The answer is both Yes and No depending on the complication of the project, the deadline, and your budget. If you are working on a complex problem that requires unique design and development, a web design agency is your obvious choice. But if you are working on a relatively simpler project, and have a strained deadline or budget you can try pre-made website templates.
Pre-built websites come with generic functionalities developed to target almost all common requirements. They may not be unique but you can make all basic customizations. Advance level customization may require technical knowledge but that can be achieved by hiring a UI UX designer, or developer. Thus without starting from scratch one can customize a website template as per their business requirement. This process will be faster & affordable. This is the only reason why pre made web templates are gaining popularity these days. Business owners are avoiding custom web design and depending more on customization.
Quick Navigation
What are pre-made website templates?
Websites are no longer considered a commodity, they are now necessary for your branding. But building a website involves multiple steps – Designing, Front-end development, Back-end development, etc. Thus they are both money and time-consuming. Templates are pre-designed, developed web pages that can be customized with appropriate content, images, and videos to uniquely represent your business.
Types of website templates:
Depending on the cost and the stages of development web templates can be classified into 4 categories.
1. Web Design Template – Figma Templates, Adobe XD Templates & PSD Templates
The first stage of web creation is designing. Your website is your digital business card that helps in creating an online presence. The appearance of your website, its responsiveness & the UI/UX experience is some of the real deal breakers. So you must have an attractive web design template. Designing from scratch to reach your final goal is a back-breaking task. A better alternative option is to choose the best website design from 1000s of pre-designed website mockups. And then bringing it into use with little to no customization.
The 3 most common choices of UI designers are PSD, Adobe XD & Figma templates. A wide range of experienced designers is available for any kind of customization and modification if required.
2. HTML Website Templates
The second stage of web creation is front-end development. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the code that helps in structuring your web page. Together with CSS & Javascript, they can give life to your design. User intersection, device compatibility load time, and SEO are some of the key features you should focus on at this stage.
Some popular HTML Website Templates you should consider are React, Angular, and Bootstrap. They are in use widely for front-end development with a large community to support.
3. Ready-made Website Templates
They are often called CMS (Content Management Systems) and are very common in use these days. CMS hosts 68.9% of the total website live in 2023. The most popular among them is WordPress followed by Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace. These CMS website templates dictate the overall appearance & functionality of your website. So you may consider your theme will decide whether you are having an e-commerce store or a blogging website.
While choosing a ready-made website template, you have to first consider which CMS to go with. Here is an article that can help you make your decision. When you have made up your mind, next you have to choose your theme or template depending on your business requirements. Read the documentation and check the live demo of the theme before you consider using it. Although there is scope for customization, you should choose a theme that closely resembles your business. Browser compatibility, fast loading speed, and SEO are the must-haves for any theme you choose.
4. Free & Premium Web Template
Website templates of all the above categories are available to download for free and premium versions. Free templates are mostly designed only from a marketing standpoint. These templates lack both design and functionalities. They mostly don’t have regular updates which may compromise the security of your website. Premium themes from reputed marketplaces are much more reliable.
You can definitely start with a free design or HTML template and customize it as per your requirement. But relying on a free template without the help of an expert developer is not advisable. Here is a list of websites that has a good collection of templates to boost your process of web creation.
Free sources of website mockups
Paid sources of website mockups
Pros and Cons of Website Template
The process of web creation may vary depending on your business size, complication, uniqueness, budget, and time. Before you decide to go with a website template or a web design company, first let’s consider its pros and cons.
Pros:
Here are 5 advantages of using a web template over a web design agency.
1. Templates are quick to implement
Templates are premade layouts with placeholder text and images. They are available in design, HTML, and CMS formats. Add your business name, text, and images before you use them. If you have your content ready it should not take you more than a day to go live. Almost all marketing elements like business cards, brochures, flyers, email templates, website templates, etc are available in abundance.
2. It’s Cost-effective
To develop a custom website you have to engage with multiple people – designer, front-end developer, back-end developer, and micro-manage them to get your desired output. While templates are mostly considered plug-and-play. You choose the right template, make the payment, and in a matter of few clicks you are done. There is support available to help you in the process. This makes it both time and cost-effective.
3. Wide range of collection
You could be a lawyer or a restaurant owner, or a realtor there are numerous designs for any business niche. Click here to visit some reputed free and premium marketplaces providing 1000s of pre-made templates. Select the right category and choose the design that best fits your requirement. You should be looking for little to no customization. This will help you save some extra bucks.
4. Simple to use
Templates are mostly built for non-tech users. Thus they are expected to be more user-friendly, following the global GUI standard. You need not to be a designer or programmer while using a template. But as you are a one-man army some basic GUI knowledge is required. This can be acquired by reading the user manual, blog, or by watching some Youtube videos. All popular CMS comes with such documentation.
5. Compatible with third-party applications
CMS website templates are built to target a wide variety of users. Every user may have some different requirements. Thus these templates are developed to be compatible with all standard third-party tools. You may find a variety of payment gateway, SEO, and marketing tools pre-integrated with it. These are done to avoid the requirement of customization. But before you make your call, it is advisable to read the documentation whether your theme supports the third-party application you require.
Cons:
1. You can’t be too choosy
If you have some design in your mind or some unique functionality that you like to stick with. Templates can lead you to a dead end. There may be thousands of samples available but they are targeting the common problems. There is a high probability that your unique business idea may not find a spot. You may start with a template that closely resembles your business. But you have to add customization to give your personal touch.
2. Supports are mostly payable
Although basic support like integration comes with the package but customizations are mostly payable. If you like to add some functionality that does not come with the package you may need to install a third-party application or develop it. Third-party applications could be both free or paid depending on the functionality. But you have to hire an expert to develop or customize an application. Although you could find experienced developers in abundance the process could be a bit costly.
3. Scalability could be a concern
Templates are pre-designed and developed applications. There is scope to customize and expand. But everything has its limit. You may definitely add some new functionality but you cannot expect a 180-degree turnaround. Moreover, there has to be support from the programming language, database, and previous coding. Thus to sum up, you may go for some customization but it cannot be an absolute makeover. So it is generally advised to choose templates based on your requirement with little to no customization.
4. Lack of uniqueness
Templates follow built once sell many business policies. So they are developed to target a broader customer base. This ideology hampers uniqueness in design and development. They all follow the same trend and end up looking similar. Moreover, the use of one design in multiple brands makes it even more identical.
5. Often bound to a one-hosting company
Global brands like Shopify, Wix, Godaddy, etc have brought the complete website business under one roof. They provide all services like domain, hosting, website templates, security, SEO, professional emails, etc. Although they offer a reasonable rate, but users get bound to a single platform. While there are CMS like WordPress, Magento, etc that are open source. With these applications, you can choose your hosting and even change them at your ease.
Best practices while using pre made web templates
Here are a few steps that one should follow while choosing cms website templates:
- Do your competitor research to find what design style, functionalities, and marketing elements are required in your industry.
- Visit some reputed marketplaces and make a list of templates that fulfill your requirement.
- Read the documentation to find details about support, update, and compatibility.
- Visit the demo website to check page speed, responsiveness, GUI, color scheme, and fonts in use.
- Reduce the list on the basis of your above finding and user reviews.
If you make your decision on the basis of these 5 steps you will never end up buying something that you don’t need. You will be able to start your journey from here and expand with time.
How Ciomic Technologies can help you achieve your goal
Ciomic Technologies has 7+ years of market experience. We have both the skill and expertise to develop and customize your website templates on the basis of your requirement. We provide affordable services with transparent communication.
To welcome all first-time website owners in the digital world we are providing a 30 min free consultation with an industry expert. Here we offer no sales pitch. We listen to your requirement and give you proper suggestions. Click here to book your time.
