InstaChurch: Church Templates

Yes - if your site has a domain name, we can even use that. While there is no way to automatically import standard websites into our system, you can copy/paste the content from your old site onto your new site.

Let's say you have two main sections on your current site - information about past and upcoming events, and news about your church. First, notice that we have special modules for each of those two types of items. It'd just be a matter of going to their admin pages, and adding items for each. Simply copy and paste the HTML from the original pages as the body of each item (leaving out headers and footers).

It's a bit of work to convert a site, but it's worth it. It will make your site much more usable, and it will save you time in the long run. Imagine being able to easily maintain your current pages, and to add new pages even easier!

Remember that websites from InstaChurch are not your run of the mill sites! You control the destiny of your site, and you can do it yourself -- anytime, anywhere. Obviously you only want certain people to be able to update your site, and logging on proves to the site that you are who you say you are. The "admin" account is the most powerful account - it can do anything to the site that it wants. With our help, you can also create other accounts that have access to update specific areas of your site, without giving them access to the rest of it.

Your visitors are able to come to the site and create accounts for themselves. These accounts are just like the "admin" account, except that they only have permissions to do basic things. Creating an account gives them an identity of their own for your site, and it encourages community participation. You'll find that this is the most rewarding part of using us to power your site -- it creates a virtual world for them that isn't confined by time or your phyiscal walls. Encourage your users to participate in the site! 

We provide basic templates to get you started with your site. Feel free to use them if you like - a large selection is available from the "Look & Feel" item of your site's "Layout" menu. Most of our templates allow you to upload your own custom graphics in the header - just hover over the image and click the "Edit" button. If you are skilled with HTML, you can use the theme manager to customize the site to your heart's content. If you know an HTML programmer, they can do this as well.

We also provide site design services for people in your situation. We charge a reasonable fee to our customers, and your design can be as simple or detailed as you wish. Contact us with your ideas and we'll be happy to work with you to create the site you dream of.

You can control the look and feel of most of a page with the theme manager. The important parts are the header, footer, and the content you provide for pages. If there are certain parts about the way InstaChurch renders a page that are not within your control, feel free to talk to us about it. We are able to customize everything, and we're happy to give you a hand.

Widgets are a good way to make changes to pages, as well. Just open up the widget bar by clicking the tab on the top-left corner of your screen, and drag a widget into your page in the spot you'd like it to be. 

Yes! We built this software completely in house, so extending it with your ideas is easy to do. Whether it's small features or large new functionality, we can work with you for a reasonable fee to create what you want. Again, contact us with any questions you have.

You bet! Each account comes with POP email accounts. Webmail access is included, which allows you to read and send email directly from your website.

Yes! The default site is fairly full-featured, and users have a lot of nice things they can do. This is a good thing for most sites, as it encourages participation and involvement with your site. If there are things that you'd rather were removed from your site, just ask us and we'll take care of it for you.

We have very basic software requirements - a web browser and an internet connection. Strictly speaking, our software supports Chrome, Internet Explorer 8+ and Mozilla Firefox 3.5+ web browsers running on Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 and Linux. That said, other web browsers and platforms have been known to work well, but aren't specifically supported because we're unable to test them.

Our software is built to be administered without the need for special non-standard plugins, however, we do require a functional browser and internet connection with JavaScript and cookies enabled (this is the default). Flash is useful, but not required for basic administration.

This is up to you. To simplify our lives and yours, we prefer to bill in yearly increments. To encourage this, when you pay a year at a time, you get two months free. Note that there is no risk in doing this, if you decide to cancel during that year, we'll refund the prorated remainder, minus the prepayment discount.

Now that your church has the best website in town, others will inevitably be asking you where you got your site. We'd love it if you pointed them to us -- and to show you our appreciation, your account will be credited for the amount of their first four months' fee for the subscriber you sent our way! See the "Affiliate" item of your site's "Help" menu for more information. So spread the word; you'll help them, you'll help us, and you'll get some money!

We try to make it as easy as possible for you to get the answers you need. First things first, check out our support documents -- you may find the answer you're looking for there. We can also be emailed with your questions. Your question will be answered quickly, usually by the owner of InstaChurch himself!

We certainly understand that decisions as important as choosing a website solution can take more than two weeks. There are a lot of factors to consider and options to weigh. Just let us know that you're still thinking about it before your trial is up, and we'll keep your trial site around while you decide.

Unfortunately, we do not currently have a program for offering free web hosting. We are not a traditional web host which serves static pages. We offer a much more dynamic experience, but this costs a lot more in computer resources such as database access than a traditional website. Because of this cost, we would lose money by providing this service, even if we were to offset it with ads.

However, we may still be able to help you. Our referral program credits you with the first four months' fee of every new site who uses you as a reference. 

Of course not! As hard as we try, nobody can meet everyone's needs. We want to be upfront with you about our weaknesses. For one, we don't allow customers FTP or shell access to the websites. This means that if you are a programmer, you won't be able to edit files directly or upload your CGI scripts.

We do not offer phone support, in order to concentrate our efforts on outstanding email support, so if you hate virtual communications you may want to try someone else.

Finally, if your budget is very constrained, you may want to try a free web host. Our prices are very affordable compared to the competition, but that's a lot of money in some parts of the world.

 

Entropy Software, LLC is the parent company of InstaChurch. We have years of experience in web application development and hosting. The owner, Josh, helped build Yahoo! during the height of the dot-com boom and left to form Entropy Software. We're headquartered in lovely Van Buren, Ohio.

We strive to create the most reliable service on the market. Our systems are constantly monitored for health 24 hours a day. Our core software was started in 1998 and has served over a billion pages since 1999. We bring this experience to giving you the best and most reliable website possible.

We host our dedicated servers with SoftLayer, with our backup server in a different facility. 

We hear from many of you who have been burned by fly-by-night operations, wondering if InstaChurch will vanish tomorrow, leaving you stranded. You can rest assured that we're with you for the long haul. We've built this business over the years from the ground up, and there are tens of thousands of man-hours invested and 80,000+ lines of well-tested code powering your website.

We're not going anywhere, and neither is your data. We have put extreme backup measures in place to ensure the safety of your data. Once a day, the contents of your site are copied to offsite backup locations and stored for a period of time.

All the same, we've put measures in place to protect you. If we ever did go out of business, we would provide you with all the code and data that you'd need to take your website elsewhere. InstaChurch is committed to your church, both now and in the future.

Simple! Before you commit to buying, we'd like you to test drive our software for two weeks. When you decide you'd like to purchase it, simply contact us and we'll get you rolling!