As far as web design is concerned, churches have come a long way in recent years. It wasn’t too many years ago that most church websites were several years behind the times. Apparently a growing number of churches today are recognizing the importance of their web presence.
This gallery isn’t only for those who design church sites; these examples are excellent sources of inspiration for any design project. Many of them involve excellent use of color, images, and graphics that draw attention right away. In addition, most church sites have a lot of content that needs to be displayed and easily navigated. The layouts and methods used here can be applied to other projects with similar requirements.
Here are some of my favorites. Let me know which ones you like in the comments.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
St. Gregory’s of Nyssa Episcopal Church
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Trinity United Methodist Church
Island Evangelical Community Church
Calvary Bible Church of Kalamazoo
Rolling Hills Community Church
Fellowship of the Woodlands Church
If you liked this collection, also see:
62 comments from readers
1 Hannah Mar 17, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Wow! Amazing what an impact the website can have on one’s impression of the church. Love the look of Watermark Community Church’s site.
2 Vandelay Design Mar 17, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Hannah,
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I think a church can really send a specific message and use a website to show visitors that maybe they don’t fall into the stereotypes that the visitor might have.
3 Miami Web Design Mar 17, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I think that’s true. That Generation Church website has been passed around so many times that I can’t help but think that web designers in the area might go check it out just to see what kind of client asks for that. LOL.
As always, a great round-up. Awesome work!
Erika
4 HighFivez.com: Your Guide Through The Blogosphere. Find Blogs and Blog Posts. Mar 17, 2008 at 7:37 pm
[…] 50 of the Best Church Website Designs […]
5 nitos Mar 17, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Im glad people get interested on their website!!
6 thegeekboys Mar 17, 2008 at 8:27 pm
hay alot of these webpages look good but alot of them don’t even look like church webpages
7 Asha Mar 17, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Love the site designs. I love the fact that there is no ’stereotype’ here and it appeals.
8 nitos Mar 17, 2008 at 9:27 pm
asha its SO right!!
9 roScripts - Webmaster resources and websites Mar 18, 2008 at 1:15 am
50 of the Best Church Website Designs | Vandelay Website Design…
Looking for the best church website designs Here is a collection of 5o…
10 Biodun Mar 18, 2008 at 3:05 am
Exactly most of them doesn’t like church web pages.
I love the designs, they are Great!
11 mdesjardins Mar 18, 2008 at 4:59 am
Wow - I happen to be working with our church right now to re-design their website. Very timely, and very nice designs! Thanks!
12 Diseños de iglesias — Tablosign Mar 18, 2008 at 5:15 am
[…] Vandelay hicieron una lista con 50 de los mejores diseños de webs de iglesias. Realmente algunos muy buenos. […]
13 Don Strawsburg Mar 18, 2008 at 6:08 am
I love those, but you missed another good one.
http://www.ligonier.org/
In Christ, Don
14 Andrei Gonzales Mar 18, 2008 at 6:13 am
These are not just great church websites, but great websites, period.
15 Scott Mar 18, 2008 at 6:35 am
WOW, what a great list… it is really amazing what kind of services they can now offer through a great design. Scott
16 Chris Little Mar 18, 2008 at 8:05 am
The company I work for has done some great design as well. Check us out-www.detailscom.com. However, some of these put us to shame (due to the fact we are a bit limited being tied into a CMS that isn’t as flexible as HTML/CSS only).
17 Chad Swaney Mar 18, 2008 at 8:06 am
I love the clean look of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Great use of typography and color to make key elements “pop”
18 50 of the Best Church Website Designs | Most Inspired Blog Mar 18, 2008 at 8:35 am
[…] expect Church website designs to be pretty boring, but looking over 50 of the Best Church Website Designs selected by Vandelay designs I was very pleasantly […]
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20 Vandelay Design Mar 18, 2008 at 2:10 pm
thegeekboys,
I think that’s the point with a lot of them, and personally I like that.
Don,
That’s a nice design too, although I wouldn’t have included it on the list. It seems to be a ministry site rather than a church site, and everything else on the list is actually a church. Nice design though.
21 Jermayn Parker Mar 18, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Missed Jubilee World harvest…
Problem with a lot of these church websites is that they are so busy and cluttered and appeal to the churchie instead of the person interested in visiting a church.
Years ago, church websites were too simple and rubbish but now they are way to complicated and busy.
Good list however.
22 rajeswar mohanty Mar 18, 2008 at 10:48 pm
All are very nice design..
These are insprational design..
Thank You..
23 Matias Orellana Mar 19, 2008 at 4:30 am
What about
Hillsong - http://www.hillsong.com
PlanetShakers - http://www.planetshakers.com
Lakewood - http://www.lakewood.cc
Thanks for collecting it
24 Tony Whittaker Mar 19, 2008 at 8:19 am
Thanks for a very interesting choice of good designs. My concern with many of the sites is not their great design, but the fact that they will only attract the church members, or ‘already believers’ in the area looking for a new church. Sadly, many of them seem much less accessible to outsiders in the community. Yet it is possible to make a church site that is prioritized for such outsiders - one that aims to demonstrate that church is not about a building with meetings, but a bunch of people wanting others to join their family.
We’ve created a church site self-assessment tool to encourage churches to build this sort of ‘outsider usability’ into their sites, and value thoughts on improving it.
Best wishes
Tony
25 50 de los mejores diseños web religiosos | frogx.three Mar 19, 2008 at 9:38 am
[…] Enlace: 50 of the best Church Website Designs […]
26 also makes church websites Mar 19, 2008 at 12:40 pm
What I like best about this list is that they not only have appealing designs and a logical structure that avoids the typical “brochure” navs so popularized in the 90s, but most of these have a good structure to support SEO as well (not that most are taking advantage of it, but at least it’s there)
27 Vandelay Design Mar 19, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Matias,
Hillsong is nice, although I don’t like flash intros personally. The others look good too. Thanks for commenting.
Tony,
Very valid point. There are definitely two different markets that a church site targets, 1) the members/attenders, and 2) everyone else that might be a future attender. My point with the gallery was really only focusing on the design itself, but I appreciate your feedback.
28 How to make an Effective Church website Mar 19, 2008 at 7:20 pm
[…] saying what is important and what are the top designs out there. I have two lists for you. One is a top 50 from a designer and the other is a top 80 from a church […]
29 Kelly Mar 23, 2008 at 1:34 pm
My picks:
Stonebriar
The City Church
The Community Church
Generation Church
Far Hills Community Church
Westside Family Church
What I wanted to see was something that interested my eye and also gave me a peaceful feeling like, if I were looking, this might be the place for me.
Recognizing that you chose 50 very fine designs, within them some seem too hip for their own good (almost like sites for a band), some were so calm they didn’t hold my interest. The six I mentioned really worked for me. Nice to look at on Easter. Glad I waited until the weekend!
Regards,
Kelly
30 d.amasc.us | Does a Church Need a Website | The Road Down Faith and Life Mar 27, 2008 at 2:58 pm
[…] that a website can do for a church. Recently I came across an article from Vandelay Design, called 50 of the Best Church Website Designs that shows just how far church websites have come, and how important they now are in the tech and […]
31 Batsirai Mar 29, 2008 at 1:33 am
Check out http://www.theembasyofgod.com - just launched in March 2008
32 Josh Read Mar 30, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Hey Vandelay! Thanks for the post and also, thanks for the props! I’m honored that you chose the site I built as the number two best church website! Blessings from Tacoma.
33 The Top Best Graphic Design Articles from March 2008 Mar 30, 2008 at 10:45 pm
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34 Vandelay Design Mar 31, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Hi Josh,
No problem. Thanks for stopping by.
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36 cmdshiftdesign Apr 11, 2008 at 2:30 am
i had to pass this on to a colleague, who is working a churches web design! Some great design work here!
37 Ray Mason Apr 11, 2008 at 3:44 pm
This is an amazing set of websites, I’ve been learning about web evangelism for a few months now and hold Stonebriar in my top three sadly you’ve missed another beautiful site http://www.pemburybaptistchurch.org Kent, UK and the best church site I’ve come across http://www.southsidelife.org Canada.
The amazing thing about Southsidelife is it’s excellence in evangelism/marketing, it comes top in its area for regular searches such as weather and jobs. Also its use of the most under used resource in church or secular marketing “testimonials” and it’s apologetics section.
In the real world of soul winning its not about how nice the site looks but how effective it is in getting people to attend our services or if they can’t physically get to our services then to explain the gospel and encourage their spiritual growth.
I’m actually working on my churches web site right now.
38 Tony Apr 11, 2008 at 4:35 pm
The designers of Southsidelife did an excellent web seminar at the Internet Ministry Conference last September. You can watch it online, complete with PowerPoint - it’s the third video link on this page:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/internetministryconference.php
Best wishes
Tony
39 Ray Mason Apr 14, 2008 at 8:16 am
To clarify the end of my last message I’m looking for a web designer to put an evangelistically focused site together for my church. Can anyone help?
I saw the video around a week ago, it gave me a greater understanding of how amazing their site really is.
I’ll be viewing the other videos as well, thanks for the link.
In His service
Ray
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46 freikirchliche.com May 2, 2008 at 6:43 pm
great site for a german church: http://www.freikirchliche.com
47 Brandon Cole May 6, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I designed the Hopechurch.tv site so thanks for the props…thought I would add one to the list. It’s our youth ministry’s website…Generation Church (gcmvmnt.com). Let me know what you think.
48 Vandelay Design May 6, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Brandon,
The site looks nice. You’re a talented designer and a pastor. Very impressive.
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50 kabir_bhai May 16, 2008 at 1:38 am
A good collection of best websites.
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[…] - top 5 celebrity mugshots)? Really…you could do one more? Are you sure? OK - here you go: the 50 coolest church websites. Feel free to add some more in your […]
53 Jill Stanowskiticki May 17, 2008 at 2:35 pm
All of these websites are gorgeous. I just love the layouts of them, plus the use of color. If I were to pick a favorite, it would probably be the Westside Family Church. Lovely. (0_o)
54 Las mejores 50 pág. web. Religiosas « Alumnos ARTCOM:blog May 21, 2008 at 4:40 pm
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55 MAM May 31, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I just checked Dr. Stroll’s website mentioned above. I love to listen to Dr. Stroll on the radio, but the website looks like a sales tool and nothing more.
I am looking for a new look, but since I have to do it myself, I need something simple.
My website is ourladyoffatima.us
It is bi-lingual, multi-cultural, and absolutely of no charge to the church. I would not mind some direction from others.
Thanks,
MAM
56 Nathan Baker Jun 12, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Hi, I saw some incoming traffic from this site so I thought I’d check it out. I’m the designer/developer of the Memorial Baptist Church website - http://www.memorialbaptistpa.org“. Nice article. I’m honored to be listed among so many great designs. Thanks Vandelay.
57 Vandelay Design Jun 13, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Nathan,
Nice work. Thanks for taking a moment to visit and comment.
58 Understanding the Mentality of Your Visitors | Vandelay Website Design Jun 21, 2008 at 1:43 am
[…] example of the importance of knowing why your visitors are coming to your site. Imagine you run a website for a church . Almost every church now has a website, and most of them contain fairly similar information about […]
59 Sara Peter Jun 21, 2008 at 4:05 am
wow, great designs.
60 25 Beautifully Colorful Websites | Vandelay Website Design Jun 21, 2008 at 10:13 pm
[…] 50 of the Best Church Website Designs […]
61 church web site designers Jun 22, 2008 at 7:11 pm
[…] Vandelay Website DesignLooking for the best church website designs? Here is a collection of 5o.http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/best-church-websites/The leader as Christian Website Designers, Christian Website companies …… Services, church […]
62 Allan Collins | Church Websites Jun 23, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Awesome list. These sites are amazing.