Introduction

Your website is a projection of your business in the digital space, and if you have decided to get yourself a website. Then you need to consider if you need a “custom-built” website or a “template-based” design. So what’s the difference? What are their pros and cons? And how do you decide which suits you best?

We will help you find answers to these questions in this article and help you make a beneficial decision.

What Is A Template-Based Design?

A template is a predesigned resource you can buy and edit to your needs. In simpler terms, it is a ready-made design layout over which you can paste your content to easily create your website. There are many templates available, and depending on the type of business, you can narrow down on a few and choose the one that appeals to you. You can find some of the best templates on Wix, WordPress, and Webflow.

Once you get your template and have changed it to your needs, you just have to find a hosting partner and Voila! Your website is up and running. Templates offer a quick, less expensive, no coding knowledge required, drag-and-drop solution.

What is a Custom Designed website?

A custom-designed website is the exact opposite of a template. It’s built from scratch and tailored to your business needs. Building a website from the bottom up involves much coding to include the customized features you want to have in your website. A custom-designed website can address all your needs and wants in a custom design. The downside, due to the complex nature of coding required to build a website, you need to hire experienced developers for the job.

Custom websites are costly and take much longer to build than template designs. But on the other hand, you can create custom features and transitions and allow third-party plugin integration. All these are handy and provide more control of how visitors to your site interact with it and vice versa, allowing for a better user experience. Integrating with SEO tools can give many insights into incoming traffic. Optimizing for these parameters can boost reach organically and help you stand out and rank your site better on Google.

Summarizing the Pros and Cons of both:

Pros of Template Design.

• Budget-friendly: Templates on Webflow start at $24 and go upwards to $179
• Can launch quickly: They are simple to fill in with your information, and the user does not have to think about design.
• Easy to use: The drag and drop feature, along with the limited amount of areas available to change, make it very user-friendly.

Cons of Template Design.

• Limited tech support: They usually do not have much support included, and there could also be security risks with lower costs themes
• Limited custom programming: As they are pre-built, you won’t have the ability to change much in terms of features.
• Little choice of colours, fonts, and layout: Templates are usually set-in-stone, making them easy to use.

Pros of Custom-Design.

• Unique to your business: You can tailor your site to reflect your business. After all, like we said, “A website is a projection of your business in digital space.”
• Shows you are serious: You invest valuable resources to build your website and give visitors a great experience creating a positive impact.
• Better for integrations and boosting reach: You can integrate many tools and third-party software to monitor user behaviour based on which you can better optimize your site.

Cons of Custom-Design.

• Can be more expensive: Custom-design sites are costly, but you also get a more professional, original, well-branded, and search engine-friendly website.
• Dependent on skills of designer and developer: The development of your site and time is directly dependent on the developer's skill. More experienced developers complete their work efficiently.
• Time-consuming: Starting from the ground up, it makes sense that custom sites take more time.

Conclusion

The difference between a template and a custom-built website is that one is pre-built and is available not only to you but to many others. In contrast, custom websites are unique and built specifically for your business. Building from scratch offers various advantages, including the ability to create custom features, element transitions, and plugin integration. Which gives you better control of how visitors interact with your website and based on the data available; you can optimize your website to provide a better user experience. Template-based designs are much more suited for businesses that are low-budget and have time constraints.

If you are looking for a custom website developed specifically for your need or looking for web designs for your business, we got you covered. Roamsoft Technologies has provided web development and design services for startups and SMBs for over a decade. Our experienced team of in-house developers helped multiple businesses scale and achieve digital transformation. Contact us to know how we can help you build a stunning website for your business.