Hi Tom. Just been using duda and like it. but I am on free account at the moment. But a question, I cant find the submenu option for drop down menus for the navigation, is that only available on paid version? Cheers.
Greatly appreciate the comment, Gonzalo! If there is something I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to contact me via learnduda.com or aynimedia.com. 🙏🏻
Hey Tom. Thanks for providing this video it was really helpful. Your delivery is nice and relaxing and easy to digest the info. Thanks for the Duda info. I'm just starting up with it and starting to build an Ad agency with it. Seems to be very easy to use. The only problem I've had so far is moving a store Icon to the far left of the home screen, where it previously was before. Guess I'll just watch a few more videos. It stops allow me to move it at approximately 1.5 inches from the left border.
Glad it was helpful! It sounds like you need to experiment more with rows, columns, inner rows, margins, and padding. Overall, moving the cart icon where you want it to be shouldn't be too bad. Note, you can use a negative # in a margin to shift a widget out of it's row/column limited position. Good luck! OH -- Be sure to jump on Duda's July50 or July25 promo if you plan on activating your plan or a new website this month. My affiliate link: bit.ly/2RXBy3o 🙏🏻
Hi Tom, I am planning to start Freelancing and stumbled on duda for making drag and drop site. As a beginner, I find the platform intuitive for some parts and haven't really explored yet to those parts new to me. I just wanna thank you for sharing this walkthrough. I guess I'll be keeping myself busy exploring this during my free time. Thanks again and keep safe!
Awesome, Theta! If you're interested, I've started a newsletter where I share a lot more info about everything Duda. You can read about it and sign-up here: ayni-media.mailchimpsites.com 🙏🏻
Thanks Thomas I understood now. Sorry, I thinks its happened not to be native English Listener. I'm from Bangladesh and I will follow your every instruction on website designing using Duda. Thanks again for your quick reply :)
Just found your channel. Very useful information, thank you. Just getting started with Duda but so far I love it. I may have specific questions for you as I go along.
Thanks for the great question, Andrea! I have not had to build a multi-language site myself but Duda has a good support article on how to do it. support.duda.co/hc/en-us/articles/1500001598502-Configure-a-Multi-Language-Site
Hi Thomas …. Thanks for the post. I just subscribed since you seem to be well knowledgeable in Duda and for the type of questions I am interested in . … and also eager to know about the blog features you mention are good not great … or in other words work in progress. For the homepage, I have not had major issues with elementor in wordpress. But, where my interests are now, are more in the blog page and the ways you can customize it , like making the blog page more dynamic than just a list of entries …. So, I hope you keep posting as things come along. warm regards
Greatly appreciated Manuel! For sure I will post blog design content. I've had a bit of a set back recently but have every intention of releasing more Duda videos in the near future. 🙏🏻
Hi Marc, thanks for the question. My first thought is no, I'm not sure Duda is the best solution for a digital magazine and it's not a niche I'm very knowledgable in so I'm not sure what direction to point you in. That said, Duda's blog capability continues to improve as does their blog widget and tag filtering. You could build a 'magazine-like' system on Duda but their max page limit is 1000 pages I believe. Hope some of that feedback helps - good luck!
Appreciate the comment Prince. I've embedded a homesnap widget for a realtor before and I believe if you google IDX Duda plugin or widget you may find a third party offering one for a price. In all, I'm not convinced realtors require IDX, search, or listing integration. Here's a link on this topic where the individual explains why you should not add IDX or a full search. agentredefined.com/do-you-need-the-idx-on-your-real-estate-website/
The first question I think you already answered but I just want to clarify do you have unlimited pages with the software. I know you're affiliate but before I put in all the work I need to know how much are there plans/cost.
Thanks for the question Kevin! You can create a maximum of 1000 pages on a site. (This is directly from Duda support). Per the plans and costs, please visit: www.duda.co/plans-n where you'll notice Basic, Team, or the Agency plan. It really depends on how many sites you plan on managing as well as the features needed.
They just copied Elementor and charged for it. And not only that but they copied Elementor and said you can only use it if you HOST your site with them! Meaning, you're stuck if anything ever goes wrong with your relationship with them. If for any reason you decide you don't want to deal with them anymore - you're stuck. You can't get your website out because it's in their proprietary system. That's why I would NEVER use this - no matter how good it was. Why? Because you don't want a for-profit company to sink it's teeth into a major part of your business. Then you're at their whim. They decide at some point they're going to raise prices - there's nothing you can do. They decide they're going to drop features you like or not add features you want... there's nothing you can do. No matter how good they are - people have to think about *portability*. With WordPress you can move anywhere anytime. If you decide you don't like your current web host - you can move very easily with WordPress. You decide you want a feature WordPress doesn't provide - chances are a third-party provides it. You decide you don't like WordPress's price... well, it's free, so go make a donation to them if you like. But when you're tied into private for-profit companies like this, who make their living offering "plans" and charging their customers - history shows they will become greedy and they will eventually do everything in their power to suck every last dime out of you they think they can get away with. Plus Elementor for WordPress can do all this and more - and without all Duda's restrictions and limitations.
Hey LL, thanks for the comment. I’ll do my best to respond to your key points. #1 Yes, when you pay a for-profit service provider, they can change prices or make modifications to their service. For example, many businesses rely on Mailchimp, Basecamp, Freshbooks, and HubSot. If they wanted to move to an alternate service or competitor, they can always do so and yes, there may be some manual labor involved. In my case, I’ve seen continual service improvement from my 3+ years with Duda and I believe they respect and genuinely care about their customer base. In fact, I’m grandfathered into the rate I was paying 3 years ago so my prices wouldn’t increase. Because of moves like that, I know they put their customer’s interests first. I can optionally upgrade if I want to. #2 Duda actually is portable. Keep in mind I have yet to see a customer I’ve worked with leave Duda and go back to WordPress (or anywhere else), but you can export Duda sites if you are on their agency plan. You can even migrate full sites from one Duda account to another. Overall, Duda is portable and I can only assume Duda would provide the export service for free if they announced that they were going to shutdown someday. Given the 25 million dollar investment they received late last year, I’m sure that shutting down any time soon is not in the cards. Here’s the info on how to export with Duda: support.duda.co/hc/en-us/articles/360042436794-Site-Export #3 Based on the WordPress sites I’ve created over the years or had to update for other small businesses, I can say from experience that Elementor has its own learning curve and very often their websites require premium addons. For example, Elementor Pro, the Post Grid Elementor Addon, Premium Addons for Elementor, etc. I’ve also used Divi, Fusion Builder, Fusion Slider, and likely others. The truth is, it’s faster to create, update, and maintain websites on Duda. Ask any experienced Duda web builder who also has WordPress experience and they’ll say the same thing. Once you begin building on Duda, you’ll try to avoid WordPress projects as often as you can, especially if you’re selling websites to small businesses. Duda was built for agencies or freelancers and can even be leveraged by DIY small business owners who want to build and publish a website for themselves. As far as my Duda related content is concerned, I’m trying to share what I know and what tools I enjoy working with for my audience. My audience is not a ‘pro’ WordPress audience. There are many people out there who are tired of WordPress and I want them to know that Duda is an amazing alternative, especially if they want to build websites for small businesses or for themselves. I’ve built Shopify sites, Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, Duda, messed with Webflow, and have even manually created sites with Dreamweaver years ago. I wish you nothing but success with WordPress, Elementor, or whichever services you work with and support.
Hey Thomas, Great video, I've learnt a lot. I've been considering using Duda for building website for business clients. Have you ever used Divi or elementor? How do you think this compares to it? Also what would you say to clients that might object since Duda is not on WordPress? It seems like Duda is a proprietory software that forces you to stay on their platform and use their hosting in order to keep the website. The client might feel nervous investing in something that they can't really get off of if they wanted to.
Hi Kevin, I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. Yes I have used Divi and Elementor. Personally, I think those tools or addons exist because WordPress was not created to quickly and easily build small business websites which is exactly what Duda was made for. Whereas WordPress, as a platform, was built for blogs and has been modified for business. Per clients who object, I would ask them about their individual objections. In most cases, Duda has a counter or a solution. Per the hosting and being proprietary, I think it’s a ridiculous argument. We now live in the world of SaaS and managed services. Does their business outsource any other service or software that they don’t have 100% control over? Certainly. Manually managing hosted WordPress sites, plugin updates, and security holes is a real pain where Duda makes it an absolute breeze. Duda does offer a site export for people on the agency plan just in case they need to remove their site and set it up on a self-hosted server. Do yourself a favor and try Duda, Kevin. You will not regret it. I also recommend you check out this link for Duda vs WordPress information: www.duda.co/blog/?s=wordpress
The current pricing can be found here: www.duda.co/plans-n Yes, there is a site export option for Agency level subscribers. Make sure you fully read the site export information here: support.duda.co/hc/en-us/articles/360042436794-Site-Export
Hi Tom. I enjoyed your overview! I've been using Duda for my two business websites for some years, and I love its features. My problem...I have a hard time wrapping my head around creating blogs. Any suggestions?
Thomas, awesome question and you just confirmed for me why I’m working on my new blog project so thank you! Blogging on Duda is not difficult and I’ll be launching blog specific content very soon! In the meantime, I would think about the purpose of your business’s blogs. Is it to promote offers, educate people, deep-dive into products or services, share seasonal information, etc. There are many directions and strategies you can use to think of relevant content. Just make sure it serves your audience. Ask them what questions they have, poll them, etc and then create content based on their needs. I also recommend you make writing a habit. Schedule it and commit to a publishing routine. Maybe 1x per month in the beginning. More to come soon! Thx
The agency account is the only one you can export files for delivery to a hosting company or a client and it is 800 bucks for a year. That is expensive. The builder is nice but the no export feature makes it useless for small companies or designers.
Appreciate the comment, Christa. Yes, the site export ability is only available for customers who are on the agency plan. Personally, not a single customer I’ve worked with has asked for an export so I believe the odds are very low that it would be needed. Also, most agencies clearly state in their agreement that the site is not transferable in order to avoid the subject even coming up. Most clients are fine with subscribing to their website as a service. I recommend you avoid clients who say that this is a requirement. Good luck! Oh, you can transfer Duda sites to other Duda accounts. I have released ownership of a site and transferred it to the business/customer directly. So, that’s an option.
Thomas Connery thanks for the info. But a lot of my clients have their domains already so the last option you mentioned would work, I suppose. I also work for other agencies and tech folks who want the files after all they paid for them. Who would sign an agreement that their site they paid for was not transferable? As a graphic designer the clients own everything I make for them. The agencies I have worked for also hand over files. This is definitely a different work process I will have to explore.
I'm not sure I fully understand your question but I would take a look at MemberStack and MemberSpace if you are looking at building a membership based Duda website.
Hello Tom. I like the tutorial. I'm going to need to learn how to do some minor edits to my webpage and this was a great start. I may need to continue to some site development for hire. Do you have any recommendations? Upwork?
Debasish, thanks so much for the comment and question. Yes! If you are looking for a Duda freelancer I suggest you search on Fiverr or Upwork. There are also some Duda fulfillment pros you can find by just searching on Google. My biz is also a fulfillment option for Duda work. You can contact me via www.aynimedia.com. Thanks again!
Johan, I appreciate the reply. I have used Elementor a couple of times but still find building on Duda to be more efficient. I create Duda videos because it's my favorite web building platform for small businesses and I'd like to help others with their Duda site needs and education. I'm happy you enjoy WordPress and Elementor and am glad it serves you well.
But time is money, for the client and yourself. Not having to spend as much time on setup, design, and most of all updates, plugins, and security, no image optimizations needed, duda ends up being far more efficient in the end. The sites are 99.9% maintenance free.
Hi, thanks for the question. No, and.co has nothing to do with Duda. It's just a service I recommend for new freelancers if they want to track expenses, invoice customers, etc. Any freelancer can use it!
Thomas Thanks for your nice understandable step by step briefing on DUDA. I want to go for it but little bit afraid of having no blog option as you said!!! Blog is a must have prescription from google for a site. How will it be covered ?? Dude would you please mention me ?
Zahidul, I don't recall saying there was no blog option. Not only does Duda have blogging built in, they recently updated it making it easier than ever to import content from current blog sites (WordPress & more) so migrations to Duda would be simpler. Hope this helps!
Duda is somewhat customizable. You do have access to html and css across most of the site pages (see Dev mode) BUT Duda was created as a drag and drop builder. Hope that helps! Thanks for the comment.
So you can migrate a full site with hundreds or thousands of content pages from WP to Duda? I see there is an RSS feed for blogs. But I'm referring to the main content from the site. Thanks.
Hello VeganCyborg, per importing full pages, I am not aware of an import tool BUT there may be an advanced way to perform such actions through the API. I'm willing to bet Duda support may have some information on that but I have never had a need for it. The largest Duda sites I've built were around 150 pages and both the content import and RSS import have been helpful. Thanks for watching and for commenting!
Great question! You can setup an online store with any Duda template and are not restricted by those 3. I’m happy to provide more info on the positives and negatives of using a Duda store.
Yes, as far as I've seen, any template can have a store added. As far as the store features, it depends on which tier you pay for. Free (up to 10 products with limited features), Standard, Advanced, or Unlimited. You can review the breakdown here for the store features: www.duda.co/plans/ecommerce
@@ThomasConnery please drop another video on hiring/training a designer for using duda to create client sites like smm agencies. i need a designer for longterm that can create custom sections, icons, illustrations, animations and other assets that make the site's custom. duda is awesome but if im going to take it to the max I need an awesome designer to take care of the athletic/visuals. duda takes care of everything else
@@trystonantol8685 Thanks for the comment, Tryston. As far as creating websites, there are many Duda builders who can leverage or modify icons, graphics, animations, etc. I personally don't know anyone who can do all of the design work you are looking for that is also a Duda pro. Most agencies I work with hire or outsource resources with the specific skills you are looking for. I would recommend you search Fiverr for finding the right resource: bit.ly/3aRTJ3e (My Affiliate Link) Good luck!
Would you recommend this for a Freelancer trying to scale up and become a local design agency? Would it be considered affordable for clients, I cater to small businesses that do not have a very large budget.
@@ThomasConnery Thanks for the reply! I'm going to try and offer Trial/ FREE Designs to new clients while I test out the system. One thing that is confusing though, & maybe you can help...Does duda require clients to purchase hosting and their domain name like Wix etc.? Or do they only need to purchase the domain name and the hosting is done through your agency membership?
Hosting is included for all Duda plans. Domains must be purchased separately. I use and highly recommend Namecheap.com and am an affiliate if you would like me to send you my unique link. Thanks!
Thanks for the question! Yes, Duda has ecommerce available and it works with any of their themes or templates out of the box. Their online store runs on Ecwid and it's fully integrated with Duda so all of the store config and management is done right within the Duda site itself. There is a mobile app available to manage store orders as well. Please check out the ecommerce options for Duda here: www.duda.co/plans/ecommerce
Pros Easy to use Advanced features Generous free plan includes eCommerce “Personalization rules” are helpful & innovative Impressive eCommerce Multilingual sites Cons Limited customer support (no live chat or phone #) Blog feature is limited Expensive paid plans
Hi again Daniel, I appreciate you taking the time to reply and agree that there are pros and cons to the platform, well, for all website platforms for that matter. I plan on making a new video soon around blogging on Duda and for sure will talk about the pros and cons. Thanks again!
Appreciate the comment. I don't want to build "super custom, dynamic database-driven PHP websites" -- this is why I use Duda and why I'm sharing and promoting the platform. It's a fantastic solution for most small businesses and a wonderful platform for people to begin learning web design.
Duda site builder is extremely slow on both my computers making it virtually impossible to navigate/design. Anyone else have this? I tried clearing cache
Hi Mitch, I am sorry to hear you are having trouble. I often check the status page first to see if there is a known outage or incident that may be impacting site or builder performance. You can find that here: status.duda.co. I have noticed the left and top nav bars take a few seconds to load when going into the builder but overall, I have not experienced the issue you are describing. I would contact Duda support support.duda.co and they can help you figure out why your specific site(s) or builder is slow. Yes, I have heard that cache clearing can sometimes help. You may want to test using another browser also. Good luck!
Hi! Great question. I have experimented with a service called memberstack.io but am not an expert with it. Their support team is very responsive though. Check out this page for more information on how to add free or paid user accounts to any Duda website without code. www.memberstack.io/builder/duda
Thanks Daniel. I am not an expert on WordPress plugins related to membership management so I can't comment on that topic. Most of the websites I build on Duda do not require a membership service so it rarely prevents a business from leveraging Duda as a website solution. It all depends on the customer or site requirements. There may be other membership services beyond memberstack.io, even free ones, I really don't know because my clients have not required memberships. Maybe someday I'll be able to post a new video all about how to handle memberships on Duda. Thanks for the comment.
@BobnMarian, I wanted to let you know that MemberSpace also has a Duda membership capability. Please reference my affiliate link if you're interested 🙏🏻 : bit.ly/3aIGkKd
¡Hola! Gracias por el comentario. Investigaré cómo traducir mis futuros tutoriales en español. ¡Es una gran idea! --- Hello! Thanks for the comment. I will investigate how to translate my future tutorials in spanish. It's a great idea!
E. Lilian, acabo de añadir subtítulos en español y francés hoy. ¡Gracias por la idea! Fue bueno aprender el proceso y lo tendré en cuenta para futuros videos. (I just added Spanish and French subtitles today. Thanks for the idea! It was good to learn the process and I'll keep this in mind for future videos.)
HI Daniel. My name is Tom, and yes, I do make money building Duda websites for digital agencies and small businesses. It's my primary side hustle. Because I've been building Duda websites since 2016, I decided to make videos that could inform or educate people about Duda and the platform's capabilities. Some of my sites have been quite complex while others can be simple. It's a wonderful solution for many small businesses and anyone running a digital marketing agency should consider using Duda for their customer's websites. Sure, it may not be for everyone and I'll be sure to mention cons within my videos where it makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Hello Tom. I like the tutorial. I'm going to need to learn how to do some minor edits to my webpage and this was a great start. I may need to continue to some site development for hire. Do you have any recommendations? Upwork?
Tim, thanks for the question. You can find experienced Duda resources on Upwork and Fiverr. In fact, I have gotten Duda work from both of those sources. Perhaps there is something I can help you with? I've worked with many digital agencies and small businesses. Whether it was full site design or updates and changes. I'm in the process of revamping my own website but you can use this contact form if you would like to chat: www.aynimedia.com/contact-ayni-media
![The Duda Website Builder Pricing Plan Explained [2021]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P2K6L5dtGbM/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Duda Website Builder Pricing Plan Explained [2021]](/img/tr.png)
Hi Tom. Just been using duda and like it. but I am on free account at the moment. But a question, I cant find the submenu option for drop down menus for the navigation, is that only available on paid version? Cheers.
Great question! You can still build submenu items or links before you publish a site. I’ll upload a new video this week showing how that’s done. 👍
UPDATE: Just wanted to let you know that I published a new video related to menus, submenus, and anchors! ruclips.net/video/JIMZE4aa4mM/видео.html
This is amazing video. Thank you for the information. It's very helpful video. I am happy and liked your video.
Glad it was helpful!
Hi Tom, a great overview of the product, you cover in detail the most important sections, I will try Duda myself today. Thanks!
Greatly appreciate the comment, Gonzalo! If there is something I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to contact me via learnduda.com or aynimedia.com. 🙏🏻
Hey Tom. Thanks for providing this video it was really helpful. Your delivery is nice and relaxing and easy to digest the info. Thanks for the Duda info. I'm just starting up with it and starting to build an Ad agency with it. Seems to be very easy to use. The only problem I've had so far is moving a store Icon to the far left of the home screen, where it previously was before. Guess I'll just watch a few more videos. It stops allow me to move it at approximately 1.5 inches from the left border.
Glad it was helpful! It sounds like you need to experiment more with rows, columns, inner rows, margins, and padding. Overall, moving the cart icon where you want it to be shouldn't be too bad. Note, you can use a negative # in a margin to shift a widget out of it's row/column limited position. Good luck! OH -- Be sure to jump on Duda's July50 or July25 promo if you plan on activating your plan or a new website this month. My affiliate link: bit.ly/2RXBy3o 🙏🏻
@@ThomasConnery I will thanks for the info!! Best of luck on your channel and business!!
This guy needs more subscribers. His content is nice and detailed. 👍👍👍
Really appreciate that! 🙏🏻
Hi Tom, I am planning to start Freelancing and stumbled on duda for making drag and drop site. As a beginner, I find the platform intuitive for some parts and haven't really explored yet to those parts new to me. I just wanna thank you for sharing this walkthrough. I guess I'll be keeping myself busy exploring this during my free time. Thanks again and keep safe!
Awesome, Theta! If you're interested, I've started a newsletter where I share a lot more info about everything Duda. You can read about it and sign-up here: ayni-media.mailchimpsites.com 🙏🏻
Thomas Connery, sure! I’m gonna check that. Also subscribed to your channel bro. Thanks! 🙂
Done already! Fyi :)
Thanks Tom. Great video. Really helped me understand what Duda is all about and how I can use it. Look forward to seeing more of your videos.
Really appreciate the comment, Clyde. 🙏🏻
Nice video
Great! Glad you liked it. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Thanks Thomas I understood now. Sorry, I thinks its happened not to be native English Listener. I'm from Bangladesh and I will follow your every instruction on website designing using Duda. Thanks again for your quick reply :)
so underrated
Just found your channel. Very useful information, thank you. Just getting started with Duda but so far I love it. I may have specific questions for you as I go along.
Fantastic! Welcome to the dudaverse. 😉
Great information Thomas, just signed up with Duda & like your information. I was thinking about multiple languages for websites..
Thanks for the great question, Andrea! I have not had to build a multi-language site myself but Duda has a good support article on how to do it. support.duda.co/hc/en-us/articles/1500001598502-Configure-a-Multi-Language-Site
I am very interestes in duda tutorials, I build my own website with duda and one of a client as well!
Hi Thomas ….
Thanks for the post.
I just subscribed since you seem to be well knowledgeable in Duda and for the type of questions I am interested in . … and also eager to know about the blog features you mention are good not great … or in other words work in progress.
For the homepage, I have not had major issues with elementor in wordpress. But, where my interests are now, are more in the blog page and the ways you can customize it , like making the blog page more dynamic than just a list of entries ….
So, I hope you keep posting as things come along.
warm regards
Greatly appreciated Manuel! For sure I will post blog design content. I've had a bit of a set back recently but have every intention of releasing more Duda videos in the near future. 🙏🏻
Great information! thank you.
Thanks so much for the comment! Glad my Duda overview could help.
Do you recommend this website for creating an online digital magazine? Are there any websites better for such?
Hi Marc, thanks for the question. My first thought is no, I'm not sure Duda is the best solution for a digital magazine and it's not a niche I'm very knowledgable in so I'm not sure what direction to point you in. That said, Duda's blog capability continues to improve as does their blog widget and tag filtering. You could build a 'magazine-like' system on Duda but their max page limit is 1000 pages I believe. Hope some of that feedback helps - good luck!
@@ThomasConnery Thanks Thomas for the quick and informative response! Hope to find something soon :)
Can you do Real Estate Brokers listing in DUDA?
Appreciate the comment Prince. I've embedded a homesnap widget for a realtor before and I believe if you google IDX Duda plugin or widget you may find a third party offering one for a price. In all, I'm not convinced realtors require IDX, search, or listing integration. Here's a link on this topic where the individual explains why you should not add IDX or a full search. agentredefined.com/do-you-need-the-idx-on-your-real-estate-website/
The first question I think you already answered but I just want to clarify do you have unlimited pages with the software. I know you're affiliate but before I put in all the work I need to know how much are there plans/cost.
Thanks for the question Kevin! You can create a maximum of 1000 pages on a site. (This is directly from Duda support). Per the plans and costs, please visit: www.duda.co/plans-n where you'll notice Basic, Team, or the Agency plan. It really depends on how many sites you plan on managing as well as the features needed.
They just copied Elementor and charged for it. And not only that but they copied Elementor and said you can only use it if you HOST your site with them! Meaning, you're stuck if anything ever goes wrong with your relationship with them. If for any reason you decide you don't want to deal with them anymore - you're stuck. You can't get your website out because it's in their proprietary system.
That's why I would NEVER use this - no matter how good it was. Why? Because you don't want a for-profit company to sink it's teeth into a major part of your business. Then you're at their whim. They decide at some point they're going to raise prices - there's nothing you can do. They decide they're going to drop features you like or not add features you want... there's nothing you can do.
No matter how good they are - people have to think about *portability*. With WordPress you can move anywhere anytime. If you decide you don't like your current web host - you can move very easily with WordPress. You decide you want a feature WordPress doesn't provide - chances are a third-party provides it. You decide you don't like WordPress's price... well, it's free, so go make a donation to them if you like.
But when you're tied into private for-profit companies like this, who make their living offering "plans" and charging their customers - history shows they will become greedy and they will eventually do everything in their power to suck every last dime out of you they think they can get away with.
Plus Elementor for WordPress can do all this and more - and without all Duda's restrictions and limitations.
Hey LL, thanks for the comment. I’ll do my best to respond to your key points.
#1 Yes, when you pay a for-profit service provider, they can change prices or make modifications to their service. For example, many businesses rely on Mailchimp, Basecamp, Freshbooks, and HubSot. If they wanted to move to an alternate service or competitor, they can always do so and yes, there may be some manual labor involved. In my case, I’ve seen continual service improvement from my 3+ years with Duda and I believe they respect and genuinely care about their customer base. In fact, I’m grandfathered into the rate I was paying 3 years ago so my prices wouldn’t increase. Because of moves like that, I know they put their customer’s interests first. I can optionally upgrade if I want to.
#2 Duda actually is portable. Keep in mind I have yet to see a customer I’ve worked with leave Duda and go back to WordPress (or anywhere else), but you can export Duda sites if you are on their agency plan. You can even migrate full sites from one Duda account to another. Overall, Duda is portable and I can only assume Duda would provide the export service for free if they announced that they were going to shutdown someday. Given the 25 million dollar investment they received late last year, I’m sure that shutting down any time soon is not in the cards. Here’s the info on how to export with Duda: support.duda.co/hc/en-us/articles/360042436794-Site-Export
#3 Based on the WordPress sites I’ve created over the years or had to update for other small businesses, I can say from experience that Elementor has its own learning curve and very often their websites require premium addons. For example, Elementor Pro, the Post Grid Elementor Addon, Premium Addons for Elementor, etc. I’ve also used Divi, Fusion Builder, Fusion Slider, and likely others. The truth is, it’s faster to create, update, and maintain websites on Duda. Ask any experienced Duda web builder who also has WordPress experience and they’ll say the same thing. Once you begin building on Duda, you’ll try to avoid WordPress projects as often as you can, especially if you’re selling websites to small businesses. Duda was built for agencies or freelancers and can even be leveraged by DIY small business owners who want to build and publish a website for themselves.
As far as my Duda related content is concerned, I’m trying to share what I know and what tools I enjoy working with for my audience. My audience is not a ‘pro’ WordPress audience. There are many people out there who are tired of WordPress and I want them to know that Duda is an amazing alternative, especially if they want to build websites for small businesses or for themselves. I’ve built Shopify sites, Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, Duda, messed with Webflow, and have even manually created sites with Dreamweaver years ago. I wish you nothing but success with WordPress, Elementor, or whichever services you work with and support.
Hey Thomas, Great video, I've learnt a lot. I've been considering using Duda for building website for business clients. Have you ever used Divi or elementor? How do you think this compares to it? Also what would you say to clients that might object since Duda is not on WordPress? It seems like Duda is a proprietory software that forces you to stay on their platform and use their hosting in order to keep the website. The client might feel nervous investing in something that they can't really get off of if they wanted to.
Hi Kevin, I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. Yes I have used Divi and Elementor. Personally, I think those tools or addons exist because WordPress was not created to quickly and easily build small business websites which is exactly what Duda was made for. Whereas WordPress, as a platform, was built for blogs and has been modified for business. Per clients who object, I would ask them about their individual objections. In most cases, Duda has a counter or a solution. Per the hosting and being proprietary, I think it’s a ridiculous argument. We now live in the world of SaaS and managed services. Does their business outsource any other service or software that they don’t have 100% control over? Certainly. Manually managing hosted WordPress sites, plugin updates, and security holes is a real pain where Duda makes it an absolute breeze. Duda does offer a site export for people on the agency plan just in case they need to remove their site and set it up on a self-hosted server. Do yourself a favor and try Duda, Kevin. You will not regret it. I also recommend you check out this link for Duda vs WordPress information: www.duda.co/blog/?s=wordpress
@@ThomasConnery what is the cost associated with the agency plan just in case they need to remove their site and set it up on a self-hosted server.?
@@evstudios9309 From my understanding Duda doesn't allow you to do that
The current pricing can be found here: www.duda.co/plans-n
Yes, there is a site export option for Agency level subscribers. Make sure you fully read the site export information here: support.duda.co/hc/en-us/articles/360042436794-Site-Export
Hi Tom. I enjoyed your overview! I've been using Duda for my two business websites for some years, and I love its features. My problem...I have a hard time wrapping my head around creating blogs. Any suggestions?
Thomas, awesome question and you just confirmed for me why I’m working on my new blog project so thank you! Blogging on Duda is not difficult and I’ll be launching blog specific content very soon! In the meantime, I would think about the purpose of your business’s blogs. Is it to promote offers, educate people, deep-dive into products or services, share seasonal information, etc. There are many directions and strategies you can use to think of relevant content. Just make sure it serves your audience. Ask them what questions they have, poll them, etc and then create content based on their needs. I also recommend you make writing a habit. Schedule it and commit to a publishing routine. Maybe 1x per month in the beginning. More to come soon! Thx
The agency account is the only one you can export files for delivery to a hosting company or a client and it is 800 bucks for a year. That is expensive. The builder is nice but the no export feature makes it useless for small companies or designers.
Appreciate the comment, Christa. Yes, the site export ability is only available for customers who are on the agency plan. Personally, not a single customer I’ve worked with has asked for an export so I believe the odds are very low that it would be needed. Also, most agencies clearly state in their agreement that the site is not transferable in order to avoid the subject even coming up. Most clients are fine with subscribing to their website as a service. I recommend you avoid clients who say that this is a requirement. Good luck! Oh, you can transfer Duda sites to other Duda accounts. I have released ownership of a site and transferred it to the business/customer directly. So, that’s an option.
Thomas Connery thanks for the info. But a lot of my clients have their domains already so the last option you mentioned would work, I suppose. I also work for other agencies and tech folks who want the files after all they paid for them. Who would sign an agreement that their site they paid for was not transferable? As a graphic designer the clients own everything I make for them. The agencies I have worked for also hand over files. This is definitely a different work process I will have to explore.
Hey, Tom. If we wanted to build a member-based web store, does Duda provide a login option and a application forms integration?
I'm not sure I fully understand your question but I would take a look at MemberStack and MemberSpace if you are looking at building a membership based Duda website.
I use MemberSpace and it's really great. They integrate with Duda, which is why I'm taking a look at Duda now.
Hello Tom. I like the tutorial. I'm going to need to learn how to do some minor edits to my webpage and this was a great start. I may need to continue to some site development for hire. Do you have any recommendations? Upwork?
Debasish, thanks so much for the comment and question. Yes! If you are looking for a Duda freelancer I suggest you search on Fiverr or Upwork. There are also some Duda fulfillment pros you can find by just searching on Google. My biz is also a fulfillment option for Duda work. You can contact me via www.aynimedia.com. Thanks again!
With Wordpress and Elementor you can do so much more paying less than half.
Johan, I appreciate the reply. I have used Elementor a couple of times but still find building on Duda to be more efficient. I create Duda videos because it's my favorite web building platform for small businesses and I'd like to help others with their Duda site needs and education. I'm happy you enjoy WordPress and Elementor and am glad it serves you well.
But time is money, for the client and yourself. Not having to spend as much time on setup, design, and most of all updates, plugins, and security, no image optimizations needed, duda ends up being far more efficient in the end. The sites are 99.9% maintenance free.
I want to build website for freelance service. I see your link to and.co, do I still need and.co service if I use duda? anyone could help? thanks
Hi, thanks for the question. No, and.co has nothing to do with Duda. It's just a service I recommend for new freelancers if they want to track expenses, invoice customers, etc. Any freelancer can use it!
Thomas Thanks for your nice understandable step by step briefing on DUDA. I want to go for it but little bit afraid of having no blog option as you said!!! Blog is a must have prescription from google for a site. How will it be covered ?? Dude would you please mention me ?
Zahidul, I don't recall saying there was no blog option. Not only does Duda have blogging built in, they recently updated it making it easier than ever to import content from current blog sites (WordPress & more) so migrations to Duda would be simpler. Hope this helps!
how customisable is duda?
I ask this as a backend developer.
Duda is somewhat customizable. You do have access to html and css across most of the site pages (see Dev mode) BUT Duda was created as a drag and drop builder. Hope that helps! Thanks for the comment.
So you can migrate a full site with hundreds or thousands of content pages from WP to Duda? I see there is an RSS feed for blogs. But I'm referring to the main content from the site. Thanks.
Hello VeganCyborg, per importing full pages, I am not aware of an import tool BUT there may be an advanced way to perform such actions through the API. I'm willing to bet Duda support may have some information on that but I have never had a need for it. The largest Duda sites I've built were around 150 pages and both the content import and RSS import have been helpful. Thanks for watching and for commenting!
I' m highly interest in Duda. But for the online stores they just have 3 templates published on their sites or more?
Great question! You can setup an online store with any Duda template and are not restricted by those 3. I’m happy to provide more info on the positives and negatives of using a Duda store.
Thomas Connery so every template can be a store. For each listings can be applied also discounts, offers and so on?
Yes, as far as I've seen, any template can have a store added. As far as the store features, it depends on which tier you pay for. Free (up to 10 products with limited features), Standard, Advanced, or Unlimited. You can review the breakdown here for the store features: www.duda.co/plans/ecommerce
@@ThomasConnery please drop another video on hiring/training a designer for using duda to create client sites like smm agencies. i need a designer for longterm that can create custom sections, icons, illustrations, animations and other assets that make the site's custom. duda is awesome but if im going to take it to the max I need an awesome designer to take care of the athletic/visuals. duda takes care of everything else
@@trystonantol8685 Thanks for the comment, Tryston. As far as creating websites, there are many Duda builders who can leverage or modify icons, graphics, animations, etc. I personally don't know anyone who can do all of the design work you are looking for that is also a Duda pro. Most agencies I work with hire or outsource resources with the specific skills you are looking for. I would recommend you search Fiverr for finding the right resource: bit.ly/3aRTJ3e (My Affiliate Link) Good luck!
where is Duda from? Poland or Tel aviv?
Duda has 5 locations currently and I believe they began in Tel Aviv. www.duda.co/about
Hello is the theme and template come with the plan? Thanks!
Yes! Duda has a ton of free/included templates to choose from and you can even buy additional 3rd party templates as well. Thanks for the question!
Would you recommend this for a Freelancer trying to scale up and become a local design agency? Would it be considered affordable for clients, I cater to small businesses that do not have a very large budget.
100% Yes! That is exactly what Duda is perfectly suited for.
@@ThomasConnery Thanks for the reply! I'm going to try and offer Trial/ FREE Designs to new clients while I test out the system. One thing that is confusing though, & maybe you can help...Does duda require clients to purchase hosting and their domain name like Wix etc.? Or do they only need to purchase the domain name and the hosting is done through your agency membership?
Hosting is included for all Duda plans. Domains must be purchased separately. I use and highly recommend Namecheap.com and am an affiliate if you would like me to send you my unique link. Thanks!
@@ThomasConnery Absolutely! That would be great thank you, i'm absolutely loving all the features so far & I am making the switch!
@@ranessahendrix7701 This is the ONLY service I use to buy and manage domains: bit.ly/2voyx4n 🙏🏻
can you use it for e commerce? or do the front page design for woo commerce ?
Thanks for the question! Yes, Duda has ecommerce available and it works with any of their themes or templates out of the box. Their online store runs on Ecwid and it's fully integrated with Duda so all of the store config and management is done right within the Duda site itself. There is a mobile app available to manage store orders as well. Please check out the ecommerce options for Duda here: www.duda.co/plans/ecommerce
Pros
Easy to use
Advanced features
Generous free plan includes eCommerce
“Personalization rules” are helpful & innovative
Impressive eCommerce
Multilingual sites
Cons
Limited customer support (no live chat or phone #)
Blog feature is limited
Expensive paid plans
Hi again Daniel, I appreciate you taking the time to reply and agree that there are pros and cons to the platform, well, for all website platforms for that matter. I plan on making a new video soon around blogging on Duda and for sure will talk about the pros and cons. Thanks again!
Thomas Connery,
Had you heard of simvoly.com
Regards
Funfair Rentals
Nope, haven't heard of it but will take a look.
What's wrong with WordPress? How is this better than WordPress? How do you build super custom, dynamic database-driven PHP websites with this?
Appreciate the comment. I don't want to build "super custom, dynamic database-driven PHP websites" -- this is why I use Duda and why I'm sharing and promoting the platform. It's a fantastic solution for most small businesses and a wonderful platform for people to begin learning web design.
Duda site builder is extremely slow on both my computers making it virtually impossible to navigate/design. Anyone else have this? I tried clearing cache
Hi Mitch, I am sorry to hear you are having trouble. I often check the status page first to see if there is a known outage or incident that may be impacting site or builder performance. You can find that here: status.duda.co. I have noticed the left and top nav bars take a few seconds to load when going into the builder but overall, I have not experienced the issue you are describing. I would contact Duda support support.duda.co and they can help you figure out why your specific site(s) or builder is slow. Yes, I have heard that cache clearing can sometimes help. You may want to test using another browser also. Good luck!
Can you build a member ship website with DUDA , a page with User name and Password with data base.
Hi! Great question. I have experimented with a service called memberstack.io but am not an expert with it. Their support team is very responsive though. Check out this page for more information on how to add free or paid user accounts to any Duda website without code. www.memberstack.io/builder/duda
@@ThomasConnery but with WordPress there are free to paid plugins are available.
Thanks Daniel. I am not an expert on WordPress plugins related to membership management so I can't comment on that topic. Most of the websites I build on Duda do not require a membership service so it rarely prevents a business from leveraging Duda as a website solution. It all depends on the customer or site requirements. There may be other membership services beyond memberstack.io, even free ones, I really don't know because my clients have not required memberships. Maybe someday I'll be able to post a new video all about how to handle memberships on Duda. Thanks for the comment.
@BobnMarian, I wanted to let you know that MemberSpace also has a Duda membership capability. Please reference my affiliate link if you're interested 🙏🏻 : bit.ly/3aIGkKd
NO TIENEN TUTORIALES EN ESPAÑOL
¡Hola! Gracias por el comentario. Investigaré cómo traducir mis futuros tutoriales en español. ¡Es una gran idea! --- Hello! Thanks for the comment. I will investigate how to translate my future tutorials in spanish. It's a great idea!
E. Lilian, acabo de añadir subtítulos en español y francés hoy. ¡Gracias por la idea! Fue bueno aprender el proceso y lo tendré en cuenta para futuros videos. (I just added Spanish and French subtitles today. Thanks for the idea! It was good to learn the process and I'll keep this in mind for future videos.)
this guy is making $$ from this video, promoting this duda! and i highly doubt duda is capable of anything more then a cheap and basic site.
HI Daniel. My name is Tom, and yes, I do make money building Duda websites for digital agencies and small businesses. It's my primary side hustle. Because I've been building Duda websites since 2016, I decided to make videos that could inform or educate people about Duda and the platform's capabilities. Some of my sites have been quite complex while others can be simple. It's a wonderful solution for many small businesses and anyone running a digital marketing agency should consider using Duda for their customer's websites. Sure, it may not be for everyone and I'll be sure to mention cons within my videos where it makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Too limited, just for starters or amateurs.
Hello Tom. I like the tutorial. I'm going to need to learn how to do some minor edits to my webpage and this was a great start. I may need to continue to some site development for hire. Do you have any recommendations? Upwork?
Tim, thanks for the question. You can find experienced Duda resources on Upwork and Fiverr. In fact, I have gotten Duda work from both of those sources. Perhaps there is something I can help you with? I've worked with many digital agencies and small businesses. Whether it was full site design or updates and changes. I'm in the process of revamping my own website but you can use this contact form if you would like to chat: www.aynimedia.com/contact-ayni-media