When you need a website, you quickly reach the same question: do you take a ready-made theme or build one from scratch?
You'll hear strong opinions from both camps. The truth is less dramatic: both options are good, for different situations.
What each option means
A template site starts from a ready-made design, for example a WordPress theme. You add your logo, your texts and your photos, change the colours and you're online.
A custom site is designed starting from your business. The structure, the design and the features are planned around your clients and what you want them to do on the site.
The first is like a suit bought off the rack. The second is made to measure.
When a template is perfectly fine
Often, the suit off the rack fits well. A template is the right choice if:
- You're just starting out and want to check first whether the idea has clients
- You need a simple presence: who you are, what you do, how people find you
- You have to be online quickly
- Clients come through referrals anyway, and the site just confirms you exist
Where the limits begin
Templates are made to fit anyone. That's exactly why they fit nobody perfectly.
Many other companies use the same theme, maybe even your competitors. You change the colours, but the structure stays the same, and visitors feel it.
Then there's speed. A theme ships with features for every possible case, and you use a small part of them.
And then comes the moment you want something the theme can't do. You add a plugin, then another, then one that fixes the first two.
A template gets you online fast. A custom site gets you where you want to go.
When custom pays for itself
A custom site is worth it when the site actually works for the business, not when it merely exists.
Differentiation. If you sell in a crowded market, a site that looks like all the others makes you seem like all the others.
Special features. A product configurator, a booking system, a link to your invoicing software or your stock. A theme struggles there, while a custom site is built exactly for it.
Speed. A site that contains only what it needs loads fast, and that shows both with visitors and in Google.
Growth. When you add a new language, a service category or a shop, you build on a base designed for it, instead of patching one designed for something else.
How to choose
Ask yourself what role the website plays in your business. If it's a business card, a well chosen and well filled template is enough.
If enquiries, sales or the company's image depend on it, the conversation changes.
The cost of a site comes down to how many pages it has, which features it needs and how much content already exists. That's why we don't name a price without knowing what we're building.
Tell us what you want the website to do for you. We'll tell you honestly whether a template is enough or whether a custom one is worth it.