- OceanWP: Great for sermon organization, event calendars, and community features like forums.
- Astra: Fast, customizable, and perfect for managing sermons, events, and donations.
- SeedProd: Drag-and-drop builder with tools for sermons, events, and community engagement.
- Church: Specifically designed for churches, offering sermon tools, donation features, and ministry pages.
- Virtue: Simple yet functional, with event calendars, donation integration, and responsive design.
Quick Comparison
| Theme | Sermon Tools | Event Scheduling | Donation Features | Community Features | Customization Options |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OceanWP | Yes (Church Content plugin) | Yes (The Events Calendar) | Yes (WooCommerce) | Yes (BuddyPress) | Extensive |
| Astra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Highly customizable |
| SeedProd | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Drag-and-drop builder |
| Church | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Simple adjustments |
| Virtue | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Easy to use |
These themes are free, mobile-friendly, and tailored to meet the unique needs of churches. Start building a website that supports your mission today.
How to Make a Church Website with WordPress (2024 Tutorial)
Key Features to Look for in Church WordPress Themes
When choosing a WordPress theme for your church website, it’s important to focus on features that will help you meet the needs of your congregation and streamline church activities. Here’s what to look for:
- Sermon Management System: A good sermon management system allows you to share sermons in audio, video, or text formats. It should also let you organize them by topic, speaker, or series for easy navigation.
- Event Management Tools: Look for tools that make it simple to display event schedules, handle registrations, send reminders, and track attendance.
- Secure Online Donations: Ensure the theme supports online giving with multiple payment options, custom forms, and automated tax receipt generation.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: A mobile-responsive theme ensures your site works perfectly on any device, from phones to tablets, without losing functionality.
- Community Engagement Features: Features like prayer request forms, ministry team pages, and social media integration can help foster stronger connections within your church community.
- Customization Options: The ability to adjust colors, fonts, and layouts lets you create a site that reflects your church’s personality and mission.
- Plugin Compatibility: Choose themes that work with tools like Church Content for sermon management and The Events Calendar for organizing events [1].
With these features in mind, you’re ready to explore the top free WordPress themes for churches in 2025 that meet these criteria.
1. OceanWP
OceanWP is a theme packed with features that work well for church websites. It pairs seamlessly with the Church Content plugin, making it easy for churches to organize sermons by topic, speaker, or series. It also supports The Events Calendar plugin, which is great for managing worship schedules, Bible studies, community events, and volunteer activities.
Donation Features
Thanks to its WooCommerce compatibility, OceanWP supports various payment gateways, customizable donation forms, automated receipts, and tools for managing campaigns.
Tools for Community Engagement
With BuddyPress integration, churches can build member directories, ministry pages, prayer request forms, and discussion forums to strengthen community connections.
Customization Features
OceanWP offers a range of customization options, including multiple header styles and responsive design settings. It works well with both Gutenberg and Elementor, making site creation straightforward [1]. These features make OceanWP a strong option for churches looking to build a functional and engaging website.
2. Astra
Astra is a free WordPress theme that’s perfect for church websites, offering a mix of speed, flexibility, and features tailored for religious organizations. Its lightweight structure ensures quick load times (under half a second), while its customization options make it easy to create a website that fits your church’s needs.
Sermon Management
Astra’s responsive design makes sermons easy to access on any device. With clear navigation and well-organized layouts, church members can quickly find and enjoy sermon content.
Event Scheduling
Astra integrates seamlessly with The Events Calendar plugin, allowing churches to manage recurring events, categorize them, and display calendars in multiple views. This ensures event details are always accessible and easy to follow.
Donation Integration
Accepting donations online is straightforward with Astra. It supports responsive donation forms and multiple payment gateways, making it simple to manage contributions from the congregation.
Community Features
Astra encourages connection through tools like prayer request forms, ministry group pages, and member directories when paired with BuddyPress. These features help create a sense of community within the church.
Customization Options
With customizable layouts, typography, and color schemes, Astra gives churches the ability to build a unique website. It also works with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder, so no coding is required.
Astra has earned a 4.8-star rating from over 5,000 reviews on the WordPress theme directory, showcasing its reliability. Its combination of performance, ease of use, and church-focused tools makes it a strong option for building a functional, engaging church website.
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3. SeedProd
SeedProd is a WordPress theme that works well for church websites, thanks to its drag-and-drop builder and wide range of features. While it’s not specifically built for churches, it offers plenty of tools to create a professional and engaging site.
Sermon Management
SeedProd pairs with sermon plugins to help you organize and present sermons. You can create searchable archives, categorize messages by topic, speaker, or series, and upload both audio and video formats.
Event Scheduling
With SeedProd, you can manage events like services, Bible studies, or youth groups. Plugins allow you to add calendar views, registration forms, and even set up automated scheduling for recurring events.
Donation Integration
Setting up donations is simple with SeedProd. It’s designed to be easy for staff who may not have technical expertise, and it integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce for efficient management.
Community Features
SeedProd makes it straightforward to build features like prayer request forms, ministry pages, and forums – no coding needed. You can also create member directories or ministry group pages to strengthen connections within your community.
Customization Options
SeedProd offers a drag-and-drop builder, pre-built templates, and a mobile-friendly design, making customization quick and easy. Its lightweight structure ensures fast loading times, and regular updates help keep your website fresh and functional.
SeedProd is a great option for those looking for flexibility and ease of use. However, the next theme, Church, focuses more on specific needs for religious organizations.
4. Church
The Church theme is a WordPress template created specifically for religious organizations. It features a clean, mobile-friendly design and tools tailored to the needs of churches.
Sermon Management
With seamless support for the Church Content plugin, this theme makes organizing sermons simple. You can use dedicated post types and categories to organize and present sermons in an easy-to-navigate format.
Event Scheduling
The theme integrates with The Events Calendar, making it easy to manage church schedules. Whether it’s worship services, ministry events, or community gatherings, the user-friendly interface keeps everything organized.
Donation Integration
Thanks to built-in WooCommerce compatibility, the theme supports secure online donations. This feature is designed with churches in mind, offering a streamlined way to manage contributions without requiring extra setup.
Community Features
The Church theme includes tools to encourage interaction among members. With BuddyPress integration, you can create spaces for ministries, prayer requests, and group discussions – all geared toward building a connected church community.
Customization Options
Customization is straightforward, with tools for adjusting headers, fonts, and layouts. The mobile-responsive design ensures your church’s website looks great on any device while remaining functional.
The Church theme brings together all the features a church might need in one package. If you’re looking for something that balances simplicity with functionality, the Virtue theme might be worth exploring next.
5. Virtue
Virtue is a WordPress theme designed with churches in mind, offering a blend of functionality and ease of use. It provides tools that help religious organizations create a professional online presence without unnecessary complexity.
Sermon Management
With Virtue, organizing sermon content is simple. Its tagging and categorization features allow churches to sort sermons by format – audio, video, or text. Visitors can easily search for specific teachings using an intuitive system.
Event Scheduling
The theme makes managing events straightforward. Its built-in calendar allows churches to schedule services, ministry meetings, and community events. Recurring schedules and registration options can be set up with ease.
Donation Integration
Virtue works seamlessly with WooCommerce, enabling churches to accept donations securely. Whether it’s regular tithes, special offerings, or contributions for specific campaigns, the process is smooth and customizable.
Community Features
Virtue promotes connection within the congregation through BuddyPress integration. Churches can create directories, group spaces, prayer forums, and Bible study boards to encourage interaction and community building.
Customization Options
The theme supports page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder, giving users control over the website’s design. Its responsive layout ensures the site looks great on any device, while its SEO-friendly structure helps improve online visibility.
Virtue offers a solid mix of features and simplicity, making it an excellent free option for churches looking to build or improve their website.
Conclusion
Let’s quickly sum up the key points for creating a church website that stands out. Themes like OceanWP, Astra, and Virtue offer powerful features tailored for church needs.
The top themes combine tools like sermon management, event scheduling, and donation systems. They also bring unique perks – like Virtue’s community features or Astra’s fast performance. These options cover the basics while offering specific benefits to help your church connect online.
When selecting a theme, focus on plugin compatibility, mobile-friendly design, and customization options. These features make it easier to reflect your church’s mission while keeping the site user-friendly. A well-chosen theme not only simplifies management but also helps expand your reach and strengthen connections with your congregation.
Don’t forget to keep your theme updated to ensure it works smoothly with WordPress. Before rolling it out, test everything – loading speed, plugin integration, and how it looks on different devices – to ensure a seamless experience for everyone.