The honest version of this comparison
Most "template vs custom" articles are written by custom agencies and conclude that custom always wins. That's not true. Templates have a legitimate use case. They also have a legitimate ceiling, and crossing that ceiling is when you switch.
Here's what each one actually is, when to use each, and the signs you've outgrown a template.
What a template website is
A template website is a pre-designed layout you fill with your content. The most common UK options are Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy Website Builder, and Weebly. All of them work the same way: you pick from a gallery of designs, drag your logo into place, swap photos and text, hit publish.
Real costs: £12–£35/month subscription (~£250–£500/year), forever. Plus domain (£10–£15/year) and business email (£5/month per inbox). The "free" tier is unusable for a business.
What you get:
- A live site in a day or two of work
- Hosting, SSL certificate, drag-and-drop editor included
- Basic mobile responsiveness (varies by template)
- Some SEO controls (title tags, meta descriptions)
What you don't get:
- A unique design — every Wix site has a Wix smell
- Page speed scores above 70 on mobile (templates load slowly because they're built for design flexibility, not performance)
- Custom code or full control of HTML/CSS
- Schema markup beyond what the platform decides to add
- Easy export — if you leave Wix, you start over
What a custom-built website is
A custom website is built specifically for your business, usually on WordPress, Webflow or a modern framework like Next.js. A designer or agency builds it from scratch (or from a starter kit they've customised).
Real costs: £999–£15,000 upfront depending on agency tier, plus £50–£200/month for hosting and maintenance (we broke this down in how much does a website cost for a local business?).
What you get:
- A design that's yours alone
- Page speed scores of 90+ if built properly (direct ranking factor)
- Full control of HTML, CSS, schema markup, structured data
- The ability to add anything your business needs in future
- Ownership — you can move hosts, agencies, or platforms without rebuilding
What it costs you:
- Upfront cash or monthly commitment
- 2–8 weeks to launch
- Ongoing maintenance time or fees
The five differences that actually matter
### 1. Page speed
Templates load slowly. Wix homepages typically score 50–65 on mobile PageSpeed Insights. A custom site built properly scores 85–95. Google has used page speed as a direct ranking factor since 2021. The difference between a 60 and a 90 score is roughly 20–30 positions on competitive local keywords.
For an installer competing in a saturated city like London, that ranking difference is everything. For a rural installer in a tiny market, it might not matter for a year.
### 2. SEO ceiling
Templates have basic SEO built in. Custom sites have full SEO control. The gap matters most for:
- Local SEO and the Maps three-pack
- Schema markup (which generates rich results in Google)
- URL structure and internal linking
- Site-wide performance optimisations
On a template, you'll rank for your business name and easy long-tail queries. To rank for "solar installers Bristol" against established competitors, you almost always need to graduate to custom.
### 3. Trust signals
Customers can spot a Wix site. So can Google. The visual templates that come with these platforms — the centred hero with a big photo and three "Why choose us" boxes — read as DIY. For a customer choosing between three solar installers, the one with the bespoke site looks more credible by default. We covered this in how do solar customers find installers online?.
### 4. Maintenance
Templates: the platform handles it. Less to worry about, less you can break, less you can fix when something does break.
Custom: you (or your agency) handles updates, security patches, backups, plugin compatibility. More work, more control. A custom site with no maintenance plan is a hacked site in 9 months — see signs of a good web design agency for what to ask about.
### 5. Lock-in
Templates lock you in. Migrating away from Wix to WordPress costs £1,500–£3,000 and a week of downtime risk. Squarespace export is even worse.
Custom WordPress, Webflow, and modern frameworks export cleanly. You own your content and can move agencies, hosts, or platforms without rebuilding.
When a template is the right choice
- You're testing whether you want a web presence at all
- You're a sole trader doing 1–3 jobs a month
- You have a strict £500/year ceiling on web spend
- Your local market is uncompetitive (rural area, small town, low search volume)
- Your business model doesn't depend on Google traffic (e.g. all word-of-mouth)
When you've outgrown the template
- You're getting more than 10 enquiries a month and want to scale
- You're losing jobs to better-looking competitors
- Your PageSpeed score is below 70 on mobile and you can't fix it
- You've been on the platform 18+ months and growth has plateaued
- Your competitors are on page 1 and you're on page 3 for the same keywords
- You want to add functionality the template doesn't support (online quote tool, booking system, customer login)
If two or more of those apply, rebuild.
The middle ground
For UK renewable installers specifically, Presencly's subscription model — £999 build, £99/month hosting — exists in the middle of template and custom. You get the custom-quality build (Next.js, 90+ mobile PageSpeed, full schema, custom design) without the £8,000 agency cheque, and the £99/month covers what would otherwise be ongoing maintenance fees.
Request a free audit and we'll tell you honestly whether your current setup is holding you back or fine for now, in 24 hours.