Custom website or a template? An honest comparison.
Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace are the right answer for plenty of businesses. This page lays out where a custom build from CS2 wins, where a template wins, and how to tell which one you need before you spend anything.
The short answer
A custom site from CS2 ships in four weeks, costs a fixed setup fee plus one monthly retainer, and belongs to you outright. A template platform gets you live faster and cheaper at the start, in exchange for a subscription you can never stop paying and code you never own. If your business depends on bookings, customer accounts, or a flow no plugin quite fits, custom pays for itself. If you need a clean five-page presence and nothing more, a template is fine, and we will tell you so on the call.
Eight things that differ, in plain terms
| Topic | Custom site by CS2 | Template platform |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the site | You do. The code, the domain, the ad account, and the customer data are set up under your accounts from day one. | The platform licenses the site to you. Cancel the subscription and the site goes with it. |
| Design | Designed around your offer. No theme, no drag-and-drop builder. | You pick a theme. Your competitor down the street can pick the same one. |
| Time to launch | Four weeks, in dated phases signed off in writing before each one begins. | Days, if you build it yourself and have the content ready. |
| Monthly cost | One retainer, from $650/mo, that covers hosting, Google Ads management, and the CRM. Ad spend is paid to Google directly and never marked up. | A subscription, then separate paid apps for booking, forms, reviews, and email as you need them. |
| Transaction fees | None from us. Card payments go through Stripe at its published rate. | Some platforms add their own fee on top of the card rate unless you use their payment gateway. |
| Booking, accounts, custom flows | Built natively. Etobicoke VR Arena runs its own scheduling engine; Milton Wax & Glow has client accounts and online booking on the same codebase as the site. | Third-party plugins, each with its own subscription, limits, and look. |
| SEO control | Server-rendered Next.js pages. Titles, structured data, sitemaps, and page speed are all under your control. | You control the words. The platform controls the code it emits and how fast it loads. |
| Leaving | Cancel after any phase and take everything with you. | Export what the platform allows, then rebuild somewhere else. |
When a template is the right call
- Your budget is below our Foundation tier ($4,500 setup).
- You need a few pages, a contact form, and a map, and you enjoy maintaining it yourself.
- You are testing an idea and might shut it down in six months.
When custom pays for itself
- Bookings, memberships, or customer accounts are part of how you make money.
- You run Google Ads and need landing pages that load fast and convert.
- You have been paying for a platform plus four plugins and still cannot get the flow you want.
- You want to own the asset you are paying to build.
A platform is not the same thing as a template
We built Sam's Furniture GTA on Shopify, because a furniture retailer with live inventory, sale pricing, and checkout needs Shopify's commerce engine. What we did not do is install a theme. The storefront is custom-built on top of the platform, so it looks like Sam's and not like every other furniture store. When the platform is the right tool, we use it and still build custom.