Template vs Custom : What You Really Pay For
A €300 site or an €8,000 site? Behind the price gap lie two radically different economic models. Complete financial analysis of what you pay, and what you lose, with each approach.
You have a quote in front of you. On one side, a WordPress template at €300 with a premium theme and a few plugins. On the other, a custom website at €8,000. The choice seems obvious. Why pay 26 times more for "just a website" ?
We hear this question every week. And every time, the answer surprises : over 3 years, the template costs more than the custom site. Not in perceived value. In actual euros leaving your bank account.
This isn't an opinion. It's a financial reality that platforms prefer you never calculate. Today, we're pulling out the calculator.
The Entry Price Illusion
Off-the-shelf solutions excel in one area : entry-price marketing. Wix advertises "Free". Squarespace promises a site "starting at €11/month". WordPress.com offers plans "from €4/month". Shopify starts at €27/month.
These figures are true. And they are deeply misleading.
The advertised price is for an empty shell. To get a site that actually functions for a business, you'll need to stack additional layers :
- Premium theme: €50 to €200 (free themes are recognizable from a mile away)
- Essential plugins: SEO, security, forms, backup, cache : count €200 to €800/year on WordPress
- Storage and bandwidth: basic plans are limited, overages are billed
- Domain name + professional email: €15 to €50/year (often not included in "free")
- E-commerce commissions: Shopify takes 0.5 to 2% on every sale, on top of Stripe/PayPal fees
- Priority support: free support responds in 72 hours. Responsive support is paid
And the most invisible cost of all : your time. Configuring a template, fighting with limitations, figuring out why the form stopped working after an update, that's time you're not spending growing your business.
The Real Math : Total Cost of Ownership Over 3 Years
Let's forget marketing slogans. Let's do the calculation nobody does : the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), the true total cost of your website over 3 years, including all direct and indirect expenses.
| Cost Item | Template (WordPress/Wix) | Custom |
|---|---|---|
| Initial creation | €300 – €2,000 | €5,000 – €12,000 |
| Hosting (3 years) | €720 – €2,160 ( €20 - 60/month) | €0 – €720 ( €0 - 20/month, Vercel/Netlify) |
| Plugins / extensions (3 years) | €600 – €2,400 (annual licenses) | €0 (features built - in) |
| Maintenance & updates (3 years) | €1,200 – €3,600 (conflicts, bugs, updates) | €600 – €1,800 (targeted improvements) |
| Time lost (valued) | €2,000 – €5,000 (debugging, workarounds) | €0 (everything works as intended) |
| Mandatory redesign (~2 years) | €2,000 – €5,000 (template ages poorly) | €0 (built to last) |
| TOTAL over 3 years | €6,820 – €20,160 | €5,600 – €14,520 |
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) comparison over 3 years, template vs custom
Read that last line again. In the best case, the template costs as much as the custom site. In the worst case, it costs nearly double. And this calculation doesn't even account for lost revenue.
The Invisible Cost : What You Don't Earn
TCO measures what you spend. But the real financial gap between template and custom plays out in what you don't earn with a template : the opportunity cost.
Lost Conversions
A custom website is designed around your customer journey. Every section, every button, every micro-interaction is crafted to guide the visitor toward action. A template applies a generic journey designed to suit everyone, meaning optimized for no one.
The data is unambiguous :
- Custom websites convert on average 2 to 3x better than template websites (source : McKinsey Design)
- A 1-second improvement in load time increases conversions by 7% (source : Portent Research)
- 94% of first impressions are design-related : a template recognized as such instantly destroys credibility (source : Sweor)
Let's take a concrete example. If your site generates 1,000 visitors per month and converts at 1.5% (template average), you get 15 leads. With a custom site converting at 3.5%, you get 35. 20 more leads per month. On an average deal size of €2,000, that's €40,000 in additional potential revenue every month.
The "cheap website" costs you tens of thousands of euros in lost opportunities. Every month.
Sacrificed SEO
Google doesn't play favorites. The technical criteria that impact your ranking are measurable and unforgiving :
- Core Web Vitals: templates load superfluous code (builders, unused scripts, unoptimized CSS). An average WordPress site weighs 3 to 5 MB. An optimized custom site weighs 300 to 800 KB
- Lighthouse score: templates typically plateau between 40 and 70/100. A well-developed custom site reaches 90-100/100
- Bounce rate: a slow site drives people away. Google sees this. Your ranking drops. Competitors with fast sites move ahead
Ranking on page 2 of Google means invisibility. Less than 1% of users click on a page 2 result (source : Backlinko CTR Study). The template that was supposed to "save you money" actually costs you all your organic visibility.
Eroded Credibility
Your prospects visit your website before contacting you. If your site looks like 500 other businesses because you're using the same Flavor or Flavstarter theme, the message is clear : this company hasn't invested in its image. And if they won't invest in their image, will they invest in my project ?
This reasoning is unconscious, instant, and devastating. 75% of users judge a company's credibility based on its website design (source : Stanford Web Credibility Research). A template is an ill-fitting suit at a job interview. Technically, you're dressed. Practically, you've already lost.
Custom as a Business Asset
Here's the fundamental difference that price comparisons systematically ignore : a template is a recurring expense. A custom website is an asset.
What You Actually Own
With a template on Wix or Squarespace, you own nothing. Literally. Your site lives on their infrastructure, with their code, under their rules. If Wix raises prices by 40% tomorrow (which happened in 2023), you have no recourse. If Squarespace decides to remove a feature, you bear the consequences.
With a custom website :
- The code belongs to you : you can switch hosts, agencies, or technologies without starting from scratch
- Your data belongs to you : no platform dependency for exporting content or analytics
- Your design belongs to you : no other website in the world will have the same, it's a unique brand asset
- Your performance belongs to you : no slowdowns imposed by a builder or third-party plugins
A custom website is digital real estate. A template is renting with a landlord who can change the rules whenever they want.
Value That Compounds Over Time
A template depreciates. Every month, its design ages, its plugins become incompatible, its performance degrades. On average, a template website requires a complete redesign every 18 to 24 months, a costly cycle of destruction and reconstruction that never creates lasting value.
A custom website compounds. Every optimization, every new feature, every SEO improvement stacks on solid foundations. The initial investment in year 1 makes year 2 improvements less expensive and more impactful. It's the compound interest effect applied to the web.
5 Financial Signals It's Time to Migrate
If you're currently on a template, here are the indicators showing you're losing money :
- Your monthly costs exceed €80 : between hosting, premium plugins, licenses, and support, you're financing a custom site without realizing it
- Your conversion rate is stuck below 2% : your generic template isn't turning visitors into clients
- Your load time exceeds 3 seconds : every second beyond costs 7% in conversions (source : Portent)
- You've already redone your site once : if the first template lasted 2 years before becoming obsolete, the second will do the same
- You spend more than 5 hours/month managing your site : updates, conflicts, bugs, workarounds. That time has a value. Calculate it
If you check at least 2 of these signals, the equation is mathematical : every month of delayed migration is costing you money.
The Real ROI of a Custom Website
Let's stop talking about "cost" for a custom website. Let's talk about return on investment.
| Metric | Before (template) | After (custom) | Financial Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Load time | 4 - 8 seconds | 0.5 - 1.5 seconds | + 20 to 40 % conversions |
| Lighthouse score | 40 - 70/100 | 90 - 100/100 | Better Google ranking |
| Conversion rate | 1 - 2.5 % | 3 - 5 % | 2x to 3x qualified leads |
| Monthly cost | €80 - 200/month | €0 - 40/month | €1,000 to €2,500/year saved |
| Lifespan | 18 - 24 months | 4 - 6 years (with updates) | End of permanent redesign cycle |
| Maintenance time | 5 - 15h/month | 0 - 2h/month | Time reinvested in your business |
Measurable impact of template => custom migration
For a business generating €10,000/month in revenue through its website, going from a 1.5% conversion rate to 3.5% represents an additional €13,000/month. The initial investment of a custom website pays for itself in weeks, not years.
Why the Upfront Price Deceives You
The psychological trap is powerful. Our brains are wired to compare immediate numbers : €300 vs €8,000. The choice seems irrational. But it's exactly the same bias that makes people buy a €49 printer whose cartridges cost €60 each, rather than a €200 printer with €15 refills.
Platforms know this. Their entire business model relies on this bias :
- Wix generates 84% of its revenue from recurring subscriptions, not initial creation (source : Wix Investor Relations)
- Shopify charges a commission on every sale on top of the subscription : the more successful you are, the more they earn
- WordPress.com makes free plans so limited they're unusable for professionals, forcing the paid upgrade
- Squarespace has raised its prices by 10 to 15% annually on average since 2020
You're not paying €300 for a website. You're paying €300 to enter a system designed to extract value from your business, indefinitely.
The Right Calculation Before Deciding
Before choosing between template and custom, ask yourself these 4 questions. Not questions of taste or preference, pure financial questions :
1. What is my total cost over 3 years ? Add everything : hosting, plugins, licenses, maintenance, time spent, likely redesign. Compare with the custom quote + minimal hosting.
2. How much does each lost conversion point cost me ? If your template converts at 1.5% instead of 3.5%, calculate the monthly revenue gap. Multiply by 36 months.
3. What is my time worth ? Every hour spent working around template limitations is an hour not billed to a client or invested in growth.
4. Do I want to rent or own ? A template is rent. Custom is a purchase. In the long run, the owner always wins.
Conclusion : Custom Isn't an Expense, It's an Investment
The "template vs custom" debate has been framed wrong from the start. It's not a choice between expensive and cheap. It's a choice between a recurring cost that depreciates and an investment that appreciates.
A template is a cost disguised as a saving. A custom website is an investment disguised as an expense. The difference is only visible to those who do the complete math.
The most profitable businesses on the web aren't the ones that spent the least on their website. They're the ones that understood every euro invested in a high-performing website generates a multiple in return. The question isn't "how much does it cost". The question is : how much does it earn ?