Your website or web app acts as the core of your business. It can be your main point of interaction with customers and your digital marketing strategy. Having a custom scalable custom website helps you promote your brand's products and their key advantages to online visitors.

Three out of four users judge a company's credibility by its website design. A custom look can make the difference between being perceived as a reliable expert or a dubious vendor. Hence, your company needs a strong online presence, as this serves as the main way customers interact with your brand and helps you expand. In this article, we explain the differences between custom and template-based web design, discuss when you should choose the custom option, break down the costs of both approaches, and share our prices for the UI/UX design services .

What makes a custom web design?

Custom web design means creating a website specifically tailored to your business needs and goals. Such interfaces are unique and built from scratch. When creating custom website design, designers start by understanding the client's goals and target audience. They then sketch out a plan, often called a wireframe, to map out the site's layout and structure — they think through how users will interact with the website. Next, they create all the screens according to the plan and add colors, fonts, and images. Then, the design needs some coding to start working, so the next step is web development.

This approach ensures that the website or web app looks and functions exactly how you want it to, reflecting your brand's identity. It allows for greater flexibility and scalability, meaning you can add features and make changes as your business grows. Custom web design also focuses on user experience, making it easier for your visitors to find what they need and engage with your content.

How do template-based websites differ from custom ones?

Template-based websites use pre-designed layouts that you can customize to some extent. Website builders like Wix or Squarespace offer these templates, making it easy for anyone to create a website without needing coding skills. They usually provide features like drag-and-drop editors, which let you easily add or move elements like text, images, and videos. These builders also offer a variety of themes, so you can choose a website design that fits your brand's style. Additional features often include built-in SEO tools to help your site rank better on search engines, and integrated hosting, so you don't have to manage that separately.

But aside from that, you only get what you see

In which cases should I choose custom web design over website builders?

When creating a website for your business, you have the option to choose between pre-designed website templates or custom web development that suits your specific needs.

You want customers to trust your brand

People can usually tell if a site uses a basic template or if it's custom-made. Building a website with templates doesn't take much effort. However, if a company doesn't put effort into their website design, what else are they skimping on? Think about it.

All major brands invest in custom web designs to stand out and gain customers' trust and love. Let's take a look at Nike's web design. Nike has built its reputation as a top sportswear brand by doing things in its own way, simply and effectively. Although the interface design is simple and minimalistic, it's clear that it wasn't picked from templates but thoughtfully created to reflect the brand's values.

The website has design features that are clearly custom. It lets users see different shoe colors just by hovering over a product. There are also videos that play automatically when you hover, making it easy to see products in action. The site has a tool for customizing footwear, allowing users to personalize their shoes. The layout uses a lot of white space, making it clean and easy to navigate. All these little custom website design things add value to the website and increase the brand's credibility.

You're launching a startup

If your company is trying to raise funding, get acquired, or present a new idea, having a custom website can make a big difference. Investors are always looking for companies that show potential and have a strong online presence. A well-designed website can demonstrate that your startup has the right resources, skills, and processes to succeed. It helps assure investors that you are serious and professional, making it easier for them to see the value in your business and support your venture.

According to statistics, 90% of startups fail. Often, the reason can be a weak first impression and poor user experience. Custom website design can help startups avoid failure by attracting and retaining customers, building trust, and differentiating the startup from competitors.

Here's an example of how custom web design helped OddsCrowd, a sports betting community, to launch their service and gain first users. In 2018, the OddsCrowd team approached us to create a web-based solution where users could make event forecasts, track their success, and buy trusted predictions. The client required a user-friendly web app with high performance and an adaptive design, as well as an admin panel to manage content and user profiles. Our goal was to finish the project within 4 months, before the Super Bowl.

During the design process, we worked with wireframes provided by OddsCrowd, refining them to enhance user convenience. We implemented features like social media sign-ins, user profiles, and odds comparison tools. The main page displayed upcoming events, while the Game Center allowed users to find and bet on future games. We also ensured a clean, minimalistic interface using light gray backgrounds and white cards to avoid clutter.

We built the backend using PHP Laravel and the frontend with Vue.js and Nuxt v2 for improved SEO and performance. Key integrations included PayPal for payments and external data services for live odds and game statistics. In just 3 months, we successfully launched the web app in time for the Super Bowl, helping OddsCrowd attract users and generate revenue. After 2 years of working, our client decided to scale up and asked us to create a mobile version of the app. The OddsCrowd app is still working and bringing revenue to our client.

You need better SEO

Websites need search engine optimization to improve their visibility on search engines like Google, so that potential customers can find them. Good SEO practices help increase organic traffic, which can lead to more leads, sales, and overall business growth. Without SEO, even a well-designed website may struggle to attract visitors and achieve its online goals. Custom web design significantly improves search engine optimization compared to template-based web design in several key ways.

1. First, custom websites are built with clean, efficient code tailored for SEO, ensuring faster load times and better performance, which search engines favor. Unlike templates, which often come with unnecessary code and features that can slow down a site, custom website designs prioritize speed and efficiency.
2. Templates often restrict how and where content can be placed, which can limit SEO potential. A custom design, on the other hand, allows you to effectively integrate keyword placement, meta tags, and alt attributes, enhancing your site's relevance and authority in search engine results.
3. Since search engines like Google use mobile-first indexing, that's why websites and web apps need to be optimized for mobile devices. Custom website designs ensure that the website has a fully responsive design and performs well on all devices.
4. The website's navigation and internal linking also influence your site's visibility and chances of ranking higher. With custom design, you can build an optimized architecture and plan the structure to help search engines crawl and index the site faster.

You need high performance

Slow image loading causes 39% of users to lose interest, while 67% of consumers say product images heavily influence their buying decisions. If images load too slowly, customers might get impatient and leave the site. Websites that take over two seconds to load could lose 60% of their visitors. Even a one-second delay can result in 7% fewer conversions, explaining why slow load times can lead to significant revenue loss for retailers.

With a custom approach, developers can write clean code without elements that can slow down a site. Custom websites enable better server-side optimizations, such as caching strategies and minimizing HTTP requests — these practices can dramatically reduce the time it takes for web pages to load. With custom website design, you can resize, compress, and properly format images to ensure they load quickly without sacrificing quality which is more difficult to achieve with generic website builders.

You plan to scale your product

Although website builders might seem cheaper, they can also limit your business's growth. Many are designed for small to medium-sized sites and may struggle with larger volumes of traffic or complex functionalities, making it hard to scale effectively. Using a website builder often ties you to a specific platform. If it has limitations, you're stuck with them unless you migrate to a different solution, which can be complex and costly. Website builders typically offer a limited number of integrations with third-party services and APIs. This can restrict the ability to add advanced functionalities or connect with other tools as you grow.

Custom web designs are built with future growth in mind, leaving room for new technologies, integrations, and updates. Developers build a scalable infrastructure from the start, making it easy to add new features without redoing the system. Custom websites use well-structured databases optimized for quick access and expansion, handling increased users and data smoothly. With a custom approach, it's easier to integrate various APIs and protect the website against threats that templates may not adequately address. Additionally, you can implement strategic resource management practices like caching, lazy loading, and CDNs to make the site handle more traffic and data.

Dribbble is an example of a popular custom website that started with only key features and scaled up with time.

The custom website started as a space where designers could connect, share their work in progress, and get feedback. Initially, the platform used an invite-only system to control growth and maintain the quality of content. As the platform matured, Dribbble introduced free designer accounts with a review process, pro plans for expanded features, and a marketplace for digital assets. They also added job boards, tutorials, workshops, and more to increase value for users. Dribbble's interface includes basketball-themed terms and well-organized navigation. If the company built the website with templates, it would be difficult to add all these features and make it handle the load of thousands of new users.

You want to get a good product at a reasonable cost

Even though entrepreneurs can build websites on their own using templates, they're often not sure how to represent their brand properly. Without web design expertise, it's challenging to determine whether a brand should appear strict, friendly, sophisticated, or minimalistic, or how much whitespace and what colors and typography to use. Web designers know how to establish proper navigation and create clean, effective layouts that reflect a brand's values. This is why most companies still hire designers to help them create unique, professional websites that stand out.

Since you'll need to pay both a designer and the website-building platform's subscription, it won't seem like a cheap option anymore. If you plan to scale up, you'll likely require a better layout or more features in the future, which will cost even more. Since the cost of custom web design isn't that much higher, established businesses, whether big or small, have no reason to depend on widely used templates. Relying on website design builders in this case is a false economy.

Custom web design vs. template-based web design costs

Now let's look at the costs of these web design services and analyze them.

Template-based

There are a lot of different website builders, each with varying pricing and types of services. We won't overview all of them, we'll only cover the most popular ones.

Wix

Wix has 4 price plans — you can choose one depending on your business size. They include different sets of features, most of them have a limited storage space.

Squarespace

Squarespace also provides 4 price plans — Personal, Business, Commerce basic, and Commerce advanced. Paying annually will save you 36% if you choose a Personal or a Business plan, 30% if you choose Commerce basic, and 27% if Commerce advanced. With annual payments, you also get a free custom domain.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy provides 4 services for website development. They have website builder, WordPress, WooCommerce and web design services. You can see the prices here:

As for the website building, GoDaddy provides 3 price plans — Basic, Premium, and Commerce. Their services cost a little less than the previous website builders, and they also have a discount with a 1-year term.

If you decide to create your website with one of these builders, you'll need to pay ‘rent’ to keep your site running. Let's say you choose a premium or business plan. On Wix, you'll need to pay $432 a year, on Squarespace — $276, on GoDaddy — $179.88 for the first year, and $275.88 for further periods. As your business grows, you'll need more features and you might switch to the higher-priced plans. At some point, you'll think of switching to custom web development — the later you start this migration, the more expensive it's going to be.

Freelance web designer rates

According to Fiverr, the hourly rate for hiring a web designer in 2024 ranges from $30 to $200. For example, if a designer charges $100 per hour and expects the project to take 50 hours, the total cost would be about $5,000. On Upwork, web designer rates are usually between $15 and $30 per hour.

The rates heavily depend on the region of the freelance designer. According to statistics, these are the average hourly rates of web design specialists across the world:

Custom

Custom web design costs depend on multiple factors, including the complexity of the project, the level of customization required, and the experience of the designer. Additional elements such as the number of pages, specific features like e-commerce functionality, and ongoing website maintenance can also influence the overall price. Lastly, geographic location can play a role, as designer rates often vary by region.

According to Clutch, these are the average hourly rates of web design companies by region:

The average cost of hiring a web design company on Clutch is between $100–$149 per hour.

According to Goodfirms, website design and web development can cost from $1000 to $100,000:

Usually, when you hire a web design company, you require not only design but also website development. So, to find out the cost of custom web design and development, you need to multiply the company's hourly rate by the time required for both stages. Most companies work using a time and material contract but some have a fixed price for their services, so it's better to check the web design company's website and contact their manager.

At Ronas IT, the cost and timeline for web development vary based on project complexity. Building a simple company website takes less time and requires fewer resources than building a web app with complex business logic. Here's the breakdown for different solutions:

• Custom web development ranges from $30,000 to $50,000+ and takes 3–4 months
• Landing pages cost $2,000 to $4,000+ and take 1–3 weeks.
• Custom marketplace development is priced between $25,000 and $30,000+ and can be completed in 2–3 weeks.
• Corporate websites take 2–4 weeks and cost $5,000 to $8,000+
• Custom website design services range from $5,000 to $10,000+ over a 3–4 week period. Doesn't include website development.

Please note that these costs and timelines are approximate and are based on our previous experience. Contact us to get a precise estimate for your project.

Wrapping up

Getting a website or a web app with high-quality design can greatly impact your business. Custom web design offers several advantages, including a unique look, better search engine optimization, enhanced performance, scalability, and a tailored user experience, all of which drive better user engagement and credibility. Although template-based designs are initially cheaper and quicker, they come with significant limitations that can hinder growth and user experience in the long run.

For businesses that aim to scale, secure funding, or provide a superior online experience, investing in a custom website design is a more strategic choice. At Ronas IT, we specialize in creating custom web solutions that help businesses stand out and achieve their goals efficiently.