In our digital-first world, your website acts as the front door to your business. So when it comes to the next iteration of your website: should you choose a pre-packaged template or invest in a custom website? According to Workhorse COO Morgan Hampton and CTO Thomas Bacon, in many cases, the advantages of custom website development far outweigh the simplicity of templates. Let’s dive into why using an agency to develop a custom website is the ultimate choice for businesses aiming for longevity and effectiveness.
Understanding Custom Development
What exactly do we mean by “custom development”? Thomas defines it succinctly: “Custom development [is] where we don’t start from a pre-built design, layout, or template and we build the website bespoke to the client’s requirements.” Unlike templates, which are akin to a one-size-fits-all garment, custom websites are tailored suits adjusted to every detail of your business needs, whether it’s fully custom or augmented.
Imagine you’re baking a cake. A template is like a box mix, and sure, it’s easy. But custom development? That’s the slice from your favorite bakery, made from scratch using a time-tested recipe in your favorite flavor. Just as Morgan and Thomas put it, it’s about ditching the pre-made layouts and building something unique that fits you perfectly.
The End-User Experience
For the end-users, your clients and customers, the difference between using a templated design and a custom-designed website is substantial. Custom sites promise a totally bespoke experience explicitly fine-tuned to your brand and products. Referring to template limitations, Thomas mentions how a “kitchen sink approach” in templates cannot cater extensively to specific user needs. Additionally, custom websites tend to outperform templates in both design interface and back-end user experience, leading to higher productivity and better brand fidelity.
Necessity of a Custom Website
Do you really need a custom website? The straight answer is yes, especially if user experience and performance are pivotal to your business strategy. Most companies may start with something minimal viable and templated, but as Thomas and Morgan discuss, a shift towards custom is inevitable for growth.
Main Benefits of a Custom Website
When you decide to invest in a custom website, it’s more than a simple purchase; you’re developing a valuable resource for your business that comes with a whole bunch of benefits:
- Performance: Light-weight code for lightning-fast speed and better overall performance.
- Improved User Experience (UX): Tailored to ensure your users have the smoothest experience.
- Enhanced Management Capabilities: Easier to update and maintain.
- Longevity: Built to last and evolve with your business.
- Security: A leaner codebase reduces the “attack surface” which protects agains against vulnerabilities that templates are often susceptible to.
- Brand fidelity: New landing pages, blog posts, and other content closely adhere to your brand guidelines.
Performance: Optimized Specifically for Your Business Needs
When we talk about performance in the realm of custom websites, it’s about creating a platform that is stripped of unnecessary bloat, offering a zippy experience that’s better for users and for the search engine bots that crawl the web. Custom websites at Workhorse start from virtually 0 code, so your website is only loading essential scripts, unlike templated solutions that are loaded down with features built for hundreds of use cases, slowing down your page load speed and making it harder for search engines to crawl.
“When we’re talking about this bloat and time to load unnecessary tools what we’re really talking about is speed. The time that an end user is sitting in front of their computer, waiting for the content that they want to see displayed”
Improved User Experience (UX): Tailored to Ensure Your Users Have the Smoothest Interactions
“Improved user experience” isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a cornerstone of custom website design that promises a silky-smooth journey for everyone visiting your site. Reflecting on this, Morgan asserts, “User frustration, speed issues, performance issues, all of these things can be wonderfully addressed by a custom website.” With a setup that’s meticulously sculpted around the end user’s needs, your visitors are not just satisfied; they’re delighted by the ease and intuitive nature of navigating your online brand experience.
“A well-built custom theme can be built to the end users’ needs in a way that oftentimes a commercial theme or a purchased template is not because they take a kind of a kitchen sink approach to building a website which is that they’re trying to meet the needs of thousands or millions in some cases of users.”
“[With a templated site] your users are suddenly stuck in a system where there are plenty of things that don’t make sense.”
Enhanced Management Capabilities: Easier to Update and Maintain
The convenience of handling a website’s backend is significantly amplified with a custom solution. Thomas elaborates, “When we design a custom site, the brand standards are defined in our custom template… so as a content manager, you don’t have to worry…” This streamlined administration reduces the headaches of maintenance and updates, allowing content managers to focus on creating and optimizing content without the fuss of unwieldy tools or inconsistent styles, ensuring a consistent brand experience.
“[The templated site] is impossible for [the client] to maintain because those tools are kitchen sink tools that can do a lot, but also because of that are hard to use.”
Longevity: Built to Last and Evolve with Your Business
Opting for a custom website is about planting a seed that grows with your business. Thomas highlights, “We hear a lot of a lot of Frankenstein stories of ‘we just kept building and now we’ve got this monster and we need to come at this from a holistic perspective and rebuild it.’” This metaphorical monster represents the numerous bolt-on solutions that can arise from non-custom solutions which lack the capacity to evolve. We often find that clients have tried to piecemeal solutions on their website, creating a frankenstein-like user experience. In contrast, a custom site is not just for the now; it is designed to adapt and expand, meeting new challenges and opportunities head-on.
“But generally speaking, if you’re creating a site that you want to get many years out of and you also are concerned about the experience of your content managers and your brand fidelity, then a custom theme I think is always the way to go.”
“I think that’s a big danger of augmenting a template is suddenly creating something that isn’t cohesive with the experience you’ve already created. And I think that our project strategists and our developers do a really good job of not just building a website that’s going to work well today, but something that has your future needs in mind too.”
Security: Fortified Against Common Vulnerabilities That Templates Are Often Susceptible To
In today’s digital age, having a secure online platform is indispensable. Templates, while convenient, come with their own set of prepackaged vulnerabilities. Thomas recalls, “I’ve seen any number of scenarios that have brought clients to us from [templated] WordPress site’s security issues. [The client’s] site got hacked because the theme was old and they hadn’t been maintaining it, or their site was old and they tried updating it and it ruined the layout and everything went to…”
A good custom development shop is going to thoroughly evaluate any third party code that makes it on to your site, and should also provide hosting and maintenance services that ensure third party vulnerabilities are patched in a secure staging environment before being pushed to production.
“There’s thought and intention that goes into not just setting up a secure site, but intentionally designing a system of technology and platforms that make your site the most secure that it can be.”
Workhorse Approach to Custom Websites
At Workhorse, the process begins with understanding your brand and audience from the ground up. Your team of website experts will spend several weeks understanding your specific needs and pain points. From there, we custom design a solution that best fits you and your clients. We review and iterate on these designs until they are ready to go to a developer who will start from scratch coding your exact design. This zero code base development ensures unparalleled performance and scalability, focusing on each detail that matters to you and your clientele. After development, a full browser QA is conducted while your project team plans for your seamless launch.
Knowing When to Go Custom
How do you know it’s time to switch to a custom site? There are many signs that your current website may not be serving its purpose effectively.
- Losing excessive time to administrative maintenance
- Not seeing the expected SEO performance
- Concerned about online security
- Experiencing sluggish site performance
- Desiring higher conversion rates
Choosing between a custom and a templated website can seem daunting. However, the investment in a custom site, as discussed by industry experts like Morgan Hampton and Thomas Bacon, clearly illustrates its long-term benefits. A custom website is a crucial investment in your brand’s future and digital presence.
