As your business starts to grow, there a several decisions that can have a major impact on how well your business performs. One of these key decisions is whether to use a custom HTML code or a pre-made template from various web platforms, to create your website. Before deciding on which strategy would work best for your business, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each choice.

Degree of Customization

The primary benefit of using custom HTML code to build your website is the unlimited freedom and creativity you have in choosing every detail of your website. By writing custom code, you are don’t have to be constricted to abiding to the boundaries of a template. Will it be mobile friendly? What color scheme do you want to incorporate on your homepage? These are just several options to consider when building a website from scratch. Additionally, you could hire a professional web developer and tell them what you desire in your new website.

While customization is limited when using a pre-developed WordPress theme, there are tons of templates out there. Also, there aren’t just WordPress templates, but websites like Weebly, Wix, and Squarespace are designed to be intuitive and simple to use. Some of these platforms are free to use, such as Weebly, but to use premium features will cost money. Web platforms, like Wix, offer over 500 different professionally-developed templates to choose from. That being said, there is always the chance that the design you had envisioned cannot be captured effectively through a pre-made template.

Pricing

Another important aspect to consider is pricing. Hiring a web developer usually isn’t cheap. However, hiring a quality web developer to build your website will save you a large amount of time, which you can then devote to other important areas of your business. Also, if you feel that your coding skills are good enough, you could consider building the website from scratch and save the money you would have used on a web developer. While this may not be a realistic option, it is one to consider especially if you feel good about your coding skills and money is a big concern.

Time

A major drawback of using custom HTML code is the large, time-consuming process. Coding line-by-line will take a much longer time compared to using pre-selected theme templates. In addition, there is a higher likelihood of mistakes being made when you custom code. All of this adds to the time-consuming effort of building your own website. On the other hand, hiring a web developer may save you a lot of time while still allowing you to decide on the most important parts of your website.

If you’re pressed for time and need to build a website quickly, using pre-selected themes from platforms like WordPress is an option to seriously consider. While using pre-selected themes limits how creative you can be, it is cheaper than hiring a web developer and is a lot less time consuming.

So what will it be, custom HTML code or pre-designed web themes? As with any tough question, the answer will be: it depends. It depends on how much you’re willing to spend. It depends on how much time you have to get a website up and running. And it depends on how you want your website to look. With e-commerce being responsible for $2.3 trillion in global sales in 2017, having a well-designed, user-friendly website is a must in today’s consumer marketplace.

Want a new website for your company, but are unsure where to start? Connect with a Workspace Digital expert and learn about our full range of innovative digital marketing products and services.
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