What's the difference between a custom website design and a website created from a template?

There are essentially two different ways to create a website. Each has it's own unique time and cost factors, and before contracting for a website it's important to know what you're getting.

CUSTOM WEBSITE DESIGN: A custom website design is a website created with a unique "look," layout and characteristics for a specific client. In a way, it's a one-of-a-kind website designed for one organization or individual.

Depending on the situation, a custom website design takes into account a client's specific needs, and possibly their corporate culture, their industry and or the type of visitors they expect to visit their site. A custom website is created from scratch. Because of this, custom website designs require far more time to create than those created from a template (see below), and as a result, carry a higher design and development cost.

WEBSITES CREATED FROM A TEMPLATE: Although we do not create these types of websites ourselves, a template is a predesigned website which is used to create other websites having the same look and feel. With a template, the text and graphics for a client are inserted into these pre-made web pages. The advantage of having someone create your website from a template is that the website can be created in a relatively short time, and as a result, at a cost much less than a custom website.

There are many disadvantage to having your site created from a template. The first is that since it's not created specifically with your company, visitors or products/services in mind, it may not have a strong appeal or convey the "feeling" you need. Similarly, a template is not exclusively yours. The same template that was used to create your website can easily be used dozens or hundreds of additional times to create other websites.