●Moving from something else
Most churches put this off for years because nobody can tell them what actually happens. So here it is plainly — what transfers, what does not, and what it costs.
We are not going to tell you everything moves perfectly. Here is the honest version by where you are coming from.
Your content moves across by hand or by our import tool — pages, photos, staff, service times. What does not move is the page layout, because it is built on their editor. You will land on a Holdfast theme instead, which is usually the point of switching.
Sermons and events import cleanly. Giving is the careful part: donors with recurring gifts have to re-enter them on your new Stripe account, because nobody can transfer a saved card between processors. We will help you time the announcement so gifts do not lapse.
We import people, groups, and giving history as records. Holdfast is not a full ChMS — if you rely on deep accounting or complex check-in workflows, keep that system and use Holdfast for the public site and app.
The most common one, and usually the easiest. Paste the URL and our importer reads the live site: pages, sermons, staff, service times. What you lose is the plugin maintenance, the update prompts, and the hosting bill.
1
Your current site stays up and untouched. You get 14 days on a Holdfast subdomain to fill it in and show your board.
2
Paste your existing URL and the importer pulls pages, sermons, staff and service times. You review everything before it publishes — nothing is invented.
3
One DNS change, which we walk you through. Your address stays exactly the same; only what it points at changes.
4
Connect your own Stripe account, announce the change once, and keep the old giving page live for a few weeks so nothing bounces.
Would rather not do it yourself?
Send us your current website address and what you would like carried across. You get a flat quote before any work starts — no hourly billing, no discovering the cost afterwards. Most small-church migrations are a single fixed fee.
No. You build the new site on a Holdfast address while your current one stays live. The only moment anything changes is the DNS switch, which propagates without downtime.
Yes. Point your existing domain at Holdfast and it works on either plan. You keep ownership of the domain — we never take it into our account.
The self-serve import is included. If you would rather hand us the whole thing — content moved across, pages rebuilt, sermons backfilled — email us with your current site and we will quote a flat fee before starting. No hourly surprises.
Recurring gifts cannot be transferred between payment processors by anyone — that is a card-security rule, not a Holdfast limitation. Donors re-enter them once on your new giving page. We will help you word the announcement.
Yes. Export your people, giving history, and content at any time, and point your domain wherever you like. There is no cancellation call and no exit fee.
Start free for 14 days. If it isn’t obviously better than what you have now, walk away — we won’t have your card.
Build your church’s site