The choice that many businesses need to make today is whether to go for a Content Management System like WordPress for their website or to get a custom web design. There are pros and cons to both – which depend on your unique business needs and budget.
With the introduction of pre-built themes and website templates, custom web development has reduced quite significantly in the recent times. The reason behind this is platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc. have gained popularity when it comes to creating websites. Also HTML and CSS frameworks like Bootstrap have contributed quite a lot in making these platforms popular. WordPress is the most popular when it comes to Content Management Systems.
WordPress has plenty themes to make your website responsive to accommodate mobiles and tablets. Businesses are turning towards WordPress themes as they are easy to install and takes lesser amount of time to build a professional looking site. Liked a design? Just download and install the theme. Want to add core features and functionality? Merely search the web for the latest plugin or widget. Easy peasy.
Maintaining and updating WordPress site is extremely easy and user-friendly. WordPress is social networking friendly, allowing integration of blog posts and other items with social media. Also, WordPress framework is built in a way that makes it easy to crawl. So, popular engines prefer sites powered by WordPress. Undoubtedly, if you go for a custom designed WordPress theme, it would cost more compared to buying a pre-existing theme. WordPress support is huge comprising of experienced developers, designers and users.
WordPress is both – flexible and powerful. WordPress powers more websites than any other Content Management Systems. It’s entirely possible to build a WordPress or a custom website and make it function to fit your needs. But there are limitations. One shortcoming is the learning curve. Just like simple and straightforward components, there are complex ones too. Complex features like forms and e-commerce have limited options. The site can also be weighed down with built-in features and functionality, especially the ones you don’t need.
On the other side, a custom website is developed from scratch. A custom web design allows you to design the website around your marketing strategy. The graphics, functionalities, information architecture, aesthetics, navigational structure, and back end are all based on your unique requirements. Custom sites allow accommodating all the bells and whistles to elevate a website.
A custom website makes it possible to add everything from analytics data, search engine optimization tools, to social media integration, e-commerce, forms, and more. Since there are no additional or extra functionalities, codes and features present, in the case of custom web development, the framework for the same is quite lighter compared to WordPress pre-built or custom themes. One must opt for custom web development if he has a very complicated content structure that needs some serious organization.
The customer can get a website that fulfills all his requirements but it may take a lot longer than he would want since it has to be developed form ground up. Equipped with pre-defined CSS and HTML, WordPress themes have reduced the work a graphic designer has to put in building a site. While in the case of a custom built site where a PSD has to be converted to an HTML page, the process of creating a wireframe is quite time consuming. Also, custom-coded websites cost more since more amount of time is needed for extra coding.
When deciding between WordPress theme and custom website, keep in mind that you want your business to stand out from the crowd and be striking. As we have pointed out, the process of developing a website by means of either WordPress template or custom development is strategic. In either case, you are still going to have to do some work to get up there in the search engine results. There is an old saying – “Time is Money.” Keep that in mind before you make your choice.
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