Website builders for nonprofits: what the monthly price does not include.
Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, Weebly, Zeffy, Springly, Morweb. They publish their prices and the prices are low. What none of them includes is a person to build the site, write the pages, and change them next year. That work is the real cost, and it is what decides whether the site is still right in a year.
- We sell the other option, a site built and kept current for you. Read this knowing that.
- We do not print anyone else's prices here. They change, and a stale price is worse than none, so every builder below links to its own pricing page.
- For some organizations a builder really is the right answer. The next section says which ones.
Is a website builder right for your nonprofit?
The honest test is not which builder is best. It is whether anyone at your organization will still be looking after the site in eighteen months.
Yes, if it is mostly a leaflet
Who you are, what you do, how to reach you, one donate button. A builder does that well and you will not outgrow it quickly.
Yes, if somebody enjoys it
One person who likes doing this, has the hours, and is not leaving. That person is the whole difference.
Yes, if you want to start today
You can have something up this week. That is worth a lot when the alternative is another year of nothing.
No, if nobody has the hours
A builder hands you a blank canvas and a monthly bill. Half-built nonprofit sites are almost always this.
No, if the site has to do jobs
Programs with places left, sign-ups that open on a date, waitlists, volunteer shifts, a notice on every page. Each of those is a build, not a page.
No, if a funder has to check you
Form 990s, financial statements and a determination letter, published so a funder finds them from the footer and the figures agree with the filing.
What a builder's monthly fee covers, and what it does not
The same list of work, twice. The left column is not a criticism of any platform: the software is genuinely good, and doing the work yourself is genuinely free. The question is only who does it.
| The work | With a website builder | With connectNPO |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing the platform and setting it up | You | Us |
| Designing it around what your organization actually does | You, starting from a template | Us, from what you send on one form |
| Writing every page | You | Us |
| Moving your existing site across | You | Us, included |
| Programs, events, forms with places and waitlists, volunteer shifts, a notice on every page | You build each one | In the plan |
| Publishing your Form 990 and financial statements where a funder will find them | You work out how | In the plan |
| Changing a date, a fee or a photo next March | You, whenever you get to it | Send one form; done within one business day |
| Checking links, colour contrast and image descriptions every month | You, if you know to | In the plan, fixed by us |
| Putting next year's 990 up, and refreshing the donation page each November | You, if you remember | In the plan, every year |
| Hosting, the domain, an SSL certificate | Usually in the platform fee; the domain often is not | In the plan |
| What you pay | The platform's own price, plus your staff's hours | $180 a month + $1,000 build |
One row deserves saying plainly: we build on WordPress, which is free software. You are not paying us for the platform. You are paying for the work in the left column.
How much does it cost to build a website for a nonprofit?
With a builder, the platform costs whatever the platform charges, usually a low monthly fee, and the building is your own staff's time. There is no way to price that second part except in hours.
Built for you, connectNPO charges $180 a month plus a one-time $1,000 build fee, and the build fee is due only after you approve the finished site. That is $3,160 in the first year and $2,160 a year after that, with no tiers, no setup fee and no add-ons. The whole cost, in one table →
What about a nonprofit website template?
A template gives you the design: the layout, the fonts, a donate button in the header. Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and WordPress theme makers all offer templates made for nonprofits, some free and some paid, and a good one saves weeks of design work. What it does not give you is the part that goes out of date.
When we checked 150 small California nonprofit websites, about one in four showed something plainly out of date, most often an event that had already happened. How we counted → When we pressed the Donate button on 105 of them, six led nowhere. The donation form count → Neither is a design problem. Both are about who looks after the content.
So the question with a template is who fills it in and who keeps it current. If that is your staff, a template is a fine start. If nobody has the time, that is the part we do. What it costs →
The builders nonprofits actually use
What each one is, and a link to its own prices. Check whether the platform offers a nonprofit rate, and check TechSoup before paying a full price anywhere.
- WixA hosted drag-and-drop builder with nonprofit templates and built-in donation tools. Their nonprofit page →
- SquarespaceA hosted builder, strongest on design-led templates. Their prices →
- WordPressFree, self-hosted software, and what we build on. You pay for hosting and you do the maintenance. wordpress.org →
- WeeblyA hosted builder, now part of Square. Their prices →
- ZeffyDonation, ticketing and store pages for nonprofits, free to the organization. Read their page for how that is funded. Their pricing page →
- SpringlyNonprofit membership software that includes a website builder. Their prices →
- MorwebA nonprofit content system, closer to done-with-you than to pure do-it-yourself. morweb.org →
- TechSoupNot a builder. Where eligible nonprofits get software at a reduced price, worth checking first. techsoup.org →
Look at fifteen that are already built.
Fifteen invented nonprofits with complete working sites, staff side included. Press the buttons before you decide anything.
Open the one closest to yours
Soil cleanup after a wildfire, a land trust, a fair-wage program, youth arts, scholarships, community theatre, a youth center, youth sports, family counseling, animal rescue, a food pantry, a free clinic, a resource directory, a house museum, domestic-violence services. See all fifteen →
Read the price
One plan, one number, on one page. Nothing costs extra and there is no higher tier. Pricing →
Tell us what you need
About three minutes. You get a written reply within one business day, and nothing is signed or paid to find out what we would build. Apply →
Not sure which side of this you are on?
Write to us and say what your organization does and what the site has to manage. If a builder is the better answer for you, we will say so.