Are you having difficulties deciding whether to choose a pre-made theme or hire custom WordPress developers? This post will compare them to help you estimate which suits your needs better.
Custom WordPress Development vs Pre-Made Themes
Pre-made themes provide quick solutions for your web presentations. They come with predetermined designs and functionalities. When using a pre-made theme, you only need to install it and adjust the content according to your needs.
On the other hand, custom web development is a complex process that combines backend, frontend development, UX design, and branding.
As both come with distinct advantages and disadvantages, we will examine the pros and cons of each to help you make the right choice.
Custom WordPress Development
Pros of custom WordPress development include:
Creative control
Using custom WordPress development services gives you complete control over every aspect of your website. You can customize every part of its visual presentation and add any functionality needed to achieve your business goals.
Branding
The creative freedom of custom WordPress development allows web designers and developers to perfectly align your website or app with your brand’s visual identity. It allows your business to stand out from the competition by including unique visual design.
Optimal performance
By including only, the features and plug-ins your business needs, custom WordPress development provides superior performance. That means your website will load faster, be more scalable, and rank better on search engines.
Targeted User Experience
Optimal performance and creative control over the entire user journey lead to better user experience and higher conversion. Using custom WordPress solutions, you will avoid high bounce rates caused by suboptimal performance. The carefully planned user experience professional UX designers and developers provide will help ensure your visitors take the desired action.
Cons of custom WordPress development are:
Expenses
Hiring WordPress development agencies is more expensive than using pre-made themes. However, higher initial costs can lead to reduced future expenses, as you could save on future performance optimizations, site updates, and maintenance.
Development time
Developing a new website or app from the ground up is time-consuming. It includes everything from initial planning, design, and development to testing. As such, custom WordPress development can take months.
Pre-Made Themes
Pros of using pre-made themes include:
Time
If you choose to use a ready-made solution, you can set up your website quickly. As pre-made themes come with predefined styles and functionalities, the only time you spend will be on configuring functionalities, adding your content, and deploying your website.
Cost
Relying on a pre-made theme is an affordable solution. At an average price of around $59 per theme, using a pre-made theme can be a budget solution to cover your online business needs.
Diversity
You can choose from countless themes and find the one that best suits your needs. With a market share of 43.4% and a huge development community, you will find pre-made solutions in almost all styles imaginable and plug-ins that accommodate most of the typical business needs.
Cons of using pre-made themes:
Bloated code
As pre-made WordPress themes are made to accommodate as many users as possible, they will often come with various features you do not need. They will have unnecessary code that will negatively impact your website’s performance and make it less scalable and maintainable.
Branding
A ready-made solution will make it difficult for your website to stand out from others relying on the same theme. Your website might not convey your brand identity and be less memorable.
User Experience
Suboptimal performance and branding can negatively impact your visitors’ user journey. Potential users may leave your website due to bad performance or not take a desirable action due to hard-to-navigate interfaces.
When to rely on Pre-Made Themes
Due to their inherent limitations, you should only consider using pre-made themes in the following situations:
- Limited time and budget: When you need to launch your website as fast as possible and are willing to compromise performance and user experience, using a pre-made theme can be a viable solution. Apart from that, if your business is not yet ready to invest in custom WordPress development, pre-made themes are a viable alternative.
- Simple online presentation: Suppose you need a simple web presentation that does not include a lot of functionalities. For example, a pre-made theme can be a good choice if you need a simple restaurant webpage.
- New businesses: If you are starting a new business, relying on a pre-made WordPress theme provides a low-risk option for establishing your online presence. You can use a theme to acquire experience that will help you develop a more effective website in the future.
When to utilize Custom WordPress Development
You should consider using WordPress web development services if you prioritize:
- Branding: Custom WordPress development can help set you apart from the competition by aligning your website perfectly with your brand identity.
- Security: Custom developed sites provide superior security. They will ensure that your customer’s sensitive information is well protected and its security is conveyed. Cybersecurity is especially important for businesses that include transactions such as web stores.
- Performance: Custom solutions provide optimal performance. Your users will experience faster loading times, contributing to a better user experience.
- UX: Custom solutions developed with your target audience in mind will lead to higher conversion. More visitors will use your services if your product performs well and is easy to use.
- SEO: Optimal performance, well-developed site maps, and optimized content will rank your product higher on search engines, enabling more users to find you.
Conclusions
Pre-made themes are a good choice if your business is starting out or you have significant time and budget constraints. They will enable you to promptly set up an affordable website at the expense of uniqueness and performance.
On the other hand, hiring a web development agency will give you complete creative control over your product. You will convey your message effectively, encourage high conversion, and create a product that performs and scales well.
