Custom website vs template
When each one
is actually right.
Templates are not wrong. They are the right answer for most businesses, most of the time. Custom is the right answer when your product is not like everyone else's. Here is how to tell which one you need.
- Weeks to launch a template
- 1-4
- Weeks to launch custom
- 6-12
- Template all-in cost
- $0-3K
- Custom starting cost
- $6K+
Weeks to launch a template
Weeks to launch custom
Template all-in cost
Custom starting cost
Two lists, one honest answer
If most of one list fits your business, that is the answer. If both lists fit, it is a call, not a formula.
A template is right if
- You sell the same thing your competitors sell, in the same way, at a similar price.
- Your business is new and you need a live site this month, not next quarter.
- You have a budget of a few thousand dollars total.
- Your traffic is under a few hundred visitors a month and most of them are people you already know.
- You do not need to publish content regularly, and you do not have a catalog to organize.
If most of the list fits, do not call us. Spin up a Squarespace, launch this week, and put the money into marketing instead. Come back when you have outgrown it.
Custom is right if
- Your product, service or category is genuinely unusual, and a template would flatten it into looking like everyone else.
- You have a catalog of a dozen or more items that needs its own organization (categories, filters, spec sheets, dealer locator).
- You publish content regularly and need a real CMS, not a template's bolted-on blog.
- You are paying for traffic (ads, SEO) and need every visitor to convert, not most of them to leave.
- You are planning to be in this business for at least the next three years and want a site that grows with you instead of a rebuild in eighteen months.
If most of the list fits, a template will keep costing you visitors you paid to reach. See the pitch or book a call.
The tradeoffs, side by side
No hand-waving.
| Feature | Custom build | Wix / Squarespace template |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | 6 to 12 weeks | 1 to 4 weeks |
| Cost | $6,000 to $35,000+ | $0 to $3,000 |
| Ongoing cost | $20 to $50 hosting, optional retainer | $20 to $50 per month |
| Ceiling on what it can do | Whatever you can imagine | Whatever the theme supports |
| Looks like other sites in your industry | Never, if done well | Often |
| You can edit it yourself later | Yes, through a CMS | Yes, easily |
| Ownership | You own the code | You license the platform |
Custom is the owner column, but the template row it loses on (time to launch, cost, ease of edit) is real. If those matter more than the ceiling, the template is the right answer.
What custom looks like
A recent build where a template would have flattened the whole story.
Crateworks Supply Co.
Twelve product categories, one scroll-driven story.
No template we know of would organize that catalog into a single scroll-driven story on one homepage. So we built one. The pre-rebuild version is still hosted next to the new one, so you can see what changed and decide whether custom is the right answer for your business.
Questions we get asked
Straight answers.
Yes. Most of our clients did. A template got them to a live site fast and cheap, and they came to us when the template ran out of room. That's a normal path. The move takes four to eight weeks and preserves your rankings if we do it properly.
No. Google doesn't care what platform your site runs on. It cares that the pages load fast, answer the search, and don't duplicate content from a million other template users. Template sites can rank fine. They usually don't, because the sameness of the copy and the lack of depth is what actually costs them rankings.
Look at three numbers. Time on page. Inquiry rate. Direct-search brand queries. If time on page is under 40 seconds site-wide, if fewer than 2% of visitors send an inquiry, and if nobody is searching your name in Google, the template isn't doing the job.
Webflow is a build tool, not a template. You can use it well and get a great site. You can also use it badly and get a template-looking site. The tool doesn't decide the outcome. The designer does.
Great for a starter site or a landing page. They will never build a homepage that argues specifically for your business, because they don't know your business. That's the whole job of a custom build.
Still not sure? Book a call.
Thirty minutes. We look at your current site, ask three questions, and tell you honestly which one you need. If a template is the right answer we say so and point you at a good one.