Duda Website Builder Review: The Best For Business Basics?

The ability to build a website is easier now than ever. Having a website for your business is essential for success today. Luckily, there are many options to choose from, but which one is better for the basics? One option may be Duda. With this Duda website builder review, I will provide an overview of what the builder offers, and determine whether it is right for your needs.

1. What is Duda?
2. Pros & Cons
3. How Does Duda Work?
4. Can Duda Create Reliable, Responsive Websites?
5. Who Is Duda Designed For?
6. Pricing
7. Is Duda Worth It?
8. Final Words

What is Duda?

Duda is a web design platform that offers template design and hosting services. Being around since 2010, it aims to help small businesses build their websites. 

More so, they can help them get traffic by improving their experience through mobile devices. Over the years, mobile usability has gradually increased over time. Recent data shows that the number of users has increased by more than half.

Duda’s initial focus was mobile usability for websites. As more people use the internet through their mobile phones, it’s important to make a website stand out in a mobile version. 

Duda’s services have expanded by focusing on better web design, whether that’s through a desktop version or mobile device. The builder has worked with more than 450,000 businesses, and powers up to around nine million websites.

Where did the name “Duda” come from?

The term “Duda” came from one of the founders’ favorite films, The Big Lebowski. The main character also referred to as “The Dude”, represents the company’s brand because he’s always there to help his peers out. 

The common slogan they go by for their services is “The Dude abides”.

For the remainder of this review, I will go over some of the top features that Duda provides. Along with that, I’ll determine whether it’s the right choice for your business needs.

If you’re in a hurry, here’s a brief video going over how to build a website through Duda. Also, there’s a list of pros and cons to review as well.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Variety of template designs
• Mobile-friendly, responsive websites
• Fast, reliable page speed (a preference by Google Pagespeed)
• Client management portal

Cons

• No free plan (prices are a little high)
• Lacks some marketing basics (i.e. email newsletter)
• Lack of app store usage
• Not the best fit for content-based websites (i.e. blogs)

How does Duda work?

Duda has a lot of great features, which can make it hard to figure out where to start. Let’s take a look at some of the top features.

Template design

This one is by far the highlight of using the website builder. The templates not only have beautiful designs, but they’re also responsive. 

Duda has close to 100 designs to choose from, which are great for making a modern website. You can choose from up to ten categories, including lifestyle, travel, portfolio, restaurant, or make a community page.

Editor

The site editor is very easy to use, especially for making more than one website. When working on your template, it allows you to preview your template before publishing. 

When working from multiple angles, the templates are easily viewable via desktop, tablet, or mobile device. Also, you have options to be able to tweak things up, such as fixing the images.

You can easily personalize the website to make it look the way you desire. By choosing any rule, you have the option to build your own, fully customizable website.

Photo Editor

Duda allows you to add free stock photos (or the option to upload your own images). Basic photo editing is available, such as cropping, rotating, and resizing images. 

When it comes to editing photos, Duda has widgets where you can create galleries and image sliders. Currently, they have more than 1,000 available icons to choose from.

Ecommerce

Along with building basic websites, Duda allows you to sell products through an eCommerce store. Basic tools for running an online store are included in the lower-priced plans. 

One thing that stands out with Duda is they’ll provide these tools even in their basic plan available. Many website builders don’t provide that, since they usually only offer it with higher plans.

Their store builder comes with some sales tools, which can help make your store stand out and perform better. Some of them include:

• Multiple payment options (credit cards, Paypal, etc.)
• Automatic tax calculations (depending on where your sales come from)
• Digital downloads
• Coupon codes & discount offers

Secure cloud hosting

All websites on Duda are hosted by Amazon web services (AWS). The hosting is safe and secure, which is crucial to maintaining a functional website. Hosting is included as part of any website plan you choose to run your sites through Duda.

Marketing

Duda provides helpful resources for marketing your website properly. In the long run, it’s good for communicating effectively with your clients. 

Some of the marketing resources include the following:

• White label branding: You can use your brand on all materials, along with Duda’s website dashboards
• Landing pages
• Webinars & workshops: Duda offers ongoing webinars to help keep your website updated. You can attend live sessions, or you can catch up later by watching the recordings

*Onboarding workshops are designed to teach you Duda-specific sales pitches

Can Duda create reliable, responsive websites?

Duda is a reliable choice for building a website in a timely manner. One other highlight is the page speed, which is very fast. 

Currently, it’s one of the only website builders preferred by Google Pagespeed (and also the key to meeting its core web vital standards).  Web speed is crucial for getting more traffic and conversions. 

As mentioned earlier, Duda’s websites are very mobile-friendly. When they started out, that was the whole idea of starting the website builder. To this day, mobile responsive websites are still the primary focus.

Who is Duda designed for?

Duda is best suited for small businesses, or for those looking to design a basic website. The builder is great for freelancers or independent website designers.

If you’re a freelancer working for multiple clients, you can create a lot of websites in a short period of time. So Duda can be a time-saving resource if you’re building multiple websites at one time.

In regards to working with clients, Duda offers a client management portal where you can easily manage a list of websites. That can come in handy when you’re working back and forth between working on multiple websites.

It’s not best suited for content writers or those who want standard blogs. There’s not much focus in this area, as it’s Duda’s templates focus more on aesthetics and visuals.

Pricing

Duda has a few plans to offer in building out websites. They offer a 14-day free trial to test out their builder. If you wanted to move forward with a plan, you can save more money by opting for an annual plan (saving up to 25%).

Basic ($14/month)	Team ($22/month)	Agency ($44/month)
-1 website included -Email support	-1 website included -Email, chat, & phone support	-4 websites included -Priority email, chat, and phone support

Along with these plans, they offer a customized plan for those who want more advanced features. With a customized plan, you get all of the features including tiered discount pricing, unlimited access to team and client management features, and 24/7 dedicated support.

For more information, check for more information to learn and speak with someone on the customer support team.

Is Duda worth it?

Duda is one of the most responsive website builders available today. With its primary focus being on mobile usage, it helps to make a better user experience overall.

Their templates are the biggest highlight, which can make a website look attractive and functional to use. Although it focuses a lot on simplicity, there are some downsides to the website builder.

One of them is their prices, which are a little higher than they should be. Also, there have been reports of the builder being glitchy sometimes. So that can cause some confusion, and a little slowdown when using the editor.

My thoughts

When I used Duda’s website builder, I found the selection of templates to be a standout. Using the editor was simple to learn, along with being able to personalize my website as well.

What I didn’t like is their lack of some of their marketing tools. For example, they don’t have an option to create a newsletter. Being able to create a newsletter (i.e. distributing through an email list) is important for a lot of businesses.

Along with that, Duda websites aim for more aesthetics (visuals) and build one-page sites instead of blogs. So if you’re a blogger that writes regularly for a website, Duda may not be the best fit for blogging.

In that case, you may be better going with another choice, such as WordPress. But other than that, I’m not the biggest fan of the builder myself. If you’re more concentric-based for building a website, I would give this one a pass.

Final Words

Duda is another option for building basic, responsive websites. Primarily focused on mobile user experience, their service continues to focus on improving web design.

Although Duda may not be for everyone, it may be the right choice if you need multiple websites in a short period of time. If you’re a freelancer, this platform can be great if you have clients who need basic websites.

If you’re interested in trying out the website builder, check it out today. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial to see if it’s a good fit for you. If you’re ready to build some websites now, start using the Duda builder today.

Your Turn: Is Duda a great choice for the basics?

I would like to get your thoughts on Duda. Do you find it a great choice for business basics?

What are your thoughts on using the templates? Do you like that it’s focused on mobile usability and its page speed?

What don’t you like about Duda? If so, how can it improve to make it a better experience for a website creator?

Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. I look forward to reading your responses, and I’ll gladly respond promptly.

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Eric is a content writer and the site owner of notimekillers.com. He takes great pride in helping people manage their time and grow their businesses. Eric is a firm believer in time freedom, as he believes in taking ownership of time. 

“Time is your most important asset. It can be your best friend or worst enemy. How you use your time can shape the future you desire to have.” In his leisure time, Eric loves to write and read whenever possible. He enjoys going for long walks outdoors while doing in-home workout videos every week. You can follow Eric on LinkedIn.