If you have been on the fence about choosing a website template or hiring a designer to build you a custom website then hopefully this may help you with deciding what may be best for you. First let’s go over the difference between a template vs custom.
I build website templates with Showit, which is a drop and drag website platform. All my templates are pre-designed fully functional websites with what are called placeholders for images and demo text content. The idea of a template is to have a visually and functional website so that the website strategy and design is already in place. The user then takes the template and customizes it by replacing the images and text with their own. As well as change the existing brand colors and fonts.
Again I build my websites with Showit so any custom website I build is also on Showit. A custom website is where I don’t start with a template but rather I design everything from a blank slate. All my custom websites are built from a strategy that my clients and myself do from what is called a strategy session. We have a zoom call and go over what the main goal of the website will be and we work together as a team to map out the website pages, each section on those pages and what the call to actions are going to be to strategize the importance of the website’s function and flow. I then do all the designing behind the sensecs staying on brand.
I mentioned that one of the benefits of a custom website is the return on investment: however you can also get the same return on investment with a website template as well as the benefits of having a website bestie by hiring a designer to do a template customization service. And to be completely honest any website template can be completely changed and almost unrecognizable if a lot of heavy customization is done.
My recommendations for who would be a good fit for a template.
The most obvious reason would be budget. But if money was not an issue then let’s take a deeper look.
I would recommend looking at a template if the template your eyeballing has a great flow that you can visualize your own content in. If you’re viewing the site demo and you can say to yourself, “Oh I can say this here, and that there. And I think this photo will look good here, and this photo here.” Then a template is for you! If you can’t visualize your own content fitting the template then more than likely that template isn’t a match for you or you might want to consider hiring help or exploring a different template.
If you need a website, like yesterday then a template is a fantastic way to achieve launching a website quickly.
If you have a creative side and you find designing your own website fun, and don’t mind a new challenge then a template is also a great choice for you. And if you don’t then maybe hiring someone to customize it would be the best option for you.
In conclusion the possibilities with a website template are endless. You can completely customize your very own website quickly, while saving some money on other things in your business. Or if customizing it yourself isn’t your thing you can hire someone to do it for you giving you more freedom to have even more options as a designer would be able to completely give you anything you need or want within your template. If you need extra pages, a new section, help with connecting things and understanding your options. Feel free to browse our Showit template shop and reach out to us if you have any questions.
October 31, 2021
Mindy