When considering the choice, website templates vs custom design, what are the main criteria to consider in making the decision? How can you know which will be best for your purpose, in the long run? Let us look at a few of these factors.

Website templates sound attractive, and may look attractive as well. They can be had at modest cost. Templates have a few disadvantages when compared to custom designs, however. Templates lack the sophistication you expect in a custom website design, by definition. I mean, they are templates, after all, and not finished and polished final products. Templates may look good, but they do not look like the hand-crafted works of a qualified expert, as a well-designed website will. Website templates may be based on outdated code. Cross-browser compatibility will be a problem, in that case, and SEO and accessibility concerns will be multiplied.

Custom website design has the advantage of being unique. You know that your site will stand out, and not look just like many others. Branding is an important part of web presence; making yourself or your company stand out and be recognized and remembered makes money and keeps customers. You won’t get that with a template. You want your own design, with your own images and logos, to be uniquely recognizable as you, or your company. The better a template looks to you, the more likely it is to have looked good to others as well, and be used all over the web. That won’t help you stand out in the crowd of competitors.

The coder for your custom designed website will be able to address the concerns of Web Accessibility, SEO, W3C Compliance, and cross-browser compatibility. You won’t get that in a template either. Even if you found a website template that met the standards you need, what will happen when the standards change? Who will update your website and fix the problems? The template maker? I wouldn’t count on it.

One excellent benefit of using a designer to create a custom website design is that you get to be in charge of the future of your website. You may want a content management system as part of your project; or you may wish to develop a cordial and ongoing relationship with your designer, to keep yourself and your site users happy and prosperous for long years to come.

So, are website templates completely useless, then, a total waste of time? Of course they are not. You may get inspiration from a template that you can use as a foundation for a professionally and properly designed site. You may even want to use a template for a “place-holder” type site. But be careful of that. You don’t want your future customers saying: “Oh, I remember that site. It’s just a bare-bones template. I’m looking for something professional.”

A custom designed website will provide the visual appeal that both you and your customers want, along with the functionality that you need. Your designer will use their years of study and application to craft you a site that is W3C standards compliant, accessible, and search engine friendly. For any site, even small ones, custom website design is really the best choice.