Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the answers to some of the questions you might have…
Q: What is the difference between custom and semi-custom.
A: Custom means it’s built specifically for you. When we design a custom logo, website or print piece for your church, we literally start with a blank piece of paper. We spend time talking with you about your preferences, discussing your church style and target audience and then begin a very collaborative process to come up with a design that is unique to your church.
With a semi-custom design, we start by selecting a pre-designed template that suits your needs, and then customize that template for your church by choosing colors, images and typefaces that will best communicate your message. The end result is a piece of work that is still unique to your church, but at a greatly reduced cost.
Q: What if another church in our area picks the same design as us?
A: First of all, by the time we fit you with a semi-custom design, it will look quite different than other churches who choose the same template. However, we also make sure that no one within a 200 mile radius of your church chooses the same logo template and no one within a 50 mile radius chooses the same website or print media template.
Q: What’s the catch? Why are you able to offer these products so inexpensively?
A: Our heart is for the church that has big dreams but a small budget. We set out to offer the best system possible for the best price. To accomplish this, we did four main things…
- We decided to use an open-source solution so that we could pass the savings on to the churches that we design for
- We decided to offer semi-custom designs that could be personalized to create a unique look
- We found a great hosting company that supports us well at a competitive rate
- Our staff have decided to do this as a ministry, and therefore do all of the work on ChurchPress for less than half of what we charge for non-church clients
All of these things combine to deliver what we feel is the best value for church websites today.
Q: What does “open-source” mean?
A: In the web-software world, open-source means that the community owns it. Typically when software is developed, it is done so by a company who invests a lot of money up front hopes to sell the eventual product for a profit. Open-source software on the other hand, is typically started by a group of developers who have a common goal, and decide to share the source code with the world in the hopes that other developers will contribute to the product and enhance it’s features. The community owns it and is free to modify and use it as they see fit. Sometimes is takes off and sometimes it doesn’t, but when it does, the result is often a far-superior product because..
- it has received contributions from some of the top minds in the business
- it is being continually developed and updated by the community
- it is very low cost (free in fact - you just need someone who knows the software to work for you…that’s where we come in
