Which way should I go Site Definition or Inbuilt definition with customization?

Question

I am new to Sharepoint. I need to create a totally customized site from the scratch level. Which means there would be many pages, customized master page and etc.

I came to know that you should go for site definition project and do all the customization things in that project like web parts and if there is so much code then go for application pages too. And at last deploy it to the production server.

Till now my predecessors were creating 'Team Site' and then customize everything using custom/visual web parts and Brandings for 'Master Pages'.

So my concern is that, is it a right way to use 'Team Site' method or should I use site definition project and do all the things?

Other concern is that when there is too much customization at that time should I use application pages or create webparts and add them to the particular page?

Answer 1

For maximum upgrade compatibility Microsoft recommends to start from Team Site and add apps or features to it. You don't have to limit yourself to content editor web parts, instead you can deploy farm solutions with feature stapling or follow the newly recommended remote provisioning methodology.