What is the difference between a custom website design and a template?

Underlying Website Design Technology

Wordpress and other template website builder platforms are often deployed via pre-packaged, hosted

environments in which the web designer is several steps away from the team that is maintaining the

packaged server and Wordpress. Your website designer won't know this because they won't have

any communication with the development team, and the development team themselves, may not be

in-house to the hosting company. In addition to this, their website hosting technologies will be at

least one generation old, and the servers/computers used to host are likely several generations old.

With custom websites, we have the ability to compartmentalise your website, and consider it as a

customisable entity which we can alter, maintain, and make available to you and your customers in

which ever way you wish. For example, any imagery in your website is stored on our

Content Distribution Network. This is not always possible with template websites. We have a very

precise level of control over our custom-made website designs. We can use images from any

network or source we desire. This enables us to make you high quality image and video

backgrounds that look crisp and also load fast on your customers' computers or mobile devices, no

matter which city or location they reside in. Our Content Distribution Network ensures your

website content, as well as your images, are distributed to different cities around the world so they

don't have to travel far to reach your customers.

Website Hosting

When you use a website designer who works with template websites, it can be an indication of a

lack of underlying fundamental IT skills. This means they likely don't host the website themselves.

It doesn't always mean you're going to get a worse price, but it can, and more importantly, you won't

know the reality of who is actually hosting your website. Some web design businesses' strengths

are their design skills, with others it's their IT skills, but rarely do you find a combination of both.

When choosing a website provider you should ensure they have both skills, and ideally are

responsible for, not only the design work and website development, but also the website hosting.

This doesn't have to cost the earth, in fact it's affordable for most Auckland and New Zealand small

businesses because there are a lot of “invisible” cost savings that result from the efficiencies of

having one concentrated team who can take care of every aspect of bringing your website design

together, and eventually, to life on your customers' screens.

In short, a custom-made website design with modern website hosting infrastructure will look better,

load faster, and always be under a greater level of control from your professional, single point-of contact

website provider such as custom websites.

Ability to Add Features/Expand

With a template website system such as Wordpress, you are restricted by something called “third-party

plugins”. The reality is that this third-party code was made by a developer in another country

who likely has no relationship with, or knowledge of, your web designer, and no idea of your

particular website needs. Additionally, should the third-party developer “upgrade” their plugin, this

change may cause your website to display errors and disrupt functionality.

It's alarming to learn that at any time, once your website is live, a third-party developer in another

country can change how it functions, leaving you to pick up the pieces and the cost.

As our name suggests, with a custom website we have a meticulous level of control over each and

every detail of your business website, development technologies and hosting. This means

we can create the functionality you want, in a short period of time, at a very reasonable cost. You

can trust the code we write, and when you use the website, you'll feel the difference and know that

we had your customers' needs in mind throughout it's creation.

We also pride ourselves on being able to meet virtually any web design request with our flexibility,

expertise and leading technologies.

Bugs and Reliability

As outlined above, when using a template system, a third-party developer may change your plugin

without notice. This isn't malicious; they are likely correcting a bug they have inadvertantly put

into their code. However, no-one is going to alert you to this in advance or give your website

design team a chance to anticipate this change.

Additionally, with pre-packaged one-size-fits-all hosting, you won't get to take advantage of the

latest features of cloud hosting which provide additional peace of mind for your website remaining

uninterrupted should a bug or issue need remedying.

With custom websites we have various mechanisms in place to preserve your websites' presence

online, giving us a comfortable window of opportunity to correct any issues or bugs if they do

appear.

The simple truth is that a custom website gives it's developers and designers greater control over

what is under the hood. That means better performance, reliability and, surprisingly, lower costs

than using a template which restricts a web development team.

The limitations of a template system also apply to the visual layout of the website. Many of our

Auckland business clients have told us stories of their previous website team being unable to

make, what they figured were simple customisations to their template websites, because the

“package wouldn't allow them”. They were told “that's not possible” when really it reflected the

bounds of their web development knowledge and the website template package and hosting that

they confine their services to.

Ability to Offer Websites at a Small Business Website Budget

You may conclude that getting a custom website design is expensive and involves a lot of IT

experience. While it is true that it involves this expertise, it is that very fact that allows us to

innovate further and be able to create a custom website for your small business at a very

reasonable cost. Our strong IT, infrastructure, custom service and website development background

has enabled us to become very efficient at creating custom web designs and deploying them on

our website hosting, meaning we can often match, or beat the price of template web designs while

offering you higher quality outcomes and cheaper hosting.

Don't believe us? Get a quote from our competitors then see for yourself by having a free,

no-obligation consultation with custom websites and let us show you the difference in what we

can offer you for your Auckland business website.

Call now on 0800 112 942 or 022 077 9829 to speak to Lewis and get a 100% no obligation

free website consultation in your Auckland business today