Advantages of Custom-Built Websites Over Web Builders for Creative Professionals
Written by: Matthew Wright
Updated: Mon Feb 12 2024
In today’s online landscape, a well-built website not only solidifies your business’s authority within the industry but also enhances its online visibility. It serves as a powerful tool for potential clients to quickly understand your product offerings, quality benchmarks, and industry-specific knowledge. A distinctive and high-quality website demonstrates to your clients your commitment to detail and excellence. To achieve this, focus on crafting a site that excels in performance, showcases unique branding, and delivers an exceptional user experience. These core features dispel customer doubts about your brand’s capacity to provide top-notch products. They also streamline your potential clients’ decision-making process while addressing the pivotal question: Is your company the right choice for them? This post will delve into how a bespoke website—crafted independently of web builders like Wix and Squarespace—can leverage these key elements to your advantage.
Understanding Web Builders
Web builders have revolutionized the digital landscape for years, enabling small business to develop successful brands. These platforms provide somewhat user-friendly, low-code environments where users can drag and drop prebuilt elements into their websites. Despite their convenience, the one-size-fits-all approach of web builders can often lead to a lack of diversity within designs and take away the feeling of uniqueness from a brand. Many web builders provide a marketplace for purchasing templates, widgets and plugins, which are often easy to install and may even be free. However, customizing these elements to align with a company’s unique brand identity often requires some coding expertise and custom development, presenting a hurdle for those without technical skills.
The Case for Custom-Built Websites
The journey of crafting a bespoke website is quite unique. The focus of such a website is to highlight the distinct products, brand uniqueness and competitive advantages of a business while allowing a business to display their creativity in another form. Typically, the process starts with a mockup – a detailed representation of how the website is intended to look and feel after it is coded. This mockup ensures the company’s branding is consistently integrated across all pages and elements, directing visitors smoothly towards a conversion, whether that’s making a purchase, subscribing to a newsletter, or securing a service.
Once the mockup is finalized, the website construction can commence, aiming to be a 1-to-1 representation of the mockup. By utilizing industry standard development tools, developers can benchmark performance, ensure responsive design across various devices, and incorporate features to enhance user engagement during this step. A pivotal aspect of this development is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which improves the website’s visibility on platforms like Google and Bing, thereby attracting prospective customers. Another significant advantage of this custom development is scalability; it allows for the effortless addition of new pages and features, enabling the website to evolve in tandem with the business’s growth.
Why Creatives Should Consider Custom-Built Websites
In the fiercely competitive arena of today’s websites, displaying your brand’s unique creativity and personality can elevate your business above the competition. As creatives, we understand that the attention to detail and aesthetic of a business’s branding speaks to the quality of services and products they provide. A custom-built website can ensure that the first digital impression is a true reflection of your brand’s ethos and mission.
Moreover, with a bespoke website, creatives have the freedom to experiment with innovative layouts and interactive elements that pre-built templates don’t normally offer. This flexibility means your website can grow and change as quickly as your art does, always providing your audience with fresh and engaging experiences. In essence, a bespoke website in not just about standing out; it’s about being true to your brand and giving your work the digital showcase it deserves.
Addressing Concerns About Custom-Built Websites
The primary apprehensions regarding bespoke websites often relate to cost and ongoing maintenance. To contextualize cost, consider the comparison between the widely-used site builder Squarespace and the prominent custom website framework React, utilized by industry giants like Netflix, Instagram, and Airbnb. A ZipRecruiter analysis indicates that the average Squarespace developer charges $58 per hour. In contrast, an Arc.dev report states that React developers typically command between $81 and $100 per hour. This suggests that the initial investment in a custom-built website could be higher than one created using a web builder. However, this is not the complete financial picture.
Beyond the upfront cost, the long-term expenses of hosting and advanced analytics are crucial. Custom websites built with frameworks such as React can benefit from complimentary hosting on platforms like Vercel or Netlify, which offer up to 100 GB of bandwidth in their free tiers, generally ample for small businesses. Google analytics can be used for free and when leveraged with custom code, can give advanced analytics. Conversely, Squarespace hosting ranges from $16 to $49 monthly, with the $23 tier being favored for its advanced analytics.
Breaking it down, if a website requires 20 hours of development, a Squarespace website would cost approximately $1160, while a React-based website would range from $1620 to $2000. Each year, Squarespace incurs an additional $276, while the React website remains cost free. Over two years, hosting on Squarespace’s preferred plan adds an extra $552, totaling $1712, narrowing the gap between the two options. Over, time these annual costs move the scales in favor of the bespoke website and make it more cost effective over time.
When it comes to maintenance, external tools called headless content management systems or headless CMS’s can be leveraged to allow the website’s owner a method to easily update and maintain their custom website. These systems offer a simple way to fill out forms to populate data within the website. They can be used to add new products, portfolio items, blog posts or even update the copy within landing pages. Once again, many of these Headless CMS’s have sufficient free tiers which can be leveraged by small businesses and can keep monthly costs extremely low and/or free.
Conclusion
Both web builders and custom solutions cater to varying business requirements effectively. Web builders are ideal for businesses prioritizing speed and low upfront costs, where unique branding is not the central focus. On the other hand, a bespoke website distinguishes itself with its unique branding, demonstrating a commitment to user experience and quality—a reflection of the services and products on offer. Considering the long-term financial benefits and the capacity for tailored user experiences, it’s evident that custom-built websites hold a distinct edge for creatives and their enterprises.
– Matthew Wright
Looking to learn more about how you can turn your creative vision into a digital masterpiece? Visit us at Wright Angle Media for bespoke web development services that breathe life into your ideas. Let’s build something amazing together.
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