogs with a “best church websites” list. Elevation Church is the one site I’ve seen on almost all lists since I first started following church websites. And while they have had the same site design for about 5 years, they are still considered the standard when it comes to church websites. I’ve seen countless churches that have mimicked their site for their church. I designed my church’s website similar to Elevation’s back in 2020. I predict that they will do a complete site change sometime in 2024. Most sites look outdated after 2-3 years, but their site still looks great.
Key Features
- Personalized Experience: The site is made to cater to the user. You can view the site as a first-time visitor, as a member of the online community, or as a member of one of the physical locations. This feature is a game-changer! I can see more churches implementing this in the future.
- User Experience: Everything that you need to know or find is within reach. On the homepage alone you can easily access the latest sermon, how to get involved, important events, their social media handles, and links to the kids and youth pages. This is mostly what visitors are looking for when they browse on a church website. The part that I like the most about this is that it doesn’t take that much scrolling to find it.
- Sermon Library: I like how Elevation Church does its sermon library. While most viewers will probably watch on YouTube, Elevation does a good job of trying to keep you on their site. When you click on a video, it gives you all the next step links, as well as discussion questions from the sermon. You can also easily search for a sermon.
The Austin Stone
Website: austinstone.org
This list isn’t in any order, but if I had to pick my favorite site, it would be The Austin Stone. Their site is very clean and modern. It stands out because it looks different. While both Elevation and Vous Church are on this list, several church websites look exactly like them. For now, The Austin Stone is in a league of their own.
Key Features
- The Navigation on Desktop: I know, that’s a random feature, especially since most users are viewing websites on their phones. The mobile version still looks good, but I like the mega menu look on desktop. They make it easy to navigate by using icons and having a tagline above the buttons.
- Photography: Having good photography throughout a website is a must! Church websites are catered to visitors, not members. Visitors want to see the vibe of your church, and The Austin Stone does a great job of portraying this. The first thing you see when you land on the homepage is a huge background image of a group of diverse people all smiling. When you scroll down, you see a rotating banner of images of diverse people in the church. I think their message is that they are a church for all people.
- Sermon Library: As you can see, I’m a big fan of sermon libraries. The Austin Stone makes searching for a sermon a breeze on their site. You can filter by series, book, preacher, format, and year.
- Visit Pages: They have a page for each of their church locations. Each location provides you with useful information like: location description, service times, ministries, upcoming events, ways you can get involved, faqs, and the leaders of the location.
Motivation Church
Website: motivation.church
This is the church that I attend. It’s designed by yours truly (Two Ten Creatives). I’m not trying to be biased, but I truly believe this is one of the best church websites. The site used to look similar to Elevation Church, but I redesigned it so it could stand out.
Key Features
- Dark Mode: Everything has a dark mode these days, so why not have it on a website? I’m personally a fan of dark mode, it just looks better. There’s a toggle at the top of every page that can switch between light and dark modes. The cool thing is, that the browser remembers your settings when you come back to the site.
- Connect With Us: There’s a spinning gold connect with us button on almost every page. Websites can be overwhelming for some people, this button is a way for people to access quick links easily.
- Sermon Library: Here we go again! The sermons page has a Netflix feel to it. The main header has the latest sermon. You can either watch it, or watch other sermons from the series. When you scroll down, you can browse sermons by series, topic, and even guest speakers.
Vous Church
Website: vouschurch.com
Like Elevation Church, Vous Church has become the standard for church websites. I used to work for a church media company as a web designer, and the most common request that I got was, “Can you make my website like Vous Church?” Their website is very hip and is catered to the younger crowd. They broke barriers when they launched their site.
Key Features
- Automatic Sermon Clip: As soon as you come on the website, the first thing you see is a background video playing from the latest sermon. This is eye-catching! You only have like 3 seconds to gain someone's attention when they come to your website. By having that video, they have achieved this.
- Visit Page: I think Vous Church has the best Visit Us page. They have videos all over the page. There are 2 background videos and a video previewing each of their locations. Videos get people's attention the most. Instagram is barely a photo app anymore; you mostly see Reels. Everyone is addicted to TikTok, and YouTube is still king. My point? If you want to get people to stay on your site, have videos; preferably videos that automatically play.
- Mega Menu: Vous Church has 14 links in their navbar (7 on mobile), not including the menu button. When you open the menu there are 19 more links. To be able to fit that many links in and it doesn’t look junky is impressive. Vous is giving users more opportunities to stay on their site.
River Valley Church
Website: rivervalley.org
I instantly fell in love with River Valley’s website when I first saw it. Like The Austin Stone, their website is very unique. It has an app feel to it. It’s also very clean, from the font to how everything is positioned and spaced on the page.
Key Features
- Interactions: I’m not always a fan of interactions on a website. Some sites do too much and it becomes a distraction. River Valley does just enough. When you hover your mouse over different elements throughout the site, the animations and transitions are very smooth. When you hover over links, a yellow line appears under the word.
- Bible Study: I like how the focus is on a daily study of the bible when you first come on the site. It’s a unique approach since most churches are displaying their latest sermon or have a welcoming message. This method takes it off the church and focuses it on God.
- Event Page: River Valley’s event page is simple yet very complex. You can filter by location, ministry, and date. I like the date feature the most. You can filter events by: today, tomorrow, this week, etc.
Church of the City
Website: cotc.com
Church of the City does a lot of unique things on its website that I really like. The design is great, but I like the methods they are using to get the user's attention. I believe their ultimate goal is to make their site feel like you’re using an app on your phone.
Key Features
- User Experience: One of the first things that I noticed on their website was the red notification button. I was confused at first. I thought, when did I make an account on this site? I clicked on the notification to see what it would show me. It’s just a tab to display important links. This may be the most brilliant engagement of all the church websites on this list. The average person is going to click on that notification button because we’re so prone to doing it on our phones.
- Search Bar: Having a search bar as soon as you come on a website might be a little risky. Some users might think went to Google or Bing by accident. I understood its purpose and think it’s a great idea. Since church websites are supposed to be catered to visitors, having a search bar allows them to easily find what they are looking for.
Anchor Church
Website: anchortacoma.org
Anchor Church’s website is clean and sleek. It’s very modern and it gets straight to the point. You can have the most beautiful site ever, but if it is hard to navigate, your site is pretty much useless.
Key Features
- Sections Overlapping: When you scroll, the incoming section overlaps the current section. This is a cool feature and makes the site look techy like they’re about to reveal the latest iPhone.
- Colors: I love the color scheme. Their white is not really white, and their black is not really black. The appearance of it looks very premium.
- Lack of Words: Little words aren’t a bad thing. Go to Apple’s homepage. There are barely any words, but it has a lot of pictures. You can still understand what they are trying to sell even though it’s little words. The same can be said for your church website. If you pick the right photos, you can still lead people to your church.
The Meeting House
Website: themeetinghouse.com
The Meeting House website is very unique. It honestly doesn’t look like a typical church website. It looks more like a non-profit organization's website. It’s a very clean and minimalist site; lots of white, but still plenty of pictures to make it pop.
Key Features
- Jesus: This is the only website on this list that emphasizes who Jesus is. One of the things that I feel that most church websites lack, is telling what the gospel is. Again, church websites are supposed to be catered to visitors. Not every visitor is going to be following Jesus already. There needs to be a page on your website that shares the gospel with people who are unfamiliar with it. The Meeting House does this, and they have it as the first thing on their homepage.
- Sermon Library: Their sermon library feels like an app. I love the search option and the side scroll.
- Sidebar Navigation: Most websites have navigation at the top or a menu that opens up the navigation. On the desktop version of this website, they have a sidebar navigation. Web apps like YouTube, normally have navigation like this. It looks nice on a regular website though.
Bay Hope Church
Website: bayhope.church
Bay Hope Church's website is very colorful and hip. It has a cartoonish/comic-book feel. The vibrant colors and pictures grab your attention.
Key Features
- Weekend Hub: The weekend hub is the banner at the top of the homepage. When you click on it, it shows a newspaper-like information page. I like it because it talks about everything that is happening at church this weekend. It’s a good way for members to stay informed and visitors to learn more about what is happening.
- Visuals: The thing that really makes this website stand out is the visuals throughout the site. This is another site that utilizes background video. Seeing things automatically moving or playing draws attention to the user.
Brooklake Church
Website: brooklake.org
In a world where black and white are supreme, Brooklake Church switches it up and uses a lot of teal on their website. That alone puts them on this list. If you want your church website to stand out, you have to do something different!
Key Features
- Rotating Image Banner: Animations that automatically play are great for your website. Your goal is to keep the user's attention. You want them to stay on your page. The rotating image banner instantly caught my eye. As I visitor, I know the atmosphere of their church by these pictures alone.
- Scrolling Words: Scrolling words is a very popular element in websites these days. Their site is filled with them. It’s another animation that can keep the user’s attention. They use scrolling words to separate sections. They have 2 on the homepage, ‘Who We Are’ (which is right above the about section), and ‘Connect’ (this is above the ‘Get Connected’ Call to Action).
Do you need a church website?
Here at Two Ten Creatives, we specialize in church website design. And not to toot our own horn, we believe that we design the best church websites. We don’t just design church websites though, but we also manage them. We know that running a church is hard. Whether it’s preparing for a sermon, visiting the sick in the hospital, or counseling a married couple, a typical day for a leader in the church is very busy. The last thing you need to worry about is keeping your website up to date. Let us handle it all for you, so you can focus on making disciples and being the light in your community. Check out some of our church website templates and also our custom church websites
