Template Websites vs Bespoke Designs

What is the difference?

A website template is pre-made and effectively offers a 'fill in the blanks' approach to building a website while bespoke designs are built from scratch to be unique and, most importantly, fit for a specific purpose. 

Templates are often offered as 'themes' on content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and you can even get some for free. They are often interchangeable, quick to set up and, in some cases, maintenance is carried out by the people who designed it. 

Bespoke web designs on the other hand are rarely free but can often be applied to a variety of CMS'. They take a longer time to attain because the design is freshly built and can require several rounds of client interaction and approval. 

Which is better?

There's no one solution to web design, because there are usually a wide array of variable to consider when deciding including budget, time, and the function of the website in question. That said, there are certain scenarios where templates or bespoke designs are more suitable.

Templates are ideally built from tried-and-tested standards that work and they can offer familiarity to users who may have experienced other sites using similar or the same template. As a result, they can be valuable for:

• Blogs & news sites
• Ecommerce (online shopping)
• Internal business sites

In situations where identity is important or extra functionality is needed, bespoke designs are the answer. Bespoke web design offers more control over customisation while still benefiting from industry best practices, making it the best choice for:

• Business websites
• Websites with unusual functionality
• Promotional websites

A good way to think of the comparison is in the context of physical shops; you want the outside and shop window to stand out as much as possible, and inside you might offer unique products that are displayed beautifully, but when the customer gets to the tills they expect it to work like 90% of the other shops they have visited before.

How about Devetecho?

At Devetecho both methods of design are used depending on the situation. For any business site, templates are avoided as much as possible on the belief that a website is an extension of your branding and should promote it rather than conform to the same styles being shared around by others; in the same way its unlikely you would want your logo to resemble that of a competitor!

That said, templates come in handy when implementing ecommerce as you want users to be familiar with the purchase process rather than amazed by a unique design.