Need a new Church website...

[TreasonousBastard]

My UU church has one of those Wordpress websites. Wordpress has some advantages, but this site was set up so horribly that I'm thinking of starting from scratch somewhere else.

I haven't done a website since years ago when I actually coded in HTML 5 and it was almost fun. Nowadays, it's all simple click&play and you end up with pages of spaghetti code that you can't easily move around. OK, I can sort of deal with that, but I could use some advice
before starting.

After looking at pages and pages of "Best Web Hosting..." articles, HostGator keeps popping up in the top 5 or so. Anybody use them?

Stupid question, and I'll eventually ask them, but it's unclear so far on any of the hosting sites whether I have to accept advertising. All of them brag about their connection to Google, but I don't want ads. Or is this something I deal with when setting it up?

[mikeysnot]

1. WP is my least fav CMS

I have six sites on HG and they are pretty good. My only complaint would be that I have to pay 10 bucks to add SSL to a site and cannot do it myself and you have to pay for SSH access per site so that is tough doing Drupal Updates.

I run Joomla, Drupal and WP on there servers without issue.

Make sure you get the package that will fit your needs right out of the box. Their system will install your CMS of choice and set it all up for you with one click and send you the credentials.

Email spam protection is good also.

[C_U_L8R]

2. I'm just starting with Webflow

As a non-coder and non-Wordpress/Squarespace-fan, I'm digging Webflow so far. Doesn't do commerce yet but CMS appears solid enough. I'm probably paying a premium versus more hard-core DIY solutions, but the ease of use and visual control seems worth it (again, so far).

[htuttle]

3. Some non-CMS options to consider

Unless you are updating the content of the site all the time (daily or more often), you might consider trying a static site generator instead of a database-driven CMS (content management system).

Advantages are that you can host a static site for almost nothing on either AWS S3 or Google Storage (also on google app engine) or any number of static hosting sites, and it's also close to unhackable (as much as any account anywhere is).

Here are two of the top contenders:
https://jekyllrb.com/
https://gohugo.io/

Since you don't need a database, you don't have to pay for one, or worry about scaling it (and maintaining it).

[woodsprite]

4. We use HostGator for both our church website and the chorale group that I sing with.

If you want to take a look, the church site is http://newcastlepreschurch.org/

Kind of dated. I designed it quite a few years ago and the church office has been doing maintenance and continually updating the links, news, etc. We're in the process of finding a new minister and decided not to redesign until the new minister is hired. It's hosted on HostGator, but is coded with regular HTML.

The group I sing with will be updating our site with new season info and an updated design shortly. It was originally designed by committee, but we're fixing it It's on HostGator and we use Weebly as the editor. It's a drag-and-drop editor which makes it really easy to use. There are a ton of templates to use as a base, but since you known HTML, you can customize any of them by customizing CSS.

The site is http://www.newarkchorale.org/

HostGator also supports WordPress as one of it's editors.

My daughter is using Wix to create her resume/portfolio website. She liked it better than Weebly, WordPress, and SquareSpace. Said it was more customizable.

Good luck! Your message is prompting me to get started on the Chorale site again so I'll have something to show them at the board meeting.

[Sunlei]

5. check with your churches ISP providers website, many ISP offer a free website & tools to

many ISP offer a 'free website' and easy tools to set-up website. EarthLink is one of the ISPs I know for sure give a free website to all, most others do also.