There are two ways to approach a WordPress or Shopify website: create a custom theme or use a pre-built theme.
We prefer the bespoke solution for a number of reasons, including improved performance, security, design and UX freedom, flexibility, and a simpler admin panel editing experience.
Difference between a pre-built theme and a custom theme
A customized theme is created from the ground up. From conception to deployment, the website is entirely customized.
In this, a UX designer will begin the process by planning the website’s experience. A UI designer will then design each individual page on the website, taking into account both desktop and mobile devices.
A developer will then code the website’s backend based on the unique design layouts, functionality, and user experience approach.
A pre-built theme is one that was acquired from a third-party vendor.
This serves as the foundation for the website’s design and coding, with functionality determined by the theme’s capabilities.
Pre-built themes might be an excellent choice for brands that want a website quickly or businesses with limited development resources. However, they can become troublesome in the long run.
Performance
Most pre-built themes have a large number of plugins and duplicate code.
This can slow down a website’s performance by adding unneeded JavaScript and calls to other services, which reduces page load rates.
Building a bespoke website gives us complete control over the back-end code, allowing us to optimize the website’s speed while minimizing the need of plugins or applications.
Seventy percent of customers think site speed influences their shopping decisions, and 37% of site users leave if a page takes longer than five seconds to load (Trinity).
Investing in a bespoke website will yield a higher long-term ROI while also providing a better user experience.
Other factors one should consider while studying the differences between Custom built website v/s Pre-built website are security, design, UX strategy, editing capabilities, admin panel structure, scalability, and more.