My post about how a little friendly competition within the Church website space as it relates to Flash-based sites was a healthy and good one I believe and my hope is that it’ll spur both businesses toward innovation!
Bridge Element landed us a comment about 12 key differentiators that you might not know about or that is not explicit in their copy. I’d thought I’d post them here for your benefit:
- We only partner with gospel centered churches and ministries.
- Unlimited Hosting – Yes that’s right, unlimited media storage and bandwidth.
- Customizations -Maybe you want a custom page layout to better fit your content or a completely unique background image to better match your branding, we can do just about anything.
- Email accounts – We will host and setup all your email accounts.
- Graphic and Logo Design – Not only do we provide awesome ministry websites but we also offer custom graphic design.
- Printing – Recently we have launched a sister company that offers full commercial printing with free shipping. All websites clients get exclusive discounts and offers for promotions.
- Photo Gallery – We have an amazing photo gallery with the ability to have unlimited sub galleries and unlimited photo storage.
- Additional Page Layouts – We are constantly adding more page layouts for you to choose from. So in 6 months you might have 3 or 4 more page layouts to use with your site in addition to the 10+ that come with each site.
- Staff Page Layout – Our staff pages are very unique, each team member has their own contact form, photo and bio section.
- Contact Form – We also have a page layout dedicated to your “Contact Us” page with its own form so that visitors can message you directly from the site.
- Non-flash Version – Any device that is not flash enabled would see a version of your site. Its not a generic version it actually matches the look and feel of your site. It also has a contact form.
- Robust Text Editor – We have several fonts for you to choose from as well as the ability to change the size and color of your text.
Thanks Bridge Element for jumping into the conversation!
Stephen Bateman says
It sounds good, my only question is why is there that much value that isn’t explicit in their copy!?
Eric Provost says
Hey Guys,
Here is another great idea…Check out http://www.advancedministry.com
1. $0 sign-up fees
2. All our designs are free and you can edit the design as well
3. The list of functions and engines is huge
4. We give for free, power points and bulletins to match you web brand.
Most of all we believe that all churches are called to represent the awesomeness of Christ! There are many web solutions out there and a lot of them are really good, Clover and Bridge Element for sure. Find the solutions that is best for your ministry and use it.
Use whatever solution that is going to advance your ministry – Do your home work, but in the end, lets strive to make God look as awesome as we humanly can!
Eric
AM Team
J R says
I have used both Cloversites and Sitekreator.com. Sitekreator.com wins by a mile – better templates, much more design flexibility, a little easier to use, more add-ons and widgets, and a MUCH LOWER price – Cloversites charges a $1000 initial fee, Sitekreator.com charges $0
Pac says
I’ve thought about creating an article about these two sites for quiet some time as we have owned two of each. I must weigh in on this article. My thoughts are Clover wins by a landslide! They are fast, dependable, and true to their word. I can edit anything in a matter of seconds or minutes. I’m sorry to say that I’m looking for another alternative to our bridge element site due mainly to the fact that I know the reason so much of this value listed above is not in their copy – its because it doesn’t work correctly. I’m not a bridge element hater, I’m just giving an honest opinion. Here’s why I feel this way after more than a year of experience with them. I have put hours into designing on their sites only to have text, photos, galleries, etc. just disappear and never publish once I’m finished. This means that I’ve had to start all over from scratch again and again. Until they fix the main functions of their sites, it doesn’t matter that they are cheaper b/c in this case you get what you pay for – at least for now. I hope this helps someone know what they are getting into – especially if they are novice web designers. I respect their efforts and I will say that I like their intentions to help people get an affordable website. But that’s my thoughts after several years of designing sites. Thanks for the article!
Bridge Element says
Wow! a lot has changed since this post. I wanted to let everyone know of few things that we have been working on.
1. All our websites are HTML5.
http://www.BridgeElement.com/church-websites.php
2. We have a completely upgraded CMS with tons of great features.
http://bridgeelement.com/editing.php
3. We have Online Giving / Online Tithing. We have the lowest rates possible!
http://bridgeelement.com/online-giving.php
4. We will be coming out with Apps very shorty! I can’t get into too much detail but it is going to be awesome!
Thank s for the support.
God bless,
Eric Dye says
Sounds cool! You should partner with us and we’ll help get the word out about these new apps! 😀