Bespoke vs template website design

Bespoke or template? The choice is yours

Having a high-performing website that aligns with your brand and business objectives will establish immediate trust amongst your target audience, creating a positive relationship that will nurture these potential customers from that initial touchpoint, through to conversion and beyond!

When considering a new website, or a redesign of your existing website, there are generally two options available. You can either purchase a ready-made template website or work with a web design agency on a bespoke website tailored specifically to your needs. 

What is bespoke website design?

In short, a bespoke website is a website that’s custom-designed for a specific purpose, whether this be through its appearance, features or functionality. A truly bespoke website is a website that's designed from scratch, leveraging high-level design services with custom web development to create something truly unique.

Similarly to how a tailor-made suit will fit significantly better and last far longer than one bought from a supermarket, a bespoke website is specifically designed by a team of highly skilled website designers and developers to show your business off.

Should you choose a bespoke website design?

In case you haven’t already noticed, here at JUMP, we’re big advocates for bespoke websites. Not only because of their profound ability to scale alongside your business; but also because bespoke websites are our bread and butter.

When creating a bespoke website, a team of graphic designers and bespoke web developers will spend time analysing your specific requirements, carrying out in-depth research into the user journey and engaging in a collaborative web design process to create something unique for you. This results in a new website that stands out, one that challenges the status quo and most importantly, a website solution that is custom-built to address the specific needs of your business. 

But what are the main benefits?

Bespoke websites offer increased flexibility

Unlike the constraints of templated ready-made websites, anything is possible when you opt for a bespoke build. Are you searching for a specific function or feature? This is where bespoke website design services come in.

The beauty of a bespoke design is that the options are limitless. You do not have to follow a preset design that has probably been used before by thousands of other businesses. When it comes to bespoke web design, you can ask your website developer to create pages with specific features that step outside of the ordinary. Beyond function, bespoke website design also allows you to visualise or add anything to your website, without having to work within pre-set panels that only support the standard website design (buttons, text, images, etc.) 

Bespoke websites empower business growth 

Bespoke web design doesn’t just allow for increased flexibility, it also empowers business growth through its highly scalable infrastructure. With the ability to add custom features and functionality as your business grows, you can stay ahead of the competition and effectively scale up.

When partnering with a creative agency like JUMP for a bespoke design and development project, you'll gain access to a project manager and a team of highly skilled bespoke website developers who are always available to provide support. Rather than interacting with a support agent who is probably looking at your website for the first time (or even worse, an AI chatbot) - these web developers and designers know who you are, what you value and most importantly how your website works!

Bespoke websites are fully responsive 

Bespoke websites are built using the latest W3C HTML and CSS coding standards. The website developer will take time to follow a strict and proven process to ensure the website is optimised for different types of browsers and devices, including mobile and tablets. For example, a mobile website version might need to be coded separately to look how you want, whether this be through the hierarchy, layout or something else; anything is possible when you opt for bespoke web design services.

Working with an agency on your bespoke website project

There are a range of benefits when you choose to work with a website design agency; from the wealth of high-quality advice and information that they will be able to offer, to their experience in bespoke web development, they can help ensure that your digital presence does all of the things you need it to. 

Should any issues arise, you have access to a bespoke web developer, one that will know your website inside and out, meaning they can fix your issue with ease. In working alongside a creative website design agency, you will have total control of your online presence, from design to right through to functionality and beyond.

Could your business benefit from a bespoke website?

When considering a bespoke website, it’s important to understand your specific reasoning and requirements. If you’re looking for a solution that will stand the test of time, grow alongside your business and ultimately provide the best chance of success in the long run, bespoke is the obvious choice.

A custom website design requires creativity and a strategic approach. Sometimes, businesses feel this is the hardest part! Being able to see all the possibilities of a bespoke website can be difficult, but that is why you choose a digital design agency (like JUMP) that can understand your goals and outline all the creative possibilities in your web design.

It’s important to note that a bespoke web design can be more costly and can take longer to implement than an off-the-shelf website. Instead of quickly knocking your website out in a day, you will be relying on someone else and their timeline. Depending on how complex your website is, going bespoke can often take significant design and development time. But the value in the end is immeasurable.

What is a template website solution?

A 'template' or 'off-the-shelf' website is a generic, pre-built website that's available for anyone to purchase. The owner can choose from a set of pre-designed templates, tweak the colour palette, add logos, copy and images.

Off-the-shelf websites often come with content management systems like WordPress or Wix and they will use a general outline of code for a website and put it into a template that you can personalise.

When to choose an off-the-shelf website

There are a range of scenarios where you might opt for a ready-made website over a bespoke one; you might be a new business with a small budget looking for a quick solution to enhance your digital presence, or maybe you want something that requires minimal maintenance and is easy to stay on top of.

Off-the-shelf websites are often cheaper than custom ones because they are pre-built and quick to set up. This is an attractive option if you’re looking for something low-cost and fast.

When it comes to off-the-shelf websites, it’s important to consider the unique goals of your business. For example, if you’re an e-commerce business owner looking for something that is optimised for selling products, off-the-shelf solutions like Shopify are a popular choice.

For those of you who are not very tech-savvy, an off-the-shelf website can offer a simple and user-friendly way to maintain and manage your website. With drag-and-drop functionality a regular feature on off-the-shelf websites, managing and customising your website can be achieved in a few simple clicks.

But, it's important to note that many bespoke websites are also made on user-friendly content management systems and have simple options to manage your website content!

What are the downsides of using a pre-built website

Although pre-built websites can offer a cheaper, fast and easy-to-manage solution to grow your digital presence, it is important to understand that they also come with significant drawbacks that could stunt growth in the long term.

Pre-built websites lack flexibility

Pre-built websites are generally not very flexible and the owner is limited to the parameters of the template. For example, say you wanted to have a map feature to show a specific area that your business covers or a bespoke form with very niche questions; this could ultimately be either too complex for a pre-built website, or an expensive feature that you need to have built by a website developer down the line.

Maintaining your brand can be difficult

When it comes to your brand, customisation on a pre-built website is often very limited, which will make applying the consistency of your brand and identity difficult. If your brand uses a particular font, a specific colour, or even moving images or logos, you may find an off-the-shelf website doesn’t support this.

Pre-built websites might have older code techniques

Another common drawback with off-the-shelf websites is that they can be built using substandard and outdated code. This can harm Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as finding and indexing keywords can be more difficult. Some off-the-shelf web design tools like WordPress started out as a blog system, meaning they were not designed with SEO in mind. While this has since been updated, it still won't be the same as having a real developer write out the code for you to ensure maximum search engine visibility.

Working with a developer on an off-the-shelf website

When using a pre-built website, you might not work with a developer at all, it might be more of a chatroom where you get questions answered. This is the opposite of the level of 1-on-1 support you receive when you opt for a web design agency to use their collaborative process to create your bespoke website.

Don’t compromise your unique vision

At JUMP, we never want you to compromise on your vision, how your business looks and is perceived, or your potential! That is why we work together to understand your business goals and work with you to deliver a custom design that will far exceed your expectations.

We don't cut corners, bespoke web design projects are our jam! Our talented team of designers and developers are experts in creating bespoke website solutions that function seamlessly and engage your customers.

Don't take a chance on one of the most important marketing tools that you have! Work with a team like JUMP who puts website design, development and marketing at the highest priority to help you succeed.