A template website is access to someone else's design and a hosting platform — you're renting space on a pre-built structure. A custom website is an asset built specifically for your business. The upfront cost is higher, but the long-run economics, SEO performance, and ownership situation are fundamentally different.
What a template website actually is
A template website is a pre-built design — someone else's layout decisions, visual choices, and code structure — that you populate with your own content. Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Duda, Webflow (template tier), and WordPress page builders (Elementor, Divi) all operate on this model.
What you're paying for is access to a design library and a hosting platform. The code is fixed. The structure is shared across thousands of other sites. You're choosing from a menu of what's available — not deciding what to build.
That's not inherently bad. But it does mean every limitation built into the template is a limitation your business inherits.
What a custom website actually is
A custom website starts from a blank slate. The design is created specifically for your business, your services, and your customers. The code is written to do exactly what the site needs to do — nothing more, nothing less. There are no inherited layout decisions, no unused features bloating the page weight, and no design compromises forced by a template you didn't choose.
From an SEO perspective, this matters because the developer can build the technical structure the right way from the start — proper schema markup, location-specific page architecture, clean heading hierarchy, and Core Web Vitals performance — rather than working around a template's constraints.
Side-by-side comparison
| Factor | Template (Wix / Squarespace) | Custom Build |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | $0–$200 | AUD $1,500–$5,000 |
| Ongoing cost | £20–£50/mo (mandatory) | Hosting only (~£10–£20/mo) |
| You own it | No — platform can change or suspend | Yes — domain and code are yours |
| Design uniqueness | Shared with thousands of other sites | Built specifically for your business |
| Mobile performance | Often poor — template bloat | Optimised — only code it needs |
| Core Web Vitals | Frequently fails on mobile | Passes when built correctly |
| Local SEO capability | Limited — fixed URL structure | Full control — custom location pages |
| Schema markup | Basic or unavailable | Complete — LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ |
| Multi-location pages | Not practical | Standard — one page per suburb/town |
| Customisation ceiling | Hard limits — platform decides | None — any feature is buildable |
| Risk of losing site | Real — account suspension happens | None if you own the domain |
The five-year cost: where the economics flip
The upfront price gap between a template and a custom build is real — but the five-year picture looks different.
Squarespace Business (UK)
- £23/month × 60 months = £1,380
- No asset at the end — stop paying, site disappears
- Annual price increases likely
- Effective 5-year cost: £1,380+
Custom build (ecodevz)
- ~£2,000 one-off build cost
- £15/month hosting × 60 months = £900
- You own the domain and the code
- Effective 5-year cost: ~£2,900 — as an owned asset
The monthly fee gap narrows significantly over time — and the custom site is an owned business asset rather than an ongoing subscription. This doesn't account for the revenue difference from better SEO performance, which is harder to quantify but real.
The SEO performance gap — why it matters for tradies specifically
For most trade businesses, the whole point of a website is to rank in local search — so when a customer types “plumber Toowoomba” or “landscaper Swan Hill,” your business appears. Template platforms have several structural disadvantages here that are difficult or impossible to work around:
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Bloated code shipped to every visitor
Template platforms generate significant unused CSS and JavaScript — code the page doesn't need, but the browser downloads anyway. This directly hurts Core Web Vitals scores, which Google uses as a ranking factor.
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Limited schema markup control
Schema markup tells Google (and AI search tools) exactly what your business does and where it operates. Most template platforms offer basic or no schema support. A custom build includes full LocalBusiness, Service, and FAQ schema as standard.
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URL structure is fixed
Location pages — one per suburb you serve — are the primary tool for ranking across multiple service areas. Template platforms either don't support this at all or generate them in a URL structure that isn't ideal for local SEO.
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Shared hosting performance
Your site's load speed on a template platform depends on the platform's infrastructure decisions, not yours. On a custom build deployed to a CDN like Vercel, you control the performance characteristics entirely.
When each is genuinely the right call
Template makes sense when:
- –Business is under 6 months old and the model is still unproven
- –It's a temporary, seasonal, or trial venture
- –Budget genuinely doesn't allow for a custom build right now
- –The site is a personal portfolio where SEO isn't the goal
- –You need something live in days, not weeks
Custom is the right call when:
- check_circleYou're investing in ads or SEO (a slow template destroys both)
- check_circleYou serve multiple suburbs and want to rank in each
- check_circleYou want a business asset you own, not a subscription
- check_circleYou expect the site to generate real inbound enquiries
- check_circleYou've outgrown a template and are losing business because of it
Related pricing guides
For a full breakdown of what a fair price actually looks like, see Why Is a Website So Expensive? or check our general pricing guide for trade businesses.
Ready to get a site that actually works for your business?
Every ecodevz build is custom — designed and developed specifically for your trade or service business, with local SEO built in from the start.
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