Template, site builder, or a custom website?Template, site builder, or a custom website?

Site builders: Wix, Webnode, Squarespace

The fastest route to a website that exists. Right when you need to be findable: name, contact, a few photos, opening hours. You pay monthly and never touch the technology.

The limits arrive the moment you want more than presence. You cannot influence mobile speed, the page structure only bends as far as the builder allows, and growing needs grow the monthly fees. Moving elsewhere means building again.

WordPress with a template

The most common compromise. A template can look good and WordPress can do almost anything. On paper. In practice the quality stands and falls with whoever builds and maintains the site: a universal template ships hundreds of options and scripts for every industry at once, and the speed shows it. Without regular updates the site eventually becomes a security risk.

It makes sense when you need a content site with an editorial team and the budget does not allow a custom build. Count maintenance as part of the price, not a surcharge.

Shoptet and rented e-commerce platforms

A sensible standard for a Czech e-shop: checkout, shipping, payments and legislation are solved and working. I know Shoptet from practice, for most shops it is the right choice, and a custom build is an unnecessary luxury.

Custom work starts making sense at the look and the content. Templates resemble each other and enquiries are won in the details: how the site speaks, how it leads to action, how fast it loads. All of that can be improved within Shoptet, it just takes extra work.

A custom website

The most expensive and slowest route to launch, and the only one where your business decides everything instead of a template. Structure, copy, speed and measurement are built around who you sell to. It pays off where the website is not a business card but a sales channel: it should bring enquiries, and their value covers the price difference.

Custom does not automatically mean good, though. A custom website without strategy is just a more expensive template. Ask the supplier what the design stands on. If the answer does not start with your customers, you are buying decoration.

How to choose

• You need to exist and be findable: a site builder is enough.
• You need a content site and someone will keep filling it: WordPress with a template and maintenance.
• You sell goods in Czechia: Shoptet, until it gets too tight.
• The website should bring enquiries and win work: custom, with strategy and measurement.

And if you already have a website and don't know where it stands on this map: that is exactly what the analysis is for. The related question of price has its own article: How much does a website cost?