Do you work for a church and want to learn about tools for church newsletter design? Or do you wish to discover software for church newsletter free download? Many of the softwares are legit, consumer-friendly, and easy-to-use. From small churches to international mega-churches, everyone can use this resource.
Do you lead a church and want to learn how to design your newsletter? If you’re reading this post, you’ve likely already heard about free software for church newsletters. My goal is to help you decide if free software for church newsletters is what you should be using to design your church newsletter.
Canva
Canva is a well-known graphic design platform that also works well for church newsletters. While it’s not exclusive to newsletters, there are a variety of free church newsletter templates to let you get started quickly.
You’ll want to create a free account to save your work. Some tools are only available to pro users, but don’t worry. Nonprofits can apply to access premium features completely for free.
There aren’t any mailing list or analytics features. This platform is only for designing your newsletters. However, if you already have an email list management platform, want to print out the newsletters or want to upload the newsletter to your church website, you can design on Canva and then use your newsletter however you want.
One great thing about Canva is your church can use it to create social media graphics, videos, presentations and more. It’s a great design tool overall.
Faithlife
If your church already has a Faithlife group for online worship and communications, take advantage of Faithlife newsletters. Recipients don’t have to be a member of Faithlife or your Faithlife group to receive your newsletters.
Faithlife is one of the more popular church newsletter platforms as many churches already use it as a place to socialize online. Churches create groups and communities for their members to gather safely without using standard social media platforms. It’s all free, too.
Once you’ve joined the platform, create newsletters using simple drag and drop tools. These look just as professional as more advanced tools without the massive learning curve.
Plus, it’s easy to add subscribers, both on Faithlife and off. This means you can add subscribers from your church and your online followers too to keep everyone in the loop.
The Newsletter Newsletter
The Newsletter Newsletter is the first premium option on this list. If you’re looking for great content and graphics to add to your newsletters, this could easily be one of the best church newsletter platforms available.
Much like Canva, there isn’t any mailing list management tools. This one is strictly about creating and designing the newsletter.
However, The Newsletter Newsletter is made specifically for churches. In addition to design tools, you get a variety of resources, such as:
- Graphics
- Content ideas
- Design tips
- Current newsletter trends
- Caption editor
- Customizable templates
- Bible-based activities (great for kids and adults)
- Create not just newsletters, but bulletins, announcements and more
While we’ve talked about places to get free and premium church graphics in the past, having a platform that includes the graphics is always nice. It means one less step while creating a newsletter.
Before you worry about the price, it’s quite reasonable at just $69.95 a year for all available resources. Plus, you’re free to cancel at any time.
Pastoral Message Newsletter Template
This is one of the best church newsletter templates for delivering that pastoral touch to your congregation. It is elegant and has been executed very well by this church.
You can use it to deliver:
- Pastoral messages
- Scriptures of the week/month
- Full round-ups
Take a keen look at the design, use of branding colours, spacing of elements, content ideas, and how precise it is. These are the keys to giving your church a great newsletter.
Core Principles Newsletter Template
Perhaps you have been wondering how to best illustrate the core principles of your church. Using this sample church newsletter template, it should be easier.
The structure is simply divided into 2 columns.
The body of the text has a very elaborate text about the church and its founding principles. Additionally, the left side has a column with some important and urgent updates.
This can be used for church culture and vision reminders as well as quick sermons.
Church Culture Newsletter Template
For that welcome newsletter, this template would come in very handy. It has a good outlook for welcoming new church members and inviting them to join some of your events that are more geared towards new church members.
In addition, this church newsletter template has powerful branding both in terms of colour and consistency of fonts.
This can also be used for:
- Linking to interesting articles
- Sharing inspirational quotes
- weekly updates
Campayn
Overall rating: 3.5/5
Reviews: 3+
ROI reporting in Campayn
Representing Canada on this list, Toronto-based Campayn has a simple interface that is designed for email marketing newcomers. Even the free version includes some advanced features like forms, automation, and basic reporting.
Free plan: 12,500 emails to 500 subscribers with one autoresponder
Paid plans: Start at$19/month for 15,000 emails to 3,000 contacts
Pros:
- Comes with a built-in contact manager, which is ideal for companies that are too small for a CRM (although, with so many free CRMs out there, are you ever really too small for a CRM?)
- Lets you embed opt-in forms on your website to easily collect email subscribers
Cons:
- Campayn can get pricey, as you have to pay to have more than one user. A plan for 10,000 subscribers and three users shakes out to $79/month.
- Campayn reviews outgoing campaigns to ensure high deliverability, but that can put campaigns into a holding pattern that could potentially last hours depending on the time of day
SendPulse
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Reviews: 45+
Sending a push notification in SendPulse
A relative newcomer to the email marketing scene, New York-based SendPulse has been around since 2015. It offers a generous free plan and has garnered many positive reviews in its short existence. The system also offers SMS texts and web push notifications (for an additional charge).
Free plan: 15,000 emails/month for less than 2,500 subscribers
Paid plans: Start at $9.85/month
Pros
- The high threshold on the free plan means that you won’t have to pay until you’ve really had a chance to see what SendPulse is capable of
- The system is simple and easy to pick up in short time
Cons
- Some users found the template options to be a bit limited
- In some users’ experience, the system performed slowly when completing tasks like sending emails and importing contacts
Fellowship Newsletter Template
Are you wondering how to create the full round-up newsletters? Well, wonder no more because we found the best template for that.
Here we have a full round-up newsletter that executes the following:
- Inspiration
- What is important (first)
- Information about holiday services
- Scriptures
- Pastoral message
- Christian education
These messages can be a set of anything really. What is important is the hierarchy and importance of each. It is the ideal example of a newsletter that focuses on important information only.
Consequently, create a weekly or monthly round-up like this one and your newsletter might just have that level of engagement you are looking for.
Zoho Campaigns
Overall rating: 4/5
Reviews: 65+
The social media campaign manager in Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns, the email marketing tool from California based SaaS developer Zoho, offers a generous free plan that includes premium features like A/B testing, reports, and templates.
Free plan: 12,000 emails/month for up to 2,000 subscribers
Paid plans: Start at $5/month for unlimited emails to up to 500 subscribers
Pros
- You can design your own templates
- Integrates with other Zoho products, such as Zoho CRM, as well as G Suite
Cons
- The system is a little more involved than others, meaning it could take several hours to launch a campaign
- You can’t embed videos in your emails
Benchmark
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Reviews: 35+
The Benchmark email campaign editor
Founded in 2004, Benchmark focuses on simple email marketing and appeals to those with an eye for creative design thanks to its ability to customize email templates. It is also available in eight languages.
Free plan: Free for Life plan for up to 2,000 subscribers and 14,000 emails/month
Paid plans: Start at $13.99/month for up to 600 subscribers and add features like advanced automation and A/B testing. Add-on features include list verification ($3/1,000 contacts), image hosting ($5/month), and dedicated IP ($28.95/month).
Pros
- User-friendly, clean templates, including the ability to send video email marketing
- Integrates with 1,000+ other tools through Zapier
Cons
- While you can have unlimited contacts in your Free for Life plan, they have to come from your Benchmark subscriber sign-up form (can’t be uploaded from your CRM or other sources)
- Limited customer support on weekends; live chat and phone support are available Monday through Friday, 9:30 AM-8:00 PM EDT
MailChimp
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Reviews: 2,650+
Navigating lists in MailChimp
After its 2014 breakthrough on the back of a brilliant podcast marketing campaign, MailChimp is perhaps the most widely-used email marketing system for small businesses with an estimated 15 million+users. And it’s more than just a popularity contest winner. In a recent email marketing survey of 60 small business owners, it received rave reviews from its users.
Free plan: Forever Free plan for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month
Paid plans: Start at $20/month for unlimited email
Pros
- Huge integration list—integrates with WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, Magento, Salesforce, ZenDesk, BigCommerce, Drupal, Mandrill, and Google Analytics (to name a few)
- Nice analytics—easy-to-read graph reports that show side-by-side comparisons of your email performance compared with past emails or others in your industry
Cons
- Difficult to customize sign-up forms
- Some features excluded in free version, including autoresponders, spam filter diagnostics, email client testing, delivery by time zone, advanced social media monitoring, and email/chat support
Mailjet
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Reviews: 65+
The template gallery in Mailjet
With a name like Mailjet, it’s got to be fast. The company is based in Paris, but operates in more than 150 countries, including the U.S. Marketed as an “all-in-one solution,” Mailjet aims to be a one-stop-shop for email marketing.
Free plan: 6,000 emails/month or 200 emails/day for unlimited contacts
Paid plans: Start at $9.65/month to remove the daily sending limit, Mailjet branding, and add 24/7 customer support
Pros
- No limit on contacts, even on the free plan
- The user interface is simple and easy
Cons
- Some useful features, like A/B testing and marketing automation, are behind the Premium paywall (starting at $15.50/month)
- Several users found the contact and distribution lists to be tricky to navigate
MailerLite
Overall rating: 4/5
Reviews: 65+
The MailerLite template gallery
MailerLite, based in Lithuania, is one of the cheapest email solutions around, and aims to make everything easy for first-time email marketers. The company claims that more than 300,00 companies use its services to send more than one billion emails every month.
Free plan: Unlimited emails to 1,000 subscribers
Paid plans: Start at $7/month for unlimited emails to up to 2,500 subscribers (when paid annually)
Pros:
- MailerLite is a lite solution; first-timers won’t be confused by a lot of features
- A/B testing, autoresponder capabilities, and embed forms to gather emails are all included in the free plan
Cons:
- Advanced marketers may find that it lacks many features they need
- The template gallery is a little skimpy compared to the competition
VerticalResponse
Overall rating: 4/5
Reviews: 15+
A/B testing in VerticalResponse
One of the more established solutions on this list, VerticalResponse was founded in San Francisco in 2001 and has grown to more than one million users. It’s now part of the portfolio of Minnesota-based check printing giant Deluxe Corp.
Free plan: Free for 4,000 emails/month to up to 300 subscribers
Paid plans: Start at $11/month for unlimited emails, automated follow-up emails, live phone/chat support, landing pages, and VerticalResponse logo removal
Pros
- Includes social media scheduling tools for unlimited posts on Facebook and Twitter
- Built-in integrations with many of the major CRMs, such as Salesforce, SugarCRM, Zoho CRM, and Nimble
Cons
- No automation features such as autoresponders or event-triggered emails, or A/B testing, unless you pay for the Pro Plan ($16/month)
- Unsubscribes from any VerticalResponse emails are also opted-out from the VerticalResponse user databases, so you might lose some subscribers through this system.
Mad Mimi
Overall rating: 4/5
Reviews: 15+
The main dashboard view in Mad Mimi
Arizona-based Mad Mimi — now part of the GoDaddy portfolio — is a popular solution for beginning email marketers due to its extreme simplicity. Plus, it has the most unique name and logo on this list.
Free plan: Free for unlimited emails to 100 subscribers
Paid plans: Start at $10/month for up to 500 contacts
Pros
- The simplicity of the system makes it easy to work with for newbies, and the comic-style interface brightens up the experience
- Great customer service
Cons
- Since their free plan is only good for up to 100 subscribers, it’s only useful for very small companies and freelancers
- Mad Mimi is missing some fairly standard features, such as full A/B testing, even on the paid plans
Conclusion:
What’s so hard about building a church newsletter? Well, if you don’t hire a professional designer to do it for you, it can be very hard. Looking at the amazing layouts some congregations have made their own really impresses me. Their newsletter looks like they hired a professional.