When it comes to content management systems (CMS), no other provider is the leader of the market than WordPress. With over 37,000,000 unique sites hosted and an array of options for the tech-savvy and the not-so-tech-savvy business owner, it’s a no-brainer that WordPress isn’t just only the most popular site to use for hosting your business’s, organization’s, or brand’s platform—it’s also one of the most accessible as well.
What contributes to WordPress’s accessibility factor is the ability to add themes, or design templates, to your blog/platform. Typically, the basics of free themes provided by WordPress cover the following for your website:
- Layouts of webpages
- Color palettes
- Typefaces and fonts
- Widgets and other embeds
With updates and plug-ins as well, it’s easy to customize your WordPress site and especially for those who don’t have coding experience or simply don’t have time to learn how to code, WordPress’s straightforward and easily navigatable system is appealing. But for those who want a professional marketing platform for their business/personal brand or a home base for their organization, the options become more diverse, extending to premium WordPress themes and custom designs.
However, because of the seemingly endless array of pre-made and custom designs available on the market right now, the choice may appear difficult if not impossible. Which theme is best? What works with the budget and what may strain the budget? Do any of the themes decrease WordPress performance?
In this article, for your convenience, we break down the differences between pre-made designs and custom designs as well as go into their respective pros and cons in an easy-to-understand manner.
What’s the Difference?
The largest difference between a premium WordPress theme and a custom WordPress design is that one is a set template already developed by a third-party whereas the latter is made to a customer’s specifications and needs.
The former is typically made by WordPress site developers and while many of its features and design are pre-set, a pre-made theme still has a page builder included, which allows you to upload content and customize the theme to an extent.
The latter, on the other hand, is coded entirely from scratch and can be built according to a customer’s requests and needs. However, sometimes to offset the time and labor cost, a custom WordPress design can be crafted based on an already existing WordPress theme. Especially if there’s an already created WordPress theme that caught your eye but its functionality doesn’t match the needs of your intended platform/purpose, then having a third-party create a theme with similar qualities but with the functions you need is also an option.
With the core difference of a premium WordPress theme and a custom WordPress design established, let’s move onto their respective pros and cons:
Premium WordPress Theme — Pros
- Cost
The average cost of your standard pre-made WordPress design is going to be on the cheaper end, typically from $50 to $100. For those who are just starting off and don’t have quite the flexible WordPress budget, a premium WordPress theme may be a better business decision than a custom WordPress design.
- Longevity
When you purchase a pre-made WordPress design, you’re not only purchasing a template—you’re making an investment. One boon in purchasing a pre-made WordPress design is that the third-party which created it can provide its services in troubleshooting it, providing updates for it, and assisting you with any questions or concerns. For those who want to grow and foster their online platform over a longer timeframe, this additional support may be more convenient or more appealing, especially for those who don’t want to hassle of directly dealing with the code themselves.
Premium WordPress Theme — Cons
- Inherent Limitations
Granted, every WordPress veteran is familiar with this phrase: What You See Is What You Get. (WYSIWYG) The same applies to premium WordPress themes—what functions you see available on the summary page of a pre-made WordPress design is what you will get. If you purchase a pre-made WordPress design, typically you can only customize the basics as well: font, colors, and images.
- Dependence on Third-Party Developer
Not only for just troubleshooting and technical support for those who aren’t familiar with coding, but users of pre-made WordPress designs are also dependent on the third-party developer for any important updates. One frustrating situation some users encounter when using third-party developed WordPress theme is that there are moments when plug-ins crash a site due to an update that doesn’t sync up with that plug-in anymore or the third-party developer discontinues updates for a particular design. Another point to keep in mind is that the accuracy of the code is also up to the third-party developer; make sure to thoroughly browse and weigh your options before picking one particular developer or design.
Custom WordPress Design — Pros
- Unique Design
If the design is built from scratch, one pro is that its an entirely unique design and only for your online platform. This is very advantageous for those who want an upper hand on competing businesses and desire an online platform with an engaging and extremely personalized branding.
- Ease of Additions
Compared to a pre-made WordPress design, custom WordPress designs don’t require as much time or labor to add a feature or fix a bug. In general, the lines of code needed for a custom WordPress design is less on average compared to a pre-made WordPress design, according to White Label Agency. Because of this, and especially if you are working closely with the original builder of design, navigating through the code is more straightforward compared to the jungles of code within a pre-made WordPress design.
Custom WordPress Design — Cons
- Cost
Considering the labor, time, and resources necessary to build a design from scratch, it’s no wonder that some custom WordPress designs can cost up to thousands and thousands of dollars.
While many blogs and articles on choosing WordPress designs suggest only footing the cost for a custom WordPress design if it’s within your budget and you’re willing to invest, one way to offset the price is by simply having the developer build a theme based off an already existing theme, except with all the functions and features you need for your online platform.
- Switching Off Developers
When it comes to the ins-and-outs of custom WordPress themes, one point to keep in mind is that it requires an active developer who not only includes the features and functions you want in the design but is also available to troubleshoot any bugs and fixes. In the situation that the developer is unable to work on the theme, you will have to search for another developer to assist with your theme, which can be another hassle on top of a growing number of tasks for some business owners.
Which One Is Best for Me?
With the respective pros and cons in mind for premium WordPress themes and custom WordPress designs, this question may arise: which one is best for me and my specific circumstances?
For premium WordPress themes, we suggest them for the small business owner who has a smaller WordPress budget, doesn’t want to deal with the theme’s code, and doesn’t anticipate necessary functionality updates in the future. Premium WordPress themes are also easier to implement under a short timeframe.
On the other hand, for custom WordPress designs, we suggest them for those who want to focus on delivering a highly personalized brand, want the option to easily update the functions of their WordPress site in the future, and for those with a bigger budget.
In the long run, many factors are involved when it comes to digital marketing, some of which are out of our hands, but making the choices right for your business/organization when it comes to deciding on an online platform is something we can control. We ultimately hope that with this guide you have a better idea—and a better start—of beginning your business’s/organization’s online platform.
