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Faith Local: find a Christian business or a church near you.

Type a town or tap Use my location. Businesses by category, churches by denomination, sorted by distance. Every listing is written by the business or the church itself and nothing shows until Nick approves it.

Applied at 2:12, on a call at 4:00 Paid Thursday, live Saturday morning Renamed and rebranded the same afternoon
Faith Local icon
Faith Local
Nick Bello · built by The App You Want
DirectorySearch by distanceSelf service listingsApproval queue
Real screens
The Faith Local front page with the search box
The front pageBusinesses or churches, what you are looking for, a town or ZIP, how far. One box, one button.
Live counts of businesses and churches, and the category grid
The countersNick asked if it could count what is listed. It counts businesses, churches and states, live, on the front page. Below it, browse by category.
Eleven businesses near La Porte, Indiana, sorted by distance
Businesses near youType La Porte, IN and get every Christian owned business within fifty miles, nearest first, with the category and the town on each card.
Six churches near La Porte, Indiana
Churches near youSame search, different tab. Filter by denomination or leave it open and see every church in range.
Food and Dining results near La Porte
By categoryPick Food & Dining and the list narrows to the coffee house and the bakery. Every category on the front page opens a search like this.
A business listing with Call and Directions buttons
A businessCall and Directions up top, then the story, the category, the address and the phone. Sample listings carry a badge until the real ones fill in.
A church listing showing the denomination
A churchDenomination under the name, service times in the story, directions one tap away.
The add your business form
List yourselfA business writes its own listing, verifies a phone once, adds up to four photos. $49 a year, charged only when Nick approves it. Churches list free.
See it live

Faith Local is open

Search a town, browse a category, or list a business or a church. The listings you see today are samples; real ones show the moment Nick approves them.

Open Faith Local →
The challenge
A pastor with a directory in mind and nothing built yet.

Nick applied on a Wednesday afternoon. I am looking to build a database of Christian owned businesses. Churches too, searched by location and denomination. Businesses by location and category. Churches free, businesses charged a yearly fee. Not currently using anything, a new build from zero.

Two questions came with it. Is this a web app or a store app, and can there be a website with the same information? The answer is that it is both at once: one address that works on a phone and on a desk, with the same listings on each.

Applied at 2:12. On the phone at 4:00. Offer at 4:09. Paid Thursday evening. Live Saturday morning, and by Saturday night it had its real name, its real logo and its real colors.

What we built
A directory that fills itself.
📍

Search by distance

A town, a ZIP, or Use my location. Results come back nearest first with the miles on every card, within whatever radius you set.

⛪

Two directories, one box

Businesses by category. Churches by denomination. Same search, two tabs, and the front page counts both.

✍️

They write their own listing

Nobody does data entry for them. A business or a church fills in its listing, verifies a phone once, signs back in any time to edit it and add up to four photos.

✅

Nothing live until approved

Every listing waits in Nick's queue. The card goes in at listing time; the $49 comes off only when the listing is approved, so a business turned down is never charged.

The signature feature
Renamed, rebranded and counting by dinner

Saturday at 12:51 Nick sent the real name, a Facebook page with the logo and colors, and three asks: owners need to sign back in and edit, listings need photos, and can the front page count what is listed. At 6:28pm the app was Faith Local, navy and green with the cross and pin up top, phone verified sign in for owners, four photos per listing, and live counters on the front page. The old link still worked.

Name, logo and colors from the Facebook pageOwner sign in by phoneFour photos a listingLive counters
How it moved
Wednesday application, Saturday directory.
29 Jul
Applies at 2:12pm. On a call at 4:00. Offer at 4:09.
30 Jul
Paid Thursday at 8:49pm.
1 Aug
Live at 9:53am under a placeholder name. Real name and Facebook page at 12:51. Renamed, rebranded, owner sign in, photos and counters by 6:28pm.
20 Aug
The verification text still carried the old name. Fixed and test sent the same afternoon. Card at listing time, charged only on approval, confirmed as built.
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