Website Options
Website Options Order of Priority
The web options chosen all provided value for money, with the two associated with the United Methodist Church being given first priority.
- United Methodist Web Hosting (tiers 2 and 3 (now called Silver and Gold), both based on WordPress)
- Ezekial Web Hosting (discount due to United Methodist partnership)
- Squarespace (a low cost web host with beautiful, responsive website templates)
Squarespace
Squarespace was attractive due to:
- Its low price (the price at the time of this project was $8/month including domain, with year commitment, but later went up)
- Beautiful, responsive website templates
- Intuitive content management system
Final verdict: Squarespace is the web host that I chose for the church. I felt that Squarespace offers the best value for money for Pretty Prairie United Methodist Church's situation. Although Squarespace was $3/month more expensive than the cheapest option (which offered the same/similar templates as one used by a nearby church), the beautiful, modern Squarespace templates would ensure a unique look, and the intuitive content management system could potentially be used by non-techies and occasional volunteers, in order to keep the content relevant.
Screenshot of finished website: http://www.prettyprairieumc.org
United Methodist Church Web Hosting
United Methodist Church Web Hosting was initially attractive due to:
- Its low price (starting at $5 or less/month)
- Its affiliation with the church, including United Methodist content via RSS widgets
- The user-friendliness of the WordPress content management system
Stained glass window mockup using Morgue File photo
Stained glass window mockup using pic of Pretty Prairie UMC stained glass window
Sunflowers mockup using Morgue File photo
Final verdict: The United Methodist Web Hosting templates that I liked the best were three very popular and similar looking WordPress templates called Twenty Eleven, Twenty Twelve, and Catching Everest. Notably, nearby New Jerusalem Church is already using one of these templates (the Twenty Eleven theme). Because of this, I decided to forgo the United Methodist Web Hosting in order to have something unique to Pretty Prairie United Methodist Church.
Ezekiel
Ezekiel was initially attractive due to:
- Price (one time set up fee of $18 + $11/month)
- Vast number of templates
- Potential for a full-website look (rather than a blog-like appearance)
Pretty Prairie United Methodist Church Ezekiel home page mock up
Final verdict: I quickly ruled Ezekiel out because I felt its content management system was not intuitive enough to suit the particular needs of Pretty Prairie United Methodist Church. Ezekiel was also a little bit more expensive than the option that I chose.