Website templates: you are buying a design, not a website
Short answer: a template gives you a DESIGN, not a WEBSITE. Once it is installed the real work starts — writing every section, sourcing your own photos and deleting the parts that do not apply to you. Most template projects stall not because the wrong one was chosen, but because nobody filled it in.
Looking for a template is a sensible reflex: find something that looks good, put your own details in it. The place it breaks is specific. The template hands you a heading that says "About us" and stops there; the three paragraphs underneath are still yours to write. Here is what a template gives you and what it quietly does not.
Yan yana
| A bought template | An agency | İyziWeb | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design | Ready-made, shared with thousands of sites | Made for you | Assembled around your business |
| The words | Placeholder text you have to replace | Usually still your job | Written from your one-sentence brief |
| Images | Stock photos, license sometimes sold separately | A shoot is its own budget | Generated for your trade, cleared for commercial use |
| Setup | Yours to do | Theirs | Automatic |
| Hosting, SSL, updates | You arrange and pay for them | Often a monthly retainer | Included |
| Time until it is live | A weekend, if your content is ready | Two to six weeks | About five minutes |
| Being different from competitors | The same template is on thousands of sites | Genuinely unique | Built fresh for each description |
| Changing it in six months | You, in the editor or the code | A request, a fee and a queue | One sentence in the chat |
← Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.
Hangisi sana uyar?
Buy a template if…
Your text is already written, your photos are already taken and you enjoy the fiddly part. In that situation a good template really is the fastest route there is.
Hire an agency if…
You are building a brand identity from nothing, you need a specific art direction, or the project has to survive internal approvals. A template cannot carry any of those.
Try İyziWeb if…
Your real blocker is not "which template" but "what do I write". You do not choose a layout here; you describe the business, and the structure, the copy and the images come out of that description.
In fairness to templates: if you already have written copy, real photographs and a bit of technical patience, a well-built template is an efficient and cheap way to get online. This page is not against templates — it is about the very common case where a template alone is not enough.
Frequently asked
Does using a template hurt my SEO?
The template itself does not. What hurts is publishing with the placeholder text still in place, or with generic copy that reads the same as every other site using it. Search engines read your sentences, not your stylesheet.
I bought a template and never filled it in. What now?
You are in the most common situation there is. Two ways out: pay a copywriter per page, or use a tool that drafts the text for you. Either way the test is the same — does the page describe your business specifically? Generic sentences convince nobody.
Does it matter that other sites use my template?
Visitors almost never notice. It matters within your own trade and town: if two salons on the same street run the same template, neither one is memorable. The difference is made by the photos and the words, which is exactly the part the template did not supply.
Can I still change the design afterwards?
With a template, changes range from a settings panel to editing code, depending on how it was built. Here, you describe what you want changed in the chat — "make the header darker, move the prices above the gallery" — and the site is rebuilt with it.
Related pages
Trying it takes five minutes
You don’t have to keep reading to decide — write one sentence and see the site for yourself.
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