Custom VS. Off the Shelf - The Case for Custom Website Themes

So, you’re thinking about picking a clean, sleek and modern theme for your new or existing website.

For many, it’s all-too-tempting to take the easy road, selecting one of the several colorful options floating around on the internet. These themes are simple and relatively straightforward, but we’re here to let you know that if you’re going to invest the time and money, go custom!

The Problem with Purchased Themes

YOU DON’T HAVE CONTROL OF THE CODE...
The trouble with purchased themes is, as we didn’t build it, we have no idea what skeletons are buried down there. We also do not have complete control over the code. We cannot edit any of the core code, because if we did, all of our work could be overwritten by the next update. Developers can’t stop the updates either, because that would mean the security flaws would never get patched. So, what we have to do is make an add-on to overwrite the theme’s core code, but what we are able to overwrite is very limited – which is why we often have to say “No, that can’t be done!” to clients when working with a purchased theme.

THEY’RE BLOATED AND DIFFICULT TO USE...
Purchased themes are a ‘one-size-fits-all’ product. The developers of purchased themes are trying to appeal to the widest possible audience, so they pack the theme full of “customizable features.” Most of these features will never be used and they are difficult to utilize. The admin back-end of the site becomes very cluttered and confusing, making the client’s site difficult to update and manage. It also means that they contain a LOT of code. All that extra code often leads to a site that is much slower than it needs to be.

They’re complicated, and complicated things break in complicated ways. Purchased themes also rely heavily on extra third-party plugins (which typically means more configuration time), and so more things that can potentially go wrong. There’s also more potential for conflicts between plugins, which could mean features on the site stop working or need to be replaced.

The biggest drawback for the client, in our opinion, is the difficulty updating a site with a purchased theme. There are too many options, configurations, menus and workflows to have to remember. The biggest pain is that each page has to be individually configured. For example, on a site that TimeZoneOne builds, we would add global options for things like headers, footers and social media links. With a purchased theme, these have to be set up from scratch every time you add a new page.

They’re complicated, and complicated things break in complicated ways.

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU WANT, AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL BE...
You want a motorbike. Getting a car is cheaper, and the car comes with extra features (like 2 extra wheels), but you don’t need or want those extra features and it’s not a motorbike. You’ll never be able to turn it into a motorbike, and if you tried to, that would be more expensive than just getting the motorbike in the first place.

This is a terrible analogy, but the point is, clients spend energy and money developing their brands. It’s important and the website should 100% reflect a brand rather than be shoe-horned into a one-size-fits-all design.

IN THE INTEREST OF FAIRNESS, PURCHASED THEME PROS...

1. They cost less money. That’s about it.

Why Create a Custom Theme?

COMPLETE CONTROL...
The theme will be developed just for you, to fit your needs. Because we will have written the code, there is only as much code as there needs to be. This makes changes to the theme and adding functionality much easier. We can adjust one of our themes in less time than we can update a purchased theme. We have 100% control over the code, so we can achieve almost anything you want, whereas with a purchased theme, we often have to say “sorry, it can’t be done” a lot.

BETTER PERFORMANCE...
It will be lightweight. The theme will contain only what you need. This makes the site much easier for clients to update, because they won’t have to go though a whole heap of options and settings every time they want to update something. The site will also load faster because there will be fewer scripts and styles to load. The admin pages would load much faster, meaning less time spent on small copy and image updates.

YOU START WITH A BLANK CANVAS...
The look of the website will 100% reflect a client’s brand and how they want to represent themselves digitally. We can work on providing the best experience for the client’s customers, without any of the limitations imposed by a purchased theme. We can continue to optimize and improve it for the life of the site, whereas with a purchased theme, what we have from day one is pretty much what we’re stuck with.

The look of the website will 100% reflect a client’s brand and how they want to represent themselves digitally.

If this sounds like the next big step you want to take for your brand and its site, drop us a line at [email protected].