Website Builder Review

DudaOne

In additional to their mobile-only site builder DudaOne offers a multi-screen website builder that creates one website optimized for desktop, tablet and mobile.

Summary of Pros

  1. Easy to use editor
    Despite all the features that comes with your website builder plan, DudaOne's editor is simplistic. It follows the same interface design as most other website builders – it shows your full website with a collapsible editing toolbar and a header toolbar for site options. You can preview your website on desktop, tablets and mobile devices, you can also edit your website in any of these viewing modes.
  2. Edit by device
    While DudaOne doesn't come with a mobile editor, every element on your website can be customized on a per device basis, giving full control over the site.
  3. inSite
    Duda inSite is a tool that lets you create elements that appear only when certain conditions are met. With inSite, you can create personalized web content and deliver it to the right visitors based on a variety of triggers. Some of these triggers include the time of day (ie. display your restaurant's lunch menu at lunch time), geographical location, the device your customer is using to access your website and more. Duda inSite is a Duda-built tool and is included in all DudaOne plans.
  4. Site backup
    DudaOne lets you save a version of your website so you will be able to restore it anytime you want. In addition, each time you publish your website, an automated backup copy of your website is created. All backups are stored within your editor for easy access and management.
  5. Advanced customization
    Every site element includes the option to add an entrance animation. Choices include fade in, bounce in and zoom in. Each element also comes with a CSS and HTML editor that lets you customize the element at the code level.
  6. Mobile-specific features
    DudaOne comes with a list of mobile-only features to help you add more functionality to your mobile website. These features include click-to- call, mobile map and mobile coupons.

Summary of Cons

  1. No mobile editor
    DudaOne doesn't come with a mobile editor, but every element in DudaOne can be customized on a per device basis – you can hide an element on the tablet or mobile version of your website, so you can customize the mobile look of your website to some extent.
  2. Limited photo gallery layout options
    When adding a photo gallery, you don't get as many choices and settings as you would with Wix or Website.com. There is only the grid and masonry gallery layouts available, or you can add an image slider.
  3. No domain or email services
    While most website builders come with a free 1-year domain registration, DudaOne doesn't offer any free domain. In fact, DudaOne doesn't even offer any domain registration services – you cannot purchase a domain from them. If you need to purchase a domain name, you will need to do so through the Hover integration within your DudaOne dashboard.
  4. No email services
    Just as you won't be able to purchase your domain directly from Duda, Duda also doesn't offer any domain email services and you won't be able to set up your domain email addresses (ie. [email protected]) with Duda. If you need domain email accounts, you can purchase an email service plan separately from Hover.
  5. No live chat or phone support
    For support, DudaOne offers a very extensive knowledgebase and email support. Unfortunately, there is no live chat support or phone support available – phone and live chat support is reserved for the DudaPro (reseller plan) users only.
Website Builder Review - DudaOne

Plans & Pricing

DudaOne is offered in three tiers: Free, Business+ and Business+eCommerce.

  • Click to see https://www.dudamobile.com/plan#d1

Like some website builders such as Weebly and Wix, DudaOne lets you start building your online presence for free. And just like these other free platforms, DudaOne's free websites come with ads on the bottom of your web pages and you won't be able to use a custom domain – instead you will be assigned a Dudaone.com sub-domain, such as clientID.dudaone.com or yoursite.dudaone.com.

But when it comes to features, DudaOne's free plan is more generous. DudaOne doesn't limit the number of sites, pages or bandwidth of free websites. You have limited access to DudaOne inSites and you can also set up an online store with a maximum of 10 products.

The first tier of DudaOne's premium plans is the Business+ plan. This plan builds upon the Free plan with extra features, including full analytics, email support, site backup, developer mode and you can use your custom domain on your website. The Business+ plan is offered at $14.25/month, billed annually. If you don't want to commit to a 12-month term, there is a month-to- month option at $19/month. DudaOne also offers a lifetime subscription to the Business+ plan for a one-time payment of $299.

The top tier of DudaOne's premium plan is the Business+eCommerce plan. This plan builds upon the Business+ plan with extra eCommerce features, including an online store for up to 2000 products and unlimited product categories, 30+ payment providers and product reviews integrated with Facebook. This plan is offered at $22.50/month, billed annually. If you don't want to commit to a 12-month term, there is a month-to- month option at $29/month.

While the Business+ and Business+eCommerce plans allow you to you're your website to your custom domain, DudaOne doesn't offer any free domain name registrations with any of its plans. In fact, Duda doesn't even offer any domain registration services. If you need to register a domain name for your website, you can purchase one from the Hover integration. Domain registrations for a .com domain starts at $12.99/year. DudaOne also doesn't come with email services, so if you've purchased your domain through their Hover integration, you can check out Hover's email service plans.

Website Builder Review - DudaOne

Templates

Duda's collection of templates houses 67 contemporary, mobile-responsive designs.

  • Click to see https://www.dudamobile.com/responsive-website/templates

DudaOne lets you preview each template in desktop, tablet and mobile configuration before selecting one.

While DudaOne's templates aren't as pretty or sophisticated as those of Squarespace, they are highly customizable. DudaOne's templates are also switchable – you can change your template after you have created your website, but only to another template within the same template family.

Once you have selected a template, you can start building your website with it, but if you are pressed for time, you can populate it with content from an existing website on the Internet. In fact, DudaOne is the only website builder that enables you to save valuable time by importing all of your existing images, contact details, social information, text and more from any other website or Facebook business page in just one click.

Website Builder Review - DudaOne

Editor

If you have used website builders before, DudaOne's interface should look familiar to you – options to edit your website are placed in the column along the left side of the screen and options to save, publish, upgrade and undo/redo edits are laid out in the bar along the top.

While DudaOne's interface looks similar to that of its competitors, its powerful set of editing tools is what sets DudaOne apart from most website builders.

Like Wix and Website.com, DudaOne offers free color palettes (or schemes) that you can easily apply to your website in just one click. Color palettes are also customizable.

In addition to your website's color palette and fonts, you can also customize your site navigation to your precise specifications – you can even specify the navigation style of your site on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

You can also set your website background image or color either for every version of your website at once, or individually for the desktop, tablet and mobile versions of your website.

DudaOne's editor uses the drag-and- drop technology, which means you can drag and drop elements to anywhere you want on your web pages. DudaOne doesn't come with a mobile editor, but every element in DudaOne can be customized on a per device basis – you can hide an element on the tablet or mobile version of your website, so you can customize the mobile look of your website to some extent.

When adding a new page to your website, you are given a selection of 12 page types to choose from, including blank page, About Us, Contact us, Photo Gallery, Restaurant Menu, Complex Page and more. You can also add a page from an existing site.

If you don't want to add a full page to your website, you also have the option to add a pop-up window. You also get to choose from 11 pop-up page types. Popups in DudaOne can be set up to appear when clicked as a link, in a button or as an action from an inSite.

Every option dialog for every DudaOne website element comes with a Settings option that lets you edit the element's spacing, CSS code and the actual HTML code for the element.

You can also add entrance animations to add a nice finishing touch to your elements.

Website Builder Review - DudaOne

Features & Apps

Unlike website builders like Weebly and Wix, DudaOne doesn't offer any app store for third- party integrations. But it does offer users a collection of handy, customizable features.

Blog

DudaOne's blog tool is easy to use – you can add a basic blog on your website in no time. You get basic options for changing your blog's layout, but it lacks advanced functionality, such as commenting.

Contact form

DudaOne comes with a highly customizable contact form. You can add as many form fields as you want, and customize each one by selecting from ten different field types.

Restaurant Menu

Many website builders lets you add a menu to your website by giving you a pre-formatted menu page, all you need to do is enter your menu items. DudaOne takes it a step up by allow you to import content from a menu of an existing restaurant website or from a CSV file.

Duda inSite

One thing that sets DudaOne apart is its inSite feature. InSite is a tool that lets you create elements that appear only when certain conditions are met. With inSite, you can personalize your website for every visitor. For example, you can set a special message to display only to repeat visitors to your website, or setup a contact page that displays different contact information depending on the time of the day. Duda inSite is included in all DudaOne plans – DudaOne Free comes with 12 inSites you can add to your website, while the Business+ and Business+eCommerce comes with the full library of inSite actions.

Site backup

DudaOne lets you save a version of your website so you will be able to restore it anytime you want. In addition, each time you publish your website, an automated backup copy of your website is created. Though, there is a limit on how many backups you can save. However, unlike GoDaddy where you can create up to 5 backup copies of your website, DudaOne allows you to create and store up to 10 automated backups and 15 manual backups, and when the limit is reached, older backups will the removed, starting with automated backups first.

Other features include a full set of SEO options, a photo gallery, a YouTube widget, Google Maps, restaurant reservations with OpenTable, social media feeds, WordPress feed, a restaurant menu, a PayPal button, a tool that displays Yelp reviews, Disqus comments, online scheduling with vCitra and more.

Duda also offers a collection of mobile-only features: click-to- call, locations, custom mobile coupons and more. And for tech-savvy users, DudaOne comes with the Developer Mode that gives full access to the HTML/CSS of the website so you can easily add your own animations, design your own custom layouts, implement your own custom apps, tracking and more.

Website Builder Review - DudaOne

e-Commerce

DudaOne offers eCommerce functionality in all their plans. The Free and the Business+ plans support up to 10 products. You also get to choose from several shipping configurations (including FedEx, UPS, USPS, Canada Post, Russian Post or setup custom rates) and payment gateways (including online payment via PayPal, Stripe and Robokassa, or offline payment via money order, check, wire transfer, etc.).

The Business+eCommerce plan comes in two versions, 100 products or 2500 products. This plan offers 30+ payment gateways, including American Express, Authorize.Net, Moneris, PayPal, Stripe, Swipe HQ, 2Checkout and more. Like the Free and Business+ plans, it allows for offline payments such as checks, money orders, phone orders, wire transfers, etc..

Digital/e-goods are supported on all DudaOne plans. You can offer video, audio, files, images, documents, etc. for purchase and download on your online store.

All eCommerce-related emails sent from the DudaOne platform have fully customizable text.

Duda's eCommerce platform also comes with advanced features such as maximum/minimum purchase (ie. you can set the maximum or minimum a customer must purchase to check out). While one would expect this to be a paid feature on other website builders, DudaOne offers it on all three tiers of its plans, including the DudaOne Free plan.

Promotion features, however, require subscription to the Business+eCommerce plan. An upgrade to the plan will allow you to share your store on Facebook, list your products on eBay and/or create discount coupons.

Website Builder Review - DudaOne

Working with Images

To add images to your website, you can either choose from the built-in stock image gallery, drag and drop photos from your computer, or import them from online sources like Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox, Google Drive or Picasa. You can even enter an image's URL or perform a Web search to find the image you want.

Just like all other elements on your website, you can choose to hide any image on a device of your choice, whether it be desktop, tablet or phone. Some images don't work well on smaller screens and instead of shrinking it to fit a mobile screen (and sacrificing image quality, clarity and details), you can simply omit the image on the mobile version of your website. So this is a valuable option.

In terms of photo editing, you can crop and resize an image. You can also use the embedded version of Aviary for some advanced editing and effects. And just like all other elements, you can edit via the element's CSS or HTML codes.

When adding a photo gallery, you don't get as many choices and settings as you would with Wix or Website.com. There is only the grid and masonry gallery layouts available, or you can add an image slider.

Website Builder Review - DudaOne

Domain & Emails

While most website builders come with a free 1-year domain registration, DudaOne doesn't offer any free domain. In fact, DudaOne doesn't offer any domain registration services – you cannot purchase a domain from them.

When you sign up for the DudaOne Business+ and Business+eCommerce plans, you can connect your website with a custom domain. But while you can't purchase a domain name directly from DudaOne, there is a Hover integration built right in the DudaOne publish flow. That means, you can purchase your domain from Hover. Hover is a division of Tucows Inc, the third largest domain registrar in the world, only behind GoDaddy and eNom.

With this setup, you have the freedom to purchase your domain name from any registrar you want, for example GoDaddy.com. DudaOne has put together a list of registrars that are compatible with their service.

DudaOne also doesn't offer any email services. If you want to create a [email protected] custom email address, you will need to purchase separate email services from other providers. Hover offers email service plans.

Website Builder Review - DudaOne

Support

For support, DudaOne offers a very extensive knowledgebase and email support. Unfortunately, there is no live chat support or phone support available – phone and live chat support is reserved for the DudaPro (reseller plan) users only.

Their knowledgebase is comprised of step-by- step guides and videos, case studies, as well as webinars and ebooks, white papers and sales collateral.

Website Builder Review - DudaOne

Conclusion

Duda started out as a website builder dedicated to mobile websites. Through the services of DudaOne, they also offer a responsive website builder for building optimized websites that will impeccably fit all screen sizes.

DudaOne doesn't offer as many template designs or third-party apps as Squarespace or Wix; it doesn't offer domain email services like Website.com, nor does it give you a free domain name. But their advanced features like eCommerce and inSite offered even at the free level makes DudaOne a serious consideration as a powerful website builder.