Positive sides:
1. Time is money
Choosing a template over starting your website from scratch, if nothing else, it will definitely save you plenty of time, since you are practically skipping two parts of website development that take the most amount of time for creating (design and front-end coding). We are talking months here, assuming that you already have everything necessary for putting up your website (images, photographs, content, etc.) and that you know how would you like it to look like in the end.
2. Low cost
You can easily get your full website set up for as much as 10-200$, using a pre-made theme, not including free templates and those which are only a few dollars (this is also an option, though not a very good one). With today’s assortment of templates, it is easy to get your website to look very professional, in the end, people who design them are the same who are doing luxurious custom-designed websites. But keep in mind, if you are not familiar with setting up the whole system and customizing the design, you may also consider the cost of hiring a professional web design agency, which would still be way cheaper than developing your website from scratch.
3. Simple to use
The whole point of premade templates is that they are easy to install for everyone and they should not require programming skills. In most cases, they are made so that they are compatible with many extension modules, which serve to better the quality and extend the functionality of your website if needed. You have to evaluate if your programming capabilities are enough for creating a professional looking website, or it is better to hire a developer. Templates which are on the more expensive side usually come with detailed description on how to install and set up your website, so take that in consideration as well.
4. Customizable
If there was not any space for customization, we could say that the whole idea of pre-made websites is lame. It would be completely the opposite of what your business needs, and that is originality. Luckily, the space for customization is considerable, and it is all up to your preferences on how the template will end up looking. You can change colors, images, and text, and in the end, it can end up looking quite different than what you have started from.
Not so positive sides:
1. Not unique
In contrary of what is written above, one of the most obvious disadvantages of pre-made templates is their uniqueness. Yes, it is very customizable, but sometimes not even customizing it can meet your requirements, so you end up only losing your money and time on something that is not suitable for your company’s needs.
2. Customization problems
You can easily stumble upon troubles when trying to customize your website template. Any kind of code rewriting seems to easily mess up the whole website, so you need to be cautious. They are not made so that you can change them to something completely different, keep that in mind when deciding. Also, know exactly what are your requirements so that you can carefully choose the template that will suit your company.
3. Optimization
There are many multi-purpose website templates out there, and be very careful with choosing them, since they can be loaded with all kinds of different pages, plugins, add-ons, and functionalities that you will probably not use. And as a result, the unreasonable amount of written code will most certainly slow your website significantly. Also, keep in mind that the templates are not optimized to draw the search engines, and you will need to use your content for it. To attract search engines you will need to use text, more than graphics since it is more attracted to words. So, even though a template full of graphics and flash animation looks more appealing, remember that it is probably only going to decrease the number of your website’s visitors.
4. Guarantee and assistance
If we are talking about premium user templates, the ones which are not only a few bucks, it is usual that some kind of warranty and assistance from the web designer comes with it. Web designers are mostly willing to give some assistance to their premium users if needed, but unfortunately there is not a guarantee that you will be provided with adequate assistance and usually, you will have to wait a considerable amount of time before the web designer updates the theme and fixes all the bugs. Now that you are given some of the pros and cons of using a website template, calculate precisely your company’s requirements and finances that could be invested, and decide carefully. It is something that is going to give an identity for your business and it is not to be taken lightly. And if you are not sure what option might be the best, don’t hesitate to ask a professional web designer for advice.
