Why 'We'll Just Use a Template' Usually Backfires for Small Businesses
Website templates seem like the affordable option — but for many small businesses, they create hidden costs. Here's when templates work and when they don't.
"We'll just use a template" is one of the most common things small business owners say when they need a website in a hurry. It sounds sensible. Templates are cheap, fast, and — on a good day — they look professional.
But for a surprising number of UK small businesses, website templates end up costing more than they saved. Not because the templates are bad, but because the businesses that use them often aren't the right fit.
Here's how to tell whether a template will serve you well, or whether it'll quietly hold you back.
What templates are actually good at
Templates — whether you're using Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, or a WordPress theme — are brilliant for certain situations:
- You're just starting out and need a simple presence online quickly.
- Your business is simple: you sell one or two things, take bookings through a standard calendar, or just need a contact form.
- You don't need anything connected: no software integrations, no custom workflows, no data going anywhere.
- You're testing an idea and don't yet know whether the business will stick around.
In these cases, a template makes complete sense. It's the right tool. Use it.
The problems start when business reality doesn't match template reality.
The three ways templates backfire
1. You spend weeks customising something that can't do what you need
Templates are built for the average use case. The moment your business has a requirement that sits outside that average — a specific booking flow, a membership area, a way to manage enquiries or jobs — you start running into walls.
You'll spend hours on YouTube, in forums, and on live chat with support, trying to get the template to do something it wasn't built for. Sometimes you succeed. More often, you end up with a compromise that almost works, and a growing list of workarounds.
Meanwhile, every hour you spend on that is an hour you're not spending on actually running your business.
2. It looks like everyone else
Templates are bought by thousands of businesses. Unless you invest significant time and skill in customising one, you'll end up with a site that looks broadly similar to your competitors' sites.
That's not always a disaster, but for businesses where trust and differentiation matter — tradespeople, consultants, service businesses — a generic-looking site can quietly undermine you. If your site doesn't clearly communicate what makes you different, potential clients will compare you on price alone.
3. It becomes a bottleneck as you grow
A template that works fine at the start can become a genuine problem as your business develops. Want to add a client portal? Connect it to your CRM? Show different content based on where a visitor came from? In most template-based platforms, you're either stuck or paying significantly for plugins and add-ons that don't quite fit together.
Businesses often reach a point where they're working around their website rather than working with it.
The question to ask before you decide
Before reaching for a template, ask yourself: "What does this website need to do?"
Not what it needs to look like. What it needs to do.
If the answer is "look professional and give people a way to contact us" — a template will do that job perfectly well.
If the answer involves anything more specific — capturing leads in a particular way, connecting to your booking or job management system, serving different content to different visitors — then the template might need to be a more custom build from the start, or it'll cost you more to fix later.
What "custom" actually means (and costs)
"Custom website" sounds expensive, and sometimes it is. But there's a spectrum.
At one end, you have a fully bespoke site built from scratch — the right choice for businesses with complex, specific requirements. At the other end, there's a professionally designed and configured site built on a robust platform — which costs more than a template but far less than a fully bespoke build, and does the job for most small businesses.
The honest answer is that many UK small businesses need something in the middle: not a blank Squarespace template, but not a six-month software project either. A good web partner will tell you which category you're in, and won't push you toward a more expensive option than you need.
Red flags in a web quote
If you're getting quotes for a website, watch out for:
- A fixed template being presented as a custom design with just your colours changed.
- No conversation about what the site needs to do, only what it needs to look like.
- A very low price with a long list of add-ons priced separately (speed, SEO, forms, mobile-friendliness — these should be included as standard).
- No mention of what happens after launch (who maintains it, how you update it).
A decent web partner will ask about your business before talking about design. The website is a tool for your business — it should be built around how your business works, not the other way round.
Not sure whether a template or something more tailored is right for your business? Book a free discovery call and we'll give you an honest answer — even if the answer is "a template is fine."