Weighing the Pros and Cons of Template Websites vs. Custom Web Design

Sep 14, 2022 - custom web design, san diego web design company, Web Design, web design services, Web Development, website design san diego, website designer, website developer
Design

Are you thinking about redesigning your existing website or building a new site from scratch? But…. You have questions on which route to take. Do I go custom or purchase one of these user friendly template options websites? Let’s take a look at which is a better option out of the two, by weighing the pros and cons. Here in San Diego, CA, there are a couple of famed web design agencies that can be your perfect design partner. Without much ado, let’s dive into this topic.

Custom Websites

1. Uniqueness

This can only be achieved with a custom designed website. Here, you can incorporate your own design ideas that are unique in their own way, while aiming for your target market. Something, which best represents your brand, company, business values, ethics, products, ideas and services. A web design which can be revised multiple times, modified, customized, to fit your company’s needs. Although, it must be known to you that even custom designed websites have built-in templates. Instead of building it (template) from the box or on a platform, it is created from scratch. Overall, it is the level of customization involved that helps in creating that uniqueness in design, when you go on to best represent your brand or company through a well-conceived site.

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2. Scalability, Flexibility, & Easy-to-Manage

A custom designed website is always made ‘future ready’. You can anytime call-up your personal web development team or the San Diego web design company that developed your niche, with a new design idea that crops up in your mind, and make the changes necessary. A lot of custom features can be incorporated into your website, making it highly scalable. This clearly shows the amount of flexibility and dynamism that you can achieve with a custom web design & development. This is by thinking ‘out of the box’ and standing out from the competition. Most importantly a bespoke website is easily manageable, as the features have been incorporated, by understanding your business or personal requirements. The customization, scalability & flexibility factor comes into light when designing areas like events, shopping carts for eCommerce stores, members, ‘only sections’ or product/project portfolios.

3. Latest Built-In HTML Codes & SEO Ready

One such San Diego web design company can easily update the HTML codes and find creative ways to help a site perform well on all design, development and SEO metrics. A website which is designed ‘SEO ready’, stands the chance of roping-in more prospects, visitors, customers and generating new leads. Most importantly, secure a favorable place and organic rankings in Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Position).

4. Development Support

Well, custom designed websites will always have the support of a dedicated and experienced website developer from the company that built your site from scratch. They can easily troubleshoot any technical errors, snags, malfunctions or glitches that hinder the smooth operation and functionality of your site. For example, these guys can easily fix bugs, if any, with very little effort. So, you need to ensure that the web design agency you choose has in-house web developers on their payroll, rather than outsourcing.

5. Expensive to Build and Time Consuming

Let’s be honest, If you want something better than the rest, it’s going to take more time and money to build. Same applies to a custom web design. Depending on the features, a custom website can run you anywhere from 2k-50k, sometimes more. Things like level of customization, features, functionalities, tools, software and plugins involved in designing the site can affect the cost. The time taken to design one such site can be anything between 4 to 10 weeks. Again, it all depends on the scale of work and level of customization and goals you wish to have for your users.

Template Websites

1. Static Layout – What You See is What You Get!

You cannot expect any kind of customization in a template web design. The layout that you see in a template is what you get on your site. No scalability or flexibility, whatsoever. Here, you can only think of changing the fonts or background color scheme, but the design layout stays intact. If you think that the template is perfect for your website that you had in mind, then a template website design is a better option, considering the cost and time. The drawback here is, there might be someone out there that has the same design layout, as of yours. This is where it hurts the most. A big ‘zero’ on the aspect of uniqueness.

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2. Shorter Time & Less Expensive

If time and cost is a factor for you, always go for template web design services, as offered by many companies. A lot of DIY web designers & developers are now using platforms like Wix and WordPress.com to design their own site. Here, you find a variety of template designs. Someone with a very little knowledge about website designing can follow the instructions in these platforms, and put together text, images and other information, in order to get the site up & running within a couple of weeks. If you already have a large customer base, a template website may save you time and money. These platforms also offer web hosting support, after the site is readied by you. The bad news is that most of these companies are subscription based and may end up costing you more than a custom website in the long run.

3. Restricted Customization

With templates, there’s literally no customization at all, barring the font (typography) size, color, style and background color scheme. For a company that needs their website to talk and engage clients, this may not be the best option. There’s no CMS (customer management system) or analytics set-up incorporated, and you cannot redesign the headers, footers, sliders or banners with animation, graphics or Flash. So, customizing such a template designed website for a particular company or organizational theme can be quite difficult. If you’re OK with compromising on the aspect of flexibility and dynamism, a template web design works out well for you.

4. Not Always Supported by Developers

Not all companies that design such template websites offer dedicated support and maintenance. So, in case of bugs, errors or design related changes, you have to do it all by yourself. You will never have access to the web designer or developer that built your site from a template. This is a big drawback.

Final Words

If your first thoughts are about saving money and time, then a template website can be perfect for you. Although, if you want something that precisely depicts your brand value, business, company, products and services to your targeted audience, there’s no alternative to custom website design & development. You may have to eat increased upfront costs but, you will be rewarded with a flexible, scalable, adaptable, and 100% customizable website. There’s no ambiguity or contradiction about it, a custom website design is our choice.