Publisher is gone. The bulletin still has to get done.
The best Microsoft Publisher alternatives for churches
If your bulletin was built in Publisher, you have a decision to make before Christmas Eve. Here is what each option is like to use every week, including where ours falls short.
Updated November 5, 2026
The short answer
For posters, Canva is hard to beat. For a weekly bulletin, the real choice is between laying it out by hand each week in Word, or using something built for that job. Word is what Microsoft suggests, and it costs nothing extra if you already have it. Hymnfold does only this one job, and ten services a year are free.
See your own sheet set first
Type your church’s name and we will set next Sunday’s bulletin in front of you. Then decide.
No sign-up to try it. Ten services a year are free.
What happened to Publisher
Microsoft took Publisher out of Microsoft 365 on or shortly after October 1, 2026, and support for bought copies ended on October 13, 2026. If your church has a Microsoft 365 subscription, you can no longer open or edit .pub files in Publisher. If you bought a copy outright, it still runs and still opens your files, but it gets no more fixes. Microsoft’s notice has the detail.
Your files have not gone anywhere. They are still where you saved them, and you can still open them.
How the options compare
| Option | Cost | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word | Cost: Included with Microsoft 365 | Best for: Text-led bulletins, if someone is confident with it | The catch: You lay out the page by hand, and it moves when you add a verse. |
| Canva | Cost: Free plan, with paid plans above it | Best for: Posters, slides and social media | The catch: Made for short designs, not pages of liturgy. Printing to fold needs an extra step. |
| Affinity | Cost: Free with a Canva account | Best for: Anyone who wants full page design | The catch: Professional software with plenty to learn. It may open .pub files, so test one of yours. |
| LibreOffice | Cost: Free | Best for: Opening old .pub files | The catch: One way only. It can’t save back to .pub, and layouts can shift. |
| Lutheran Service Builder | Cost: Priced by attendance | Best for: Congregations using Lutheran Service Book | The catch: Built around one tradition’s hymnal and liturgy. |
| Hymnfold | Cost: Ten services a year free, then $4 each, or $149 a year | Best for: The weekly bulletin, funerals and weddings | The catch: It does one job. It won’t make your posters, and it can’t read a .pub file yet, so save yours as a PDF first. |
What a weekly sheet needs that a poster does not
Most lists of Publisher alternatives are written for flyers and newsletters. A bulletin is a different job, and these are the things that show it up.
- Pages that fold in the right order, on the printer or copier you already own.
- Room for the words people say aloud, in type they can read in a dim church.
- A way to start from last week, so you are not rebuilding the same page.
- Readings and hymn numbers that are right for this Sunday.
- Someone else able to do it when you are away.
Word: the one Microsoft suggests
Microsoft points people to Word for folded paper projects. It is familiar, it is probably on your computer already, and it has a Book fold setting that keeps the pages in order. For a plain sheet that changes little from week to week, it can be enough.
The trouble comes when you add a verse and everything below it moves. Text boxes drift, and the file tends to work only for the person who built it. We have a step-by-step guide if you want to try it.
Canva: lovely for anything short
Canva has a generous free plan and good-looking templates, and it is the right tool for your Christmas poster or your social media. A bulletin is harder: long runs of text are slow to edit, and each week you are working in a design, not a document.
Canva gives you pages in reading order. To print a folded bulletin on your own printer, you then need a bulletin setting or a tool to rearrange them. Our free bulletin maker does that for any PDF.
Affinity and LibreOffice: free, with more to learn
Affinity is proper page layout software, and it is free with a Canva account. Microsoft says it may be able to import Publisher files. If you enjoy page design, it is the nearest thing to what you had. If you just need the sheet finished, it may be more than you want to learn.
LibreOffice is free and opens many .pub files in its Draw program, which makes it most useful as a way to rescue old files. It cannot save them back to .pub, and newer or image-heavy files can come through with the layout shifted.
Hymnfold: built for this one job
We made Hymnfold because a bulletin is a job of its own. Type your church’s name and you see next Sunday’s bulletin with the right readings, set for folding. Each week starts from the last one, so you change only what changed. It is made for the person doing this on a Thursday, not for a designer.
It is not the answer to everything. It does not make posters or newsletters, and it cannot read a .pub file yet, so save your old bulletins as PDFs first. If your bulletin is one page of plain text, Word may well be enough.
See your own sheet set first
Type your church’s name and we will set next Sunday’s bulletin in front of you. Then decide.
No sign-up to try it. Ten services a year are free.
How to choose without wasting a week
- 1
Save your files first
Before you choose anything, save your recent sheets as PDFs while you still can.
- 2
Make one real sheet
Rebuild last Sunday’s sheet in the tool you are trying. Five minutes on a sample tells you very little.
- 3
Print and fold it
Plenty of things look fine on screen and fail on a tired copier.
- 4
Ask who else could do it
If only one person could ever use it, you have not solved the problem, only moved it.
Questions people ask
What is the closest thing to Microsoft Publisher?
For page layout, Affinity is the nearest. It is free with a Canva account and works with frames and master pages in much the same way. For a weekly bulletin, a tool made for that job will usually save more time than a closer copy of Publisher.
Can we keep using Publisher?
If you bought a copy outright, yes. It still installs and runs, but it gets no fixes. If you had Publisher through Microsoft 365, it has been removed.
Is there a free alternative to Publisher for churches?
Yes, several. Word comes with Microsoft 365, Canva has a free plan, and Affinity and LibreOffice are free. Hymnfold is free for ten services a year.
Does Hymnfold open .pub files?
Not yet. Save your bulletin as a PDF first, and we can read that. If you no longer have Publisher, LibreOffice can usually open the file so you can make a PDF.