DudaOne

Duda is not just the name of my favorite team's slugger: It's also a website builder focused on responsive sites—those that change to fit both large and small mobile screens—from its start. Duda (the name comes from a variant of "dude") is one of the newer entrants to the market. It was the brainchild of a pair of coder friends who saw that the iPhone would change site-hosting needs forever. But it's not just about mobile: DudaOne (from $5 per month, ad-supported free version also available) lets you build functional, fine-looking websites for desktop, too. Recently the company added Web store capabilities, making DudaOne a full website commerce solution.

Getting Started with DudaOne
As do most modern website builders such as Weebly and Wix, DudaOne lets you start building your online presence for free. In fact, one of its options lets you simply enter your existing site's URL and have it converted for mobile viewing–without even entering so much as an email address. Duda doesn't limit the number of sites, pages, or the bandwidth of free sites—that's quite generous—but they do include Duda ads. The service's paid tiers include Business ($5 per month), Business+ ($14.25), and Business+eCommerce (starting at $22.50). These add email support, custom domain use, site backup, and deeper site analytics. Business+ also adds device-specific editing, a full developer mode, zero ads, and the use of Duda's InSite feature (more on this below).

Templates

You choose from an attractive selection of templates to get started building your DudaOne site.

Template Details

Each template's detail page shows how a site would look on desktop, tablet, and mobile phone.

Design

You can change a template's color scheme, background image, font, and button style to taste.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is where you manage multiple sites, access site stats, and assign URLs.

Add Page

You get a generous selection of page types to add: Missing are product/store pages and blog pages.

Add Elements

Just as in Weebly, in DudaOne a side panel shows you all the elements you can add to your site pages, such as images, buttons, text, and forms.

Store

DudaOne now offers a powerful e-commerce module so you can sell items from a Web store on your site.

Advanced Elements

Towards the bottom of the panel, you see an HTML element that lets you add embed code and structural elements.

Image Manager

DudaOne saves your images and other site content in the Content Manger. You upload images here, but you can only edit them from their page entry.

InSite

The InSite tool is a cool option that lets paid Business+ account users tailor site content based on triggers like proximity and frequency of visits.

Edit Image

You get integrated Aviary editing inside DudaOne.

Stats

Stats are a real strong point for Duda paid accounts. You could easily pay Adobe Analytics good money for this level of detail.

Code

DudaOne Business+ users get full access to the HTML, but beware that mucking with this code can make your site uneditable in the WYSIWYG site builder. And some edits require knowledge of DudaMobile Markup Language Extension (DMLE).

About Our Expert

Michael Muchmore

Contributor

My Experience

I've been testing PC and mobile software for more than 20 years, focusing on photo and video editing, operating systems, and web browsers. Prior to my current role, I covered software and apps for ExtremeTech and headed up PCMag’s enterprise software team. I’ve attended trade shows for Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products.

I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft misstep and win, up to the latest Windows 11.

I’m an avid bird photographer and traveler—I’ve been to 40 countries, many with great birds! Because I’m also a classical music fan and former performer, I’ve reviewed streaming services that emphasize classical music.

Technology I Use

For everyday work, I use a good-old Dell tower with 16GB of RAM, a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, and an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti GPU that runs on Windows 11. I pair it with a 4K Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-10 monitor and a Logitech MX Vertical mouse. For offsite work, I use a 2024 Microsoft Surface Laptop with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor. Camera-wise, I moved to mirrorless from a Canon EOS 80D with a Canon 70-300mm IS USM lens. I now have a Canon EOS R7 with a 100-400mm lens, but I miss my DSLR for several reasons.

In order of usage, the software I turn to most frequently is the Edge web browser, Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, Firefox, Brave, and WhatsApp. I use the Windows Phone link app to see everything on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone, which has excellent telephoto capability.

For fitness monitoring, I have a Fitbit Charge 6 and use an Anker Smart Scale P1. I’m also a streaming fan, so I subscribe to both Amazon Music Unlimited (especially for its Dolby Atmos content) and Qobuz (for its high-res sound quality and classical catalog). I recently added a Vizio 5.1 Soundbar SE, which sounds surprisingly good given its low price. To holler commands instead of using a remote control, I have the Amazon Fire TV Cube in the living room, which lets me verbally tell the TV what I want to watch. It hooks up to an LG B4 OLED TV. I have a Sonos One speaker in my kitchen that also ties in with Alexa, as does the Echo Dot 2 With Clock in my bedroom. For serious listening, I have B&W 601 speakers plugged into a Conrad-Johnson Sonographe amp and preamp, with a Cambridge Audio AXN10 streamer as source. For reading, I also have a Nook GlowLight 3.

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