Custom Website or a Standard Theme?

The alternative to a custom website is a website built with a standard theme or template, also called 'builders'. Examples of well-known builders are Elementor, Divi, and Beaver Builder. Websites using these builders are relatively cheap and can often go online quickly. Sounds ideal, but this one-size-fits-all mentality comes with significant drawbacks. Think of a lack of design flexibility, unnecessary functionalities that can negatively affect your website's speed, and you'll be dealing with security risks.

Additionally, it's difficult to make a standard template website perfectly match your brand identity and the (online) strategy of your business. With a custom website, you get a website that specifically meets your needs.

There are several key differences between custom websites and standard theme websites or templates that we'd like to highlight. These are the most important:

1. Custom-made
2. Speed (and SEO)
3. Security
4. Sustainability
5. User-friendliness
6. Price

We cover all these points on this page, so you know if a custom website is the solution for you.

"If you want a website specifically tailored to your target audience, it's important that the layout and navigation can be adjusted to your wishes."

The biggest advantage of a custom website is already clear in the name; the website is completely custom-made to your wishes and goals. So a layout that perfectly matches your business, functionalities tailored to the activities relevant to you, and no unnecessary plugins. The layout design also takes into account the target audience, user behavior, and perfect alignment with the chosen brand identity and strategy. Unlike templates, a custom website is unique and can therefore be perfectly tailored to your needs.

The investment for a custom website is higher, but in the long term, the benefits will lead to better conversion, image, and sales or contact requests.

Template websites use a one-size-fits-all approach; they contain the most commonly used components and logic suitable for the average website. However, these may not be relevant at all for your website or target audience, but still run in the background. Custom websites are therefore often significantly faster because, unlike template websites, they only contain the components needed for your business.

Nobody likes a slow website. If a visitor has to wait too long for a page to load, there's a good chance they'll leave your website prematurely. Research shows that visitors drop off when wait times exceed 2 seconds. But even if the speed difference isn't drastically noticeable, you benefit from a faster website. The faster your site, the better you perform in search engines like Google. A faster website will definitely be reflected in your SEO performance, user experience, AND conversion.

By using custom solutions, your website contains fewer separate components and software, and is instead built with unique code. This is in contrast to template websites, where similar components or plugins are consistently used across multiple websites. This means that if a hacker has hacked one template website, similar websites are also immediately at risk of the same hack. This makes it much more worthwhile to try to hack a template website compared to a custom website with unknown code. Hackers are therefore constantly looking for weaknesses in commonly used website themes, which carries significant risks.

"Template websites often contain more AND standard components; very interesting for hackers."

Many website themes are no longer maintained or supported over time. In addition to security risks, this can cause the website to work less and less well and fall behind. While your competition with custom websites continues to innovate, you're now stuck with a website that's becoming increasingly outdated and you're dependent on a builder you have no personal contact with. For a cheap price tag, you lose the flexibility to grow.

It can also happen that you want to give your website a new style or feature that doesn't fit your standard theme. With a custom website, it's easier to continue building and making improvements. Because all components are specifically selected or created for your website, you know for sure that they will continue to work well together and that no parts of your website will fail due to an outdated plugin.

The perfect custom website not only looks good but is also easy to navigate. Template websites often use a number of standard menu structures suitable for a broad audience. However, if you want a website specifically tailored to your target audience, it's important that the layout and navigation can be fully (and easily) adjusted to your wishes. By building a custom website from the ground up to your specifications, you ensure that the overall picture really fits.

But custom websites also add value at the back end. By only offering the functions relevant to your business, you don't drown in the cumbersome menus and endless possibilities of template websites. This makes modifying your custom website much more accessible than with a template website.

The price difference is often the biggest reason to choose a standard website theme or template. These websites are significantly cheaper than custom websites; after all, they've only been developed once and can now be deployed en masse. Setting up a custom project also takes some time, of course. But the time and cost savings must be weighed against the disadvantages and limitations of a standard template website. Although there are clients for whom a theme or template website works fine, our experience is that these often turn out to be expensive in the long run.

A website should never be a goal in itself. Successful companies use their website, for example, as a business card, an extension of their service, and to improve their competitive position. Strategy, target audience, and customer journey are crucial to achieving these objectives. If a standard website (despite the attractive price tag) isn't suitable to support these goals, you're wasting time and money unnecessarily. With custom work, we build the website from the ground up around these objectives. The investment is higher, but you get a unique and perfect website for your business.

At Get Interactive, we're big fans of custom solutions, and we hope you now have the information to make a well-considered choice. But what do our clients actually think?

A WordPress website can be built in two ways: with a custom design or with a theme. The difference between these two options is as follows:

1. A custom WordPress website is a unique design made specifically for one particular website. This means the design and features of the website are specifically designed to meet the client's needs and achieve the website's objectives. A custom design can cost more time and money than a theme, but it can also offer more flexibility and customization options.
2. A WordPress theme is a template or pre-built website layout that can be used to build a website. Themes are available in different styles and with different features, so you can choose a theme that suits your target audience and objectives. Themes are often cheaper than custom designs and can be set up faster, but they offer fewer customization options and may be less unique than a custom design.

In general, using a theme is suitable for smaller websites or for people who want to quickly set up a website without spending much money. Custom designs are more suitable for larger, professional websites that require specific features or that need to be unique and eye-catching. It's important to consider what best suits your goals and budget before making a decision.

Want to know what custom work can mean for you? Contact us without obligation, we're happy to answer all your questions. Curious about how we work on a custom project? We'd love to tell you more!