Which is preferable to templates and unique designs?

Today we will understand: what is a template and unique design, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these types of design, as well as in which cases the most preferable will be a template design, and in what cases - unique.

The choice of template or unique design is closely related to the functionality of the site. More precisely - the tasks that it should perform. So, if we are talking about a business card or lending, the template may be the best option.

Unique design is the most appropriate and effective solution when the site is "complex" (with non-standard functionality) or there are tasks:

increase brand recognition;

create an emphasis on the existing design of the company;

get advantages in usability;

to make a detachment from competitors.

Let's consider the advantages/disadvantages of unique and template design in detail.

Advantages of unique design

Unique site design is created under the requirements of the company in accordance with the TOR and taking into account the specifics of the activity.

Unique design is created from scratch. Here the main advantage of this approach is revealed: the design of the web resource is initially optimised to the maximum extent possible for the needs of your company. Instead of a template menu and structure you get a well-thought-out design.

The development of a unique design by professionals gives the following advantages:

exclusivity - a unique design, which will not be used by any other site;

focus on maximum conversion rate, taking into account the specifics of your product or service. When a team of competent specialists works on the design at the same time, it is possible to implement not only an effective graphic execution, but also to make the interface/structural/other elements of the site as effective as possible, just from the point of view of conversions. SEO-specialist will voice his thoughts on the structure and other elements of the site. UX-analyst will give advice related to the most preferable implementation of usability. Designers will provide the most preferred page options.

Taking into account the specifics of the company and previously developed corporate identity - you will be able to voice to the studio requirements regarding each element on the site, including graphic content and structure;

effective detachment from competitors who use primitive templates and whose sites do not stand out.

Disadvantages of unique website design

For all the advantages of unique design, it has tangible disadvantages:

high cost - individual site design, as a rule, is prescribed in a separate line in the contract, and its price can be almost half the cost of the entire project. This is due to the work of not only a professional designer, but also the labour of other specialists who are involved in the process;

large time costs - although much depends on the specific performer, the creation of a unique site design usually takes quite a long time;

may require refinements - a design that is created from scratch can be beautiful and functional. But a brand new solution often requires long-term debugging - to find bugs and other problems. The design is tested for compatibility/conflicts with other elements of the site to avoid "crashes" or other errors in the future.

Advantages of template design

Template design, as the name makes clear, results from the use of a ready-made website template. Templates are distributed through specialised banks. Among the most popular are TemplateMonster, ThemeForest, and Dribbble.

The template contains the developments of the structure, graphic content, other elements of the page. Many beginners are biased towards template design and consider it a major disadvantage for any web project. In practice, however, there is nothing wrong with a template - in some cases, such a solution will be even more effective than individual design.

Template design has two main advantages:

price - template design will cost much cheaper than a unique. If the phrase "why pay more" is now relevant to you, the template may be a suitable solution at the initial stage of creating a site;

high speed of implementation - unlike a unique design, which must still be created, tested and implemented, the template can be immediately installed on the site. For each CMS there are huge banks of both paid and free templates.

In addition, templates are quite diverse - despite the fact that the template comes what is called "as it is", it can be partially customised to your liking.

Minuses of templates

Now about the disadvantages. Minuses of templates are quite a lot, and completely get rid of them can not be by any means.

First of all, the template can not take into account your individual needs and wishes. The template is as it is. Dopylyu it, of course, you can, but to build into it, for example, the branding of the company, colours, fonts, logos is very difficult or simply impossible, as templates are almost completely closed from editing. So to fit the corporate identity within the framework of the template design is certainly not fully possible.

Other disadvantages of template design:
repetitions - hundreds of novice webmasters who create their first sites learn from particularly successful templates. So do not be surprised if you meet your template on some other site;

paid functionality - more or less beautiful and functional templates cost money. Even if you paid for the template, you may be in for some unpleasant surprises later on. Example: you want to prescribe a script on your site, and the footer/header is simply closed from editing. Some developers allow you to edit the system files of the site theme only after purchasing the professional version of the template;

Restriction on changing theme files - one of the most unpleasant features of paid templates, which binds the designer literally hand and foot.

hidden links - the body of the template may contain URLs that do not manifest themselves. However, crawlers search engines see everything - invisible links they especially do not like, and if such a link leads to a site of dubious topics (porn, gambling, drugs, pharma), then expect a loss of positions in the SERP or even a full-fledged pessimisation of the site. So be sure to check the template code for hidden and other dubious links that can harm your site;

general technical imperfection - many, even paid and high-quality templates, have poorly optimised code. Such templates can conflict with CMS, plugins and other elements of the site. Some templates due to their technical imperfection create a huge load on hosting.

If your business already brings money, has a branded design code, you have a suitable budget and nowhere in a hurry, you can safely choose a unique design.

If the site is a large number of media files: graphics, video, animation, some templates will take a long time to optimise for the correct output of all these elements on the screen. In this case, it is more reasonable to make an individual design initially.

Template design will be ideal for startups: when the budget is significantly limited and there are risks that sales will not go uphill.

Website design is an incredibly important aspect. But, if your budget for a web project is significantly limited, then at the initial stage it is better to invest in quality content, optimisation and adaptability, for example, and design - make a free template-based design.

From the point of view of an ordinary website visitor, the problem of "template/unique design" is not worth it at all. Visitor, most likely, just will not understand what exactly in front of him: a full-fledged, self-written graphic project or template design. Of course, provided that the template is beautiful and properly customised.