The benefit to the designer is it shouldn’t be too difficult to modify it to your client’s needs. The final product never looks exactly like the template. It’s so easy to integrate js plugins and take bits and pieces from other templates and mold them into how you want them to look and function.

The fact of the matter is time is money and yeah you could build it from scratch but that’s more money out of your clients pocket less time for you to find more clients.

just get the work done!

I only prefer to use templates as inspiration, to see what’s possible to do with software or to reverse engineer to learn new tricks.

Whatever you do, DON’T pass the work off as your own, and DON’T charge them as if it is. I just took on a client whose last designer charged an exorbitant amount of money for a Weebly site. They’re not a tech company, they didn’t know any better. But I guarantee you that firm that ripped them off isn’t going to survive much longer, because they aren’t honest in their practices.

So yes, use a third party theme. Educate them on the advantages and disadvantages, and charge accordingly. You’ll get a lot of repeat business if you help your customers save money in the long run, and are up front and honest.

Some themes out there are very advanced and would take up to a month to replicate. We brochure around 30 different themes and every single time a client will say “I want one like that!”. So what do you do… Spend $20 on a theme and sell it for a very good price to secure the business, or go around replicating it, spending 2+ weeks on billable hours will result in a website that won’t be as good as the original template for more money?!

If a client comes and specifies they want a custom developed website then you make one, If they say (which the majority do) “I want a new website that is responsive, mobile friendly, and ascetically appealing” 99% of the time, a HTML template will do this.

In all honesty, there are billions of websites out there, the chances of one being similar to 1000 others is almost guaranteed.

I’m hoping to get some advice. I have customized an existing theme and would not like to install the theme (and added plugins) onto a clients site however I need her content/blog posts to remain the same.

I have managed to export the theme however none of my customizations transfer.

Can you recommend a good plug in for this?

Is it possible to import a WordPress theme into your html webpage?

The honest truth of web design in it’s current state(Especially responsive design), is that most websites really look similar or have the same type of objects and structure. These are the kind of websites most people are accustomed to looking at on a daily basis and are typically what most client’s will be expecting or wanting. A Large portion of ready made themes are more than enough to accomplish those kind of websites. All in all, if the client is happy and the designer is happy, who cares how the end goal was achieved? I would rather be a web designer with money who uses themes than a poor designer coding from scratch. Pride has no place in business… only profit… (sounds greedy, but it’s true…)

I think its completely fair to use a template, he says it like I ripped him off yet if I had created every single icon on the resume myself in photoshop, I definitely would be charging more than $50 as it would have added a lot to the time. What do you guys think?

but for those developers who are experts and don’t have much time to build from scratch, they should go for templates,

Do you disclose that you outsource the web development aspect to your clients?

I’m a BYU and BYUI alumnus… almost. I’m finishing my degree in web design and development from BYUI while growing my web design and SEO company!

I get both sides of the coin. While we long to be experts and be able to create the coolest websites from scratch, most clients have no clue whatsoever how to manage a website like that, and don’t have the funds to pay for it. Businesses need good websites in today’s world. If their website sucks, I’m not about to spend a chunk of change on their product or visit their location.

Knowing that about my generation, I see no problem paying for a template that someone created and customizing it for my client to meet their business needs and give them a really awesome online presence. Many businesses try and fail to do it themselves or pay dirt cheap for cheap-looking work. I’m all about affordable and beautiful solutions

its more profitable to use a theme and some businesses the reward for having something that is custom to off the shelf the rewards wont be too great, but for other companies it could be huge.

themes are full of bloat, alot of them come with 30+ slider layouts, galleries, contact forms, color switchers etc. they slow down the site considerably and ofcourse this affects google rankings.

imo you shouldn’t be using themes if your selling a service that offers bespoke design and development. if the client knows your using a theme, then i don’t see the harm in it aslong as they are made aware of the disadvantages that come with using one.

Even the best singers now use autotune, you just don’t notice it (its only when its over the top or the singer sucks that you will hear it). Its like great design; the only time you notice its a template is when the template is used as is.
Introduce the amazing design skills and you take it to a new level.

There’s a difference between using a template as is, and using a template as a functionality base.

Using a pre-built theme is great if it incorporates strong functionality and incorporates certain elements pre-built (don’t forget good short code integration and so on).

You can still do a custom design on top of the base code, but you will use it as a base, that’s it.

Go through the current child themes you really like (try and stick with the StudioPress ones) and work backwards;reverse engineer it in your own child theme.

SP has a heap of function/hook information which can be used to build new page templates or entire child themes.