Meet Maggie, PCMag'sSimplicity is Duda's selling point. We've tested many website builders for years, and this one lets you quickly and easily build attractive websites that look great on desktops, smartphones, and tablets. Despite high-end tiers that target professionals, Duda lets you create handsome sites even if you have little design or technical knowledge. Since our last review, Duda has also enhanced its AI tools. Featuring numerous templates, strong e-commerce tools, and a top-tier editor, the slick and powerful Duda is an Editors' Choice winner for website builders alongside Wix, which stands out for its fantastic free tier.
Duda lacks a free tier, but you can sample the service using its 14-day free trial. It has three paid tiers that focus on collaborative websites. The first is Basic ($25 per month, $19 per month if billed annually), which lets a single user create one website. However, Basic limits your customer support contact method to email.
Team is the next tier up ($39 per month, $29 per month if billed annually). It increases the maximum team size to three, adds chat and phone support, and lets visitors leave site comments. The Team tier is where Duda focuses on web agencies, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and web hosting services, with client billing and management options, as well as white-label analytics, included. In fact, the next tier is called Agency ($69 per month, $52 per month if billed annually). It lets you build up to four websites, rope in six team members, and build widgets to give your site unique capabilities. Beyond these main tiers, Duda offers a White Label tier ($199 per month, $149 per month if billed annually) with more enterprise customization. Duda also has a full-on custom option if you need managed services and 24/7 dedicated support, but you must contact the company for a quote. Each plan comes with unlimited storage and monthly data transfers.
Although each paid tier is built for a certain number of sites, you can add more for an additional monthly fee. This fee depends on your subscription plan: $19 per site per month for the Basic tier and $17 per site per month for the other tiers.
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E-commerce also costs extra. The standard e-commerce add-on is $7 per month for a maximum of 100 products in your digital storefront. For an additional $20 per month, you can sell up to 2,500 products, sell on Amazon and eBay, and even create multilingual stores. The top-end e-commerce plan costs $45 per month and lets you sell unlimited products and leverage a Square point-of-sale system. All these costs add up, since they're added onto the base subscription price, and can threaten to push Duda out of the realm of the casual user. Wix's business plans start at $36 per month.
To start a new site, you choose from more than 100 attractive, modern templates. There's a search bar if you're looking for a specific template, but Duda has many other sorting options. You can look by overall color or filter by categories, such as Online, Travel, Restaurant & Food, and Blog. Duda makes it simple to see everything it offers, unlike Squarespace and other website builders, which have questionnaires to help narrow the template hunt.
After clicking a template thumbnail, you'll see a panel showing how the template looks on a phone or tablet. You can even see how the template looks on all three device types—desktop, smartphone, and tablet—at once. That's better than what many site builders do. Strikingly, for example, has just one preview. However, you can resize the browser window to see how it will look on smaller screens.
Once you choose a template for your Duda site and start customizing, you can't easily switch templates later, as you can with Squarespace or Simvoly. You have to basically reset your site. That's because Duda sites aren't responsive in the strictest sense, though they fit the search engines' criteria for mobile presentation. This means they don't stretch and compress all elements as you resize the browser window. Duda uses the term responsive—not incorrectly—when describing sites it builds to mean that the presentation reformats based on whether you're viewing it in a desktop browser, tablet, or smartphone.
Duda's approach means you get a lot more control over your site design and can tweak it to look different on mobile. If you want to completely rebuild your site, you can at least save some data (like images and store content) so you don't need to start from scratch with a new template. You can also manually tweak the JavaScript.
Duda also has Flex templates, which are advanced editing options that let you create fully responsive sites. As a newer feature, though, it offers just a handful of templates. You can add Flex sections to traditional Duda templates, giving you more freedom to arrange elements within those sections of your site. You can even restrict Flex editing to certain team members.
You build your site using the selected template, which is pre-populated with dummy content. You can pull images and other content directly from an existing site or Facebook page. For more on getting started building your site, read our primer on how to create a website.
We started with the DigiStore template. The site builder interface features an intuitive left sidebar with tools for managing and designing your site. These let you customize your theme colors, text, and navigation, as well as add and manage pages and site settings from choices on the left panel. An arrow lets you collapse this sidebar for a helpful, full-page view. Also helpful are the Undo and Redo icons that work no matter what you're doing on the site. Ctrl-Z works, too. Furthermore, you can always get help by clicking a chat bubble icon at the bottom right—very handy.
The basic page elements—images, text boxes, buttons, dividers—appear when you click the Widgets button. You may find this a bit confusing, as widgets are typically third-party goodies rather than basic site elements. You drag the elements onto your web page, as with Weebly and other competitors. Aside from Flex sections, you can only drop elements in allowed areas, but it's not hard to add columns or change spacing to customize the layout to your taste. In fact, we love how you can choose Add Row or Add Column right from a page's Row button, which appears when you hover over any section.
Third-party items, such as Disqus and Facebook comment modules, are included in the Widgets group, but Duda lacks a large catalog of third-party integrations like those found in Wix. Duda has continued to update its limited App Store with a handful of new selections, such as SimplyBook.me and Zuppler for Restaurants. However, using a web builder like Bluehost WonderSuite connects you to the much more expansive WordPress plug-in ecosystem. Upon launching Duda, you see the latest service updates, including new apps, templates, and features.
Duda also integrates with services such as OpenTable, PayPal, vCita, and Yelp. For example, its integration with Yext embeds structured schema data into your website, making it easier for other sites to machine-read it. This helps search engines parse your site.
The service makes it a breeze to incorporate social sharing buttons, including Facebook Likes, comments, and albums; a Twitter/X feed; and a WordPress feed. When we added the Click-to-Call feature to our test site, it merely displayed our number, which smartphones display as a link that opens the phone dialer.
Duda's editor works well thanks to its clean, consistent layout. Along the top is an ever-present toolbar that lets you switch pages, undo your last edit, save your work, preview your site, publish your site, and view your site in three different screen sizes. The toolbar also grants access to your Dashboard page, from which you can manage all your existing Duda sites, start new ones, and connect them to a personal domain. There's an option to purchase a new domain name through Google Domains or Hover, and Duda offers specific integrated help for using a custom domain obtained from the major domain name registrars.
If you don't choose a custom domain, Duda assigns your site a URL (you can pick your own prefix if it's not already taken). If you've built pages but aren't ready to publish them, you can save your edits for later publication. Duda lets you schedule overall site publication at a specific date and time, as Weebly does.
Whenever you hover over an item on your site, you see a button with relevant edit options. It also supports right-clicking, which gives you a context-sensitive menu for each element. This provides an easy way to edit, align, or remove content. You can move elements around the page and resize them, though, as with most mobile-friendly site builders, your choices of where to move items are limited. For a paragraph object, the context menu lets you pull content from another site, edit the text, format it, and even hide it for selected device types. Clicking a page navigation link in the site designer takes you to that page on your site; you don't have to select it from a page menu as in some other site builders, though there's also a dropdown menu for switching among your pages.
The Manage Pages panel is simple and clear, with SEO and navigation options available under a gear icon. It also lets you import images and site info from an existing site. To add a new page to a site, you simply tap the +New page button. There's a selection of page types to choose from, including Blank, URL, About, Contact, Photo Gallery, List, and Complex Page. Pages can be password-protected via the Settings menu. Hovering over a page type's thumbnail shows its layout on the three device sizes.
Duda also has a very serviceable blogging tool. This lets you save and preview posts that you can format and add images to taste. Every option dialog for every Duda site element includes a Settings tab that lets you edit spacing in pixels, the CSS code, and—for premium accounts—the actual HTML code for the element.
The service lets you use Secure Sockets Layer certificates (SSL), so site visitors see HTTPS in the browser address bar. Most modern browsers make HTTPS connections by default; this level of security is especially important with the arrival of GDPR. Duda offers all the tools you need to stay compliant with privacy regulations for your European visitors. You can enable a cookie notification, implement a privacy policy, require opt-in consent for contact forms, and provide a way to delete personal data.
In the end, building a site with Duda is a pleasure: The interface is mostly quick, unlike some builders that take a few seconds to load modules. As with most such services, moving objects around can be finicky, but Duda got us the results we wanted.
To add images to your site, you can use the included stock photography, drag and drop photos from computer folders, or import images from online sources, such as Dropbox, Facebook, Flickr, or Instagram. The included stock photography selection has improved since our last test, turning up plenty of clothing rack shots when we searched for "thrift shop," for example. You can even enter an image's URL or perform a web image search to find the picture you want. Uploading multiple images at once? Not a problem, whether it's a whole folder or multiple selected images within it.
You can crop, resize, and even open an embedded image editor for some online photo editing and effects. In testing, we added a clickable link and tooltip, and changed the Alt text in the image-editing dialog. If you need more control, a gear icon gives access to CSS and HTML code.
There are many photo gallery options, including image size, frame style, spacing, and animation. We also like that once you add an associated Facebook page, any public images from that page appear in the Duda images manager. You can also connect an Instagram account, so your photo gallery can pull images from there.
Duda offers separate site-builder views for desktop, smartphone, and tablet designs. Our test Duda site looked as good and felt just as comfortable to navigate on an iPhone as it did in a PC web browser. A cool option lets you hide any image on a device of your choice—desktop, tablet, or phone. Some content doesn't work well in the smaller formats, so this is a valuable option.
The other side of mobile development is the ability to actually build or edit your site on a mobile device. Duda doesn't offer a mobile app for site building, unlike Weebly. Instead, it offers a mobile web version of the site builder. This features a touch-friendly design with a menu bar for adding and editing widgets. This also lets you add photos to your site right from the tablet.
Duda has a suite of business-focused AI features meant to enhance your site-building experience. The AI SEO Assistant can generate relevant meta tags for your pages, and you can grant permission for team members to adjust tone and translate text with the AI Content Assistant. Duda's AI tools can also generate text and entire sites based on prompts. You can even pay extra to make your site more visible to AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini, with that subscription starting at $19 per month.
These AI features feel targeted toward professionals rather than hobbyists, which makes sense for the service. Still, we recommend against using AI tools to build websites due to the many downsides.
With Duda, you can add buttons that link to your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts. As with Weebly, Duda offers many monochrome or color buttons in different sizes. An older-style Share bar also lets you add buttons, but these aren't customizable in the way the other buttons are, offering no choice of button designs or even which social networks are included. You're better off sticking with the Social Icons option. You can also include an on-page Twitter feed, a Facebook Like button, and Facebook comments.
Duda includes a full sales system, with shopping carts and checkout pages like those you get with Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix. You can also plug PayPal buy buttons into any site page, add printable coupons for site visitors, and create customer memberships. Any Duda user can add a 10-page web store to their sites, assuming they've paid for the e-commerce add-on. The process is slick, clear, and guided.
When you add a store under the e-commerce section, Duda builds a new page for your site with a demo catalog, and it displays a Help box explaining how to set it up. A tooltip tour explains your store page, shopping cart, search, and store management features. There's a separate Store Control Panel page where you add products and configure shipping and payment options. Credit card transactions automatically use SSL security.
Another well-designed wizard takes you through the store setup process. Adding images and formatting text is easy, as is assigning categories and SKU numbers to your products. You can also change the localization to support non-US currencies. Shipping options are integrated with UPS and FedEx, or you can set custom rates. FirstData, PayPal, and Stripe are the available payment processing options. You can import product lists in CSV, LiteCommerce, and XCart formats. Finally, Duda supports selling digital downloads (which the company calls "e-goods"), but the maximum size varies depending on your e-commerce add-on. Standard allows up to 100 MB file sizes, Advanced goes up to 1GB, and Unlimited boosts that limit to 10GB.
Duda has a few customer support options that largely depend on your service level. In other words, the more you pay, the better your support experience will be. As stated earlier, Basic only lets you email the support squad, while Agency adds screen share and web chat to communication options.
More impressive in the Agency tier is the priority support. At this tier, contacting support first brings you to a bot that takes your questions and tries to funnel you toward an answer in Duda's Knowledge Base. If that doesn't suffice, you can "Get in Touch," which connects you with a live agent. In our test, it took less than 30 seconds to reach an agent, and we received answers to our questions 20 seconds later.
Duda can also connect you with verified partners called Duda Experts to give you even more insightful advice on how to improve your site. The directory lists the services experts provide, the regions they are from, their ratings, and their rates.
Reliable website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service. If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services. Fortunately, Duda displays its uptime on its site, and the results are basically perfect. In short, Duda is stable and dependable.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Duda)
Duda Website Builder
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
Duda is a highly capable and user-friendly website-building service, offering many impressive features, especially in the realm of custom enterprise software for teams. It should be among your top considerations if you prioritize a site's look and functionality on mobile devices. Wix, another top pick, offers more integration with third-party services, a solid editor, automatic site creation, and a free tier. However, Duda has site traffic statistics that provide more details, and its editor is one of the best we've tested, especially for agencies. All this earns Duda our enthusiastic recommendation and an Editors' Choice award.
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About Our Expert
My PCMag career began in 2013 as an intern. Now, I'm a senior writer, using the skills I acquired at Northwestern University to write about dating apps, meal kits, programming software, website builders, video streaming services, and video games. I was previously a senior editor at Geek.com and have written for The A.V. Club, Kotaku, and Paste Magazine. I'm the author of the gaming history book Video Game of the Year: A Year-by-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977, and the reason everything you know about Street Sharks is a lie.
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