Custom Website Design vs Template: Which is Best?

With more than 1.1 billion websites out there as of 2025, having a good looking and performing website is necessary if you want to thrive.

This is why knowing how you want your website to look when creating it from scratch is vital. The debate of a custom website vs template is one that has been going on for years.

Is it worth it to spend that extra money on a custom website for your business, or is using a template enough in 2025?

Many people look at costs first. They tend to ignore other important factors that matter, too.

Worry not, in this article we’ll go in-depth so the custom website vs template debate is finally settled.

Don’t let its cost be the only determining factor when choosing anymore.

Looking to build a custom website but don’t know where to start? Let us help.

Custom Website vs Template: A Comprehensive Comparison

Instead of giving you a short article showing you how much cheaper a template is over getting a custom website done.

We’re going to give you all the nitty gritty details that separate both of them.

Before we go and compare a custom website vs template, let’s quickly define what a custom website and a template website are.

Custom Website

A custom website is, as the name suggests, a website that is tailored to your brand’s needs. It is built from scratch by a professional web developer in conjunction with a seasoned web designer.

A custom website should NEVER use a template as a base.

Everything should be created from scratch.

You get to pick which features and functionalities you want on your website instead of paying for a bundle of things you won’t ever use.

If you’re looking for flexibility and specific features for your website, then a custom website is your best choice most of the time.

Advantages of Using Custom Websites

There are several benefits that make custom websites amazing for almost every brand out there.

So let’s go through each of them:

1. Scalable

With a custom website, you don’t have to worry about scalability.

Since the website is completely customizable, you can add and remove as many pages as you see fit.

Do you have a big inventory and want every product to have its own detailed page?

You can have it with a custom website.

Do you want a chatbot or specific eCommerce integrations that help your business sell more and help your customers with issues?

With a custom website, you can test different chatbots and plugins until you find the perfect one for your business.

Templates are limited to specific plugins and a set number of pages. But custom websites allow for endless customization.

2. Completely Unique

A unique website gives you more shots at impressing visitors with creative ideas. It may sound strange to want to impress visitors with your website.

But most people judge your brand based on their first look at it.

This means that having a well-made website that instantly attracts people is a must nowadays.

With a custom website, you can change almost anything. You can adjust colors, fonts, and even the size and quality of illustrations if needed.

You can have a completely unique website that helps you stand out from the competition while also being easy to navigate.

When you create a custom website, you’ll partner with skilled web developers and designers. They know how to make your site look its best.

They can also help make sure that your website’s brand consistency is good, no matter which page a visitor is on.

3. SEO Focused

While it might seem counterintuitive to put SEO as a pro considering you’re creating a website from scratch, it is actually a good thing.

With a clean slate, you can tailor your SEO to match your brand’s new website strategy.

You also get access to a ton of new plugins that, overall, make your SEO work a lot easier and more straightforward.

That’s not all, though; for people who want to get into the nitty-gritty of SEO, there are advanced tools that help you monitor and A/B test your custom website.

SEO is vital for any business trying to grow online, and having a custom website gives you all the tools you need to work on your SEO strategy properly.

Cons of a Custom Website

While we sing praises of custom websites, there are still drawbacks that you need to consider before committing to one.

1. It Takes a Long Time

There’s no going around this; getting a custom website takes a long time.

From finding the right agency to waiting for them to organize everything.

The whole process can take weeks before it’s done.

You need to consider a lot of things when creating a custom website, and you must plan all of them carefully. The last thing you want for your custom website is for something not to go as expected.

Generally, you should plan on waiting for at least 6 weeks before your custom website is done. This assumes everything goes as planned. It also assumes your agency has web developers and designers working on your website every day.

If you have a tight deadline that you need to stick to, then a custom website might take too long in some cases.

2. It’s Expensive

We are not going to beat around the bush; hiring people to create a custom website for you will take a lot more money than using a template.

The cost of a custom website varies depending on the agency you are working with, the size of the website, your deadline, and many more factors.

If you compare it to a template you can buy right now for less than $50, a custom website might sound like too much money.

But most, if not all, custom websites offer an overall better bang for your buck after years compared to template websites.

3. Finding the Right Team

Finding the right group of web designers and developers who can understand what you want and make it better is rare.

You need to do a lot of research and get into a lot of calls with different agencies and teams if you want to find the right group for the job.

Don’t pick the first agency that shows you a quick mockup. Make sure you do your own research and find out what other websites they’ve done and their turnaround times.

It doesn’t hurt to also check prices if they are available. The last thing you want is for them to charge much more than they offered at the beginning for some sketchy features and extras.

Template Website

These are websites that use a predefined template as a foundation for all their content. Editors usually heavily edit the templates to remove any trace of the website being created with them.

That being said, visitors can spot template websites easily if they go through multiple websites per day.

Templates are also very accessible and sometimes even free to use.

This means that if you use a template, chances are that another hundred or so websites are using that exact template too.

While it’s not a big deal when you consider there are more than a billion websites, it can be an issue for visitors who value creativity.

If people spot that your website uses a template, they may assume you cut corners with your products as well.

Many view templates as shortcuts, but they offer a cost-effective way to get a business noticed online quickly.

Advantages When Using a Template

We can’t do a custom website vs template without talking about all the pros templates have.

Here are three of the most important ones for most brands out there:

1. No Wait Time

If you need your website ready right away, then a template is your best bet. A template saves you most of the hard work that you would have to wait for otherwise.

From organizing your home page to the look of every product page. A template has it all ready for you.

Just remember that you still need to write all the copy for the website as well as include illustrations and images.

But all the hard coding work is done for the most part.

If you’re in desperate need of a website for any reason, a template will do the job very well.

Don’t forget to customize it enough so it doesn’t look like a template.

2. Ease of Use

Templates are much easier to customize, albeit within the limits of the template, if you compare them to custom websites.

While you don’t get the same freedom as you would with a custom website, you are able to customize it without knowing any coding languages at all.

Most templates nowadays are code-free, which means that you don’t need to learn HTML or any coding language to customize.

This is great for business owners who want an easy way to work on their website from the get-go.

Some templates even have recommended WordPress, Shopify, or other specific plugins to make it easier to set up your website.

Overall, creating your own website with a template is a simple process as long as you pick the correct template for your website.

3. Budget Friendly

By far, the most important advantage for most business owners is that the cost of a template is a fraction of what a custom website would cost in 2025.

Depending on which template you choose, you are looking at around $0 to $100 for a template.

This lets you have a bigger budget for other important things that your website needs, such as a good hosting service and specific plugins.

Are you considering a custom website for your brand but don’t know much about it? We can help.

Cons of Using a Template

Despite all those amazing advantages, templates have some challenges that could hurt your business if you’re not careful.

It wouldn’t be a fair custom website vs template comparison if we didn’t give you the cons too, so let’s go over the most important ones:

1. Lack of Scalability

By far, one of the biggest issues template websites have is the lack of scalability. They generally offer a maximum number of pages you can use.

This means that if your website needs hundreds of pages for products, for example, a template might not be for you.

Some also let you upgrade the page count. This usually raises the template’s cost.

Sometimes, it even ties you into a subscription service.

This means that in the long term, you might be paying more than what you would have paid for a custom website.

2. Not as Customizable

Templates offer many customization options, but they can’t match the flexibility of a custom website.

This not only means that in design and looks, plugin integration and certain features might not be available for the template you choose.

It may not be a deal breaker for many brands.

However, if you want to stand out and have the best features for your business, it is important to think about this.

3. SEO Issues

This has gone down over the years with templates, but something to look out for when using a template is potential SEO issues due to poor coding.

If your template makes it so that your pages take too long to load, then it will directly impact your bounce rate and your SEO ranking on Google.

This is without factoring in that some templates will not support a popular and useful SEO plugin that you may want to use for your website.

SEO is a vital part of your website.

Without it, you’re practically invisible to the world.

If we do a quick custom website vs template comparison solely based on SEO features, then it’s an easy win for custom websites.

If you want to learn even more about SEO, you can learn here in our SEO statistics article.

Custom Website vs Template: Which Should You Pick?

After going through the article, you still might be debating on what’s best for your business.

And while we can’t offer you a definitive answer since all brands are different. We can still guide you towards the preferred one for you.

Custom websites offer the best when it comes to features and customizability, but you can’t expect a quick turnaround for it.

Template websites on the other hand are quick.

However, they often miss key plugins that could help your business website.

Not to mention that if you’re an eCommerce business with hundreds of products, you might not even be able to add them all to your website.

If your budget allows it, we highly recommend investing in a custom website. It’ll give you the most bang for your buck while ticking all the boxes of features and design that your business needs.

If you have a strict budget and want to try to spend the least amount of money, then we recommend a template website. It will lack some specific features, and you might have to build it yourself, but with proper knowledge and work, you can make it look unique.

Get a Custom Website That Converts With Blacksmith

Getting a custom website done is a big commitment, and the last thing you want is for your website to turn out looking bad or not how you want it to look.

Don’t worry, with Blacksmith you’ll get a custom website that looks exactly how you want it while also performing its best.

As a web development company, Blacksmith provides you with a team of seasoned web developers and web designers ready to shape your website idea into one that stands out from the competition.

We’ll make your website lightning fast without sacrificing looks or important features.

Best of all? You’ll get to see how it’s made and how it’s shaping up.

If there are things you don’t like, we can adjust and explain what would work best for your brand and industry.

Still unsure if getting a custom website is the right choice for your business?

Click here to schedule a call with us so we can audit your business and explain how a custom website can improve your sales in a matter of weeks.