Custom or pre-made design? Which to choose for your website.

OurChurch.Com has been building websites for Christian churches for over 20 years.

Over this time we have built websites using pre-made designs as well as custom designs.

So when considering a church website design, which is better?

Let’s look at the details, pro’s, and cons of each:

• Custom created design:  Create a design from scratch, then turn that design into a working website.  This process requires a designer to create the design and developer to code the design into a working website.
  • Pros
    • Design is unique
    • Client can get exactly what they want in a design
  • Cons
    • Requires a designer and developer to be involved in the project (most designers are not developers and vice versa)
    • The process is very long
    • Very expensive because there is quite a bit of skill and time required by both the designer and developer
• Pre-made design:  If using WordPress as your website platform, there are many design companies that create designs (themes) that can be purchased.
  • Pros
    • No designer or developer required to create the design
    • Many design options to choose from
    • Very quick process
    • Much less expensive than creating a design from scratch
    • Most designs have many features and options that would require additional development if building the design from scratch
  • Cons
    • Design is not unique (though with thousands of pre-made designs available, most churches will not be using the same design)
    • Sometimes themes conflict with other plugins used on the website
    • If you have issues with the theme, you must contact the theme developer to resolve them

I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things. -Lindon Leader

I believe that there is a time and place for using both a custom design and a pre-made design.  However for most churches, especially small – mid sized churches who are on a limited budget, pre-made designs are the way to go.

You can check out a bunch of websites we have built by going to https://www.ourchurch.com/web-design-portfolio.  All of these websites are using a pre-made design.

What is your experience in using either a pre-made or custom design?  Post your comments below.

If you are interested in talking about a new website, please contact me here!