Template or custom design?
I think it will always be an evergreen question. But what's this about? Well, WordPress-based websites have created countless themes or themes over the years. These templates actually give the pages their appearance and in many cases limit the functions of the pages.
The templates can be purchased and installed by anyone on their website if they are familiar with them. This is a simpler and faster form of website development and may seem cost-effective at first. However, there will be minor questions and requests later, which can make the creation of the site much more expensive in the long run.
That's because these templates know as much as they show, so I'm going to make it very sharp. But I'll give you a few simple examples that might make it easier to understand. As an example, a template cannot manage a webshop because it does not have such a module. At this point, it costs a lot more to ask a developer to develop the webshop management part of the template. But I'll tell you something else. In many cases, the customer is faced with the fact that this or that (e.g. sharing button, inappropriate blog layout) is not sympathetic to them.
Rooting in code
Then you just have to ask the developer to make the changes again, because here you have to edit the source code of the template to get the desired form.
The number of examples is endless, but the end result is the same: Although the template is cheaper to buy, when the extra needs arise, it can significantly increase the cost of the website, as additional improvements are needed and developers do not like to ‘look in other code’ anyway.
Templates are usually updated at regular intervals. There are several reasons for this, but I wouldn't go into it here. Therefore, if changes are made to our template, it may be overwritten by the update. Of course, there is a solution.
Child theme
It is true that the so-called child-theme can be derived from our template, which ‘adds/refers’ the changes to our main template separately from the original one. However, we don't always know which part of the template will be changed during an update. In general, these templates are designed in such a way that when the code is modified, the ‘core’, i.e. the core/basic code part, is not modified or affects other added things. But we can never be 100% sure. The devil doesn't sleep.
I myself am a fan of unique design, because then the developer knows exactly what makes up the website. What modules you have and how you can modify, add or remove them. This process is a bit slower and requires constant contact with the client, but once it is done, then any other modifications can be made much easier than in the version mentioned above.
So that's why I'm opting for a unique design.
