How to Select your Approach for your WordPress Website

Page Builders vs. Themes vs. Custom Development for my Wordpress website

Selecting the right approach for your next WP website:

In today’s day and age, web presence is essential for every business, in order to provide recognizability and credibility. With the plethora of platforms available it is easy to get confused about which platform is ideal for your use. If you are confused about selecting between using a CMS or doing custom development, please refer to this informative comparison.

If CMS is the way to go for you, the next step is selecting the right CMS and finalizing an approach that fulfills all of your business requirements. WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS and it powers around 20% of all the sites on the internet. Because of its ease of use, huge developer community, support, and abundance of plugins available for every scenario, WordPress is Rubico’s recommended CMS for website development.

The crucial element after determining which CMS to use is determining the right approach to take for your particular website. With our years of experience developing websites, we have broken down the website development approaches into three broad categories, that are driven by your requirements and budget:

• Paid themes:

  If the requirements for your business website are to establish a web presence and you need a quick turnaround time along with minimum investment, we recommend choosing a paid theme.

  • These are pre-built themes that are developed by WordPress developers and designers and are available for sale on the internet for direct utilization in website development.
• • When opting for this method, it is recommended that you mold and develop your website content according to the theme selected, such that only minimal changes (colors, font, images, etc.) are required during development.
  • These theme-based websites often provide good out-of-the-box page load speed and are ideal for simple websites with no dynamic functionality.
• • Using themes for website development enables a quick turnaround time and requires less investment, but may not exactly match the business image and design language that identifies with your organization.

• Page Builders:

  This approach is recommended when you have time limitations and have a blueprint of the website you desire in mind.

  • For this approach, we recommend buying a builder theme and using the desired elements from the purchased theme as a base to build the website. Then, use a page builder such as Elementor, Divi, or Beaver Builder to customize the theme to meet your design.
• • This approach provides you the added freedom to mold the website according to the blueprint you have for your website, and it saves time that would otherwise be required to build custom elements (picked out from the paid theme).
• • Low-fidelity wireframes can be created before the development starts to finalize the website flow and functionality.
  • Websites developed using page builders may have suboptimal page load speed; therefore, this approach is recommended for websites with few concurrent users.
• • This approach has a moderate turnaround time and provides the added advantage that you can make small updates to the website post-development by yourself using the page builder’s easy-to-use and interactive UI.

• Custom design:

  This approach is ideal for businesses that need to develop a unique web presence that is perfectly in sync with their brand image and business ethos.

• • With the custom design approach, you have the creative freedom to design every element of your website according to your vision. If you have the vision but lack the designing skills, our experienced UI/UX team can assist you in bringing your vision for the website to life.
• • After the wireframes and mockups (which are essentially detailed designs) are ready, our development team may recommend either using a page builder or one of the custom design implementation plugins, such as ACF Pro. This selection depends on your website’s requirements, timeframe, future expansion scope, and budget.
• • Custom-built websites tend to provide the best site and data security.
• • Well-built, these websites will have the fastest page load speed and are an ideal fit for websites that include complex functionality and anticipate a high number of concurrent users.
• • Building this type of site requires a substantial investment of time (especially wireframing and designing time). However, this can be reduced significantly if you already have the designs complete.

After working with over 700 clients, we understand that every business is unique in its philosophy and working structure, and the same holds true for its website. So, if you are still unsure of the best approach for your business website, feel free to contact us. Our expert solution architects can assist you in nailing down the approach that makes the most sense for your next website.