Duda Review | Is It the Right Websiter Builder For You?
Best for anyone needing a creative helping hand
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Best for
Helpful Design Assistance
Overall rating
4 out of 5 stars
What Are the Pros and Cons of Duda?
Pros
- Fantastic range of apps and widgets for you to add – or even build yourself! This helps users to think outside the box and add more unique functions to their websites – not many builders make personalization this easy.
- You get a decent level of creative control, but it’s within the template’s limits. This can be a good thing for those who aren’t too confident with design, but still want an attractive website.
- This is a builder that generally excels in simplicity – although it relies on you largely sticking to the design guidelines of your template.
Cons
- Expensive price plans and no free plan – the cheapest plan costs $14 per month when billed annually.
- Although Duda’s design features are plentiful, it doesn’t provide many powerful website features – for example, other builders do more in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- In user testing, some found Duda to be quite clunky, and difficult or confusing if you try to push the template’s limits – if you’re after total creative freedom, then Duda isn’t your best option.
Overview of Duda
Over 450,000 businesses use Duda’s website builder, which aims to “make web design painless” through its simple and creative designs. All you need is an internet connection, and you can get started building your Duda website in minutes – no tech skills necessary.
It works by giving you a range of templates to choose from, which you then edit to your liking by changing text, adding images, creating new pages, and even building your own widgets. Once you’ve personalized your website, simply publish it online – Duda hosts your site for you, so you don’t have to worry about extra costs or technical headaches.
So, how did Duda perform in our research? Check out its star ratings for key areas below for a quick overview:
Duda can be used by anyone, but it’s especially good for web designers needing to create multiple sites quickly for clients. Indeed, agencies and freelancers are Duda’s main target audience.
How Easy is Duda to Use?
Duda scored impressively for ease of use when we tested it, coming third overall in our best website builders rankings for its beginner-friendliness.
Signing up for a free trial could be quicker – 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 wish the signup process ended with an email and password, but once you’re in it’s plain sailing.
Duda is a drag-and-drop builder, meaning you can customize your chosen template without any coding knowledge. Simply click, drag, drop, and type to edit your pages until you’re happy.
Duda helps you out by giving you pretty 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’s layout.
It’s creative freedom, within limits. If you try to push the limits of the template too far, you’ll start to find Duda more difficult to use, which is something our users discovered when they tried out Duda for themselves. Here’s the good and bad they had to say about Duda’s website builder:
“You could 100% get a website up within 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 just so simple to use! But it’s very much a case of not going outside the bounds of what the template allows you to do, because you will end up hitting a wall.”
Based on feedback like this, it’s clear that Duda is an easy to use website builder – as long as you play by the rules of your template!
Despite the frustrations our users occasionally ran into, they still scored Duda pretty well. It came out with four out of five stars for customer satisfaction, beating a number of other builders (including WordPress.com).
How Good Are Duda’s Templates?
We won’t beat around the bush – design is where Duda really shines. It has 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 face scrolling through almost a hundred templates? You can filter them by category to narrow down your choice – there are 10 categories to select from, including business, travel, portfolio, and online store.
You can preview each template to get a full look before choosing – in fact, Duda goes the extra mile, letting you view the design on desktop, tablet, and mobile to make sure it really is perfect for your needs.
All templates can be customized per device, meaning you can make sure your site always looks its best, no matter the format. Considering that mobile traffic makes up around half of global web traffic, this is a great feature!
As you read earlier, Duda’s templates are easy to customize as long as you’re happy to stick to the style set out by your design. Here’s what one user had to say about Duda’s templates after trying one out:
“The template that I picked had done a lot for me already. This meant that I just had to go in and fill out a couple of bits.”
All changes happen on the screen right in front of you – for example, you simply click and type to edit text, rather than being taken to another page to edit “behind the scenes.”
Editing the pre-filled content is super easy, and so is adding new sections such as a gallery, testimonial, or contact form. You can tweak border widths and background colors, replace images, and change menu layouts, all with a few simple clicks.
Duda gives you pre-filled sections and layouts to choose from, making it even easier to create a good-looking website. However, it’s harder to play with the actual layout of your webpage – while Wix lets you drag images and other elements anywhere, Duda is more restrictive.
Despite this, Duda scored highly in our research for design flexibility, matching Squarespace’s high score and gaining five stars out of five. Duda’s main focus is on design – it aims to help users through its template structure, following best design practices.
It’s a good idea to pick a template you love and that you don’t want to radically change, as you’ll quickly start to struggle if you try to push your design too far.
Find out more
- Squarespace is the only website builder to top Duda’s designs. Find out more about this creative builder in our Squarespace Review
- Creating an online portfolio? We’ve done the research – discover the 10 Best Portfolio Website Builders to find your perfect match
Duda’s Tools and Features
Duda comes packed with design features and ways to personalize your website, from over 100 font styles to a built-in photo editor. It also comes with the unusual perk of letting you create your own widgets and develop a tailored experience for your visitors.
For example, Duda makes it easy to trigger pop-ups, videos, promotions, special messages, and more for users based on various factors, such as location or number of visits to the site.
This is a fantastic way of connecting with your audience and boosting engagement with your site. Duda encourages its users to think outside the box, and makes doing so beginner-friendly at the same time.
However, Duda could do more in other areas – such as SEO – to give your website more power and a greater chance of competing with other sites online. Let’s take a closer look at the builder’s most important features…
Ecommerce
Does Duda let you sell online? Well, yes! In fact, it gives you the option of adding ecommerce tools onto its cheapest plan. This is unusual – most website builders only include ecommerce on their higher priced plans, rather than throwing it in 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:
- 30+ payment options (including Paypal, Square, and Stripe)
- Automatic tax calculations
- Coupon codes
- Product categories
- Low stock notifications for customers
- Digital downloads
- Customizable shipping options and rates
This makes Duda a fair choice if you want to sell products through your website, although it can’t compete with a dedicated builder like Shopify for online selling.
Find out more
- Do you want to sell online? Discover the 5 Best Online Store Builders to make sure you pick the best of the best
- Shopify is the best overall builder for selling online – find out why in our full Shopify Review
SEO
Search Engine Optimization was an area that Duda fell down in slightly when we tested it out. It just doesn’t provide the same offerings as other builders, such as Weebly – instead, Duda sticks to the basics, including:
- Free SSL – comes with every Duda site, but needs installing (one-click process)
- Responsive templates that automatically resize to fit the screen or device being used
- Google PageSpeed optimization
- Customizable titles, meta descriptions, and page URLs
- Alt text can be added to images
This isn’t a bad set of SEO tools – it just isn’t the most impressive on the market. Your Duda website will still get found online, but you might find it frustrating if you have SEO experience or specific needs.
Find out more
- Is SEO important to you? Read our review of the 5 Best Website Builders for SEO where we reveal the top choices for getting found online
Marketing
Duda has thought outside the box when it comes to marketing. In its resources pages, you’ll find a list of marketing materials that are available to Pro customers on the Team plan or above.
These resources include:
- Lead generating landing page template
- White label sales decks
- White label handouts
- White label support portal
- Email header images
These are tailor-made resources designed to boost your sales, and fall under the client management category that gets unlocked when you upgrade to the Team plan or above. This also allows site comments and custom branding.
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 to Duda is its lack of an app store, meaning that you can’t easily add extra functions to your site when you need them. Instead, you’re reliant on the in-house features that come with your plan – if you need more advanced tools, you’ll need to upgrade.
Who Are Duda’s Features Best For?
Duda has a mix of unique and tailored features alongside some glaringly 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 pretty rare amongst most builders.
We don’t recommend it for bloggers or anyone with marketing at the heart of their brand, but apart from 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, overall, pretty good – but that its value for money score is rock bottom. That’s 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 price plans to choose from, ranging from $14 to $44 per month when billed annually. There’s also a Custom plan for those who have hundreds of websites and need a custom quote.
There’s no free plan, but the $22 per month Team plan has a 14-day free trial for you to make use of. Once you’ve tested it out, you can choose any plan to sign up to – here’s a quick summary table to help you decide which is most suited to 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% by choosing an annual plan instead of a monthly plan – both are available, so you can choose the subscription that most suits you.
Now let’s take a look at each price plan in a little more detail. Keep reading for a quick summary of each plan and its key features:
Basic Plan: $14 per month, billed annually
For personal websites that don’t need fancy features or client-focused services. You get one website with all the basic features you need to run it, including:
- Website personalization tools
- SSL security
- Multi-language tools
- Connected content library (limited)
- Millions of free and premium images
You get a limited version of Duda’s connected content library, which lets you manage images, files, and basic business information from one central location. You can have one extra team member to collaborate with, and any extra websites cost $19 per month for each site.
Team Plan: $22 per month, billed annually
The Team plan is best for freelancers who are building for clients, and perhaps running a small team – you can add up to four team members to work on the site with you.
This is the only plan to offer a 14-day free trial, so you get to try out all its features for free!
You get everything from the Basic plan, plus a full range of team collaboration and client management tools. Features on the Team plan include:
- Users and permissions settings for team members
- White label client access (custom branding and domain)
- Users and permissions settings for clients
- Site comments
- White label sales and marketing materials
These features give you a lot more control over your site than the Basic plan, and equip you to create a more professional service for clients. You still only get one website on the Team plan, but you can add extra sites for $13 per month each.
Agency Plan: $44 per month, billed annually
The Agency plan is best for larger scale projects where you need to build multiple sites, or have up to 10 team members. This plan gives you all the features from the Team plan, plus advanced tools such as:
- Instant websites
- Website export
- Widget builder
- API integration (limited)
- Connection to Google Sheets and Airtable
These tools are designed to support your business, and help you provide a more unique service for your clients. The Agency plan includes four websites, but you can buy more for $11 per site per month.
Ecommerce Add-ons: $7.25 – $39 per month, billed annually
Each of Duda’s price plans also lets you choose an ecommerce add-on if you want to sell online. There are three ecommerce add-ons, and which one you choose mainly depends on how many products you’ll be selling:
- Standard: $7.25 per month – 100 products
- Advanced: $19.25 per month – 2,500 products
- Unlimited: $39 per month – infinite products
These are all charged per site, which is something to take into account if you’re planning on running multiple online stores. None of these plans charge a transaction fee, and all of them come with unlimited storage.
You can pay for these plans monthly instead of annually, in which case the price ranges from $8 to $49 per month.
Find out more
- Looking for something a little cheaper? Check out our full list of the Cheapest Website Builders on the market
- Not quite ready to pay yet? We’ve got you covered with our review of the Best Free Website Builders
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 price plan you choose. Here’s a quick breakdown of what support comes with each plan:
- Basic plan: Email
- Team plan: Email, chat, and phone
- Agency plan: Priority email, chat, and phone
Apart from these support channels, Duda also has a Help Center where you can find articles and guides, no matter which plan you’re on. There’s also the Resource Center, which holds webinars, marketing materials, product updates, and 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 of getting answers.
However, when we asked a question about Duda’s support, we were given a guide on how to copy and paste in the website builder. So, just a heads up – keep any chat questions super simple!
Duda Website Builder Review: Summary
Duda may not be the best website builder out there, but it’s still a solid choice – especially if you’re a freelancer or agency looking to build multiple sites quickly and easily. It’s pretty unique in its client management features, helping you to create a professional service.
Where Duda really shines is its designs. It’s perfect if you want a good-looking website, but don’t want all the creative legwork left for you to do – instead of overwhelming you with choice, Duda’s templates lend you a helping hand through structured designs.
However, if you want total creative freedom or cheap prices, this isn’t the builder for you. Duda becomes a challenge 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 won you over, there are still plenty of alternatives. Wix gives you total creative freedom over your site, Squarespace has equally stunning designs, while Weebly has much more affordable starter plans.
For those of you who love the sound of Duda’s website builder and can’t wait to get started, jump on its 14-day free trial to discover what else it has to offer!
Find out more
- Duda not quite your perfect builder? That’s okay, we’re here to help you find the best way to get online. Check out these reviews next:
- Wix Review – Wix is our top-rated website builder – find out why in our in-depth review
- Squarespace Review – if you’re after stuning designs, and more powerful features than Duda, learn more about Squarespace
- Weebly Review – a much more affordable option than Duda; find out more about what it has to offer in our full review
Duda FAQs
We wouldn’t recommend Duda too highly for starting a blog – although it does include blogging tools in its plans. You’d 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 would. Duda also doesn’t include a newsletter tool, which is less than ideal for blogging.
Duda’s Custom plan is the next step up from its Agency plan, and is designed for large-scale businesses that are managing hundreds, or even thousands of websites. It comes with advanced features, and doesn’t come with set pricing – instead, you contact Duda directly to discuss if the Custom plan is right for you.
Sadly, Duda doesn’t throw in a free domain with its plans. If you want a free domain, you’ll need to look at builders such as Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace, as they all offer this perk with their annual plans.
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