WordPress template vs bespoke website?

WordPress: off-the-shelf or bespoke?

With WordPress websites, you’ve got two primary options: custom-built versus pre-built. The question is, what’s right for your unique business? As veteran WordPress developers, we’ll always fly the flag for bespoke websites. However, in the spirit of diplomacy, we’ll talk through the pros and cons for both options. Armed with some inside info, you can then make an informed decision on what’s best for your business.

Let’s start with off-the-shelf WordPress themes.

Pros

• They’re cheap. This has to be the biggest lure for start-up businesses, but as we’ll see in the list of cons, cheapness comes at a price.
• You’ve got loads to choose from. Pre-built WordPress themes come in a variety of styles and colourways, so you can choose the look that suits your brand best.
• They’re easy. You’ll get easily customisable templates with features such as drag and drop, image galleries, form builders and more. But this can be a hindrance, as you’ll see in the cons.
• They’re quick. Due to their off-the-shelf nature, pre-built WordPress themes are ready to go in no time. Simply upload your demo content, tweak it to reflect your brand, and voilà!
• You get community support. You’re not entirely on your own with a pre-built theme. They often have large communities and extensive support, including forums, tutorials and plugins designed specifically for them.

Cons

• Lack of originality. Our biggest bugbear with pre-built WordPress themes is that there’s little to no room for individuality. The nature of the beast means many, many more websites will be using the same theme, so yours won’t stand out as well as you’ll want it to.
• Less space for customisation. Many businesses require unique customisation that enhances the user experience and journey. With pre-build themes, you’re limited by the theme’s framework, which can restrict your ability to implement the features you need.
• Little room for growth. Once you choose a pre-built WordPress theme, you’re stuck with it, which leaves little room for your business’ growth. It’s natural for any business to want to evolve, but if your website isn’t up for the challenge, you’ve hit a hurdle before you’ve even begun.
• You’ll get bloated. Whilst we mentioned the advantage of having in-built features such as drag and drop and image galleries, you may not need them. Which means your site can become unnecessarily bloated with surplus features that slow your site down, complicate management and inevitably frustrate your users.
• Security risk. Using WordPress themes from third-party developers can pose security risks if not properly vetted. The main concerns are malicious code, outdated themes, unvetted code quality and unknown sources that may offer ‘nulled’ or pirated themes that are often injected with malicious code.
• Questionable code quality. When using third-party WordPress themes, it’s important to be aware of potential compromises in code quality. These issues can lead to performance bottlenecks, security vulnerabilities and poor user experience.

Let’s now take a look at the yays and nays of custom-built WordPress sites ‒ our personal favourite.

Pros

• You’re unique! With a custom-built WordPress website, you can cut across the noise with 100% originality that stands out from the crowd. From the back end to the front end and everything in between, your website will be laser-focused on championing your brand and creating a memorable user experience that drives engagement.
• Customise your code. Talk to our coders at Halo and you’ll get lost in a complex world of optimisation, SEO and speed…which is why we leave it to them to supercharge our clients’ websites! With custom code, your website gets the edge it needs to outshine your competitors and delight your users ‒ something every business dreams of.
• Scale with confidence. When we build custom websites, we do so with future growth in mind, allowing for easier scalability as your business expands and your needs evolve.
• Feel secure. Unlike off-the-shelf WordPress themes, bespoke websites are not widely distributed and are therefore less likely to be targeted by hackers. With the ability to implement custom security features, perform regular audits and adopt secure coding practices, you get the control you need to optimise your website’s security measures.
• Greater flexibility. With a custom-built website, you have complete control over its functionality and can integrate any custom features as needed, without being limited by a pre-built theme.
• Fantastic UX. Custom-built WordPress sites offer complete control over the user experience, with the ability to integrate or create any feature you want to ensure your customers enjoy a first-class experience that simply cannot be replicated with off-the-shelf alternatives.
• Improved performance. Custom WordPress theme development results in a highly optimised, lightweight and efficient site that’s tailored to your specific needs. This not only leads to faster load times and better overall performance but also provides a more secure and scalable foundation for future growth.
• Fitness for purpose. Custom WordPress theme development significantly enhances the ‘fitness for purpose’ by offering tailored solutions that align perfectly with business goals. For fitness-related websites, where user experience, performance and functionality are crucial, a custom theme ensures the site not only meets but exceeds user expectations, driving both engagement and business success.
• Maintainability. Custom WordPress theme development promotes maintainability by providing a streamlined, well-documented and modular codebase that’s tailored to specific needs. This results in a more secure, performant and scalable solution, reducing the long-term cost and complexity of maintaining the website.
• Accessibility. Investing in accessibility during WordPress custom theme development not only benefits users with disabilities but also enhances the overall quality, performance and reach of a website. This leads to a more inclusive, compliant and successful web presence.
• Digital Sustainability. Custom WordPress theme development plays a vital role in digital sustainability by creating lean, efficient and scalable websites. This approach not only reduces energy consumption but also extends the lifespan of digital assets, ensuring a positive environmental impact. By focusing on performance, resource efficiency and long-term maintainability, custom themes contribute significantly to a more sustainable digital ecosystem.

Cons

• Good things come to those who wait. As a customised website is built from the ground up, it takes longer to create than an off-the-self theme. However, what you get at the end is a fully bespoke website that showcases your brand uniquely and impactfully, with SEO optimisation and custom-built features to ensure a cutting-edge user experience. At Halo, we work closely with our clients to set realistic timescales that everyone’s happy with.
• You get what you pay for. It goes without saying that custom-built websites cost more. But what you get in return is a team of skilled developers that put the time in to create something truly remarkable ‒ something you can be proud of and your audience can buy into.

In a nutshell…

We’re not shy about our preference for custom-built websites. It’s what we do. But it does all come down to your needs and expectations. If you’re a small business or start-up with little budget and no time, pre-built themes offer the speed and convenience to get your website up quickly. But as we’ve already mentioned, this comes at a price ‒ as your business grows, your theme will become redundant, resulting in the need to scrap it and start again.
On the flip side, if you need a highly customised and scalable website that works hard for your brand, then a bespoke solution is for you. The question is: what’s your budget, what’s your timescale and what are your long-term goals? During the discovery phase, we’ll work with you to create a watertight plan that ticks every box, ensuring we squeeze the absolute most out of the brief and deliver something spectacular.

If you’re in any doubt about your website’s performance or accessibility rating, book an audit with our expert team and we’ll run an analysis of your website. Contact our team today. 

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