Template or custom website? The honest answer

Let me start somewhere you might not expect from a developer who builds custom sites: templates aren't stupid. If you're testing an idea, have zero budget, or just need a page live this week - grab a template. Seriously.

What the template actually costs

The price of a template isn't the €70. It's everything that comes after: every time you want to change something the theme never anticipated. Every plugin that patches one hole and adds two new ones. Every page load spending three seconds on JavaScript nobody uses, because the theme has to do everything for everyone.

• The design looks like the 10,000 other sites running the same theme - trust isn't built on déjà-vu
• Performance is bound to the theme's choices, not yours - and Google grades you on it
• Every customization fights the system instead of working with it
• The day you want something the theme can't do, you start over

What custom actually costs

More upfront. That's the whole truth, and it should be said out loud. You're paying for someone to think your business through and build exactly that - nothing more, nothing less. In return, you own the result: the speed, the look, and the freedom to change direction without ripping up the foundation.

The real question

The question isn't “template or custom”. It's: what is your website supposed to do? If it's a business card that needs to be found on Google Maps, the template wins. If it's a sales channel - if visitors are supposed to become enquiries or orders - then every percentage point of conversion is money, and custom isn't an expense. It's leverage.

A template is cheapest on the day you buy it. A custom site is cheapest every day after that.

My rule of thumb

Does your website bring in less than €1,500 a month? Grab a template and spend the money on your product. Is the website a central part of how you get customers - or should it be? Then build it properly once, instead of paying the template tax for three years first.