Custom Websites Versus Template-Based Websites
Custom websites are fast replacing traditional websites as the preferred way of doing business. Many small and medium sized businesses today have their own websites and communicate with their customers by uploading pictures and videos, which can be viewed on the internet. If you have not yet created your own custom website, you may want to consider doing so. There are advantages and disadvantages to customizing websites, and the decision will depend on your goals, your available funds and your time frame.
The reality is custom websites are ideal solutions for certain industries only, as pre-designed ready-made sites are usually good enough for most others. The decision then boils down to 5 key factors you must consider: budget, website provider, web designer or freelancer, pre-built web pages or custom websites, advanced functionality or plug-ins. You can also consider these aspects in choosing a software for building custom websites: web hosting support, website builder or editor, coding or programming language. Each of them has different purposes and all have their pros and cons.
The cost of custom website design depends on your needs and the complexity of the design. For small projects, simple designs work fine. But for large or complex websites, a dedicated custom web design team is the only solution. A web design company offers comprehensive solutions including online mockups, full website design, integration of various modules, database integration, Flash integration, multi-media support, and more. Advanced functionality may require more money, but you will get a custom website with more functions, better design and more features.
Web designers offer custom websites that incorporate a user experience to make it more attractive, interactive and useful. One of the popular user experience aspects in a custom website is the use of various plugins. Plugins allow you to add functionality to your website without altering its structure and code. For example, a popular plugin for WordPress is the All in one SEO plugin that automatically creates SEO friendly meta tags and optimizes all HTML output. You can also use other plugins such as the Google XML Sitemaps that creates sitemaps for you and creates all the necessary static HTML.
Templates are a very popular way to create custom websites. There are many users who choose templates to create websites that offer great graphic design, creative content, unique images and innovative ideas. Many customers find it easier to use pre-made templates because they have an image of what the finished product will look like. Creating custom websites using templates however requires more time and effort because you cannot make any changes to these templates.
There is a third option that you may want to consider when looking for custom websites: fully functional but simplified templates. In this case, there would be minimal customization and the website would only use a pre-defined set of functionalities. However, most of these fully functional but simplified templates do not offer many unique features or graphic designs. In most cases, these templates have very limited and simplistic functionalities which makes it difficult to build a custom website out of them. Although there are many customers who prefer to use these kinds of templates, it is not considered to be a practical solution because many businesses do not need to use advanced functionality.
Custom website templates, on the other hand, allow you to focus on creating a great design and functionalities instead of on how it will look or whether it has advanced functionality. This means that you can spend more time on developing your unique product or service and less time on making it look good. Many businesses today prefer to use custom websites because they can make it look exactly the way they want and make changes if they feel it needs improvement. With template-based websites, this is not possible.
So which is better? Templates are a good option if you are building websites that require minimal customization and only basic functionality. However, if your website has lots of unique graphics and functionalities, you will be better off with custom websites. So in the end, it all depends on your business’s requirements.