Ivan Popov is the CEO of Vipe Studio, which establishes and maintains websites for enterprises, SMEs and e-commerce platforms.
In an earlier article, I discussed the topic of digital presence and how in this day and age, it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” for enterprises.
If you’ve already decided to embark upon this digital journey, perhaps you might feel slight confusion when it comes to custom development. We’re used to hearing all about it here and there, but do we truly know what it represents? What’s more, how can you know if your business does in fact require this approach?
In today’s article, I’ll tackle this very subject: Whether businesses should opt for templated or custom-developed websites is, essentially, entirely up to you. What’s important is, however, for you to be well-informed and aware of the differences.
What Options Do You Have To Choose From?
Websites help companies build their presence in today’s digital world and elevate their credibility and trustworthiness. What’s more, they make businesses far more accessible; since the potential customers are online, so should enterprises. That’s why carefully deciding upon the best approach is crucial. It can help determine your company’s development and growth.
When it comes to conducting websites, usually aspiring entrepreneurs consider one of two options: They either decide upon a website using pre-made themes, plugins and page builders or opt for a custom-coded platform created for their enterprise.
Of course, at first, the second option may sound intriguing and even tempting in a way; however, it’s important to mention that either option has its own list of pros and cons. What sounds like an ideal plan for someone may quickly turn out to be detrimental to others. Therefore, let’s closely examine both approaches and hopefully help you as a business leader make an informed decision.
Template Websites
Template websites are the ones that use pre-made themes, plugins and, oftentimes, page builders. They can be an excellent solution for either brand-new and small businesses with a short list of products and services or enterprises whose digital goal is to simply display their work as a detailed portfolio of their projects. Essentially, business owners can single-handedly take upon a task like this. There are numerous content management platforms with rather intuitive and user-friendly interfaces. In almost no time, with the help of a tutorial or two, anyone can build a simple but beautiful and functional website that best describes what your business is all about.
Custom-Coded Websites
On the other hand, custom-coded websites are where imagination meets technology. In a nutshell, engineers code the website in its entirety from scratch. The entire work process is truly proactive since the development team and the business owners work together in terms of establishing all that’s needed: the overall structure, design, colors and layout, functionalities and integrations.
I find that custom web development is usually the best choice for high-traffic enterprise websites with hundreds of products or those that want to embrace tailored interactions and enhanced customized user experience.
Pros And Cons Of Custom Web Development
If you’re considering custom web development as a solution for your enterprise’s digital establishment, then it’s essential to first explore the most important advantages and disadvantages. Let’s start with the advantages first.
• Brand credibility. Custom-coded websites have the potential to help your business craft a name for itself since they can enhance brand credibility. The fact that the entire platform is tailored precisely to the business’ liking leaves plenty of room for accenting features that your brand can become known for.
• Freedom in functionality. With customer web development, you have the freedom to navigate functionalities preferences. As opposed to pre-made themes and plugins where functionalities are rather limited, custom-coded functionalities embrace virtually anything the platform needs to communicate to its customers since they are specifically coded to fit your needs.
• SEO optimization. I find that custom web development helps businesses tremendously when it comes to speed and search engine optimization. Using any third-party software can slow down your platform due to unnecessary code and decrease its SEO score.
• Scalability. With the help of custom development, your business can keep on developing and growing the way it suits your mission the best. Custom web development is a never-ending process that always leaves room for further enhancements and upgrades.
However, some of the disadvantages that go along the lines of custom web development are:
• Cost. Firstly, this service costs more than going with a templated platform. Having professionals build your website from scratch requires both time and financial investment, especially at the beginning. Small-to-medium enterprises might want to reconsider and postpone this scaling approach.
• Maintenance. Another disadvantage is that non-tech individuals might need further assistance when it comes to maintaining and managing the site’s content. Essentially, going with a long-term commitment with professional developers is the right choice here.
Conclusion
Custom web development can be an amazing opportunity and tool for fast-developing enterprises to showcase their best game and quickly create and establish a name for themselves in the business landscape. With a plethora of scaling functionalities and integrations, custom-coded websites have the potential to raise any enterprise’s credibility.
On the other hand, templated platforms using pre-made themes and plugins are a perfect solution for simple yet properly working portfolio-type websites. They don’t require high financial investments and even non-tech individuals can maintain and manage their content through user-friendly and intuitive dashboards.
Deciding upon the proper web development approach is a crucial component of a successful online establishment. I hope this article has managed to answer some questions and bring clarity to a topic of such big importance in today’s digital business landscape.
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