If you’re planning to create a new website, you must be wondering if you should design it from scratch or grab a ready-made template and start working. This choice may seem very trivial, but it will have a great impact on your online marketing in the future. So, it’s imperative to make a wise choice and think thoroughly about which option will work in the long run.
To help you out in making this choice, we are going to briefly discuss custom website designs and templates and what pros and cons each of them brings to the table. We believe by the end of this blog, you’ll be able to understand which option is more suitable for your business.
What is Custom Web Designing?
The term custom web designing refers to creating a website built to accommodate the specific requirements of a business. It’s the process of creating your own identity according to your business goals. However, developing a custom website involves a lot of preparation and conversation, such as writing down concepts, talking about code, considering design, etc.
Unfortunately, platforms like WordPress and Joomla cannot be used to create a custom website. Big enterprises across the globe prefer custom websites as they are more effective and competent in increasing customer engagement and sales compared to web templates.
A custom website design is designed specifically to fulfill your business needs. This means you don’t have to accommodate unnecessary features and functionalities. Unfortunately, you don’t get a head start if you want to create a custom web design. You have to start everything from scratch to fulfill your brand’s needs.
However, this process will definitely consume more time, effort, and resources compared to using an off-the-rack web design template. If you’re not proficient enough, then you might need to hire professional web redesign services providers as they can assist you in this journey properly.
Now let’s take a brief look at the banes and boons of choosing a custom web design for your business:
Advantages of Custom Web Design
Tailored to Your Business Needs: Creating a web design from scratch facilitates you to tweak and modify the design to match your unique objectives and requirements.
Built-in SEO Optimization: Custom web design gives you the opportunity to integrate all the imperative SEO practices right from the start, which improves the search engine rankings.
Amplified Brand Identity: When you design your website from scratch, you can harmonize its visuals and messaging with your brand. This reinforces and enhances your brand’s identity and reputation.
Adaptability and Growth Potential: Custom-built websites are inherently flexible and scalable. This ensures your website can adapt and expand organically as your business evolves.
Ongoing Support and Enhancement: With custom development, you can get your hands on continuous support to address issues. This guarantees the ongoing efficiency and effectiveness of your website.
Drawbacks of Custom Web Design
Higher up-front cost: Creating a website from scratch can be expensive due to the initial investment required for custom development.
Finding the ideal design and development partner: Outsourcing a web design is a huge challenge in itself, and finding the right people who can bring your vision to life is quite daunting. Unfortunately, most of the businesses struggle to find the right design team who can fulfill their unique needs.
Time-consuming process: Building a website from scratch can be time-consuming, requiring careful planning and execution, which may delay its launch compared to using pre-designed templates.
What is a Website Template?
A website template is a pre-designed framework or layout that can be purchased off-the-shelf to simplify the web designing process. These templates come along with a pre-installed set of functionalities and features that most websites need.
These templates usually come with a complete set of basic and sometimes advanced features, requiring minimal setup. Regardless of your poor coding skills, these templates allow you to quickly launch a website. Unfortunately, choosing a pre-designed template comes with certain limitations and less room for experiments.
There are numerous platforms and website providers that offer themes and templates, including WordPress, Wix, Webflow, GoDaddy, and Squarespace. For example, WordPress and Webflow offer a variety of themes, both free and paid. Many website development agencies can also help create theme-based websites tailored to a business’s unique needs.
Businesses with minimal requirements prefer to go with a simple, theme-based approach. It allows businesses to save time and money on design and development, which can then be invested in building an effective digital marketing strategy to attract and convert potential prospects into loyal customers.
However, over time, template-based websites often face challenges such as increased loading times or other performance issues. Also, some web design companies do not offer ongoing maintenance and support services when you’re using pre-designed templates.
While keeping all these key factors in mind, it’s time to take a close look at the advantages and disadvantages of using pre-designed templates:
Advantages of Website Template
Easy to Use: Each of the website templates is designed to offer a user-friendly experience. They are packed with a handful of useful features, such as visual builders and drag-and-drop editors. These features are integrated to make it easier for people with no technical or design skills to create a flawless website.
Time and Cost-Efficient: Using templates saves both time and money compared to designing a site from scratch or hiring a web designer. Moreover, they offer pre-designed pages and even basic animated elements which makes customization quick and affordable.
Proven through Testing: Templates are the result of experienced web designers’ efforts, having undergone testing and refinements over time to ensure optimal user experience, search engine optimization, and mobile responsiveness, sparing users from complex coding and layout concerns while adhering to industry standards and best practices.
Drawbacks of Website Templates
Lack of Uniqueness: Website templates are used by many people, so your site may look similar to others. Customizing them can be tricky and might affect how your site looks compared to competitors.
Restricted Flexibility: Although readily available templates are a good starting point, they may not fully satisfy your functionality design needs. You might need to engage a web developer if you want to add advanced functionality, which is an expensive and time-consuming choice.
Limited Help: Do not expect assistance from the template providers if you run into any sort of problem. All you can do is look for a web design and development expert online if you don’t have the expertise or any technical knowledge.
Negative Impression on Visitors: No matter to what extent you customize the pre-designed templates, they still look like a template. It leaves a negative impression on visitors as templates are often associated with small traders and businesses.
Custom Web Design or Website Templates: Which One Should You Choose
The ball is in your court, which means it’s totally up to your business requirements and needs which one you go with. Each of them offers a different set of pros and cons, which you should take into account before making the final decision.
Moreover, no matter which option you choose, you might face technical difficulties down the road. But there’s a solution which will rescue you from the trouble. If you’re residing in the U.S., look out for web design companies located in Virginia, Florida, Texas, or any other well-established state.
We recommend this option because these people come with years of experience and expertise. Also, they can help you choose which of two viable options is ideal for your business.
