Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Is it ethical and prudent to reuse website designs for multiple clients?

• posted by: Shane on 2016-12-28
• tagged: legal, marketing, website, design
• score: 2

I am working on a turn-key website service for a specific market. While I plan on having multiple free website designs and offering custom designs, I wanted to start selling locally with the single design I have created so far.

Is it ethical and prudent to sell the service to multiple local clients using the same design? I’m worried if I pitch a demo of their site using the default design with language like, “This is your site using our free design–although, we do offer custom design services…”, they might still be angry if they found a local competitor with the same design.

I’m curious if anyone has had experiences reusing website designs and clients discovering it.

Answer 11792

• posted by: SRDC on 2016-12-28
• score: 6

It might be helpful to look at the way some of the premium Wordpress themes (for example) work:

• Free ‘lite’ themes typically have a limited number of elements that you can change to differentiate your site - background image, header, colors, etc.
• The premium version of the same theme typically adds more options (which exponentially increases the number of ‘unique’ websites, as you can mix and match more options).

If your primary service is helping your customers get a website up and going, and that is the way a) you advertise it and b) they understand it, it is often assumed that the ‘basic’ level is pretty basic, and uncustomizable (think Yahoo webstores, etc). Offering extra customization as an upgrade would be a pretty standard marketing system.

Two things to consider:

• Make sure to manage your customers expectations (don’t hype the customization if it’s not available yet, but focus on what you believe the minimum viable product is for your market - a website with features just for your given industry niche?)
• Many people want a ‘uniquely standard’ website. In other words, they don’t want it to look just like their neighbors, but they want it to have the same general look and feel as a ‘good website’ in their industry. This helps customers - unique enough to remember, but similar enough they know how to find their way around quickly.

Answer 11791

• posted by: BrettFromLA on 2016-12-28
• score: 0

If you keep the layout the same, but change the color scheme, fonts, and other CSS elements, I would think it’s a decent (but not idea) business model to start with. However, if you give different companies the exact same layout and CSS, my impression is that you’re going to have some angry customers and damage your reputation.

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