Duda is a rock solid option with good features for DIY style sites. But it’s even better for marketing agencies and teams that want to build multiple websites. The prices start to seem more reasonable when compared to a team’s budget.
All in all, this website builder delivers exactly what it says on the tin. It’s hard to argue with that.
Table of Contents
Duda Review: Is This the Best Website Builder for You?
What Are the Pros & Cons of Duda?
Overview of Duda
More than 450,000 companies use the Duda website builder, which aims to “make web design painless” with its simple and creative designs. All you need is an Internet connection, and you can start building your Duda website in minutes – no technical knowledge required.
It works by giving you a range of templates to choose from, which you can then edit to your liking by changing the text, adding images, creating new pages and even creating your own widgets. Once you’ve customized your website, simply publish it online – Duda hosts your site for you, so you don’t have to worry about additional costs or technical headaches.
How has Duda performed in our research? Check out their star ratings for the key areas below to get a quick overview:
Duda can be used by anyone, but it is especially good for web designers who need to create multiple sites quickly for their clients. In fact, agencies and freelancers are Duda’s main target audience.
How Easy is Duda to Use?
Duda scored impressively on ease of use when we tested it, coming in third in our ranking of best website builders for ease of use for beginners.
Signing up for a free trial could be faster – you enter your name, email, and password, but then have to provide a website address, phone number, and select your role and how many sites you currently build. Don’t be put off by this: you don’t have to be a web designer to use Duda.
We’d like the registration process to end with an email and password, but once you’re in it’s a breeze.
Duda is a drag-and-drop builder, which means you can customize your chosen template without any coding knowledge. Simply click, drag, drop and type to edit your pages until you’re satisfied.
Duda helps you by giving you fairly structured templates. This means you have less creative freedom than, say, Wix – instead of being able to put anything anywhere, you can only make changes within the “rules” or guidelines of the template design.
It’s creative freedom, within limits. If you try to push the template boundaries too far, you’ll start to find Duda harder to use, which is something our users discovered when they tried Duda for themselves. Here’s the good and the bad they had to say about the Duda website builder:
“You could 100% get a website up in a day using Duda.”
“It’s a very strange mix of being super clear on some things, but then so confusing on others.”
“It’s very easy to use. But you shouldn’t go outside the bounds of what the template allows you to do, because you’ll end up hitting a wall.”
Based on reviews like this, it’s clear that Duda is an easy-to-use website builder, as long as you follow the rules of your template!
Despite the frustrations our users occasionally encountered, they still rated Duda quite highly. It came out with four out of five stars for customer satisfaction, beating out a number of other builders (including WordPress.com).
How Good Are Duda’s Templates?
Let’s not beat around the bush: the design is where Duda really shines. You have 98 professionally designed templates to choose from, and in addition to the usual pre-filled examples, there are 10 blank ones that you can fill in from scratch.
Not sure you can cope with almost a hundred templates? You can filter them by category to narrow down your choice: there are 10 categories to choose from, such as business, travel, portfolio and online store.
You can preview each template to get a full view before choosing – in fact, Duda goes even further, allowing you to see the design on desktop, tablet and mobile to make sure it really is perfect for your needs.
All templates are customizable by device, meaning you can make sure your site always looks its best, regardless of format. Considering that mobile traffic accounts for around half of the world’s web traffic, this is a great feature.
Duda le permite cambiar fácilmente entre editores de dispositivos para que pueda personalizar el aspecto de su sitio en ordenadores de sobremesa, tabletas y móviles.
As you’ve read before, Duda templates are easy to customize, as long as you’re content to stick to the style set by your design. Here’s what one user had to say about Duda templates after trying one:
“The template I chose had already done a lot for me. This meant I only had to go in and fill in a couple of parts.”
All changes are made on the screen, right in front of you; for example, just click and type to edit text, instead of having to go to another page to edit it “behind the scenes”.
Editing preloaded content is very easy, as is adding new sections such as a gallery, testimonial or contact form. You can modify border widths and background colors, replace images and change menu layouts, all with a few clicks.
Duda gives you preconfigured sections and layouts to choose from, which makes it even easier to create an attractive website. However, it’s harder to tinker with the actual layout of your website – while Wix lets you drag images and other elements anywhere, Duda is more restrictive.
Despite this, Duda scored highly in our research for its design flexibility, matching Squarespace’s high score and getting five stars out of five. Duda focuses primarily on design: it aims to help users through the structure of its templates, following design best practices.
It’s a good idea to choose a template that you like and don’t want to radically change, as you’ll quickly start to run into problems if you try to take your design too far.
Duda’s Tools & Features
Duda comes packed with design features and ways to customize your website, from over 100 font styles to an integrated photo editor. It also allows you to create your own widgets and develop a customized experience for your visitors.
For example, Duda makes it easy to trigger pop-ups, videos, promotions, special messages and more for users based on a variety of factors, such as location or number of site visits.
It’s a fantastic way to connect with your audience and increase engagement on your website. Duda encourages your users to think outside the box while making it simple for beginners.
However, Duda could do more in other areas – such as SEO – to give your website more power and a greater chance to compete with other sites online. Let’s take a look at the builder’s most important features…
Does Duda allow you to sell online? Yes, it does. In fact, it gives you the option to add e-commerce tools in their cheapest plan. This is unusual – most website builders only include e-commerce in their higher priced plans, rather than launching it from day one.
Aside from the design aspect – which includes multiple product images, integrated design between your website and your storefront, and pre-designed product page layouts – Duda also comes with some respectable sales tools.
These include:
This makes Duda a good option if you want to sell products through your website, although it can’t compete with a dedicated builder like Shopify for online sales.
Search engine optimization was one area where Duda fell down slightly when we tested it. It simply doesn’t provide the same offerings as other builders, such as Weebly – instead, Duda sticks to the basics, including:
This isn’t a bad set of SEO tools – it’s just not the most impressive on the market. Your Duda website is still online, but you may find it frustrating if you have SEO experience or specific needs.
Duda has thought outside the box when it comes to marketing. On their resources pages, you’ll find a list of marketing materials that are available to Pro customers on the Team plan or higher.
These resources include:
These are customized resources designed to drive your sales, and fall under the customer management category that is unlocked when you upgrade to the Team plan or higher. This also allows for on-site commenting and brand personalization.
However, Duda lacks basic marketing features – including a newsletter tool – which is its main drawback when it comes to growing a following for your website.
Another drawback of Duda is its lack of an app store, which means you can’t easily add additional features to your site when you need them. Instead, you rely on the internal features that come with your plan – if you need more advanced tools, you’ll have to upgrade.
Who Are Duda’s Features Best For?
Duda has a mix of unique and bespoke features, along with some obvious drawbacks.
It’s a great option for freelancers or web designers who are creating sites for clients – Duda’s client management suite is a particularly great benefit, and one that’s fairly rare among most builders.
We don’t recommend it for bloggers or anyone with marketing at the heart of their brand, but other than that, it’s a good choice for small business sites that want a well-designed site with a modest range of professional features.
How Much Does Duda Cost?
You may have noticed that Duda’s ratings are generally quite good, but that its value for money score is the lowest. This is because Duda is the most expensive website builder we’ve tested so far, with prices starting at $14 per month (billed annually).
There are three pricing plans to choose from, ranging from $14 to $44 per month when billed annually. There is also a custom plan for those who have hundreds of websites and need a custom budget.
There is no free plan, but the $22/month Team plan has a 14-day free trial. Once you’ve tried it, you can choose any plan to subscribe to; here’s a quick summary table to help you decide which one best suits your needs:
| Basic Plan | Team Plan | Agency Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per month (billed annually) | $14 | $22 | $44 |
| Monthly price | $19 | $29 | $59 |
| No. of sites | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| SSL | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| No. of team members | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| Client management | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Advanced tools | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ |
You can save up to 25% if you choose an annual plan instead of a monthly one; both are available, so you can choose the subscription that suits you best.
Let’s now look at each pricing plan in a little more detail. Read on for a quick summary of each plan and its main features:
Basic Plan
For personal websites that don’t need fancy features or customer-oriented services. You get a website with all the basic features you need to run it, including:
You get a limited version of Duda’s connected content library, which allows you to manage images, files and basic business information from one central location. You can have one additional team member to collaborate, and additional websites cost $19 per month per site.
Team Plan
The Team plan is best suited for freelancers who work for clients and may have a small team: you can add up to four members to work with you on the site.
This is the only plan that offers a 14-day free trial, so you can try all its features for free!
You’ll get everything the Basic plan offers, plus a full range of team collaboration and customer management tools. Team plan features include:
These features give you much more control over your site than the Basic plan, and equip you to create a more professional service for clients. With the Team plan you only have one website, but you can add additional sites for $13 per month each.
Agency Plan
The Agency plan is best suited for large projects where you need to create multiple sites or have up to 10 team members. This plan gives you all the features of the Team plan, plus advanced tools such as:
These tools are designed to support your business and help you offer a more unique service to your customers. The Agency plan includes four websites, but you can buy more for 11 € per month per site.
Ecommerce Add-ons: $7.25 – $39 per month, billed annually
Each of Duda’s pricing plans also allows you to choose an e-commerce add-on if you want to sell online. There are three e-commerce add-ons, and the one you choose will depend mainly on the number of products you will be selling:
All of them are charged per site, which is something to keep in mind if you are planning to manage several online stores. None of these plans charge transaction fees and all include unlimited storage.
You can pay for these plans on a monthly basis rather than annually, in which case the price ranges from $8 to $49 per month.
What Help and Support Does Duda Offer?
Duda offers a good range of help and support options, with the type of support you receive largely dependent on which pricing plan you choose. Here’s a quick breakdown of what support comes with each plan:
Apart from these support channels, Duda also has a Help Center where you can find articles and guides, regardless of the plan you are on. There is also the Resource Center, which contains webinars, marketing materials, product updates and much more.
If you have questions, you can use Duda’s live chat service. This comes in the form of a chat bot, so if you have simple questions, it’s a quick and easy way to get answers.
However, when we asked a question about Duda support, they gave us a guide on how to copy and paste into the website builder. So, just a heads up – keep chat questions super simple!
Conclusion
Duda may not be the best website builder out there, but it’s still a solid option, especially if you’re a freelancer or agency looking to create multiple sites quickly and easily. It’s pretty unique in its client management features, helping you create a professional service.
Where Duda really shines is in its designs. It’s perfect if you want an attractive website, but don’t want all the creative work left up to you – instead of overwhelming you with options, Duda’s templates give you a hand through structured layouts.
However, if you want total creative freedom or cheap prices, this is not the builder for you. Duda becomes challenging to use if you try to push the limits of its templates too far, and it also has some of the most expensive starter prices on the market.
If Duda hasn’t convinced you, there are still plenty of alternatives. Wix gives you total creative freedom over your site, Squarespace has equally impressive designs, while Weebly has much more affordable starter plans.
If you like Duda’s website builder and can’t wait to get started, try its free 14-day version to discover all it has to offer.
FAQ’s
Would Duda be a good choice for my blog?
We wouldn’t recommend Duda too highly for starting a blog – even though it includes blogging tools in its plans. You would certainly end up with a beautiful blog, but it wouldn’t be very powerful, as it doesn’t give you the same features as something like WordPress. Duda also doesn’t include a newsletter tool, which is less than ideal for blogs.
What is the Custom plan? Do I need it?
Duda’s Custom plan is the next step up from their Agency plan, and is designed for large-scale businesses that manage hundreds or even thousands of websites. It comes with advanced features, and does not come with a fixed price – instead, contact Duda directly to discuss whether the Custom plan is right for you.
Does Duda include a free domain?
Unfortunately, Duda does not offer a free domain with their plans. If you want a free domain, you’ll have to look at builders like Wix, Weebly or Squarespace, as they all offer this perk with their annual plans.
Henry Sprung is an e-commerce tech blogger with several years of experience in online retail. Alex’s blog focuses on topics such as online marketplaces, payment processing, and digital marketing for e-commerce businesses. Henry’s expertise in e-commerce provides valuable insights into the latest trends in online retail and how businesses can use these platforms to grow their sales. He is a valuable resource for online retailers and entrepreneurs looking to start their own e-commerce businesses.
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