Should I use Web Design Templates or Custom Design?
The use of web design templates is huge! We could respond with our preference and move on but why would we? Read on for our thinking..
Web Design Templates v Custom Design – cost
This has to be the biggest difference from the customer point of view. Of course, downloading free or low cost web design templates certainly gives you a head start, assuming the customer has already approved the design, but aren’t they getting the same design as numerous other websites with differing text/images? – Yes ‘Hey, look, I’ve just built your website out-of-the-box in 3 days with no thought on usability, accessibility, mobile UI with 47 plugins for very little cost’
Note: Remember, the web agency you use to design your new website may not be the agency you use in 2/3/4 years time so think ‘portability’.
Using a creative agency to design your website will cost more but, before you even get to the design phase, they will (should) have discussed the following:
- your customer persona (your ideal customer) (see our previous post, designing for success)
- your sector
- key requirements of what the website should achieve
- branding guidelines (see our previous post on branding)
- integrated digital marketing options
- custom content
Question – is that worth the extra cost?
Score so far: template city 1 v custom united 0 (purely based on cost of course..)
Inherent plugins
So, we all know that WordPress relies on plugins to achieve some functionality and there are some really great ones such as:
- Yoast for SEO
- Contact form 7
- Advanced custom fields
- + a few more
Think of it as a bank with 10 doors, all need secure locks as well as locking when your friendly bank manager leaves for the day.
We see far too many times that WordPress sites are swamped with plugins which we feel are a lazy way to achieve functionality and some are a known weak point for hacking as well as not being user-friendly (we wont name them 😉 )
Often, templates may look beautiful but, relying on some of these more ‘hack-able’ plugins can cause problems and why should you have to ‘unpick’ them before you make a start? Remember – more plugins = more updates + more potential security issues = more support (assuming your developer actually does update your site…)
When we use the WordPress admin as a base, we only use essential plugins and bespoke code other elements so they don’t rely on plugins and are often easier to use.
Score so far: template city 1 v custom united 1
Custom pages
Picture this: your truly beautiful template with its vivid images, professionally taken and amazing video, will not look like this if you don’t have the same high quality digital assets! Now that isn’t a fault of a web design templates or custom design, we’re just putting it out there..
Your designer has downloaded your template but, because you’re human, you have just remembered some amazing functionality you saw on another website that would work really well for yours..
Oh…now of course, your chosen design agency will have gone through all your potential page styles and layouts before they began but, we all change our minds don’t we.. Mmm, says your template designer, the template I downloaded wont let me easily customise the pages to fit this new page functionality…
Hey, no problem says your custom designer (of course followed by a chat about some extra costs for this previously unknown feature) let’s scope out exactly what you want and we’ll make it happen for you…
In short – a custom designed website will give you a unique design and functionality to exactly match your needs!
Score so far: template city 1 v custom united 2
Responsive across all devices & mobile first design
Yes, ‘mobile first’ is a phrase that is thrown around a lot in the web design industry but what is it?
Let’s not get bogged down with ‘progressive enhancement’ & ‘graceful degradation’ that just means smaller to larger screen or larger to smaller screen..
‘Mobile first’ means that we start the design from the mobile screen size which has more restrictions, then expand its features to create a tablet, laptop or desktop version on larger screens.
Of course your free/low cost template already has responsive features so we’re all good, job done, move on… Woah-oh-oh Sweet child of mine! really, are you sure? You’ve considered your audience, you’ve reviewed the content in relation to the mobile view and you’ve considered exactly what you want the mobile visitor to see/do when they hit your home page?!
When we embark on a custom design process, we design specifically for the mobile and what we want the visitor to see, how that fits with the reason you wanted the website in the first place and delivers not only a great user-experience but the end result you’re after.
Score so far: template city 1 v custom united 3
Speed of build
Hands down, a template download to build your new website is faster than a custom build for the same site, end of…
Final score: template city 2 v custom united 3 (a close match!)
Conclusion
As with everything, it’s ‘horses for courses’ what works for one business doesn’t work for another..
Both web design templates and custom designed websites have their place. If cost and time are your main agenda, template it is.
If quality, bespoke features, easier to manage, built with your users, devices and key requirements in mind are the top of your list, custom is the way forward.
To have a chat over template v custom and which is right for you, click the link below or call us on:
0333 241 9303