8 Reasons Why Pre-made Templates Are a Bad Idea

A website is a critical part of a business success blueprint—as the business grows, the website must grow and develop with it. This is something that web design templates are unable to do because they’re not designed with your business in mind. While they may be a cheaper alternative to custom web design, they lack the features, functionality, and flexibility necessary to keep up with the needs of your growing business.

To better understand why they are frowned upon, here’s everything that’s wrong with using a web design template.

1. Limited customization

Web design templates are created with a “one-size-fits-all” framework in mind. But we all know that businesses are not the same and website requirements differ tremendously across industries. More often than not, a template can only be customized to make small changes in the way a website looks. It may not be equipped to handle changes relating to functionality or responsiveness. With limited customization features, your website runs the risk of stagnating.

2. Stifles creativity

With web design templates, there’s little to no room for creativity. You’re pretty much limited to what the design allows you to do. It’s just impossible to unleash your creativity when you are given so few options to work with. Worst of all, you’ll end up with a website that’s indistinguishable from other websites that use the same template.

3. Poorly coded / badly designed

While it’s true that website templates look great in live demos, they could be hiding something below the surface. You might unearth some serious problems as a result of poor coding. It might be because the coder is simply incompetent or it could be a marketing ploy so you’d have to pay more to fix the problems. In any case, this hurts your website and your business down the road. This can be avoided by a custom-designed website where every design aspect is deliberate and purposeful and every feature addresses a need.

4. Incompatibility with web browsers

Web design templates may only be optimized for the top-tier web browsers. But we all know that not everyone uses Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. There are people who use Safari, Opera, Microsoft Edge, or even obscure web browsers. Compatibility with browsers matters a lot and can make or break your website. With a template, you cannot guarantee that your website will properly display in all known browsers.

5. Identical designs

Design-wise, there are templates that share a similar look and appearance with a few minor differences that are mostly indistinguishable. This makes it difficult for your website to stand out. By using a template, you’re practically throwing originality and uniqueness down the drain. Imagine putting a lot of effort to set your brand apart from the others only to have a website that’s too generic to stand out, or worse, another company has the same exact design as your website. When this happens, it’s time to re-evaluate your plans and revamp your website with a fresh and original design.

6. Not responsive

Responsiveness refers to the ability of the website to adjust itself when users view them on different devices, whether they’re using a smartphone, a tablet, a desktop, or a laptop.

Unfortunately, not all website design templates are designed to work optimally on different devices. Just imagine the magnitude of work needed to make a responsive layout that would switch accordingly to accommodate all known screen resolutions, platforms, and orientations. Templates just don’t give a website the tools and technology it needs to respond to the users’ preferences.

7. Questionable security

Not all template developers would put security updates on top of their priority list. Even if the system used to build the website makes regular updates and securities but the developer is slow to update or don’t keep up, it creates a host of problems that can affect your website’s performance. Worst, it can break your website. Templates that are not updated regularly are vulnerable to hacking and other security breaches.

8. Non-existent support

Template designers don’t have the capability to be available 24/7 to answer questions or provide support to everyone who purchased their templates. The best thing they could do is put up an FAQ page to answer general questions. Without a dedicated support, there’s no one you can turn to when issues crop up as you are building your website.

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