Pick the stack you will actually ship. A short buyer’s guide for HTML templates, React themes, and Figma kits. This is a working note from the VicanTheme journal, written for founders and agency producers. The catalog we keep returning to is HTML templates, because files you can host beat a locked builder when the brand has to last.
If you already know the industry, skip ahead to the recommended demo — Northline — and use the headings as a checklist rather than a speech.
HTML templates
Static pages, CSS, a little JS. Open index.html or drop the files on any host. Best for coastal houses, architecture practices, and most brochure sites in the HTML templates aisle.
You do not need Node to go live. You do need someone who can replace copy and images without inventing a design system from scratch.
React themes
App Router or Vite starters with routing and SEO already wired. You need Node to build. Buy React when the site will grow into an app, not because React is fashionable on a pitch deck.
If the brief is a twelve-page hospitality site, HTML will ship faster and rank with less ceremony.
Figma kits
Design source, not production code. Use them to brief a team. Preview is an embed. Do not promise a client a live website from a Figma file alone.
Still compare a live HTML cousin such as Lumen or Northline so the team can feel motion and type in the browser before anyone opens Dev Mode.
A one-line rule
If it must run without a build step on a cheap host, buy HTML. If it must become an authenticated product, buy React. If it must align a design team, buy Figma.
Mixing all three in one statement of work without a sequence is how projects stall. Sequence them.
Questions people actually ask
Can I convert HTML to React later?
Yes. Semantic HTML is the cheapest starting point.
Do Figma kits include developers?
No. They include frames.
Keep reading: Architecture practice website design: layout that does the job and Best HTML template for architecture practice sites in 2026. Or browse Comparisons in the journal.
