facebook pixel
Select Page

Top 10 Best Gutenberg Ready WordPress Themes for Churches

by | Nov 15, 2018 | Divi for Church Websites, WordPress Church Websites

muted collection of Gutenburg friendly wordpress themes

WordPress is changing. Is your church website theme Gutenberg-ready?

With the next evolution of WordPress right around the corner, we thought we’d take the time to evaluate our favorite WordPress Themes for use in church settings. More specifically, we’ll focus on ones that will be Gutenberg ready when WordPress 5.0 is launched on or about November 27. Gutenberg is WordPress’ new built-in page builder that works using “blocks” instead of a Word-like text editor. The best WordPress themes for churches will be Gutenberg-ready. 

Please note: click the images to go to each theme’s sales page. Scroll to the bottom to learn more about our criteria or to recommend your own theme. Finally, in some cases we have used an affiliate link, meaning that if you purchase via our link we receive a small portion of the sale, enabling us to create more of these kinds of articles for you.

1. Forward by Deep Themes

Score: 22/25

Why We Like It: Forward by Deep Themes uses current design principles to create an easy-to-navigate, clean website. It comes with a variety of church-related plugins. Deep Themes partners with Elementor, a visual composer, to give the user as much control over the theme as possible. Forward comes with several pre-built sections and pages specifically designed with churches in mind. By purchasing Forward, you also gain access to all the other themes developed by Deep themes. Forward is a part of the theme pack Church Suite, so if this theme does not suit your needs you gain several more church related themes to choose from with the purchase of Forward.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes

Price: $89 / yr.

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

}

Countdown Timer

Built in Calendar

Embedded Maps

Stock Graphics

Donations System

Page Builder

2. Grace by Ancora Themes

Score: 21/25

Why We Like It:  Grace by Ancora Themes has an easy and quick installation system. It includes a wide range of ministry plugins. The theme itself is elegant and clean, allowing you to customize your site with your church’s logo and colors quickly. It does not require any advanced knowledge or design and upkeep is easy. While it lacks a visual builder, it is great for both churches without a wide knowledge of design and those who are looking for a simple-to-use church theme.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes

Price: $49

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

Embedded Maps

Built in Calendar

Donations System

Stock Graphics

Page Builder

3. Divi by Elegant Themes

Score: 20.5/25

Why We Like It: While not specifically a church theme, Divi by Elegant Themes is highly editable and has more customization options than any other theme. It comes equipped with 100+ existing theme layouts, including a new one specifically for churches. There are also several child themes, such as Aboundant and Churchly, created using Divi. It is highly compatible with plugins and it is extremely well documented.

Gutenberg: Yes, you can choose between the Gutenberg and the Divi visual builder; however, both cannot run at the same time.

Price: $69 / yr.

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

}

Countdown Timer

Built in Calendar

Embedded Maps

Stock Graphics

Donations System

Page Builder

4. Pray by Farost

Score: 20/25

Why We Like It: Pray by Farost is a highly editable church and non-profit theme. Because it is specifically for non-profits, it has a more complex giving plugin and pre-built ways to display giving goals and cause purposes. Pray comes equipped with Visual Composer, a visual builder, and it has a wide range of plugins necessary for digital ministry. While some of its theme’s design elements are not in line with current design principles, its highly editable nature makes the design easy to adjust.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes

Price: $59

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

}

Countdown Timer

Built in Calendar

Embedded Maps

Stock Graphics

Donations System

Page Builder

5. Saved by Church Themes

Score: 19/25

Why We Like It: Saved, by Church Themes, comes equipped with a church content plugin and online donations portal, making it easy to set up your church website with the necessary features. It also comes with a wide range of church-related pages and sections, including a “New-Here?” section and “Ministries” page. The drag and drop homepage builder allows you to customize your homepage to your church’s needs. The theme’s reliability on set page layouts makes it easy to use for churches with limited design knowledge.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes. This theme will allow you to use Gutenberg editor to set up posts within an existing theme. Church Themes also plans to provide support for understanding how Gutenberg integrates with their themes.

Price: $129 / yr.

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

Embedded Maps

Built in Calendar

Stock Graphics

Donations System

6. Benevolence by WPLook Themes

Score: 19/25

Why We Like It:  Benevolence by WPLook Themes is an easy-to-use, well-documented theme specifically built for the donation needs of churches and non-profit organizations. It is equipped with an online giving platform and has special features that make it easy to build an engaging fundraising campaign. In addition to its fundraising capabilities, Benevolence comes with many pre-built church theme layouts, such as a ministries and sermon area. If your church reaches populations that don’t speak English as their primary language, it has a special feature that makes it easy to create a bilingual site.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes

Price: $87 / yr.

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

Embedded Maps

Built in Calendar

Stock Graphics

Donations System

7. Creed by Theme Fuse

Score: 18.5/25

Why We Like It: Creed by Theme Fuse has excellent staff support and documentation. Creed’s layouts are highly editable and varied. it comes with pre-built church-oriented sections and pages, such as a “Ministries” page, and it includes many church-related plugins.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes

Price: $49

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

Embedded Maps

Built in Calendar

Donations System

Stock Graphics

Page Builder

8. Church child theme for X | Theme

Score: 18/25

Why We Like It: X | Theme by Theme Co is a highly editable theme that comes with downloadable page layouts specifically designed for churches. It has a wide range of plugins to contribute to your ministry. Both theme maintenance and updates are included with your purchase. While some of its themes are not up to date with modern design principles, the visual page builder allows the user to easily make adjustments to the existing layouts and visuals.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes, this theme allows you to switch between X visual builder and Gutenberg visual builder.

Price: $59

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

Embedded Maps

Built in Calendar

Donations System

Stock Graphics

Page Builder

9. Hopes by Aivah Themes

Score: 17.5/25

Why We Like It:  Hopes is a highly editable theme that uses Visual Composer, a popular page builder, to allow users to edit all features of their page. It comes with a variety of layout options specifically designed for churches. Hopes comes with Church Theme Content, a popular plugin for church themes. Additionally, it has built in access to the Flickr photo library.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes.

Price: $60

Key Features:

Sermon Manager

}

Countdown Timer

Built in Calendar

Embedded Maps

Stock Graphics

Donations System

Page Builder

10. Beaver Builder by Beaver Builder

Score: 17/25

Why We Like It: Beaver Builder by Beaver Builder is a visual page builder that allows the user to have extensive control of their design choices. Beaver Builder allows you to integrate its visual builder with your existing theme without having to entirely rebuild your website after installing it. The user interface was built to be more intuitive than Divi’s, but Beaver Builder does not have church child themes. Something different about this page builder from the others is that a more limited free version is also available.

Gutenberg Ready: Yes, Beaver Builder allows you to switch between its editor and the Gutenberg builder when building pages. However, it does warn that material can be lost during the conversion.

Price: $99/y

Key Features:

Built in Calendar

Embedded Maps

Stock Graphics

Page Builder

Our Criteria and Methodology

We looked at nearly 50 church, non-profit, and general WordPress themes before reaching any conclusions. Each theme was scored from 1-5 on a spreadsheet using the following criteria:

Worship Tools: We identified themes that came equipped with commonly-needed worship tools, such as a sermon manager, countdown timer, and Bible plugin.

Discipleship Tools: We assessed the themes based on the most-needed discipleship tools: a calendar, donations system, social media sharing, and embedded maps.

Design: We looked for themes that used current design principles or had the necessary tools to implement current design principles. We looked for a strong sense of alignment, clear informational organization, and themes that are moving away from flat design principles.

Technology: We did not consider any themes that were not Gutenberg ready. We assessed themes based their extensibility. If they were not specifically built for churches but could easily have the necessary plugins added to them, their score increased. Additionally, we considered whether the theme came equipped with a visual builder.

Ease of Use: Here we considered how intuitive the user interface is, how easy the theme is to install, and how well-documented the theme is. We also considered what level of support is offered by the company.

Recommend a Gutenberg Ready Church Theme

We’re looking for more Gutenberg-ready themes and child themes that are great for churches and nonprofits to add to our list. Got one to suggest? Tell us the details below.

  • What is the name of the theme or child theme you recommend?
  • Please provide the sales page for the theme you're recommending.
  • Tell us whatever you really like about it.
  • (Optional) Let us know who you are, in case we have any questions.
  • (Optional) Where can we reach you if we have any questions?
By Emily Adams

Follow UnBound, The Aboundant Blog, to get more useful posts like this one.

You may also like…

New Additions to Aboundant Church Websites

New Additions to Aboundant Church Websites

Aboundant has undergone some exciting software changes we'd like to tell you about. Polls and Surveys in our Form Builder (Gravity Forms) The Surveys feature helps you track the degree to which someone likes or agrees with a question. Polling looks just a normal radio...

read more
Using Tabs, Toggles & Accordions on Church Websites

Using Tabs, Toggles & Accordions on Church Websites

Tabs, toggles, and accordions are three of the several tools that make it easy to do two things: organize your website content, and limit the amount of information on a screen at one time. Let's take a look at how you might use them on your church website. Demo of...

read more

0 Comments

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This