Duda Review 2024

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Updated: Mar 16, 2023, 2:23pm

Johanna Leggatt
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User-friendly and with a range of templates, Duda is a solid candidate when it comes to getting professional-looking websites up-and-running quickly. However, it’s slightly more expensive than some of its competitors—with no free option beyond a 14-day free trial—and it’s billed in US dollars.

Pros

  • User-friendly and good scalability
  • SEO-optimised pages
  • Unlimited bandwidth and storage

Cons

  • Higher cost
  • Email-only support (basic plan)
  • No free domain
Duda Review
3.5
Our ratings take into account the card’s rewards, fees, rates along with the card’s category. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Plan costs from
$US19 p/m (Basic plan) or $US14 p/m if pay annually
Customer service
Email support only for Basic plan
Uptime
99.9%

Duda at a Glance

Established in 2009, Duda is a popular website-building platform with offices in California, Brazil, Tel Aviv and London. It’s aimed at website builders that offer design services to small businesses.

Target markets range from freelance web professionals and digital agencies, right up to large web-hosting companies and global online publishers.

The Duda platform enables users to build responsive and mobile-friendly websites at scale from simple templates and a ‘drag and drop’ editor.

Every Duda website is automatically optimised to be quick loading, although experts say the SEO (search engine optimisation) features may be more limited than those of competitors.

All websites built on the Duda platform are hosted on its own servers, provided via Amazon Web Services (AWS), and guarantee sites maintain a 99.9% uptime. You cannot import code from an external source, but you can export code from Duda if you are on the Agency or Customised plans.

Related: Best Website Builders for Australians Ranked

Duda Pricing

Duda offers a range of pricing options starting with its Basic Plan from $US19 a month, if paying monthly, but drops to $US14 a month on an annual plan—a discount of 25%. There are four tiers of pricing: basic, team, agency and white label.

The Basic Plan offers one site with Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting. The Team Plan features expanded access from $US29 a month (monthly plan), unlocking access to four Duda team members with collaboration access, as well as client management and client billing tools and full access to the content library.

The Agency tier costs $59 a month for which you get four websites with AWS hosting, priority email, phone and chat support, plus access to up to 10 Duda team members. As well as client management and billing, you’ll have access to widget builders for your pages and you’ll be able to export zip files (images, HTML, Javascript, for example) to use on different sites.

If you need to build online selling capabilities an e-commerce option can be added to all plan tiers—at additional cost (starting from $US 8 per month). If you truly need a bespoke package, then you may wish to opt for the ‘white label’ top tier, which features a custom platform domain; branded client communication and log-in screen; and white labeled support portal, among other features. Prices will depend on your requirements.

Duda Offers a 14-day free trial for all new users.

What are the Benefits of Duda?

If you are starting or relaunching a business, Duda is a fast, effective way of establishing a professional online presence. It offers templates and designs which can be customised, saved and reused across multiple projects. You can also import content from your clients’ digital assets into the library, collect data and manage content within its digital library.

Since Google’s core web vitals was introduced in 2021 as the official measure of website speeds and user experience, Duda has remained among the leading website builders that perform strongly for loading speeds, visual stability and interactivity. Websites will be SEO-ready with site maps, local business schema, meta titles, keywords and descriptions, among other features.


Provider Basic plan cost Basic plan cost (one-year subscription) Money-back guarantee period Basic plan storage
Duda $US19 per month $US14 per month (billed annually) 30 days (offers 14-day free trial) Unlimited

Is Duda the Right Choice?

Experts say the Duda platform is a solid, user-friendly option for those looking to create multiple websites at pace.

It offers a wide range of webpage templates, apps and widgets, and you don’t have to be a design expert to create attractive pages. However, those looking for maximum creative freedom may feel restricted. Duda also has fewer added features compared to some competitors, and limited ‘extras’ within the Basic Plan.

On the plus side however, Duda hosts the website on your behalf—minimising extra cost and admin.

Pros and cons should be weighed up against the monthly subscription cost which is relatively high compared to the competition—particularly for users who want enhanced features or to significantly customise sites. Customer service is also restricted to email for those on the Basic plan.

When choosing any website builder, keep in mind the amount of storage you need, how much traffic is expected on the website, and whether the web host has reliable uptimes—in other words, whether it regularly functions smoothly.

Related: Best Free Website Builders for Aussie Businesses

How do I Cancel My Duda Contract?

Duda says customers can cancel—or downgrade—their monthly subscription at any time. Go to the dashboard on the Duda site and head into your account and click on ‘payment’, then ‘cancel account plan’. Users have to select a reason for cancellation, then click ‘cancel account’.

Sites and templates created will remain on your dashboard in the event you want to reactivate your account, according to the platform.

You can cancel site subscriptions by disabling auto renewal. Your site will remain live until the end of the billing period. To take your site offline immediately, you’ll need to un-publish your site.

Can I Transfer My Domain to Duda?

Yes. The Duda site builder does not host the user’s domains, but Duda says you can purchase a domain and connect it to your published site by creating a CNAME and two A records in your DNS settings.

FAQs

What is Duda used for?

Duda is pitched at web design professionals and agencies who service small to medium-sized businesses in building professional-looking websites with high uptimes. It features client management portals and tools, as well as e-commerce add-ons.

Which companies use Duda?

It is estimated that some 200,000 companies use the Duda platform, most of which are based in the US with revenue between $1 and $10 million. They include Tumblr, Taos Mountain, and Avcorp Industries Inc.

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