Two very popular website builders widely available these days are Elementor, a drag and drop builder for WordPress, and Squarespace, also a visual builder, but specifically for its own proprietary platform. 

Many blogs and videos have been published that outline the pros and cons of each; everything from ease of use, to versatility, to cost. 

We’ll go over the basics of those points here, but really want to dig in a bit deeper and help you figure out what this all means to your digital ministry.

When evaluating any software or tool for your digital ministry, or any aspect of your organization actually, it’s important to evaluate feature functionality, ease of use and cost.

For the video version of this blog click here!

Features

–>Wordpress 

WordPress/Elementor is an open source platform, which essentially means its source code is open and accessible to any developer who wants to create plugins, themes, templates and all manner of integration pieces.  

This means there are a lot of options available! Sometimes this is good, but sometimes this can be overwhelming and confusing. 

It is highly customizable with themes (overall site styles and options) and templates (ready made page designs that can be put together, copied and filled in with content to build a site). If coding is your thing (HTML, php, Advanced CSS) you’ll be very comfortable in WordPress world. However, If you and coding go together like bananas and lettuce, then you still can be comfortable in WordPress world, because the dashboard and interface are fairly intuitive. For an even more intuitive interface and to cater to folks who want nothing at all to do with coding, WordPress offers a variety of drag and drop page builders, like Elementor, Divi and WPBakery just to name a few.

If web design is not in your wheelhouse, fear not. WordPress, in general, has thousands of templates available. Elementor specifically also has thousands of templates available on the open market for a variety of categories. If the plain vanilla template doesn’t fulfill your needs, there are thousands of plugins available; plugins are specific snippets of code that help you extend the features of WordPress without touching any code. 

—>Squarespace

Squarespace, a more self contained ecosystem, has about 100 templates available. What Squarespace lacks in number of templates, it makes up for with convenience;  “one stop shopping” so to speak. When you create an account with Squarespace and select a domain name which you can register there as well, you are also implementing the backups, security and platform updating that come included with this service. Squarespace is considered a “SAS” solution – software as a service. Which means, there is a monthly fee to have all of the above advantages; when you cancel your subscription, you cancel those advantages, and can take your domain name and some, but not all, of your content with you to another platform. 

There are not quite the variety of plugins available for Squarespace because it’s a more self contained platform. On the positive side, that lends itself to a more consistent and readily available support experience.

Like Elementor, the website page builder feature is intuitive and fairly easy to use. It offers a clean interface with a built-in “assistant” to guide you through the building steps. As you drag and drop, edit, reposition elements and change styles, you can visually see your progress because your design window is self-contained in a small floating window off to the side of your screen. Super convenient for instant feedback.

Easy to Use

–>Elementor

Typically any type of software that offers many options has a steeper learning curve. Elementor is no exception. However, there is no shortage of Elementor tutorial videos and courses that can help you accomplish what you have set out to do. 

But here’s the key; with Elementor or any website build project. 

THINK about it.  PLAN it out with a “wireframe” (a design mockup) and then implement. 

Before you open any web builder, your pages should be planned out with at the very least a sketch of a sitemap. Ideally, you should have at least 50% of your content planned, a navigation menu in mind and your brand styles and colors picked out. 

–>Squarespace

In our humble opinion, there is very little competition here in the category of ease of use. The minimalist design interface doesn’t take up a lot of real estate on the screen and allows you to see exactly what’s changing. There are not a lot of fancy or obscure labels and settings, so it’s a straightforward connection to the style elements on the page.

In spite of this, the same pre-planning philosophy applies; plan ahead and save tons of time and heartache in the long run. 

Cost

–>Elementor

Elementor offers a free version with fewer features  than the pro version that costs $49 a year for one  license. With the free version you could likely build a very respectable site. Since there are so many plugins available, there are tons of extra features freely available. As of this writing, they were still offering 3 licenses for $99/year. The price increases for each additional batch of licenses needed; but unless you’re a digital marketing agency, you probably don’t need 25 licenses!

–>Squarespace

Squarespace starts at $12 per month (paid annually). This price point is likely all that would be needed for a small to medium size spiritual community. The higher priced plans, $18/month and up are more appropriate for small businesses and e-commerce needs. The starter plan is a good deal, in that it gives you 24/7 customer support, unlimited bandwidth/storage, an SSL certificate and mobile optimized websites. 

What’s best for your community?

Well…that’s a good question! 

Here’s the secret answer….it depends.

The inclination might be to look first at cost. 

Using cost as the deciding factor, Elementor is significantly less expensive. But you need to also evaluate cost as your time, your staff’s time, and the time of volunteers, council, ministry leaders and anyone else whom you might be asking to contribute to your site. 

As we mentioned earlier, pre planning is the key here. If you are building a new site from the ground up or sprucing up an existing site, first determine what your main message ought to be. Do you have a key phrase or tag line that identifies your community? 

What do you want people to know about your community and your staff?

What ministries, events or offerings are most important to you to share with potential visitors and current members?

The “WHY” of your community should be the catalyst for the “WHAT” that is displayed on your website. “HOW” you get there, using either Elementor or Squarespace, should become an almost mechanical decision.

If you and your staff are not technically savvy, that’s OK! You don’t have to do this all by yourself. You can outsource the building of the site and then only take care of edits along the way. This will give you some time to ramp up and learn the platform while your site is being built.

The bottom line is to invest in your digital ministry as much as your in person ministry. If the past year and half has taught us anything, it is that connection is not limited to the physical space of a building. And that people are seeking safe connection in very different ways in these days.

Remember, digital ministry IS ministry! 

Still confused? Get in touch. We’d love to know how we can help you out!