- Starting price
- $500 setup + $50/month
- Free tier
- No
- Platforms
- Web · WordPress
- Developer
- SolaSites
- Launched
- 2015
- Updated
- Aug 16, 2026
The verdict
SolaSites publishes one of the clearest affordable church-website offers: $500 upfront and $50 monthly for a professionally configured responsive WordPress site, domain registration, hosting, maintenance, security updates, unlimited pages and media, sermons, events, giving integrations, minor updates, and support. The first-year base is therefore $1,100 before add-ons. That is strong value if the design and service fit. Its terms impose an important lock-in: after cancellation, a church may retain its uploaded content but is not entitled to the website files, theme, or proprietary platform customizations. Put domain ownership, content delivery, admin access, backups, pricing, and cancellation handoff in writing.
Try SolaSites ↗Opens solasites.com
SolaSites builds and hosts WordPress websites specifically for churches and ministries. The public package includes setup by web professionals, a responsive design, domain registration, online-giving connections, sermon publishing, onboarding, premium hosting, maintenance, security updates, unlimited pages and storage, minor content work, and ongoing phone or email support.
Church modules cover sermon audio or video, notes, downloads, and filtering by speaker, topic, series, Scripture, and date. Events can use list or calendar views, recurring schedules, and maps. Pages use WordPress’ Gutenberg block editor, while giving can link or connect with services including Stripe, PayPal, and Tithely.
Pricing is refreshingly specific. The build costs $500 and ongoing service costs $50 per month. Migration is free for the first ten pages, then $3 per additional page and $1 per sermon. Optional logo design costs $350, and domain-email setup is $100. The fee begins with the upfront charge, while monthly billing starts after access credentials are provided.
We reviewed current product, features, pricing, signup, policy, and faith.tools material without becoming a client or administering a deployed site. We could not test design quality, update turnaround, backups, plugin inventory, uptime, accessibility, security operations, export completeness, or how much work qualifies as a minor update.
✓ The good
- Transparent price - setup, monthly service, migration, logo, and email figures are published
- Strong small-church value - the $1,100 first-year base undercuts most managed agency projects
- Managed maintenance - hosting and security updates reduce the WordPress burden on volunteers
- Church features - sermon metadata, events, giving, pages, and support address common ministry needs
- Unlimited core content - pages, sermons, posts, storage, and media are not priced by a small quota
- WordPress foundation - familiar editing and a broad ecosystem provide more standardization than a proprietary builder
- Human support - onboarding plus phone and email help are central rather than optional enterprise extras
✗ Watch out
- Template scope - a low fixed setup cannot include unlimited bespoke strategy, copy, design, and development
- WordPress responsibility - plugins, themes, users, integrations, forms, and backups still create security work
- Minor update ambiguity - the monthly plan does not quantify request size, volume, revisions, or turnaround
- Policy breadth - the privacy notice contemplates sensitive categories and sharing beyond what many church buyers expect
- Restricted portability - terms allow users to keep their content but not the website files, theme, or proprietary customizations
- Email is separate - branded email setup costs extra and the ongoing mailbox provider may have its own fee
- Accessibility not specified - responsive design and Gutenberg do not establish WCAG conformance
Best for
- Small churches that need a credible supported website and can work within a structured design system
- Ministries wanting WordPress familiarity without personally handling hosting, updates, and routine support
- Churches with large sermon archives that value low published migration fees and metadata filtering
- Teams prepared to control domain, registrar, data, admin roles, analytics, and a written exit package
Avoid if
- You require a highly custom multisite, multilingual, membership, ecommerce, or application experience
- The church needs contractual WCAG conformance, enterprise security documents, SSO, or formal uptime commitments
- You cannot verify who controls WordPress administration, backups, domains, plugins, and full-site exports
- Your expected recurring design and content workload exceeds an undefined allowance for minor updates
What SolaSites is
SolaSites is a managed WordPress website package. It is not a complete ChMS, donor database, giving processor, email provider, livestream host, legal-compliance service, accessibility certification, or unlimited design retainer. Connected platforms add their own fees and policies.
Although SolaSites runs on WordPress, its terms say the proprietary customizations cannot be separated or run independently and departing users do not receive the website files or theme. They may retain content they created or uploaded, including text, sermon uploads, images, and PDFs. Treat this as a hosted proprietary platform, not ordinary portable WordPress hosting.
Why transparent managed pricing changes the small-church decision
Many church website offers hide either a large project fee or an escalating monthly contract. SolaSites makes the base arithmetic simple enough for a finance committee: $500 to build, then $600 per year to keep the site hosted and maintained.
Low price should sharpen rather than remove due diligence. Compare a real sitemap and content inventory, confirm which design revisions and updates fit the package, and price all external giving, email, video, form, analytics, and accessibility work over three years.
WordPress setup and maintenance: valuable only with clear controls
SolaSites configures a WordPress site, hosts it, applies maintenance and security updates, supplies unlimited core content capacity, and allows Gutenberg editing with advanced CSS for capable users.
Require unique administrator accounts, least privilege, multifactor authentication where supported, tested backups, recovery objectives, update staging, vulnerability response, audit logs, and a content-export drill. Do not assume WordPress admin access includes a portable theme or full-site backup.
Sermons and events: strong fundamentals for a church archive
Sermons can include video, audio, downloads, notes, and detailed filtering, while events support lists, calendars, maps, and recurrence. That structure is more useful than flattening everything into ordinary posts.
Before migration, clean speakers, series, dates, Scriptures, media ownership, transcripts, captions, and redirects. Test whether every taxonomy and attachment appears in a standard export so years of preaching remain usable after a future move.
Giving, forms, and member pages: convenience with data boundaries
The platform promotes mobile and recurring giving connections and can password-protect pages. Integrations include familiar payment services, while advanced forms are part of the broader product direction.
Prefer redirect or securely hosted payment flows that keep card data out of WordPress. A shared page password is not member identity management; do not use it for counseling, child, donor, health, disciplinary, or other confidential records.
Pricing
Website setup
$500 once
Professional WordPress setup, responsive design, domain registration, giving integration, sermons, CSS access, and onboarding.
Managed hosting
$50/month
Hosting, maintenance and security updates, unlimited core content and storage, minor updates, and support.
Content migration
10 pages free
Additional pages cost $3 each and sermon migrations cost $1 each under the published table.
Optional services
$100–$350
Domain email setup is $100 and a new logo with defined concepts and revisions is $350.
The required upfront fee is $500. The public get-started flow says that amount is charged when the project begins.
Monthly service is $50 and begins after credentials are supplied, producing a $1,100 base cost in the first year and $600 in each later year at current prices.
Ten initial pages are migrated free. Published extras are $3 for each additional page and $1 for each sermon, which makes a large archive unusually easy to estimate.
Logo design is $350 and branded-email setup is $100. Confirm domain renewals, mailbox subscriptions, premium plugins, third-party services, taxes, redesigns, extensive updates, cancellation, and export support.
Terms say subscriptions auto-renew, service fees are nonrefundable, and departing churches receive their own content rather than the full website files, theme, or proprietary technology.
Where SolaSites falls behind
Define minor updates with response targets, monthly capacity, revision limits, emergency handling, exclusions, and pricing for larger work.
Publish the production stack, supported WordPress and PHP versions, plugin policy, backups, recovery tests, vulnerability response, uptime, and breach notice.
Provide a one-click structured content export and priced migration package, and explain exactly which database, media, redirects, design, theme, plugin, and source assets cannot leave.
State an accessibility standard and testing process for templates, editor content, media, forms, maps, calendars, and third-party embeds.
Tighten the privacy notice around actual website and customer data flows, named vendors, payment handling, special-category data, retention, international transfers, and deletion.
SolaSites vs. Sites by Ministry Designs vs. Sunday Best
SolaSites is the budget leader, with transparent WordPress pricing and core church modules. Sites by Ministry Designs costs more but offers a larger kit-and-media ecosystem, a guided twenty-page build, and an optional fully managed service.
Sunday Best is a Webflow agency with current projects beginning at $7,500 and custom work from $15,000. It is better suited to churches buying deeper strategy, copy guidance, unique design, animation, and complex development rather than a standardized affordable site.
Compare real deliverables: sitemap, page count, migration, custom design, editor access, integrations, accessibility, performance, support levels, ownership, and exit package. The least expensive quote is only best when it meets the church’s actual operating needs.
The bottom line
SolaSites makes a strong, unusually legible offer for a church that needs the basics done well and supported by people. Its first-year price is lower than many self-managed projects once volunteer time and maintenance are counted. The tradeoff is real platform lock-in: the terms return uploaded content, not the complete WordPress site, theme, or proprietary technology. Ask for a sample, accessibility and performance evidence, exact update limits, security practice, a sample content export, domain control, and cancellation handoff. If the church accepts that hosted model, SolaSites deserves a serious small-church shortlist.
Alternatives to SolaSites
Sites by Ministry DesignsA more expensive hosted builder with assisted migration, a large media ecosystem, and managed service.
Sunday BestCustom Webflow strategy and design for churches with larger budgets and more distinctive requirements.ChurchSpringA church-focused hosted builder for teams comparing templates, support, and bundled ministry features.WordPress.comA lower-level WordPress service when the church can design, configure, and govern more of the site itself.Local WordPress agencyPotentially better for custom ownership and local partnership, usually at a materially higher project price.Frequently asked questions
How much does SolaSites cost?
The current public price is $500 once plus $50 per month. That produces a $1,100 first-year base before add-ons and outside services.
What is included in the monthly fee?
Premium hosting, maintenance and security updates, unlimited pages, sermons, posts, storage and media, minor updates, and ongoing support are listed.
Does SolaSites migrate an existing church website?
Yes. The first ten pages are free; additional pages are listed at $3 each and sermon migration at $1 each.
Is SolaSites built on WordPress?
Yes, but it is not ordinary portable WordPress hosting. Terms say departing users may keep their content but not the website files, theme, or proprietary customizations.
Can SolaSites handle online giving?
It supports giving connections including PayPal, Stripe, and Tithely. Verify whether the payment stays on the processor’s hosted flow and which party supports each integration.
Are pages and storage really unlimited?
They are advertised as unlimited under the monthly package. Ask about fair-use, file-size, bandwidth, video-hosting, and account-termination constraints.
Who should control the domain?
The church should be registrant and owner in a church-controlled account, with SolaSites receiving only the access necessary to configure and support it.
Sources & further reading
More Church Management Software
B1 ChurchA genuinely free, open-source church platform - app, website, giving and check-in on one database - run by an Oklahoma nonprofit. The catch is not the price - it is that the vendor own docs call the native app deprecated.
Involv Chat (church.chat)Involv Chat combines ministry-team messaging, rosters, blocked dates and service scheduling in a focused church workspace—useful when leaders protect volunteer consent and resist turning attendance or gifts data into a spiritual score.
ChurchSoftwareChurchSoftware—formerly StoreHouse—offers an unusually broad church-management core for $0, including giving, check-in, accounting and a shared mobile app, while charging transparently for vendor-heavy extras.
Pastor Notes AppA two-app system that lets leaders publish sermon notes and invite live congregational response while attendees use the free Bible Notes companion—but its pricing math, refund terms and app privacy disclosures need correction before a church commits.
Take RootA low-cost, offline-friendly relationship tracker built specifically for evangelism and discipleship follow-up—more intentional than a spreadsheet, but its old generic privacy policy does not adequately describe the sensitive ministry data the product exists to hold.
Develop.MeDevelop.Me packages course building, cohorts, discussion, assignments, gamification and mobile learning for churches and mission-driven organizations—with unlimited learners on paid plans, but a vague free tier and a 2022 website privacy notice leave procurement questions open.