Ready-Made Vs Custom-Built TYPO3 Templates

A TYPO3 Template is a set of design elements that determine both functional as well as the visual concept of a website. Basically, it is the pre-designed structure of a website that will later be modified according to the requirements. TYPO3 Templates are the way to display your content in an attractive and editable manner to the final visitors and readers.

The chosen TYPO3 Template can be chosen and used in several ways:

– the TYPO3 Template can be used in its original form without changes

– the TYPO3 Template can be modified with the help of TYPO3 extensions or with customizations in source code

– the TYPO3 Template can be heavily modified with changes in the source code

As you know the TYPO3 template defines the website layout on different pages (for example home page, detail page, about page, etc.), design features and elements (color combinations, typography, theme icons, buttons, and illustrations, etc.) and perhaps some special features (for example, TYPO3 sliders, TYPO3 lightbox, TYPO3 portfolio, menus, footer, and header, etc.).

There are TYPO3 templates that can be chosen for free and the ones that are paid for. Some of the TYPO3 templates could be defined as universal which means they can be adapted for different sorts and types of content, while others are designed aiming at more specific purposes like personal blogging, business presentation, portfolios, social communication, professional blogging for a particular topic, etc.

A Ready Made TYPO3 template is something you buy from a Shop such as T3Planet. These are meant to be sold over and over again to suit your business needs. Custom-built TYPO3 development is the process of wireframing, designing, and developing a custom website to fit your business needs.

• Costings

On considering cost as a factor, we’d recommend going with Ready-Made TYPO3 templates. If you ask for estimations of custom development of a TYPO3 template to a TYPO3 development with the required functionality. We bet the cost would be much higher than a ready-made TYPO3 template. 

The custom design and development is of course that the starting price is much higher, typically ranging from $2,000 to $8,000, depending on your needs and desired outcome. Of course, the more pages, forms, and templates you have, the more costly the web design will be.

If you are having budget constraints, choose a ready-made TYPO3 template for your website. It is more feasible than a custom design.

• Business goal

If you are thinking of setting up a website for your business, make sure it holds all the features and functionality that your business actually needs. One must have a clear idea of the functions he/she needs on his TYPO3 website.

While thinking of a better option, hiring a designer and developer may cost a lot of time and money. Instead of it opting for a Multipurpose or Feature-rich TYPO3 Template seems a more convenient and cost-effective option.

• Brand identity

Your business brand is your identity. Using custom TYPO3 development services for a website seems a good option if you wish to have a website that is unique and no one has ever thought of that design being used anywhere. 

But if you prefer highly customizable Ready-Made TYPO3 templates as of T3Planet, then you can customize with various options available and it will give your website a new look.

Both Ready Made and Custom TYPO3 Templates satisfy this point. You can think of your preferred choice according to your urgency, budget, functionality, and uniqueness for the website you’re wishing to build for your website.

• Time constraints 

If you are in a hurry to develop a website, just go for a Ready-Made TYPO3 Template. 

In custom design, you need to have patience and time because it takes time to develop a website from the scratch – developing a layout, implementing and element building in TYPO3 back end and building a website (images, videos, graphic design, backend coding) and the final touch with quality assurance and testing requires a great amount of time.

Thus for a business that can’t wait so long, a Ready-Made template is perfect for you. You just need to download, install, customize and you're ready to go!

• Flexibility to customization

If you are planning to develop your business, and you certainly do, you need to have the flexibility to add features and design to your TYPO3 website. When you opt for a TYPO3 template, it comes pre-packed with tons of useful and non-useful features because one may not be sure if you need to utilize it or not, the great part of which you might never need. This results in a longer code and possible coding conflicts, when you may have to add some functionality you really need.

Creating your Custom TYPO3 template for your website you're not likely to have such a problem. If you already have an idea which TYPO3 extensions you may need in the future, the developers can consider this to avoid possible conflicts and other problems. But here also, if you wish to make some modifications on your own years later, you may find it difficult to do!

Both Ready-made and Custom Built TYPO3 template has some customization drawbacks at a very far extent. If one has a clear idea about his requirement expectations from the website, he can opt for keeping this aspect neutral and considering the above ones.

• Options and variance

On T3Terminal, there are 50 plus TYPO3 Templates for sale. That is a lot to choose from and have quality themes there for pretty much every industry. This gives you a great starting point for your business and can even help provide some inspiration! Whereas for custom TYPO3 templates, you won’t be able to have variance.

Firstly, users can select the appropriate TYPO3 Template in the directories presenting them, such as T3Planet for instance. 

The major advantage is that you can see the TYPO3 Template preview showing its main features. The themes are created by professionals who know how to deal with user-friendly solutions. You can see the creators of the theme and review their portfolio if you wish to ensure that they are professional enough. There are specialized as well as Multipurpose template categorization, so having specific goals it is easier for users to select the theme they need. 

Readymade templates are designed as a sample website layout for website development. Moreover, ready-made TYPO3 templates are very easy to use and modify.  You just need to purchase them to use for your website. Also, ready-made TYPO3 templates have their documentation guide that holds instructions about how to install, configure, customize the TYPO3 templates.

Advantages of Ready-Made TYPO3 Template

• Quick and Easy

Your site can be installed and configured within a day if your content is ready.

• Code 

Most of the TYPO3 templates have clean code, meaning the HTML and CSS are compliant and up-to-date. Keep checking for regular updates for the best functioning.

• Budget-friendly

If trying to get a simple website up this could be a great option. You can buy pre-built TYPO3 templates from $49 to max $499 on T3Planet.  It would be 50-80% feasible than custom design development.

• Preview

With ready-made templates, you can always see what you get. Unlike custom designs, when you won’t be able to see the result until the project is ready, here you will know how your website will look like at once.

• User-Friendly

The readymade template is easily adaptable to your business needs. You get a specific website design built for your product or services.

• Online Support

If you buy a readymade template from an online marketplace or shop you'll have their online customer support, forums, and FAQs facility to guide you and resolve your issues. Even if you look forward to adding new functionality, they assist you with the customized coding requirement.

• Ease of custom contents and graphics

All you do is replace old content and graphics by new texts and pictures.

• Quick and affordable deployment

All hosting services offer affordable plans to host a template website. Moreover, you can opt for TYPO3 SaaS just starting from $29 for Installation, Templates, Hosting, SLA, and Support.

• High return on investment

Since the initial investment is small, you can recoup that investment in a very short time.

• Cheap and simple maintenance

Maintenance involves only texts and pictures, so it does not need information technology professionals.

Disadvantages of Ready-Made TYPO3 Template

• Potential Uniqueness

If you do not use unique images and customize content and graphics, your website may look like some other websites.

• Functions

The template only offers pre-packaged features, not custom functions.

• Less Customization

Though readymade templates are flexible in design, still while you consider making a major change in functionality, you may face some coding issues and backend complications.

From where can I get Ready-Made TYPO3 templates?

Unlike WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, TYPO3 doesn’t have many TYPO3 Templates available. But T3Planet has taken the initiative to build flexible TYPO3 templates for TYPO3 lovers. 

You can find TYPO3 Templates from

• T3Terminal TYPO3 Marketplace
• TER (TYPO3 Extension Repository)

For a custom design, you need to Hire a TYPO3 Developer who is creative as well as understands your requirements and crafts a website related to your business niche. You can represent your brand very well by using your own thoughts and accordingly, a web designer can effectively sculpt the website layout.

So say that your company has specific requirements for features and branding. That your brand is too important to leave to a predesigned theme and that you have features that cannot be found without doing some custom work, then you can opt for Custom Built TYPO3 Templates.

A custom TYPO3 website is a website that has been built from scratch, hand-coded, based on a unique pre-approved design. 

Advantages of Custom Built TYPO3 Template

• Unique Design

Developing a website from scratch allows you to add your own colors, graphics, and mold design in your own way relevant to your business.

• Goal achievement

Custom-built means every function you require is there for you. You can dream of any website and have it built.

• Future Scalable and expandable

Since you control all the codes, your team of professionals can make changes easily.

• Easily administration

Since the website is built according to your requirements, you know how to operate it very well.

• Optimized for SEO

Custom websites can comply with all SEO rules.

Disadvantages of Custom Built TYPO3 Template

• Very Costly

Usually, the designing and development of TYPO3 custom template is expensive compared to ready-made if you are financially open and looking for a unique well professional designed website then only go for a custom design template.

• Fixed maintenance costs

In order to guarantee responsiveness and security, you need to maintain a team of professionals to monitor and improve the website.

• Longer construction time

A custom-made website may take from a few weeks to a few months to be built, depending on its complexity.

• Need strong coding skills

If you don’t have enough technical knowledge it might be difficult for you to explain to the designer what you want. This may result in a weaker end product.

From where can I get developers for Custom TYPO3 template development?

To get a TYPO3 website custom-built, you can always hire a professional TYPO3 developer and designer from Freelancing platforms or hire a TYPO3 certified agency to get your TYPO3 Template designed and built!