ShareFaith Vs Graceway Media

Do you want to improve your church’s media program, but don’t really know where to start? Are you looking to subscribe to a church media website, but aren’t really sure which one is best for your church? Well, I recently did a post mentioning some very brief differences between CreationSwap, ShareFaith, and Graceway Media. I decided I would do some research and bring you an in depth analysis between the three of us. While this post is titled ShareFaith vs. Graceway Media also wanted to present the benefits of CreationSwap. It’s not something you’d necessarily join, while the other two require a membership fee, so we’re focusing on those. This will be a completely unbiased approach considering I’ve recently been exposed to all three. I have not developed loyalties to any of them in particular, however I have used material from each. We’ll take a look at elements such as: cost, design quality, customization, and features. My goal is to save you the time of doing the research and at the same time be able to make an intelligent decision about what is right for your church.

We’ll start with CreationSwap. I’ll go through each one separately and then compare them at the end. This is their stated purpose: “Find royalty-free photos, church bulletins, sermon art, logos and more freely shared or sold by Christian artists around the world. Also, visit our network to connect with artists, view portfolios or post jobs for free.”

cost

The biggest question on everyone’s mind is: How much is this going to cost me? CreationSwap is the only one of these three media companies that offers free downloads They also include many designs that you need to purchase if you want to use them. All printed material, including postcards, newsletters, banners, and invitations, requires some form of payment. The cost differs depending on the item you are purchasing. They offer a free “membership” though everything is available whether you sign up or not.

design quality

The second most important question you probably want to know besides cost is: How good are your materials? Due to the nature of the website, the quality is unpredictable. Designers can create their own stuff and upload it for use. You can find some really cool designs, and again, you might not see much that you like at all. I would check this site at least once a week to see what new designs have come up and see if anything might be useful to you.

personalization

After choosing a design, you probably want to know how easy it is to customize it for your church. If you’re an expert in Photoshop, some of the downloads come with PSD files that allow for editing. Others only provide JPG image files, making it impossible to edit text and customize for your church unless you have some advanced photo editing skills.

Characteristics

• Free downloads

• Printing network

• Community discussion and blog posts

• Reviews on design concepts

• Possibility to sell your artwork

One of the most valuable tools for a designer, in addition to the downloads themselves, are the critiques that he offers to the designs. Even if you don’t post your own designs for feedback, you can take a look at what some designers have created and what others are saying about it. this provides valuable information to improve your designs for maximum efficiency.

ShareFaith’s “About” statement is too long to post here, but the gist lies toward the beginning: “To provide the best solutions in church digital media, we aim to partner with churches and ministries, providing technology solutions. and communication tools that will enable them to communicate the gospel more effectively.” To learn more about them, visit their About page.

cost

Their normal price is set at $149/year, according to their signup page, however right now they have a special offer of 15% if you join within a certain time. Which means that as of this writing, the price to join is $126.65/year. They don’t offer free stuff as normal, but they do offer a 10-day free trial. The limitations of that free trial are listed on their website. You can download an unlimited number of files during your trial, but only one loop of sermon media, and the websites are restricted to members only.

design quality

As a designer, my personal opinion of ShareFaith is that their design work is average to slightly above average. Some look good, while others seem too busy. A missionary friend of mine designed a poster based on one of ShareFaith’s backgrounds and then asked me to spice it up a bit. I ended up throwing everything out and starting from scratch buying a stock image and creating it in Photoshop.

personalization

This is a huge advantage for ShareFaith. Open any of your Powerpoint files and you’ll see how many different variations of blank slide backgrounds they have available for you to use, as well as a few different service announcement files. You can download the Powerpoint itself or a ZIP file to get the raw JPGs and edit them yourself.

Characteristics

• PowerPoint sermons

• Videos and media clips

• Website templates

• Newsletters

• Tips and ideas

• Blogs

• And more…

ShareFaith is the one place where you will find everything you may need for your church. They even offer a comparison chart on their website that includes Graceway Media. The one thing this chart doesn’t talk about, however, is the quality of the design, which is Graceway Media’s biggest advantage.

Graceway’s stated history is “Graceway Media began in 2006 as PowerPoint Sermons, providing sermon titles and layouts. The goal was to assist pastors with their sermon presentation, providing them with quality layouts and a selection to choose from. Since then, Our passion for helping churches preach, teach, and present the Gospel has led us to go beyond sermons to include designs for worship, specific ministries, special events, holidays, and more to help the church with all aspects of design needs”.

cost

The cost of a Graceway Media membership is $249/year for still images or motion graphics separately and a striking $399/year for your Total Media package. They offer a free trial membership that gives you access to 24 of their design styles. On top of that, Graceway Media is by far the most expensive of the bunch.

design quality

This is where Graceway Media shines. One look at their designs will make you drool for more. Each layout includes a large sermon title, a Powerpoint slide with the sermon title in the corner, and a blank Powerpoint slide. The motion graphics are HD quality which doesn’t have that cheap look that some of the free media loop places have. My initial idea of ​​the price was high, but after seeing your graphics, I could almost rationalize buying a membership for such great quality.

personalization

Graceway also offers the best customization system. They offer you the blank slide (as already mentioned), PSD files for those who can change the graphics themselves, and a retitle service for those who cannot change the slides themselves. But, unsurprisingly looking at the price tag, they charge a small amount for this service. They don’t outright state the price of their credit, but they do offer 10 free credits upon joining that boast a $50 value, which means you’d pay $5 per slide.

Characteristics

• High definition still images

• High definition animated graphics

• Personalization

• Banners

• Blog

Graceway is a bit low on features, limiting its work to sermon graphics and worship video loops.

So who wins?

Overall, Graceway Media feels like a more personal ministry to me. They have a photo of the entire team posted on their website that puts faces to the ministry. Since I signed up for their free trial, they contacted me twice to ask if I liked it and if I was interested in signing up for membership. But honestly, I can’t speak for ShareFaith as I personally don’t have an account, although my church does. Well, let’s start counting the points and see who wins.

cost

CreationSwap is free, for the most part, so you should regularly visit this website for what you can use. If you find something you like and it costs some money, feel free to pay for it if you want, but you will pay individually for each item. Between the two membership sites, ShareFaith wins the Cost prize.

design quality

Graceway Media takes home this award. I have looked at many church media resource websites and GraceWay Media tops them all. Nothing is sharper or better designed than the Graceway material.

personalization

This is a tie between ShareFaith and Graceway. ShareFaith offers many materials to customize your own materials, but that’s about it. Graceway offers a more sophisticated title change service, but it will cost you every time you want it. For this reason, each receives one point.

Characteristics

ShareFaith easily takes the gold for features. His own painting, mentioned above, makes this obvious. ShareFaith is the complete church media package that has everything you’ll need.

recommendations

ShareFaith beats Graceway Media 3 to 2, unless you throw Graceway’s kindness into the mix then it’s a 3 to 3 tie. The cold hard truth is ShareFaith is cheaper and many churches need cheaper. They also offer more features, so for the church that is on a budget, ShareFaith is the only option that is feasible. However, if your church can afford to spend a little more, you’ll get much better design quality from Graceway Media. Oh, and don’t forget that no matter who you are, you should check out CreationSwap for the latest freebies.

cross freeman