HubSpot Themes vs HubSpot Templates: Which should your business use?

HubSpot themes were introduced in June 2020 and are a set of drag and drop templates that allow content creators to produce a professional-looking website without having to touch any code.

HubSpot themes come pre-built with CTAs, visuals, and all the elements needed for conversion optimisation, and are easy to edit from the dashboard of your HubSpot portal.

HubSpot themes enable users to create websites, landing pages, and marketing materials intuitively. While users can edit their options within the HubSpot theme builder in-app, they can also customise elements such as fonts, colours, and background images without the need for HTML coding. The advantages include:

• More customisation options
• Easy developing globally-acceptable content
• A better overall user experience
• Easier theme copying from one portal to another
• Reusable elements to save time and effort.

On the other hand, HubSpot templates, also known as template packs, are the older way of developing HubSpot websites. Templates rely more on developers from the start. Editing and customisation of templates can be a challenge when you have limited technical/HubSpot know-how.

The benefits of HubSpot website themes

Using HubSpot website themes has the following perks:

Easier editing processes for content creators and marketers

HubSpot theme templates are less challenging for marketers and content creators to edit. Users can make changes such as the colours of the entire site, fonts and create call-to-action buttons very easily.

The themes are built with conversion optimisation. Themes also come with pre-built visuals to help create stunning images for your site, such as a hero image to introduce your company.

Reduced reliability on developers

The HubSpot theme builder is accessible within the dashboard of your portal. It allows you to easily customise how elements look without having to rely on a developer, which prevents costly delays in the development process.

This also gives marketers and content creators the freedom to change their templates as often as they want without incurring extra costs.

Access to drag-and-drop page builders

The HubSpot CMS themes are based on a drag-and-drop (DND) page builder, allowing marketers and content creators to add elements such as text boxes, images, and calls-to-action with just a click.

HubSpot's new templates also come with custom CTAs, which marketers can use to design their marketing campaigns without touching any code.

Themes are based on the new coded templates

HubSpot's new coded template is built using the new HubSpot CMS theme builder. The template contains all the essential elements and functions of a website in an easily editable design.

This new template lets marketers get started with basics: They can add photos, images, videos, and text boxes and build out their site quicker than ever before.

Themes can be cloned/copied to other portals

For multinational businesses that use multiple portals, themes can be cloned/copied from one site to another. It saves time and money in the long run and allows various teams to work on a theme simultaneously.

The effort enables the company to send a consistent brand message across all its platforms. Since all themes can be cloned and edited to each portal, this also helps the company mitigate issues or errors from manual cross-portal edits.

HubSpot Themes use a central location to update and edit entire themes

All updates and edits are done in one central location for the entire theme, rather than editing each piece of content individually. It makes it easier to manage your company's webpage as you can see all changes in one place. You can edit CTAs, brand colours, and add/remove content from the theme itself.

What is a HubSpot template?

As mentioned earlier, HubSpot templates are a bit harder to work with when you're an ordinary website owner. The template packs require experienced developers to modify or make website updates on the Design Manager.

Below are vital things to note about HubSpot templates:

Templates are downloaded from the HubSpot Marketplace

HubSpot templates cover the style/function of website pages, landing pages, blogs, and emails. It means that it's a challenge creating custom pages. You'll need to create a custom-coded module to fit your website design needs.

Templates are soon to be redundant

As the world moves to more accessible, customisable, and user-friendly CMS, HubSpot website templates will quickly lose relevance. Many users want to manage better modules and the freedom to make customisations to a site without relying on a developer.

Relies heavily on developers at the start and future edits

It's frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive to always depend on a developer when you want to modify a template. It means you're at the mercy of their schedule. You may not be able to get the results you want fast enough or to your specifications.

Restricted scalability and accessibility

HubSpot templates are very limited in scalability sizes. If you're building a site for more than one vertical industry, HubSpot templates will limit your options as they don't support scalable sizes for different websites. If you're building a single-page site or blog, you'll be limited to the pre-defined template size unless you let a developer modify it for you.

It's not easy to customise and copy a template to multiple portals and have all the changes reflected in every platform. It also isn't that easy to add multiple pages to a single template when you want to use multi-page features.

Why you should use HubSpot Themes for your business

From the above, it's easy to say that HubSpot templates aren't as easy to use as they're less customisable, scalable, and accessible than HubSpot website themes. Themes are a revolutionary shift to a more advanced, innovative web design approach that is future-proofed and adaptable to various industries and requirements.

How SpotDev develops themes

SpotDev will enable your business to grow from a small enterprise to becoming an online authority with stunning, customisable, and relevant websites. Here's how:

• We can expand your business horizons with beautiful themes that are easy to set up and use by just about anyone.
• Create a user-friendly platform your audience will love coming to every time.
• There's no need for any coding skills or developer support (after set-up).
• Our themes are built with mobile-first indexing in mind.
• All template designs are customisable and accessible for your needs.

Looking to make the best of HubSpot themes and drive profits for your business? Get in touch with SpotDev to discuss your specific themes HubSpot requirements and discover how a HubSpot Diamond consultancy can help.