Web design · Planning
A template gets you online fast and cheap. A custom design fits how your buyers decide. Most businesses should pick based on what the site has to do.
Where the cost difference comes from
The middle option: custom on a framework
A decision rule you can apply today
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Use a template when you are a newer business with a few services, a modest budget, and a site whose main job is to look credible when a referral checks you out. Choose a custom design when your site must win business against similar competitors, your services need explaining, or the site has to connect to other systems. A template costs less and launches faster. A custom site costs more but is built around your content, your buyers and your goals rather than someone else’s demo.
There is also a middle path many businesses miss: a custom design built on a solid, standard framework. More on that below.
Lower upfront cost. Faster to launch because layouts already exist. Works best when your content fits the template’s structure. Changing the structure later can cost as much as doing it right the first time.
Higher upfront cost for discovery, design and development. Takes longer: at JLB USA most custom WordPress sites launch in 6 to 10 weeks. Built to fit your content, so fewer workarounds later.
The cost difference comes from discovery and design time. With a template, someone else did that work for a generic business. With a custom site, it is done for yours. Our guide to small business website costs explains the other drivers, such as content, features and integrations.
Templates are not bad. But a few problems come up again and again.
Not sure whether your business needs custom work? Book a free 30-minute call. We look at what you have now and tell you what we’d change first. No obligation.
Custom does not have to mean exotic. The most practical approach for many businesses is a custom design built on a widely used platform like WordPress. You get layouts designed for your business, plus the benefits of a standard platform: a large pool of developers, well-maintained plugins, simple editing for staff, and the freedom to move hosts or developers. This also avoids the opposite risk of a fully hand-coded site that only one developer understands.
Answer three questions:
If you answered no to all three, a well-chosen template is fine. If you answered yes to any of them, a custom design is likely to earn back its extra cost.
Both businesses below are illustrative, not real clients.
A new bookkeeping practice. Three services, most clients from referrals, a small budget and a need to launch quickly. A clean, lightweight template with well-written service pages is the sensible choice. Spending heavily on custom design would not change how most clients find the firm.
A regional HVAC company with 40 employees. Competes with a dozen similar companies in search results, offers repair, replacement and maintenance plans across several cities, and wants service requests to flow into its scheduling software. A template would force all of that into a generic layout. A custom structure with dedicated templates for each service and service area, plus a planned integration, is likely to pay for itself in leads.
Most businesses sit somewhere between these two. The more your site has to compete and connect, the further toward custom you should move.
Honest answers to these make quotes much easier to compare.
We build custom WordPress websites designed around each client’s services and buyers. Your team can edit the site, and you keep it if you leave. On redesigns, we set up redirects from old pages so rankings carry over. You can see the difference custom work makes on our before and after page.
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Pick a time. We look at what you have now with you and tell you what we would change first. No obligation.
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It is when your site has to win business against similar competitors, explain complex services or connect to other systems. For a simple credibility site, a good template is often enough.
The difference comes from discovery and design time, plus custom development. Ranges vary widely by scope, so compare quotes on the same list of pages, features and content.
Not inherently. Problems come from bloated themes that slow pages down and layouts that force thin content. A lightweight, well-maintained template can rank fine.
At JLB USA, most custom WordPress sites launch in 6 to 10 weeks. Content and feedback speed are usually the biggest variables.
Yes. Many businesses do. Plan for a redesign with a redirect map so the pages that already rank keep their traffic.
