When starting a small business, you may find yourself in the market for a personalized website. But if you don’t know how to code, that may feel like an overwhelming task.
That’s where Duda.co comes in. The program allows you to build your own website. Used by millions globally, Duda.co allows you to customize your website however you see fit.
About Duda.co
Named after The Dude from the film “The Big Lebowski,” Duda.co was started by a group of college friends in 2010.
It launched as DudaMobile, an idea to help small businesses create user-friendly mobile websites.
Over time, the name was changed to Duda and the company expanded to focus on “responsive web design” and work with small business owners to create a program that better fits their needs.
After a few years of fighting for the Duda.com remain to no avail, they settled for Duda.co instead.
Duda.co has won more than 20 industry awards. The website is on PCMag’s list of the top 11 Editor’s Choice website builders of 2022, noted as the “Best for Integrating (Software as a Service) Platforms” and rated a 4 out of 5.
According to Duda.co, its website builder is used to create a new website every 17 seconds.
The company is based in Palo Alto, CA, but has four other offices in Tel Aviv, Israel; Louisville, Colorado; London, United Kingdom; and Florianópolis, Brazil.
Reasons to Join Duda.co
If you’re a small business owner looking to take the next step and create a beautiful, user-friendly website, Duda.co may be perfect for you.
Not only will your website be user-friendly, but the Duda.co website builder is user-friendly for anyone, regardless of your experience level.
Sure, you can create your own site from the ground up if that’s what you want. But Duda.co also offers tons of templates – and they’re even organized into categories based on the type of website you’re building. So you really don’t need to know anything about coding to create a successful website with Duda.co.
And speaking of experience levels, people at all levels have something to learn. That’s why the company offers Duda University, a series of webinars that can help you learn anything from the basic functionality of the website builder to sales strategies, web design, search engine optimization, and more.
Duda.co also offers a community forum for website creators to brainstorm and help each other out. Some creators use the forum to ask questions about issues they’re facing on their own website, while others simply use it to start conversations with other like-minded business owners.
The company contracts experts to help website creators, at a cost. The cost varies depending on the experts and the service they provide, but there are people available to help you with creating templates or widgets, website design, and more.
Some of Duda. co’s membership plans offer white label web design, which allows you to add your custom brand all over your website, from the log-in screen to your email communications. This can help provide a more personalized feel for your customers and an overall more enjoyable website experience.
Duda.co prioritized website speed and is ranked higher than most other website builders on Google PageSpeed, which analyzes things like server response time, image optimization, JavaScript and CSS minification, and browser caching.
Basically, this means your website will likely run more smoothly if it’s built on Duda.co than if it’s built on any other popular website builders.
In the fall of 2021, Duda.co acquired an e-commerce tool called Snipcart. The tool allows you to add a shopping cart to your website and manage sales and inventory within the Duda.co platform.
But most importantly, it offers a variety of membership plans. Whatever it is you’re looking for, there’s likely a plan that will meet your needs.
Duda.co Costs
Unfortunately, Duda.co’s services come at a price, and they don’t offer a free version. The closest you’ll find is a 14-day free trial.
If you do the trial and determine you want to purchase a membership, there are four options. Each plan has monthly payment options, but you’ll save 25% if you choose to be billed annually instead of monthly.
Basic
The Basic plan is $14 a month if you pay annually, or $19 a month if you pay monthly.
It includes one website, hosted on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. With the Basic plan, you can purchase additional websites for $19 a month, or $171 a year.
Support is available via email only.
You can store and host your content in one place, but there aren’t any widgets or design elements available on this plan.
The Basic plan does not offer team collaboration, custom domain branding, client management, advanced tools, or managed service options.
Team
The Team plan is $22 a month if you pay annually, or $29 a month if you pay monthly.
It includes one website, hosted on the AWS cloud. With the Team plan, you can purchase additional websites for $13 a month, or $117 a year.
Support is available via email, chat, or phone.
You can store and host your content in one place, and connect it to widgets and design elements on the website.
Up to four team members can collaborate on the website. You can allow different permissions for each team member and work with contracted Duda professionals if needed.
On the Team plan, you can host your website on a custom domain and receive comments from up to 100 customers. You can also add custom branding to marketing materials.
Agency
The Agency plan is $44 a month if you pay annually, or $59 a month if you pay monthly.
It includes four websites, hosted on the AWS cloud. With the Agency plan, you can purchase additional websites for $11 a month, or $99 a year.
Support is available via priority email, chat, or phone.
You can store and host your content in one place, and connect it to widgets and design elements on the website. With the Agency plan, you can also publish an individual page on the website without republishing the site as a whole.
Up to 10 team members can collaborate on the website. You can allow different permissions for each team member and work with contracted Duda professionals if needed.
On the Agency plan, you can host your website on a custom domain and receive comments from up to 100 customers. You can also add custom branding to marketing materials and create a custom email domain to communicate with customers.
The Agency plan also allows you to create custom widgets for your website and export .zip files of all the website’s content.
Custom
Unlike the other three options, the Custom plan doesn’t have a set price. The Custom plan is described on Duda.co as a “Create Your Own Plan” option, so you’ll have to reach out to the company to set up a pricing plan if you’re interested.
With the Custom plan, you can decide how many websites you want to manage. The plan also includes dedicated, 24/7 support.
Since you’ll be creating your own set up under the Custom plan, it’s hard to narrow down what’s included. But everything included in the three lower tiers are available, as well as things like single sign-on, unlimited Application Programming Interface (API) calls, and a myriad of account management services.
Final Thoughts
As showcased by its awards and high ratings, Duda.co is a high-quality website builder that’s great for anyone looking to take the next step with their small business. Depending on the plan you choose, there are countless options available to customize your website and make sure it’s exactly what you need.
While there is no free option, the 14-day free trial allows you to get a feel for if Duda.co is the right fit for you, so there’s really no reason not to give it a shot.
Worst case scenario, you wasted a few hours of your time building a website you don’t end up using. Best case scenario, you utilize a myriad of options available to help you create a beautiful website that grows your business.
So what are you waiting for? Go check out Duda.co and get yourself signed up for a free trial today.