Custom Website Development Benefits

We all know the benefits of a website, but when I say custom website development, I mean to say developing a website from scratch. While developing from scratch does not necessarily mean writing every piece of code from the scratch, it means to build something with a clear intent in mind.

There are multiple ways people approach a website development project. Here are some popular approaches to website development and why they are so popular.

1. Using existing CMSes to develop the website.

There are tonnes of content management systems online which are really proficient in their intent and code. They are refined pieces of code developed under scrutiny of thousands of developers who have perfected the system and given their inputs. The natural result is a robust, scalable and efficient platform which can support you through thick and thin as your business rises. So whats the catch ? Just as every perfect phenomenon in life, there are imperfections. Same is with CMSes. CMSes offer you ready to port solutions with tonnes of inbuilt functionality but they really lack performance and simplicity. Simply put, when you hire a big truck for transporting a plastic bag, you end up loosing time, speed and money. CMSes come with junk code streams. Lets pickup wordpress, my absolute favorite, we are a wordpress website development company and we love wordpress for the job it does. For a simple job, it has to run through countless code loops to determine something. For example if you are running an ecommerce store, woocommerce is going to check if the product requested by the buyer is a downloadable product or not, you may not sell downloadable product, you will still have to keep the downloadable product functionality and code base. Whats the harm ? its eating up resources and computing power while it checks for the type of product. Those resources should be spent on serving multiple customers, should your website need it.

2. Website builders

A number of companies like, WIX, Godaddy, SITE123 offer you drag and drop builder to make your website online. Some of them even let you design your website for free, but once you want to use a custom domain which you will have to, they will ask for money. Nothing wrong with it, but once you go for this option, you are married. Either you break off the marriage or you keep consoling yourself whenever there is a disagreement. Simply put, these drag and drop builders are very limited in terms of functionality. These website providers are very limited in terms of customizability. Nothing wrong with the service they offer at that price point. But is it really worth your time ?

3. Custom Website Development

Here comes the challenger. Rather its also a challenge as much as it is the challenger. Custom website development deals with the right pain points you user faces when he visits your website. Custom means bespoke. Mould it as much as you want, keep what you want and throw away that serves no purpose. But be cautious, it takes a tremendous amount of skill, time and effort to make a workable product that is scalable and modular. Lot of times, people ask us, why are your charges high for a wordpress website or for a 5 day job ? I simply smile and tell them a story about a logo designer who designed logo for 10 years. Once a guy came to him and asked for a logo. The designer created a logo for him in 10 minutes and charged him Rs. 25,000 for a logo. Surprised by the price, the guy told the designer that you have charged me Rs. 25000 for 10 minutes that is absurd to which the designer retorted, I have charged you Rs. 25,000 for 10 years of knowledge and experience. My point is website development is really tricky and takes years to perfect. Also its never a one man job, it takes an entire team to build a solid product.

Here are some benefits of custom website development

1. Clarity of Concept

A custom website development gives you the opportunity of shaping your website according to the purpose it is going to serve. A laser targeted approach to website development is beneficial in the long run. You can build a simple and powerful application and not get dragged by the junk codes, unnecessary wasteful loops and get the right output from your web application.

2. Highly Optimized Product

You know where the shoe pinches. In website development lingo, if you know where the shoe pinches, you have won half the battle. Why something happens and knowing the reason behind it will help you shape up a highly optimized product. CMSes and ready to go drag and drop website builders have nested functions inside functions. Pinpointing the exact problem will require a thorough understanding of the entire application structure which is an arduous task. First you have to read the documentation and understand how everything functions and then you go about actual debugging or you will start searching stack overflow, where people will help you out with possible solutions which you will try one by one. When you have built your product, you know the source of the problem immediately because its your brainchild. It becomes so much easier to pinpoint the problem and fix them.

3. Latest functionality and trends.

Experimental technology and trends help you stay ahead of the game. If you use an existing codebase, new trends and technology is harder to implement. For example when AMP – accelerated mobile pages came, it took a while for wordpress, magento to adopt the technology. Many early entrants reaped the beenfits as they ranked higher in search results since google began to prefer website with AMP. Now similarly, headless applications are taking the center stage and it will take a while for existing CMSes to adopt the technology.

4. Adaptability

Just as there is opportunity to implement new functionality and trends faster, there is also an opportunity to adapt to changes faster. When google announced that flash wont run on chrome by default and a person will have to enable it, it took some time for wordpress and magento to pickup the change. Moreover, if you are stuck is a version, it is very hard to upgrade unless you follow careful steps. Till date Magento 1.9 uses flash uploader.

5. Programming Language Upgrades

Whenever a programming language upgrades, you cannot pass on the benefit immediately to existing CMSes. If you have built your own application, you can change it instantly since you know which functions and classes use outdated code and you will exactly know how restructuring will benefit your application. PHP 7 offers real performance benefits. New functions came into picture which can reduce ram consumption, increase performance and more. If you had a small and light weight application, you could adapt to the changes almost instantly.

6. Enhanced Security

No one knows your backdoors and no one knows your exploits yet. This makes your website more secure, since hackers have to sift through your nodes to catch the exploits. Popular CMSes have known exploits and hackers can almost instantly exploit vulnerabilities in old systems. Security is really tricky and you learn the art of hackproofing your website with years of experience. Enhanced security will only be applicable if you get your custom website developed from a website agency or a strong developer otherwise, the gift becomes the curse.

7. Speed

New entrants often neglect this aspect. Speed should be your number 1 priority. What good is a website that is not accessible by your customers. If they are frustrated, your business fails. Everything shatters. Custom website development offers you the opportunity to be a step ahead of your competitors by offering a fast web application to your audience.