Both custom WordPress theme development and Elementor development can be used to create a new WordPress website. Which is right for your organization?
Custom WordPress theme development involves creating a unique design and layout for a website using HTML, CSS, and PHP templates. This approach provides the most flexibility and control over the website’s design and functionality, but it also requires a higher level of technical expertise.
When considering these options for your organization, and by taking time to understand your website users’ physical and emotional needs (through observation and engagement), you can better ensure you’re developing the right solution unique to your organizational needs and project budget.
Elementor development, on the other hand, is a drag-and-drop website builder that can be used to create custom pages and templates for a WordPress website. It’s a more user-friendly option that doesn’t require as much technical expertise, but it may be less flexible and customizable than a custom theme.
Ultimately, the choice between a custom WordPress theme and Elementor development will depend on your specific needs and the level of control and customization you require for your website.
What’s important for organization’s to consider:
There are numerous important factors that organizations should consider when choosing between developing a custom WordPress theme and Elementor development for a new website:
Budget: Custom WordPress theme development can be more expensive than using a website builder like Elementor, as it requires more specialized skills and resources. As the costs of maintaining engineers on your team rises, tools to save budget are welcomed.
Technical expertise: Custom WordPress theme development requires a higher level of technical expertise than using a website builder like Elementor. If your team lacks the necessary skills and resources, it may be more cost-effective to use a website builder.
Design and functionality: Custom WordPress theme development provides more flexibility and control over the design and functionality of a website. If you require a very specific design or certain functionality, it may be best to go with a custom theme.
Maintenance and updates: Custom WordPress themes require more maintenance and updates compared to a website builder, as it may need more updates with the theme and WordPress itself.
Scalability: If your organization plans to expand its online presence in the future, it’s important to consider scalability when choosing between a custom theme and a website builder. Custom themes are typically more scalable than website builders, as they can be easily modified and expanded to meet the organization’s changing needs.
SEO friendly: Both custom WordPress theme and Elementor development can be SEO friendly, but it’s important to ensure that the final product is optimized for SEO.
Two Paths: Custom WordPress theme or Elementor development?
It’s important to weigh the pros and cons of each option and consider which one best aligns with your organization’s goals, budget, and resources.
When is Elementor the right choice?
Elementor is a great option for organizations who have limited budgets, lack technical expertise and need a website quickly.
Once your website is developed, it’s really easy to use and has features that help improve SEO optimization as well as providing responsive design templates. Elementor does not require high levels of customization or scalability, so it is best suited for small to medium size websites.
Elementor development is a good choice for organizations that:
Have a limited budget: Elementor is a cost-effective option compared to custom WordPress theme development.
Lack technical expertise: Elementor is a user-friendly website builder that doesn’t require a high level of technical expertise to maintain and use day-to-day.
Need a website quickly: Elementor allows you to create a website quickly and easily, without needing to wait for a custom theme to be developed.
Want to make changes to the website easily: Elementor’s drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to add, move, and delete content on the website.
Want to add custom functionalities with ease: Elementor offers a wide range of widgets and add-ons, and custom Elementor widget development is available to add unique functionalities to your website.
Want to optimize for SEO: Elementor provides features such as meta tags and schema markup, which helps to optimize the website for SEO.
If your organizations wants to be flexible, get through development quickly, and make it really easy to maintain moving forward, hiring a team of experienced Elementor developers is likely the right choice.
When is custom theme development the right choice?
Custom WordPress theme development is a good choice for organizations that require high levels of customization, scalability, and control over their website design and functionality. It can also be optimized for SEO, provide specific functionality needs, help an organization to stand out from its competitors, and handle high levels of traffic.
A dedicated team is typically needed in order to manage, maintain and update the website regularly.
Custom WordPress theme development is a good choice for organizations that:
Require a high level of customization: Custom WordPress theme development allows for a completely unique design and layout for a website, providing the most flexibility and control over the website’s design and functionality.
Have specialized functionality needs: Custom WordPress theme development allows for the integration of specific functionality that may not be available with a website builder like Elementor.
Have a large complex website: Custom WordPress theme development is a better option for large and complex websites that require a high level of scalability.
Have a dedicated team for maintenance and updates: Custom WordPress theme requires more maintenance and updates compared to a website builder, so it’s important to have a dedicated team to handle these tasks.
Expect high traffic: Custom WordPress theme development is a good choice for websites that expect high traffic, as it is more optimized for performance, security and scalability.
If an organization requires a high level of customization, scalability and control over the website design and functionality, custom WordPress theme development is likely to be the better option.
A human-centered approach to development
A well-planned and executed human-centered design process can result in a website that meets the needs of your organization. If, however, we neglect that human-centered approach in developement, your organization may find yourselves with a bautiful website nobody can use. Or worse, a website that should be beautiful but isn’t, because it’s broken.
“The ‘Design Thinking’ label is not a myth. It is a description of the application of well-tried design process to new challenges and opportunities, used by people from both design and non-design backgrounds. I welcome the recognition of the term and hope that its use continues to expand and be more universally understood, so that eventually every leader knows how to use design and design thinking for innovation and better results.”
– Bill Moggridge, co-founder of IDEO, in Design Thinking: Dear Don
A human-centered design process can help organizations create effective websites that are true organizational solutions. Utilizing design thinking to progress development process thinking, we’re utilizing informed development decisions so your organization can ensure an end result meets all customer requirements effectively without wasting valuable resources developing something no one wants or needs.
Explore how we apply this human-centered thinking to WordPress development, as our engineers transform countless Figma designs into amazing WordPress websites, and how our Elementor Development team uses this to build easily managed WordPress websites.
