Custom websites cost 5–10x more than Wix or Squarespace builds. Most businesses don't need them. Here's the test for when you're the exception.
The honest default
If you're a service business with a simple lead-generation funnel, fewer than 50 pages, no e-commerce, and standard integrations (Calendly, HubSpot forms, Google Analytics) — use a template platform. Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, or Framer will get you live in days, look professional, and cost $20–80/month forever.
Custom development on top of a template platform's base — Webflow especially — covers another 30% of cases that need bespoke design but can stay on the platform's runtime. That's the right middle ground for most agencies, consultancies, and B2B SaaS pre-Series-A.
So: ~75% of businesses should NOT build custom. They should use a template, customize the design, and ship.
When custom actually pays back
Four situations where custom code earns its 5–10x premium:
1. Conversion-critical revenue
If your site is the #1 driver of revenue and a 1% conversion lift is worth $50K+/year, custom optimization pays back. Template platforms cap at "good enough" performance — Core Web Vitals, image optimization, asset bundling, edge caching. Custom Next.js sites can hit Lighthouse 100 across the board, which moves CTR from organic search 5–15% in our experience. For a SaaS doing $500K MRR off SEO, that's $25–75K/month in ARR lift.
2. Complex integrations
If your site needs to talk to 5+ backends — your CRM, billing, fulfillment, customer success tool, support — template platforms become duct tape. Each integration adds latency, breaks during platform updates, and exposes brittle webhook chains. Custom code with proper API design isolates the integrations behind your runtime, giving you control over failure modes.
3. Programmatic SEO at scale
If your strategy is hundreds or thousands of templated pages (location pages, product comparisons, programmatic landing pages) — custom is the right answer. Template platforms charge per page or cap at 2,000 pages. Custom Next.js + a database is unbounded and ships server-rendered HTML for every URL. We see clients go from 50 to 10,000 indexable pages and 10–50x organic traffic in 6–12 months.
4. Performance-critical UX
If your product experience starts at the marketing site — interactive demos, calculators, configurators, signup-to-product transitions — template platforms hit a wall around moderate JavaScript complexity. Custom React or Vue gives you full control over hydration, code-splitting, and interaction design.
The test
Ask three questions:
- Is the site the primary revenue driver? ("Yes, organic search and conversion lift the company's whole financial model.")
- Will we be at 100+ pages in the next 18 months?
- Do we have ongoing engineering ownership? (Custom code requires custom maintenance — someone deploys it, monitors it, updates dependencies.)
If you answer yes to two or more, custom is probably right. One yes — template-first with eventual migration. Zero yeses — definitely template, possibly with a designer to make it not look like a template.
What "custom" looks like in practice
Modern custom = Next.js + TypeScript + Tailwind + a CMS (Sanity, Contentful, or custom admin) + Vercel or your own infra. Builds in 4–8 weeks. Editor-friendly so marketing teams ship landing pages without engineering tickets. Lighthouse 90+ across all categories. Schema.org structured data baked in.
What it's NOT: a static site generator with no CMS, a React app with client-side rendering and no SEO, or a hand-rolled PHP that only works in Chrome.
What goes wrong with custom
The single biggest failure mode: marketing teams unable to ship without engineering. If your CMS isn't editor-friendly, every landing page becomes a 2-week ticket and you've effectively burned the investment. The CMS choice matters more than the framework.
Second failure mode: no ongoing maintenance. Custom code rots — dependencies get security advisories, browsers change, frameworks update. Without 4–8 hours/month of maintenance budget the site degrades within a year.
What we ship for California clients
Most Werz custom builds are Next.js + Sanity (or a custom admin) + Vercel hosting. We instrument analytics, A/B testing, and CRM integration on day one. After launch we stay on monthly retainer for content updates, performance tuning, and quarterly A/B tests. Sites typically launch in 4–6 weeks at $15–35K, with retainer at $3–8K/month for ongoing work.
Start a project and we'll do a free audit of your current setup — including a recommendation on whether custom is even the right answer for you.