Does your church want to expand and reach out to more people? Do you want to achieve that by establishing a website for those outside your community? Well, we are here to help you get started. Launching a website doesn’t just build your church’s presence on the web but also adds professionalism and credibility to your church. While building a website takes some time and work, we must first focus on domain extensions for church websites.
Domain extensions are just simple, but different domain extensions come with different advantages and disadvantages. Also, take note that some domain extensions might filter the newsletters you send through emails as spam! Below are the pros and cons of some domain extensions available for your church websites.
.com
“.com” is the most commonly used domain extension; everyone’s mind when looking for a website is to use this extension.
Pros
Most common and used across the globe and usually the cheapest when buying a domain name. It costs about $10-$20 annually, with renewals per year costing $13 or more.
Cons
The only con about using the .com extension is choosing your domain name. Since it’s popular, your domain name might already be taken, and you have to come up with a creative name to get an available one.
.org
“.org” is also used globally and is a trusted extension. It is mostly used for non-governmental and nonprofit organizations, which is useful when creating a charity or a fund drive conducted by your church.
Pros
Very trustworthy and represents a refined business structure and credible information. It also comes a little cheaper than .com, starting at $9-$17 upwards depends on the provider.
Cons
It comes second after its more popular counterpart, “.com.” Traffic is most likely to be directed to “.com” first, but through marketing strategy, .org sites can gain more traffic or as much as “.com.”
.church
Since its availability in 2014, tens of thousands of churches are using .church, and it’s an extension that is very straightforward.
Pros
As a newer extension, there are more available domain names than legacy TLDs. Using this extension lets people looking at search engine results immediately know that they’d be going to a church website. As an added bonus, .church domains have extra security that block lookalike domains from being registered, so users can have extra assurance they won’t be phished or scammed.
Cons
.church is a little more expensive as it’s a specific domain extension. It costs about $26.99-$44 with a renewal fee of $34+.
.net
This extension has more available names and is cheaper than some of the other domain extensions. However, having a .net extension might make your visitors think they’re entering a website with web-based services since .net is commonly used by companies offering web hosting or internet service providers.
Pros
Cheaper than other domain extensions and may have more available names than .com. Pricing starts at $12-$17.
Cons
It is more specialized in terms of business use than for church websites.
.life
.life is more used in charities and foundations, while some churches have adopted its use as well.
Pros
It’s a good-sounding domain extension; also, users are expected to enter a website with a light feeling. It’s quite suitable for church websites and charity drives or foundations.
Cons
Price is quite a hit and miss here. Some offer as low as $2 per year but have a $33.99 renewal fee, while some are still an outrageous $44 per year. Everything depends on the provider.
Conclusion
While it all boils down to the budget and availability of the domain name, there are still some factors to consider. Like if you’re launching a new website, misspellings, or are there other sites similar to the name you’ve chosen, or the searchability of your website. Be sure to take those factors in mind when creating your domain name, then use our guide in choosing which extension suits you. We hope you find what you’re looking for. If you still want more information check out our blog on “Purchasing Web Domains.”
