Many people are using the internet with their smartphones these days. If you are a blogger or a business owner who is stuck with an old site, trying to reach out to more mobile audience, it’s time to make your website more mobile friendly. DudaMobile is a platform that provides such service. But is it the best way to build a responsive website? Let’s find out.
What Is DudaMobile?
DudaMobile is a publishing software founded in 2010 by two innovative entrepreneurs, Itai and Amir who were searching for a better browsing experience among mobile users. It is used by web professionals and small businesses to create responsive websites without the need for coding knowledge.
DudaMobile currently powers more than 5 million websites and has won several accolades in the past years for its creative technology.
How Does It Work?
DudaMobile offers three types of products to help you get started on building a mobile site.
(1) DudaOne
This software is your typical WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) kind of website builder. What it means is that what you see on the back end of the editing is what you get on the front end of the website appearance. Something like a drag and drop website builder if you will.
To get started, you’ll need to choose a template which allows you to preview the design in different mobile devices. On the dashboard, you can edit any premade elements – colors, text box, images and pages – according to your preference.
DudaMobile also comes with a cool personalized feature called InSite which can be used to capture readers’ attention or cater certain action, such as making a special offer or welcoming first time visitors. This premade tool is easily applied and edited to suit your business needs.
(2) DudaMobile
This particular software helps to convert an existing website to a mobile friendly site. Even with a responsive template, a customizable mobile appearance can provide advantageous features such as bigger buttons and intuitive navigation.
Take the mobile appearance of my website for example; I can switch the default responsive look to a more mobile friendly layout (image on the right; notice the bigger buttons?).
There are several other mobile designs available so you can choose to experiment with them until you find the right one.
This software also comes with a feature that is similar to InSite (in DudaOne) that allows you to add click-to-action buttons easily such as making a phone call or appointment scheduling for the mobile users.
(3) DudaPro
If you are a website designer, this software will help you create multiple professional looking websites for your clients using advanced editing tools. You will have access to CSS editing, optimize websites for SEO and create robust eCommerce sites on the Duda platform.
How Much Does It Cost?
Duda offers several pricing plans in which the higher the plans, the more features you’ll get in terms of site backups, technical support, and advanced editing tools (please visit the official website for more details). Here’s a quick rundown of the plans for each product.
- DudaOne – Free/ $7.50/ $14.25/ $22.50 (per month)
- DudaMobile – Free/ $7.20 (per month)
- DudaPro – Free Trial or $249/year
Let’s Hear What Other People Say about Duda…
If you haven’t noticed, navigating mobile sites can be pleasantly addictive. It sure does for me. But how is it like to create one with Duda?
For starters, the website builder is fairly easy to use. There’s absolutely nothing technical about it.
The InSite feature is a great tool to capture more traffic.
And the ‘click-to-action’ button really stands out as a convenient factor for mobile users.
However, the software seems to lack when it comes to running bigger websites.
And the limited (or rather selective) customer support goes to show that they don’t offer much help to beginner users (which I think deserve the most guidance).
If you have a quick glance at their pricing plans, you’ll find that you’ve to pay more as the need of your business expands.
So, Is Duda Worthy of Your Time?
Generally, I think Duda offers a great collection of software in terms of building mobile websites.
Prior to DudaMobile, I never knew that you can actually customize mobile sites in such fancy ways. On the flip side, I do agree with the last comment about the up-selling strategies which can create some hesitance with the beginners.
A better and more cost-effective way to create a responsive website is actually to start with a responsive theme from the very beginning. Google is now putting more weight on this criteria as part of the page ranking factor, so it’s really something you want to be doing now than later on.
At WordPress, there are a ton of mobile-friendly themes that you can use for free. To get access to these themes, simply create a website using SiteRubix here and you are ready to go. I hope this article has given you a better idea on how to create a responsive website effectively. If you need any help getting started, simply leave me a comment below and I’ll get back to you.
I had Dudamobile Javascript put into over a dozen of my important websites so they can be better seen on mobile devices and all of a sudden all of them are going to an empty 404 error page on mobile devices only. This is very frustrating to me and to a lot of my readers and customers! I have contacted Duda in Ca, a dozen times and they have done absolutely nothing to help me! The Customer service is the worst on the planet and they will not take any phone calls. The e-mails I got back from them were totally senseless and worthless! Now I will have to pay someone to fix this huge mess! I told Dudamobile that I would be doing this review if they didn’t provide the needed customer support but they didn’t seem to care one bit! I feel that you will be very sorry if you do business with this company that is ready to take your money while providing worthless customer support!
I’m currently a WordPress blogger with a “mobile responsive” website and it does make all the difference in the world because of the number of people surfing the web on their mobile devices each day. This brings extra traffic to my website and also an additional opportunity to earn money.
These days if website owners don’t have mobile responsive websites, then huge opportunities are lost!
Duda does sound like the ideal way for people to transform their websites, and I love the fact that there are a variety of pricing options to choose from.
However, the lack of help and support can be offputting for some newbies with Duda. But I am with you 100% where SiteRubix and WordPress is concerned 🙂
Hey Neil,
The increase of mobile users have certainly shape the way people design their websites. But creating an additional website specifically for that purpose will only add more unnecessary task for website owners. It’s a lot more convenient to just use a mobile responsive theme and WordPress at SiteRubix is the best place to start.
Hi Cathy. Thanks for this article, I thought at first glance this was a good service and idea and I still think it is to some degree. There are still plenty of people that will happily use this to create a responsive mobile website.
The obvious elephant in the room, is that a lot of themes are or becoming mobile responsive with updates and there are a number of drag and drop themes and frameworks that are just as good and without the need for a monthly payment.
One thing I’m a little irked by is the sneaky upsells that a lot of programs employ. Either let your potential customers/buyers know about the products they may have to purchase later down the road or include everything they would need in one package.
If this product offers a great support system, with other things to justify it legitimacy it will be used. However with other builders like SiteRubix available where you can create an already mobile responsive website, it will have competition.
Hi there Andre,
Thanks for pointing out the costing aspect of a responsive theme. My theme from Genesis cost $60 and it’s a one-time fee where I can use the theme over and over again in multiple websites without having to worry about recurring costs or the changes in mobile technology.
But for those who do not have the budget, the free themes in WordPress works just as great. There’s really no need to pay additional fee for mobile sites when you are using such a versatile platform.
Thanks for this review Cathy. I hate sites that lure you in with the promise of something free and then half way through you find that you need to spend money to get it half way decent! What are the best mobile responsive themes on WordPress? I would be interested in your views.
Hi there Lou,
I personally like Genesis when it comes to selecting a responsive theme simply because it’s reputable, many bloggers recommend it and it’s supported by a solid team of experts. The only thing is, it’s a premium (paid) theme and they are differently priced. Beginners might not be too keen but after several months of building a site, they will eventually discover the advantage and wanting to use a more professional theme.
Thanks Cathy for the context of this website. In several ways one can benefit from your site “Time Freedom.” We all need!
I never heard of Dudamobile until your website. I could truly say it is very informative indeed. Never have I seen a blogger bring to view others “review” in the midst of your review to bring out a point. That’s fascinating in my eyes.
Your conclusion I agree with! WordPress is indeed a simple, time saver; when it comes with website builder.
I’m not commenting just for the heck it, I saved your page. Maybe in the long run when I decide to change stuff around my website, I can use this Dudamobile. It seems really interesting and looks like more customization features for website, instead of having to go through the nightmare and hell of CSS and HTML!
Hi there Lakan,
If you build your site on SiteRubix, then you don’t have to go through the challenging process of CSS and HTML because all the latest WordPress themes, even the free ones, come in responsive version. Hope this helps to clear things up a bit for you.
I have never hear of Dudamobile. It sounds really interesting. You are right as well, that mobile usage is going through the roof at the moment. It’s crazy. And any website you build should absolutely be responsive and mobile friendly.
It seems like a very affordable option. I’m always wary of up-sells, I mean they are a business, and they have to make money, but it is annoying when you think you have paid for everything. This is interesting though.
Hi Ruth,
Business websites that are not yet responsive should check from their hosting provider how to move their site to WordPress and take advantage of responsive themes rather than building a separate mobile website which will add to their maintenance fee. Most of the time, this is possible as long as you do a backup of your file content.
Hi, this text about Dudamobile is totally new for me, very interesting indeed. It looks like a great thing. I did not understand the part about prices, what is free and what is paid, in particular these several prices with DudaOne. But there is up-selling as I understand, and that is one of the reasons you recommend SiteRubix?
The main reason for recommending SiteRubix as a website building platform is that it doesn’t complicate the entire process with different packages or prices. Use the platform at one price and use the responsive themes within WordPress to build a business website that is versatile on all devices. It’s more cost and time efficient that way.
What’s up Cathy?
You know, as I was reading your article, I seriously thought this was something you were going to recommend. I am a staunch opposer of drop-and-drag website builder. I do not believe they are easy to use, no matter what anybody says. I will go and try this one perhaps to see if maybe they have something nobody else does.
I make it a habit to try every product I come across. But I have to tell you, I have tried quite a few, and not one single drop and dragger has been easy to use in my opinion. I happen to have my own website, and it is a WordPress responsive theme. 2/3 of my traffic comes from handheld devices like tablets and phones. I couldn’t be more pleased. It was very interesting though. Never heard of Duda until now.
Hi there Polly,
Prior to using WordPress, I was experimenting with a few website builders that have the drag-and-drop features because they are so popular among beginners. While they are fairly easy to use, they are also very…how do you say…’slippery’ and confusing to the eyes. And they certainly don’t keep articles as organized as WordPress website.
As you have clearly pointed out, even WordPress sites can attract mobile users. That goes to show how powerful the platform can become.
Hi Cathy,
I admit I never heard of DudaMobile before reading your post. As far as responsive websites are concerned, it’s very important to have your site suited for various devices. Watching your site on a handy should be a good experience as watching it on a desktop. I use responsive themes on WordPress. They suite me well.
Thank you for your feedback Raymond.
Responsive design is indeed important when it comes to building a website. Good themes aren’t only responsive, but they are also well-coded and constantly maintained by the developers. The (premium) themes at WordPress are such examples and they build some really fantastic websites out there.
I keep reading about these gurus saying that Google is going to penalize websites that aren’t mobile-ready. Whether that’s true or not, you still need to have a mobile-responsive website.
The fact is that mobile traffic can’t be ignored. If people can’t access your website on their mobile devices your traffic is going to plummet. So whether or not Google does penalize your website is irrelevant. You need to think about your audience. Do what’s best for them.
On that note, I always think it’s easier to just have a mobile responsive theme on my WordPress blog. That way I don’t have to worry about using programs like Duda. It saves me a ton of money and time, and it’s just easier to handle.
Hi Kinya,
As mobile search becomes more of a common browsing experience, more businesses will be using programs like Duda or move their websites to WordPress to take advantage of responsive themes.
Yes, having two versions of the same website can be very time consuming and it’s not an ideal if you are running an online business alone. One website with a versatile theme is the better choice to go.