Template based websites

Template based websites are built using a pre-designed and developed template purchased from services like ThemeForrest.net or TemplateMonster.com. These templates have most of the hard and time intensive work already completed, but that is not without drawbacks. Here are some of the pros and cons of using a template:

Pros:

• Cheaper – Already designed and developed, saving design and development time, which saves you money
• Quicker – Less time between start of project and launch of website.
• Responsive – Mobile responsive out of the box.
• Options – Good number of options out of the box. As many companies find they need a website, a whole new business has emerged of developing templates for businesses without the budget for custom design and development.

Cons:

• Restrictive – Everything in the template is predetermined, you will need to adhere to the basis of the template.
• Bloated Code – Typically slower to load due to the unnecessary amount of code that a template typically has. Templates are meant to work for every market and any need – from a hair salon to a hot rod shop.
• Very Similar Looking Sites – Other companies will have chosen the same template as you which makes your site look very similar to their site.
• More Expensive to Modify – Template can be deeply modified but will generally cost more. The reason for this is that template was not developed by us and we will need to dig through the theme to find what needs to be changed to complete your required modifications.
• Options – There is no template that has every possible option which you may need, want, or require. Therefore, this would need to be custom developed and implemented into a template we are not intimately familiar with.

Fully Custom Websites

Fully custom website design and development means that we look at your needs, requirements, and brand to design and develop a website around those. We don’t take a template and try to bend it to your needs, we start from the ground-up with your business in mind. As with templates, there are drawbacks to fully custom websites as well. Here are the pros and cons of custom websites:

Pros

• Your business, your site – Designed and developed completely around your business and it’s needs.
• Typically faster load times – This helps with search engine optimization as the search engine uses page load times as a factor in rankings.
• We know this – We will know the project inside and out which will make any requested changes faster and cheaper to implement.
• Options, Options, Options – With 100% custom, we can design and develop your website to be anything you can imagine.

Cons

• Costly – Due to the time required to design and develop every responsive breakpoint and every little aspect of your site, it costs substantially more than a template design.
• Longer Timeline – More time is needed to design and develop your custom website which increases the amount of time between proposal acceptance and launch date.

What is our final recommendation?

If your budget allows, definitely get a custom website. In the end, you will receive a product that fits every aspect of your expectations, needs, and wants. But, if you don’t have the budget, template based websites are perfectly fine for most businesses and they offer the functionality needed/required to send people to a website and feel great about it.