Duda

What do you like best?

What I love the most about Duda is how much is offered for the price. Most of my clientele are either individual, solopreneur types just starting with making their side hustle into something more viable or small businesses and organizations with limited resources and over-stretched employees. If you're like most small businesses that don't have the resources or time to hire a digital/web specialist or learn how to build and manage a website or all the other "digisphere" projects that are typically required for operating a business in 2021 (I.e., things like SEO, content strategy and creation, lead capturing, form building, digital invoicing, logo and creative asset creation, digital branding consistency, mobile optimization, and the list goes on -- Duda just makes the most sense. WordPress certainly has its strengths and offers a lot of flexibility, but its backend is poorly designed, dated, and requires a MUCH steeper learning curve and more tech-savviness, in general, to manage well. I can only speak to my own experience, but I've consistently been burned by or found that WP is more trouble than it's worth.

What do you dislike?

The only real downside I've run into with Duda is that it's still lacking in the amount of design control and flexibility provided. I'm mainly thinking about flexbox control and other animated elements or features when I say that. Aside from WP, I'd say Duda's biggest competitors would probably have to be WIX/Editor X/Velo and WebFlow. Both of those platforms presently offer a more comprehensive array of design controls than Duda. Still, I do understand that Duda is furiously working on the DudaFlex beta, and I, for one, can't wait to have access to it.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

It's no surprise that there are TONS of website builder options out there. WIX, Weebly, Squarespace, WordPress, GoDaddy, WebFlow, Joomla, Strikingly, and the list goes on and on. They all, including Duda, have their strengths, weaknesses, and weird quirks. I've personally tried, built, or worked on sites with nearly all of the tools out there, and I've personally found that Duda offers the best mix of tools, features, and ease for actually helping the individuals and small teams that I support through my business. If you happen to be reading this review, know this: if you are just starting your own thing or working for a small business or team and feeling overstretched, overwhelmed by your to-do list, or aren't even sure where to begin when it comes to "the website" or getting things set up, save yourself the time and headache and partner with Duda or a Duda-certified agency or freelancer. It will be more afforable in the long-run and help you to eliminate several common points of friction that you'll inevitably encounter with WordPress, WIX, or one of the others out there. Trust me. I still maintain websites for clients on most of platforms I mentioned and regularly hit unforseen hurdles, most often with WP.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

For most of my clients, the most common problem I solve for them is building them a refreshed or brand new website that solves for the vast majority of use cases that they require for their given customer base. Being a one-person (with the occasional contract freelancer) agency means that I'm often very stretched for project execution time. I'm a new "Agency" account holder with Duda, and so far, it's helping me to scale my business and stay more on top of my clients' needs. I can do this in fractions of the time it would take me to do so using WordPress.