Custom design or a theme: which fits your project?

A theme, sometimes described as a template website, is a pre-designed template installed on a CMS such as WordPress or Umbraco, or an ecommerce platform such as Magento or Shopify. It arrives with layouts and functionality built in; a developer then customizes it to your brand: logo, colors, configuration.

A custom design starts from zero: a designer creates a unique design for your brand, and developers implement it on your platform. It delivers exactly what you want, and costs more and takes longer, because of the extra design and development work.

Most businesses buy a theme and customize it. Done well, the result is hard to distinguish from a custom-designed site, and it saves both time and money. The trap: customize a theme too extensively and the cost can exceed what custom design would have required from the start. Establish your requirements early, and we'll tell you honestly which side of that line your project sits on.

Choose a theme when your requirements fit what themes offer, budget and timeline matter most, you need standard functionality, or you want to launch quickly and improve based on real user feedback.

Choose custom when your brand needs a visual identity themes can't deliver, you need functionality no theme provides, brand consistency is critical for your established company, or your site is a primary revenue driver that has to stand apart.

It's not pixel-perfect design. Once a theme carries your logo and brand colors, it is a unique design in practice. What differentiates your site from competitors is content quality, product photography, page speed, functionality, integrations, and ease of navigation, among others. Whether a search box sits five pixels left or right matters far less than whether the site loads fast, presents clearly, and converts.

Theme-based projects: theme installation and configuration, color scheme matched to your brand guidelines, removal of unused features to reduce page weight, email setup, and any customization, backend development, plugin installation, or integrations you need. You can pick the theme yourself or have our design team recommend options.

Custom projects: requirements review and wireframes, homepage design in desktop, tablet, and mobile versions, sub-page designs once the homepage is approved, and implementation by our development team, with the technical Project Manager involved in design reviews on complex projects so the design stays buildable within budget. Content entry or product import is handled as agreed.

Whichever path you choose, the same team supports the site after launch, and every price is fixed and agreed before work begins.

Continuous Monthly Development: Send tasks whenever they arise. With Care, everything runs in writing at one fixed monthly price: no estimates to approve, no cost overruns.

Care Plus gives you everything in Care at its own fixed monthly price, plus up to two hours of meetings per month with a Project Manager or any 1902 Software expert (for planning, advice, and technical discussion), up to two ongoing tasks at a time, and up to two developers working on your tasks at the same time.

Care Ultimate is for ongoing engagements, often across multiple systems, that need close collaboration: a fixed price for every task or group of tasks, approved by you before work begins, people with the right expertise added to your project as your needs grow, and meetings with any 1902 Software expert whenever you need them (billed at the going project management rate for the actual time spent).

Read the full details here.

Fixed Price Projects: For a single, well-defined design project (a new build, a major upgrade) you get one agreed price for the whole thing, fixed before work begins.

Large projects typically start with a Project Scoping phase at an agreed, prepaid fixed price. The purpose is to precisely define what will be built and to establish the final price. This ensures full clarity for both you and us before development begins.