Shopify Theme vs. Custom Design: Which Is Best for Your Brand?

featureimage
written by: Renuka M
, , , , ,

 

Overview

 

When building an online store for your business, the look and feel is as important as the products you sell. While the excitement of launching your first online store is immense, choosing between a pre-made theme and a custom design can be challenging. It is also the most important decision that you will make while establishing your brand online.

 

While the pre-built Shopify themes offer a quick start with over 70 free themes and thousands of premium options, custom designs promise unlimited possibilities with tailored branding and features. So the question remains: Which path should you take for your brand?

 

In this comprehensive guide we will reveal the real difference between pre-built Shopify themes and custom designs, and help you make the right choice that best fits your brand’s needs.

 

Why Does Online Store Design Matters So Much?

 

Because customers value trust, identity, and experience over everything else. Think about the last time you visited an online store. Did you trust it instantly, or did something about how the store looked make a difference? It takes less than a second for any user to form an impression of a website, so if your store looks outdated, poorly built, or hard to navigate, any potential customers might leave instantly for any number of reasons.

 

Your storefront is the first thing customers see, and it plays a crucial role in building trust and brand identity. A polished design makes your brand look legitimate and more reliable, whereas easy navigation and intuitive layouts help in enhancing user experience.

 

A clear design also helps businesses establish a clear brand identity and enable smoother navigation till checkout, thereby increasing the conversion rates.

 

This makes choosing between a bespoke Shopify theme and pre-built Shopify themes more important than ever in establishing your brand’s presence online.

 

What Are Shopify Themes?

 

These are pre-built templates either created by Shopify or by third-party developers, available for instant usage. These include styling, layouts, functionalities and more which you can customize with the choice of content, branding, and colors. Types of Themes Available in Shopify

 

Shopify’s pre-built themes are available in two forms - Free and Premium.

 

Free Themes: Shopify offers around 70 free themes that cover the needs of various industries. New businesses that are only starting off on their online journey leverage these themes to create basic websites at minimal cost.

 

Premium Themes: These are usually third party themes that developers sell on Shopify for a price. These could range anywhere from $100 to $350 depending on the features offered in them. The difference between these and the free themes apart from the price lies in the quality of designs, features, and customization options.

 

Pros of Shopify Themes

 

  • Budget Friendly: Pre-made Shopify themes are affordable as compared to custom designs. With these, you get a lot of free options and even the premium features cost between 150 USD to 400 USD, which is a fraction of hiring shopify website development services for custom designs.
  • Quick to Set Up: Since Shopify themes work on a plug-and-play format, you can get your store up and running within hours or days, rather than weeks or months.
  • User Friendly: Using Shopify’s pre-built themes is easy. All you need to do is drag and drop features without the need for any external development team or coding skills.
  • Secure and Tested: Since most of these themes are vetted for performance, compliance, and SEO, you can use them smoothly without worrying about bugs.

 

Cons of Shopify Themes

 

  • Limited customization options: Since these are pre-made themes, you can not tailor them completely to your liking. You could change the colors, layout, and simpler details, but these themes would still have structural limitations.
  • Similar popular themes: Since most of these themes are free and offer limited customizations, they look generic. So a lot of other e-commerce stores may look just like yours when you use Shopify themes.
  • Lack of scalability: As your store grows you may need features that the Shopify themes do not support, making scalability virtually impossible.

  

What Are Custom Shopify Themes?

 

Bespoke Shopify themes offer businesses the opportunity to build their own completely unique website from scratch. Businesses can tailor every element from layout and navigation to user experience and functionality as per their choice and business need. You can also control the Custom Shopify themes cost by only choosing the features that you require.

 

Designing a custom Shopify theme involves:

 

  • Strategy and planning: You could do this on your own, or with the help of a Shopify website development agency like Amwhiz.
  • Designing unique visuals: With bespoke Shopify themes, businesses can design tailored visuals that align with their brand’s identity.
  • Tailored features: When you choose a custom Shopify theme, you do not have to settle for pre-made features, instead, you can easily customize every functionality as per your business requirements.
  • Better user experience: With custom Shopify themes, you can design your website around the needs and preferences of your customers, thereby enhancing their overall shopping experience.
  • Architecture that scales: Custom Shopify theme development enables you to create a scalable architecture that grows with your business.

 

Pros of Custom Themes

 

  • Unique brand identity: When you tailor every element of your online store as per your requirements, you set a unique identity that showcases your brand’s voice.
  • Flexibility: Custom Shopify themes offer businesses the flexibility to personalise everything from navigation flows to checkout experiences.
  • Optimised to meet brand goals: Another major advantage of getting custom Shopify themes is that with extensive customisations every element of design can be aligned with your brand goals.
  • Scalable: When you design your online ecommerce website using bespoke shopify themes, you don’t need to patch together multiple apps or hack your theme to add new features. Instead, you can easily scale your design as your business grows.

 

Cons of Bespoke Shopify Themes


  • High cost: Since building an online store using custom Shopify themes isn’t easy, you may need to partner with a Shopify website development agency. This significantly increases the overall Shopify theme development cost, making custom Shopify themes expensive.
  • Longer timelines: Unlike Shopify themes that are free, custom themes take time to complete. Therefore, your time to launch could take anywhere from weeks to even months.
  • Need for constant support: Since you get your custom themes developed from an external Shopify website development agency, you may need regular developer support for updates, fixes, or new features.

 

Shopify Theme vs. Custom Design: Which Should You Choose?

 

Now that we have weighed in the pros and cons of both Shopify themes and custom designs, choosing the right one should be an easy process.

 

However, if you are still confused about making the choice, here is TLDR that would make the job easy -

 

Go with Shopify themes if,
  • You need a quick launch and are just starting off.
  • Your design needs are simple and your budget is tight.
  • You only need a store for basic functions, and your main sales channel is social media.
  • You prefer doing things on your own and do not want to rely on external developers.

 

Choose Custom Designs if,
  • You are an established brand and need advanced features to offer unique customer experiences.
  • Your growth plans involve scalability needs.
  • You want designs that are unique to your brand.

 

Having read through the above, one may wonder that if both approaches offer something for every business, why not get the best of both worlds? Well, here’s the secret: you don’t always have to choose one extreme or the other. Many businesses start with a theme and gradually layer in customizations. This is another great advantage of using Shopify as an e-commerce development platform. So start with a premium theme so you can launch quickly, then later on when you have established your presence with your online store, hire a Shopify website development services provider like Amhwiz to customize certain features, and gradually evolve into a fully customized design.

 

Final Thoughts!

 

When it comes to Shopify themes vs custom design, there is no one answer that would fit every situation. While pre-built Shopify themes may appear promising to some businesses, others may find custom designs enticing. While themes are quick, convenient, affordable, and perfect for anyone getting started, custom designs take time and are usually perfect for established businesses that can invest a significant amount towards developing a custom website.

 

The best way ahead is to understand and analyze your present business requirements while keeping future requirements in mind. You could start simple and gradually move on to custom solutions as your business grows.

 

You could also partner with Amwhiz, a leading Shopify website development agency, to create a shopping experience that builds trust, reflects your brand’s values, and drives measurable results. After all, the goal isn’t to just make your store look good, but to create a space that brings lasting value to your business.