The short answer: a template makes an excellent first website: fast, cheap, online right away. Custom becomes the right choice at the time of the second site, when you know what the site must produce and you no longer want to look like your competitors. Here is how to decide.
What a template does very well
A good off-the-shelf theme is years of design work sold for a few dozen euros: proven layout, mobile version ready, demos to fill in. To validate a business, hold a tight budget or go online urgently, it is unbeatable. Many of our clients started that way, and it was the right choice at that moment.
What the template's sales page does not say
Three realities appear with use. You share the design: the same theme dresses thousands of sites, sometimes at your direct competitors; surface customisation (colours, photos) does not change the silhouette. The theme commands, you follow: your content must fit its boxes, whereas a site should be built the other way round, from your offer and your clients. Debt accumulates: a theme lives with its extensions, their updates and their conflicts; after three years, many themed sites no longer dare to update. That is often where the story of the second site begins, the one told in our article on the 7 signs.
The comparison, criterion by criterion
| Criterion | Template | Custom |
|---|---|---|
| Timeline | A few days | A few weeks to about twelve weeks |
| Initial cost | Low | From EUR 12,000 (EUR 5,000 entry-level) |
| Differentiation | Structure shared with thousands of sites | Designed for your business, unique |
| Structure | The theme imposes its boxes | Built from your offer and your clients |
| Conversion | Generic | Journey designed to produce enquiries |
| Upkeep | Theme and extension updates | Healthy base, chosen dependencies |
| Evolution | Within the theme's limits | Free |
Custom, concretely
A custom website does not start with mockups, it starts with questions: who must find the site, to do what, and how it is measured. Then come the architecture, the design validated screen by screen, then the development of the templates your team will fill in autonomously in the CMS. It is what our web design page describes, and the budgets are detailed in our article on prices.
Choose a template if...
- You are launching a business and must be online this week.
- Budget outweighs everything else, differentiation included.
- The site is a business card, not a sales channel.
Choose custom if...
- You and your competitors use the same themes, and it shows.
- The site must produce measurable enquiries, not merely exist.
- Your offer does not fit the boxes of a generic theme.
- You are preparing the second site: the one you build once you understood the first.
The questions we get asked
Is a well-customised template not enough? Sometimes, yes. A sober theme, well filled, with real texts and real photos, beats a bad custom site. The limit is not aesthetic: it appears when your growth demands what the theme cannot do.
Is custom out of reach for an SME? No: SME projects start at EUR 12,000, and in Brussels the Prime Digitalisation grant can cover part of the eligible expenses. Set against the site's lifespan and the enquiries generated, the maths work out quickly.
Can we keep our content when moving to custom? Yes: content is carried over, addresses are redirected and visibility is preserved, that is our migration method.
Wondering which side you are on? Show us your current site: we will tell you honestly whether a template is still enough.