Once a business decides to either create a website from scratch or redesign their current website, the next huddle usually involves funding the website. However, a lot of companies tend to struggle with the decision of how much to invest in the website. The decision usually falls between using a template website or creating a custom one.
Before making that decision, there are various things a company needs to factor in such as the budget available, time estimated to complete the project, scalability, and brand needs. Each of these factors will determine whether a template or custom website will make more sense for your business.
A website is available 24/7 to your customers so it needs to be an authentic and marketable representation of your business. Investing in website design services is a severe undertaking for your business; therefore, you need to understand which option works best. Click here.
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Differences Between Template and Custom Website Design Services
Initial Cost Incurred
The price of templates can range anywhere between $0 and $900. For many businesses operating on a budget, template websites are attractive because they are cheaper than custom websites.
In addition to the initial cost of redesigning or designing a website, there’s also a difference in maintenance costs. Templates are cheaper to maintain than custom-made websites. Custom-made websites may require a maintenance team, and the contracts with such service providers usually include a maintenance fee.
Time Taken to Develop Your Website
A template website could take a shorter development time because the developer uses a pre-existing framework. Also, they may probably only need to add text and images to suit a brand’s needs. On the other hand, a custom template will take much longer to develop because it’s made from scratch and is tailored to fit every detail that the business specifies.
Best SEO Practices
Although a web design agency will try to include website best practices, they can’t implement all SEO guidelines. A custom-made website can be developed to ensure that your site is fully optimized as per all SEO parameters.
Website and User Security
Custom sites are more secure if frequently updated as compared to templates. This is a critical aspect to factor in when deciding which method you should go with for developing your site.
Achieving Organizational Goals
With a custom website, you go through your business’s needs with the website design services provider. Your website developer needs to fully understand your brand and business goals. With this information, the developer is likely to create an interface that’s most likely to give you more conversion. A template website may not fulfill all these needs.
Flexibility
A custom site is more flexible because the team can tweak various elements depending on the needs of the business as they arise. A template limits this kind of flexibility because it’s difficult to change some aspects on their own meaning you may need to change the template entirely.
Why Choose a Custom Website?
The ultimate goal of any business website is conversion. When you invest in a website, you need it to give you returns in terms of sales. While a template website has many pros, you want to go with a custom website. A site that fits your business’s exact needs is more likely to bring more sales than one that fits most of your business needs.
Template sites like Wix offer convenience and even lower initial costs. Still, with a good development team, custom websites offer your business flexibility, security, scalability, and help you achieve all your goals.
