Your wish to build a HubSpot theme from scratch is understandable. Your company is unique and has what it takes to stand out from competitors. And what better way to showcase your brand's unique personality and values than with a custom-designed website?
But your knowledge and skills will play a crucial role in this process — it can be challenging to create a new theme if your developer isn't familiar with the HubSpot CMS framework. Without initial knowledge, creating and customizing HubSpot CMS themes and page templates will require multiple hours of trial and error.
If you create your own theme from scratch, you nail a look and feel that is 100% original and tailored to your business. But is the extra hassle REALLY worth the effort compared to buying a HubSpot theme? Let's find out!
A HubSpot theme is a collection of templates and styles to build or change the look and feel of your website and landing pages. Website owners can existing pre-designed themes from the HubSpot asset marketplace or create their own custom theme using the HubSpot design manager.
What’s so cool about using a HubSpot theme to build your company’s website? In plain English, flexibility and customization. Within your HubSpot theme, you can develop different assets based on what your content and website creators need.
Moreover, with a good theme, you won’t need additional coding down the road, regardless of the assets your creatives might need, as they uncover new trends and audience preferences.
Here are some elements you can develop with a HubSpot theme and how they’ll help your marketing team:
Modules help you develop anything special your content creators want to place in a row or column of a section. Think sliders for testimonials or unique icons (or emojis) instead of the traditional bullet points.
Sections create a manageable framework that enables marketers to change images and texts directly on the website with no coding skills. All they need to do is drag and drop custom modules for rich text, photos, videos, etc., in the section they want to change, and the optimization for conversions becomes a breeze.
Templates combine sections and custom modules to provide an easy-to-work-with framework for an entire website page. This way, anyone can build new pages from a template instead of starting from scratch, saving significant time and resources.
And the best part about these assets is that they’re customizable. You can go as in-depth as you need — the best themes allow you to change the buttons' colors on forms, the primary color of each section’s background, and even the sizes of your headings.
Pro tip:Like with other web-developing frameworks, like React or Vue, you can download a library of pre-made content to get you started using Node.js. Simply download the Boilerplate theme, open-sourced for developers, and get started by following HubSpot’s detailed instructions. |
HubSpot's free website builder lets you build simple website pages quickly with default themes, such as the Growth theme or the Boilerplate theme. You don't need to know coding, CSS, or HTML. Just drag, drop, and adjust content as you need, thanks to the user-friendly HubSpot CMS user interface.
The default themes that come with HubSpot CMS Hub have limitations, though. You must go beyond the default options to create a truly unique and sophisticated online presence for your business.
You'll need to implement advanced layouts, complicated columns, eye-catching background gradients, pre-made designs, or unique blog layouts. You also want detailed control breakpoints to ensure your website looks great on all devices. To make these things happen, you must build your own HubSpot CMS theme.
Building from scratch requires effort and expertise — you need to know not just HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JSON but also HubL (HubSpot's markup language). That’s something that even seasoned developers may need to learn from scratch using HubSpot’s documentation, articles, and video tutorials. But the result is a website that truly showcases your business to the world.
Plus, once you’re theme is fully developed, you can sell it through HubSpot’s asset marketplace. All you have to do is submit it for vetting by expert developers at HubSpot, and your theme will start producing income every time someone decides to buy it and use it to build a new website.
The downside? The effort vs. results consideration. When you start building your HubSpot website from scratch, almost all the underlying code used will be the same as the one used in existing theme settings.
Yes, your website will look right like you need it, but given the number of hours your developers will put into building specific theme settings, the project will take twice as long and cost at least double what you would pay for buying one of the best HubSpot themes in the marketplace.
Moreover, when building a theme from scratch, it's possible to encounter issues or need to change the theme down the line. If you have a falling out with the developer you hired or they are no longer available to work on the theme, it can be a hassle to resolve any issues and get the custom code worked on. It could lead to a break in the design and functionality of your website, causing frustration and lost time and resources for your business.
Creating a custom site starting with a theme purchased from the HubSpot marketplace still requires effort, but far less than if you started from scratch. After all, the main reason themes exist is to help you build a custom site fast and for small costs.
Most modern themes are flexible, too. Do you need a teal site with a weird font? No problem! Fancy a black background with neon text? Easy-peasy! Plenty of HubSpot marketplace themes have suitable page templates to help you turn your vision into a reality.
You can edit theme settings to include your brand colors, logo, and fonts; all theme pages will match your choices. You have a list of page designs and multiple templates, custom modules, theme fields, reusable elements, and sections to build unique pages that attract and maintain people's attention once they land on your page.
It's important to note, though, that a purchased theme may offer a different level of flexibility and control than building a custom HubSpot theme from scratch.
What about HubSpot themes cost?
If a free HubSpot theme is too simple for your needs, some of the most complex themes available may initially seem expensive. Spending around $1000 for one sounds pricey, but it's far cheaper than hiring a developer to build something similar from scratch. Considering that a $1000-theme can take a dev team several hundred hours to complete, the price doesn't seem high anymore.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Choosing a particular theme makes sense because it looks closest to your desired design. Aesthetics matter, after all.
But unfortunately, the design shouldn't be the primary criterion when buying a HubSpot theme.
Look for these main things to find your winner:
Pro tip:If HubSpot design is not your team's strong suit, try to meet the developer before buying. Schedule a demo and test their responses to ensure you can efficiently work with them moving forward. Remember that, in this case, you aren't just buying a theme. You're most likely buying into the support system the theme's developer offers. |
Here are a few situations when it might make sense to buy a HubSpot theme:
Pro tip:Choose a theme early to give your team a starting point to work with when creating content for your website. This can save a great deal of your time, as your website creators, writers, and marketers get to make the content within a design framework. |
Customize, customize, customize.
Use all available HubSpot tools.
Make the most of the support provided by the theme developer.
Themes include templates, modules, style settings, and global content used to create a website. You can develop homepages, contact pages, blogs, and landing pages inside the page builder. It's a straightforward way to make the most out of the HubSpot CMS hub and HubSpot's unique features as a CRM.
You can use a HubSpot theme to create various websites, including:
Themes make it easy for you to build a completely functional website on the HubSpot platform so you can manage the entire customer journey within a single platform. It's immensely convenient and powerful in the long run.
All HubSpot themes are available in HubSpot's asset marketplace — you need to be logged into your HubSpot account to view the marketplace.
Once you find a theme that's a good fit, you can purchase it directly through HubSpot.