A Turnkey or Customized Website: Which One is Right for You?
No doubt transporting your business online has never been
easier. But one towering question remains: should I use a
turnkey software that's already been developed or a totally
customized Website option for my business? Continue to read to
learn the pros and cons of these two website building options,
and to decide whether to choose a turnkey website builder or a
purely customized solution for fulfilling your business
requirements and expectations.
Below are major factors to consider when you are shopping for
the right website building solution for your business:
Time constraints; budget; flexibility; scalability; maintenance;
support.
Customized Website Solution
First, I will address a customized website solution. For some
business owners, they would not be satisfied unless their
website is totally custom-designed. There are certain advantages
such as specialization and uniqueness when a website is
completely built from scratch. With so many companies today that
provide website development services, you can work directly with
a web designer during the entire web developmental process to
make sure that you receive exactly what you want. You will get
mock-ups for each web page, reviews, and opportunities to
suggest changes. When approved your web designer will implement
selected designs within the site.
A 5 to10 paged Website may cost you any where from $2000 up to
$5,000. The timeline for completion is usually between two to
four weeks.
A turnkey Website solution is one which has been developed and
is available to you on a monthly rental basis. There are many
providers that offer turnkey website software, but only a few
good ones that offer shopping cart software, free support, and
many features.
Beware of falling for those inferior shopping cart software
providers which specialize in web hosting. You do not want to
use a company that offers you ecommerce software as an added
benefit. Be extremely careful of making this oversight. The
"wrong" provider can cost you thousands of dollars worth of lost
sales down the line.
A number of competent turnkey ecommerce software packages are
available to you at a very reasonably low cost. Keep in mind
that these companies have invested years in research and a lot
of money to develop their ecommerce software. They can afford to
provide you a high quality turnkey website solution at a
remarkably low cost. Because their focus is to attract the
masses, their turnkey software has to provide a sizeable number
of features in order to fulfill a vast range of business
requirements. In addition, the price you pay monthly will be
quite low since such software providers have thousands of
customers.
To see a fine example of a professionally-built turnkey website,
visit: http://www.turnkey-websites.info
The resources that are required to use a turnkey software truly
depend on how many services or products you are planning to
sell. You will either get manual or automated product updates.
Be certain to create a list of the utmost important features you
will need to run a successful business online. Then, compare
your list of needs with their list of features to make sure that
most of those features that you require, are available once you
sign up. Never be in a hurry. If you got questions, never
hesitate to call or email. Make an informed decision when all of
your questions are answered to your complete satisfaction.
Some turnkey software providers may fail to deliver a high level
of support to their customer base. Bear the support factor in
mind when shopping for a good turnkey software provider.
The vast majority of turnkey software companies provide
web-based administration so you can easily use point-and-click
features to quickly make updates whenever you need to.
Maintenance of a website through turnkey software is relatively
simple, efficient, and very cost-effective since the cost is
already included in your monthly rental fees.
The budget requirement for a turnkey website usually runs under
one hundred dollars a month. The timeline to launch a new
website can realistically be done within a day, depending on how
involved the project is.
The Pros and Cons
So what are the pros and cons of each described website option?
A customized website gives the business owner less control over
content update, takes longer to create, and costs much more to
build, but it does offer a more unique look. A turnkey software
provider, on the other hand, gives the business owner total
control over content updates, takes less time to build, costs
incredibly less, but the look and feel of a finished website is
not as unique and personal as of a customized web project.