Template sites and custom builds solve different problems

There's a version of this article that tells you templates are always bad. That's not true — for a single-page portfolio you'll launch once and forget, a builder is the right call.

Where templates start to break down

Problems show up once a site needs to do more than exist:

• Page speed suffers under builder bloat, and speed correlates directly with conversion
• Every section looks like it was assembled from the same component library as a thousand other sites, which erodes trust for anyone comparing options
• Structural changes — reordering sections, adding a new page type — become fights with the builder instead of a few hours of work

What a custom build buys you

A hand-built site is slower to launch on day one and faster on every day after. Copy changes, new sections, and integrations don't require fighting a drag-and-drop editor. And because nothing is inherited from a shared template, the site can actually look like your business instead of a category of business.

The honest tradeoff

Custom builds cost more upfront. They're worth it once the website is doing real commercial work — generating leads, booking calls, driving sales — rather than just existing as a digital business card.