Posted February 15, 2023
When building a WordPress website, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is what kind of theme to use. With WordPress, there is a wide variety of options available that offer varying benefits based on your budget and your website needs. In this post, we’ll explain the differences between pre-made themes, visual builders, and custom WordPress themes, so that you can better choose the best solution for your business. Let’s get started!
A pre-made WordPress theme is one that you can buy “off the shelf” and install to get your website up and running quickly. It’s an entry-level option that can be a good choice for new businesses with smaller budgets. Off-the-shelf themes have limited modification choices and might not be an ideal solution for companies with particular design needs. Additionally, pre-made themes run the gamut in terms of quality, so you should take care to choose a reputable theme provider, to avoid subjecting your site visitors to errors or security flaws.
Pros of pre-made WordPress themes
Cons of pre-made WordPress themes
Visual builders like Divi, Elementor, and WPBakery provide a drag-and-drop interface for website design. They provide great flexibility and control – but they also come with a steep learning curve. You won’t need to learn web development to use one, but you will certainly have to learn the ins and outs of web building with your particular visual builder, as they’re all a little different. If you don’t have the time to learn the details, they can be frustrating.
As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. The “freedom” a visual builder provides means that every content contributor may add their content in a slightly different way. If you don’t monitor all page edits very carefully, your site may become a hodgepodge of inconsistent layouts & styles.
Visual builders can also come with a lot of code bloat. They need to support a wide range of features for all kinds of users – and much of that code gets loaded whether you’re using those features on your site or not. That leads to slower performance for your users on the front end – and all that drag-and-drop functionality slows down the back-end administration, too.
Last but not least, visual builders co-mingle your page content with the layout code, this makes them harder for search engines to index, and also means that you can’t cleanly export your content or re-use it in a different theme. Once you’ve committed your content to one visual builder, changing themes will require you to use the same builder – or to completely re-build your pages.
Pros of Visual Builder Themes in Website Design:
Cons of Visual Builder Themes in Website Design:
A custom WordPress theme, designed and built just for your business, gives visitors and customers an experience that is consistent with the quality of your brand. Layout, color scheme, fonts, and other design aspects can be completely unique to your site and represent your brand consistently with your other marketing efforts. Custom themes are a wonderful option for companies with strong brand standards who want to provide compelling front-end features, consistency across all your pages, and fast performance. A bespoke theme can help your business stand out in a crowded online marketplace and can be more easily and seamlessly integrated with third-party plugins and off-site platforms.
Pros of Custom WordPress themes:
Cons of Custom WordPress Themes
The table below shows the competitive edge a custom theme has over the other options:
Feature | Pre-Made Theme | Visual Builder | Custom Theme |
---|---|---|---|
Customization | Limited | Moderate | High |
Performance | Moderate | Moderate | High |
User Experience | Moderate | High | High |
Design Flexibility | Limited | High | High |
Learning Curve | Moderate | High | Low |
Cost | Low | Moderate | High |
The opportunity to completely customize your website to match your exact design and functional needs is one of the biggest advantages of using a custom WordPress theme. It allows you to build a “home” online that matches your company’s brand and gives your website a distinctive appearance and feel.
Custom themes are also built with performance and speed in mind, giving your visitors an optimal browsing experience. This is key because a recent report from Baynard and eMarketer found that 88% of online users wouldn’t return to a website after having a bad website experience. In addition, that same report found that 35% of sales are actually left on the table due to poor website design – a huge missed opportunity!
At PixelPeople, we’re committed to creating customizing solutions tailored to your business needs. We know you care about your user experience and we care about you. Our solutions are scalable and you have a team of professionals readily available to deal with any technical challenges and support your business growth in the nearest future.
Reach out to us today to see how we can help bring your vision to life.
Tags: custom web design, custom web development, custom wordpress web design, custom wordpress web development
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Connect
Request a quote, Ask a question, Join our mailing list.