It’s important to understand the difference between a $50 off-the-shelf WordPress theme and a $10,000+ custom-designed WordPress site. While both options ultimately deliver a WordPress-based website, there are four significant differences:
Ease-of-use
Off-the-shelf themes typically include complex customizers and offer as many features as possible (more features = more sales). This can be a nightmare for the back-end user, as it requires navigating to several locations in the CMS to make a few simple updates.
You might have purchased a theme because you liked the demo, but it’s unlikely you’ll be able to set up the theme to look anything like the demo.
The backend interface is filled with features you don’t need, complicating your editing experience. The theme is also likely missing key features you require, so you’ll need to install additional plugins that don’t integrate well with your theme. Your website begins to feel like a house of cards, and you’re afraid to edit or update a plugin because there’s a very real chance it will break your websites.
We do things differently. We understand exactly what features and pages you need, and craft the backend interface to make it as easy to manage as possible, while maintaining the flexibility you need.
Specialization
Off-the-shelf themes aren’t built with your content in mind, forcing you to shoehorn images and text into whatever spaces are provided. This creates a disjointed, confusing experience for your visitors and can even make the site harder to navigate.
By contrast, we believe that content is an essential part of the design process and take your content into account from the very start. We’ll review your current and future content strategy to ensure your pages can adapt to your specific needs.
We design your site to address your specific business goals, and provide you the tools to monitor its success over time.
Efficiency
Because off-the-shelf themes must be all things to all people, they are packed with unnecessary features. These features might get the theme developer a few extra sales, but result in a slow, bloated site.
With a custom-designed site, you’ll get the exact features and functions you need with no superfluous junk, making your site fast and efficient. You’ll have a professional developer optimizing your website every step of the way, ensuring your website performs at its best.
Exclusivity
Off-the-shelf themes are cheap because theme developers expect to sell thousands of copies. This means that your website will be a clone of thousands of other sites on the web.
By contrast, we craft one-of-a-kind WordPress sites from scratch based on your unique brand and needs. Your site will be 100% yours.