Custom, Stock and Free Blog Templates – Differences and More
Templates are important not only aesthetically but functionally for blogs. There are several types of blogs and the three most popular are custom, stock and free blog templates. Each has its own pros and cons. Let’s explore these templates and their differences with each other.
Custom Templates
Unlike free blog templates, custom templates carry a hefty price tag. These are customized templates produced by freelance graphic designers. The price can vary depending on the design, scale of work and the designer’s portfolio. There are some designers who charge as much as $1,000 for template design. The cheapest you’ll probably get is around $70 – and that’s only the header.
Custom templates are wonderful if you already have a popular blog site, which gets significant amount of traffic; otherwise, spending huge amounts of money on this type of design for a starting website is a complete waste. But if you’re a professional looking for a unique design to help launch your site, customized ones are probably the most desirable.
Stock Templates
If custom templates can cost most than a thousand dollars, stocks, on the other hand, are the cheapest designs, which are still tremendously customizable and high-quality. You’ll find stock designs on designer-owned websites. Stocks are quite advantageous if you’re the one making and selling them but, otherwise, these can also run the risk of typicality. Why? Stock designs don’t sell just once; multiple users can buy one stock design. So while they are indeed cheaper than custom ones, they are certainly not unique.
Free Templates
Free blog templates are probably the most popular type of blog template. Almost all blogs use free blog templates. These designs are user-made and easily accessible through several websites and blog sites. But even though they don’t cost a dime, you’ll find several ones that are slightly on par with stock and custom templates.
But due to the popularity of free blog templates, and the number of designers and users creating numerous designs everyday, it becomes greatly difficult to pick the right one or find a high quality design. Furthermore, most of these patterns are not easily customizable. Except for the header, columns and widgets, there’s nothing else you can do. Nevertheless, these blog designs are great for starting bloggers – they are cheap and more attractive than default templates provided by blog hosts.
