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Duda is a rock-solid choice, with good features for DIY-style sites. But for marketing agencies and teams that want to build lots of websites, it’s even better. The prices start to look more reasonable when measured against a team-sized budget.
Ultimately, this site builder accomplishes precisely what it says on the tin. It’s hard to argue with that.
Overview
A Site Builder with Big Business Ambitions
Duda is designed predominantly for users that want to make more than one website. It’s intended as a platform for service providers to build sites for other people. And, you know, get paid for it.
However, that needn’t stop you from using it to build your own site – far from it! The prices are competitive even when compared to more consumer-focused site builders, and the features are plentiful. You can do a lot with Duda.
As you’d expect from a modern platform, Duda has a range of stunning website templates. There are just over 100 designs sorted into broad categories, including Business, Landing Pages, Events, Portfolios, and more. All the templates are mobile-responsive.
One thing to note is that there are lots of blank and semi-blank starter templates. I presume the blank canvas approach is to help designers make original-looking designs for their clients. And it makes sense, given that service providers are Duda’s primary target customer.
But of course, the templates alone aren’t enough. The site editor needs to be good – and fortunately, it is. It’s a semi-standard editor that allows you to drag and drop content and widgets onto a page in a customizable grid-based layout.
You don’t get total drag and drop freedom but a sensible melding of frameworks and customization options. Just put in your text, images, maps, forms, and raw HTML as you see fit, and go.
You can also change global styles across your templates for text, colors, buttons, backgrounds, and site layouts. Sitewide styles make it easy to customize any template and align it with your branding.
Unfortunately, the font selection is a bit limited. Duda only supports 53 fonts in total, and any designer will tell you that’s not enough fonts. But then, maybe we’re just greedy!
Duda Has Everything an Agency Needs and Most of What a Single Site Owner Wants
Duda aims to attract big clients, and so it’s no slouch in the feature department. While it may not play with artificial intelligence (AI) like Wix or Zyro, it provides a solid, dependable, proven set of tools to get your sites up and running.
Here are some of the primary features – I’ll get to the exciting stuff below.
AWS hosting and Amazon’s CDN – That’s top-performance cloud hosting, with no storage or bandwidth restrictions on any plan.
Multi-language sites – Build websites for clients and customers in any part of the world.
Built-in image library – Duda provides a ton of free stock images by default. Using stock images isn’t always ideal, but it gives you alternatives to work with.
Website exports (on the Agency plan or higher) – Download a zip file of all your content, images, and scripts for any website.
Instant websites (on the Custom plan) – Create sites instantly by pushing structured data to Duda’s site builder via API.
There’s also a simple blog feature. It’s a bit bare-bones, but it’s serviceable for most people’s needs. You can add post metadata for SEO, tag posts to organize them, and schedule them to be published later. You can also import blog posts from elsewhere.
My favorite bit is that you can edit posts directly in the site editor for a true WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) experience.
Given Duda’s focus on teams, it makes sense that multiple people can log in and collaborate on a site at once. But it’s more than just inviting someone in and giving them full access. I mean, you can do that, but you can also assign roles to your team.
You can give someone access to the design features, put another person in charge of blog content, and even assign a store manager. By separating the roles, you ensure team members don’t accidentally mess with other people’s work.
Extend Your Site with the App Store
I feel like no site builder is complete without a marketplace full of apps and add-ons to extend your site’s functionality. Well, Duda has apps. Not many of them, just over 10, but there’s nothing wrong with a focus on quality and tight integration over quantity.
These apps let you manage everything from agendas, site search, analytics, Google Ads, CRM, and more, all on your website. Some are free, some are paid, and some have free trials. From what I’ve seen, they’re all useful.
Adding a store to your website takes no more than a couple of clicks, and it nicely integrates with your chosen site template. Here are some of Duda’s relevant e-commerce features:
Coupons and gift cards
Abandoned cart emails – Like a Remembrall from Harry Potter, but more practical and less cool at the same time.
Delivery and pickup scheduler – For that old-fashioned in-person business.
More than 40 payment providers
Selling on other marketplaces – including Amazon, eBay, and Facebook.
Integration with Square’s Point of Sale system – For in-person payments.
The only downside to Duda’s e-commerce features is that they aren’t included in any of the plans by default. E-commerce is an add-on cost. It’s not expensive in the grand scheme of things, but it really should be included in the more expensive plans. I mean, Wix does it. Squarespace does it. Almost all of the competition does it.
If you decide that paying extra is worth it, the Standard e-commerce plan limits you to 100 products, the Advanced plan allows for 2500 products, and the Unlimited plan gives you, well, unlimited.
Self-Brand Your Site Builder
If you’re building sites for clients, and you give them access to the back end, you probably want to have your company’s logo at the top of the site editor, not Duda’s. Heck, even if all the websites are for your organization, this is a nice little perk.
A personal touch, so to speak.
The self-branding feature is available from the Team plan up, so it doesn’t even cost that much. Just upload your logo and go. You can rebrand every part of the site builder to your liking.
Duda’s User Experience is Streamlined and Simple For Experienced Site Builders
The team-and-agency focus of this service means that there is a bit of a learning curve. Duda isn’t hard to use by any stretch of the imagination, especially if you’ve had prior experience with site builders. But for newbies, there is very little hand-holding in the app itself.
That said, Duda does try to make your life easier, with several handy things:
Duda University & Webinars
First up, Duda has a ton of educational material about the fundamentals of web design and how to use its site builder. There are entire courses under the umbrella of “Duda University.”
Okay, getting a P.H.D. from Duda may never happen, but the courses are actually useful. I’d strongly recommend starting here.
If you prefer the in-person touch, you can get the next best thing: webinars. Duda regularly runs webinars on such topics as legally protecting your clients, growing your business, integrating site search, and more.
Import Existing Content
Here’s a short and sweet one: you can import content from external websites and drag and drop it into your Duda site. So, if you have a massive site to move, or even several, this makes it a lot easier.
I told you it was short and sweet.
Managed Services & Hands-On Assistance
If you’re willing to pay extra for the Custom plan, you can get Duda’s support team to migrate and set up your site. You also get access to one-on-one training instead of a pre-written course.
Another interesting thing is that you can get direct support and training for developers. If you have a programmer on your team and want to see what they can do with Duda’s API, why not have an expert show them around the system?
First off, there’s a pretty extensive knowledge base for when you want to figure things out yourself, along with the previously-mentioned educational materials.
But sometimes, against your better judgement, you have to talk to another human being. Well, you have your choice of phone support (via callback), email support, and live chat. You can initiate all the support team interactions via the chat box and access the channels listed above.
The live chat offers support in English, Spanish, and Portuguese – which I thought was pretty cool.
Phone (Callbacks Only)
When I requested a callback to ask which Top-Level Domains (TLDs) were supported when buying a domain from Duda, I only got a call an hour and a half later, which wasn’t great.
Interesting note: Duda integrates with Google Domains and Hover. So basically, you can buy any domain that those two services support, which is just about all of them. Convenient.
Live Chat
For this part, I asked if I could publish an RSS feed for the blog and Duda’s online stores. RSS, after all, is amazing.
I received an auto-response in Spanish (even though I chose the English support option) about high volumes of support requests. I started at 13th in the queue, and it took about an hour for the team to get to me. Well, I was warned.
Anyway, the response clearly and concisely answered my question:
I was fifth in the queue when I decided to play a video game while I waited. Of course, I got my response about thirty seconds after I started playing my first daily mission. That’s how you summon support people!
Email/Leave a Message
Lastly, I asked if it was possible to use background GIFs or videos in the editor and slideshow widget. Funny story, you can rate your problems and issues by priority: Low, Normal, High, or Urgent. Well, this request was “Normal” at best, so that’s the one I picked.
I don’t know if that’s why it took the team 6 hours to respond, but that’s not great. It’s not the end of the world in non-emergency cases – I find myself hoping that urgent requests get taken care of faster – but it’s still a long time to wait to resolve an issue.
Oh, and yes, you can use background videos and GIFs in the slideshow. The agent responded with helpful screenshots taken in my site’s editor:
Duda’s pricing falls in roughly the same range as Squarespace’s. The plans start at $14.00 per month for the Basic plan, and you can check out the rest in the table below. Paying more gets you access to white-label features, team and client management, and more.
Where you’ll really have to stretch the wallet is with the Custom plans. But, well, that’s for big agencies and teams that want to use Duda for pretty much everything.
If you really like Duda’s features, though, the basic one-website plan is by no means out of reach for an individual would-be website owner. Just keep in mind that no matter which plan you go for, e-commerce costs extra. This is the only blemish on an otherwise decent pricing structure.
There is no free plan, but there is a 14-day free trial to help you decide if you like the Duda website creator. If it’s not for you, Duda has a 30-day guarantee on all paid plans. Just contact support, and let them know you want out.
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Kevin
Canada
January 07, 2021
Doesn’t work well/at all with iPads and Tablets
I tried Duda for 5 months with my clients. A great maker EXCEPT it has a major technological flaw. The sites look AWFUL on tablets- especially iPads (which Duda techs admit is a big problem they are trying to fix). All the page's images, content and text were constantly jumbled on every type of iPad screen. On smaller screens such as the 13 inch Macs and PC laptops, sides were cut off and the sites got chopped to fit the screen. Not good. With Duda (up to Oct 2020) there is NO CONSISTENT screen resizing across device sizes, and many APPLE iPads simply just won't work with the system. What a waste. After spending a week or 2 of valuable design time on a client's site, to get calls saying the pages are all "jumbled" really isn't acceptable. Besides, 40% of the market is going to see an awful, jumbled website with Duda. Not good for any brand.
Overly Simple Features with no commitment to improving them
I have been using Duda for over 5 years as my main platform for delivering websites to clients. The core of the platform is excellent and easy to work with. This keeps me around. It is great for simple websites or micro-sites. However, its widgets and features are terribly basic with minimal features and functionality. Expected features are missing from everything. When they release features, they don't act on immediate feedback and make improvements. Regular requests and bug reports are thrown into the abyss and rarely heard from again. Duda is good, but you will still need other options (like WordPress and Shopify), but expect to be disappointed and be prepared to live with the deficient functionality. Duda could be so much better. It breaks my heart.
First, they say, team subscription and charged my credit card for 113.USD and later when trying to publish its says need to pay more 90$ and there are more and more hidden costs. WordPress is much easy just buy a template edit yourself and publish. here with duda your in the chain of payments
Duda is a rock-solid choice for single-admin, DIY-style sites at a reasonable price. But for marketing agencies and teams that want to build lots of websites, it’s even better. The prices start to look more reasonable when measured against a team-sized budget.
On the downside, I wish the content layouts had more flexibility and that the support team was more responsive. Otherwise, Duda is a site builder that accomplishes exactly what it says on the tin. It’s hard to argue with that.
FAQ
Is Duda a good website builder?Yes. While Duda is not as flexible design-wise as Wix, you can customize most aspects of every page. It’s a system that makes designing websites fast and fairly easy without unduly limiting your options.
All in all, I liked it. I made my demo site quickly and with little fuss.Can I create a responsive website with Duda?Absolutely. Duda’s templates are all responsive by default. You can turn this functionality off – though I’m not sure why you’d want to.
Plus, the responsive features go beyond just “shrinking” a page down to size for devices with smaller screens. You can choose between a couple of different base page layouts on a per-device basis. That is, you can select a format for desktop users, then change it for tablet users, phone users, etc.
It’s not what I’d call “full” control over your page layouts, but it’s more choice than you’d get with some of the competition.How much does Duda cost?Duda’s lower-end plans are reasonable, starting at $14.00 per month. The prices go up from there, and while it may not be the most expensive site builder on the market, it’s not as cheap as other options.
If you go for it, you’ll spend more money with Duda’s Custom plans, which are suited for design and marketing agencies. You can find a discount for Duda (or any number of other options) on our awesome coupons page.Is Duda better than Wix?As usual, this sort of thing depends on what you want to do. Wixhas more flexibility in terms of design and layout, a bigger library of templates, and more apps and features, including a lot of marketing tools. It’s by far the better option for a lone webmaster who wants to design, run, and market their own website.
Duda is better for teams but can also be great for the lone operator, especially if you want to run multiple websites or online stores on an affordable plan. The more streamlined design experience lends itself to making lots of websites quickly.
If neither sounds right for you, be sure to see our list of the top website builders in 2021.
Ezequiel Bruni is biologically Canadian, legally Mexican, and self identifies as a total nerd. He’s been a web and experience designer off and on since he was a teenager, and loves sharing the kind of beginner’s advice he really wishes he’d had when he first started. He also loves video games, tacos, open source software, video games, sci-fi and fantasy in all their forms, and video games. He does not love writing in the third person.
