WordPress vs. Duda: Which Platform Offers Better Value for Web Development Agencies?

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That’s a statement that you can’t ignore when you’re running an online business.

After all, if you make the mistake of housing your web development agency on a platform that’s lacking both in reliability and features, it’ll only be a matter of time before you spend an extra thousand dollars more for additional tools so you can produce excellent work.

It’s precisely because of this that web development agencies need to use a robust platform to operate their businesses.

In this guide, we’re going to compare Duda and WordPress — two established brands in the website development space — to see which between the two is ideal for web development agencies.

Let’s get right to it.

WordPress

WordPress is a reliable CMS and website infrastructure solution that’s used by millions of website owners – more than any other platform.

Not only is the platform packed with website development features, but it’s also user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for web agencies to drastically reduce their website build time.

Allow me to show you how WordPress looks from the inside.

Intuitive Dashboard

As you can see, the platform’s dashboard is quite easy to understand.

The menu is neatly organized on the left-hand side of the page. This sidebar menu provides access to the many functions offered by the content management system, both basic and advanced.

This is part of the appeal of using WordPress. They’ve done a great job of simplifying their platform navigation design that almost everything is intuitive enough even for beginners to use with considerable confidence.

Plugins

According to WordPress, there are over 45,000 plugins that their users can install to improve their websites.

#mindblown

Don’t let the numbers fool you, though. Yes, there’s no doubt that the volume of available plugins is indicative of WordPress’ popularity and the vibrance of the ecosystem around it, but this has also led to a problem in quality assurance. Or, more accurately, a lack thereof.

In order to secure WordPress’s position as the market’s leading platform for building websites, it’s possible for developers of varying backgrounds and expertise levels to code their own plugins and share them via the platform’s marketplace.

This, however, is a double-edged sword.

While it’s true that the number of helpful, powerful, and even free plugins on WordPress is staggering, there’s also a large number of plugins that contain bugs, security vulnerabilities, compatibility conflicts, outdated tech, and even hidden costs.

But to give you a sense of the diversity of the platform, check out the results that came up after I entered the sample keyword, “comments.”

Literally thousands of commenting-related plugins surfaced in the results. The page shows the name of each plugin’s creator, rating, number of installations, when the plugin was last updated, a brief description, etc.

Basically, this means that weeding out the plugins that are known to be problematic won’t be too hard. The WordPress user community is incredibly active when it comes to giving feedback or complaints, so it’s relatively easy to spot which plugins to avoid.

For perspective, let’s take a closer look at one plugin:

Page Builder by SiteOrigin.

(Image Source)

Page Builder is essentially a headache free, codeless page designer that lets agency pros create elegant pages through drag-and-drop features and useful design presets. And it’s free.

In the above image, you’ll see that the last update made on the plugin was two weeks ago. This tells you if the plugin is still getting the love and attention it needs to work well.

Here’s another nifty plugin:

MailChimp for WordPress.

This is a useful extension for anyone who wants to connect their MailChimp account with their WordPress website. And it offers seamless integrations with several other plugins that make email marketing a breeze.

Why the need to discuss those two plugins, even when they’re clearly among the highest rated and most downloaded ones available? Because no matter how wonderful (or free) they are, they exist as separate entities, from different developers, with different updates.

And even if a specific plugin is known to have a good reputation for stability, ongoing development and smooth functionality, you never know which plugins will conflict with one another, or with the design theme you’re using, until you install everything you need. WordPress websites often end up with anywhere between 5 to 15 different plugins installed, mind you.

With this in mind, it can get overwhelming to manage – especially given that functionalities like visual page design and email capture forms are basics that will be relevant for pretty much any site build. So this is where there’s a key advantage to working with a single platform where virtually everything you need is already there and pre-vetted to work within its own ecosystem.

Beautifully Designed Website Themes

Another thing that most WordPress users love about the platform is the fact that there are bajillions of free WordPress themes on the internet.

To give you some perspective, try Googling the phrase “Free WordPress themes.” Here’s what you’ll see.

With this many options to choose from, agencies will find it easier to find the ideal website theme for their customers.

Additional Key Points to Consider for WordPress

While no one can deny that WordPress is a kick-ass choice for convenience-driven agencies, it’s far from perfect. It does manage to get the job done, which is why it has stayed on top for so long.

Here are several other crucial points to remember about WordPress:

  • The platform makes it easy for agencies to keep plugins, themes and the WordPress infrastructure up-to-date, making sure that plugins work as they should.
  • Because the coding behind WordPress is clean, simple and made for SEO, it takes relatively little work to optimize websites built on the platform.
  • Good level of online security. There are several website security plugins that WordPress users can install to protect themselves from cyber attacks.
  • Agencies can grant access to multiple users, each with varying permissions, making team management more streamlined.

Duda

Duda is an all-in-one platform used by web development agencies for client management, designing and hosting websites, and team collaboration.

The platform was named PCMag Editors’ Choice website builder this year and continues to help web development agencies run a smoother and more streamlined operation.

It’s also the solution used by many leading web hosting and domain registrar companies, including 1&1 and 123-reg, to power their own self-service website building platforms.

Content Collection

A tedious yet vital task that agencies (or freelancers) need to tackle when developing websites is fathering information, files, and other assets from their clients so they can create a website that aligns with each client’s vision.

Duda makes the process hassle-free for agencies since it has site admin and user roles to make the collaboration between clients and agencies easier. The user permission control gives a level of access to customers and employees to the platform.

Not only that, but the platform also has a “Collect From Client” function, where Duda will send your client a form to obtain the business information you need.

You can also use the “Import Content” function, which allows you to pull images, details and assets directly from your client’s various existing web presences.

With these features, it becomes easier for agencies to jumpstart their web development process — all while making it easier for their clients to send them information.

White Label Platform

As mentioned above, Duda’s agency platform offers a white-label version of their editor and emails.

Agencies opting to use the platform not only enjoy the benefit of improving their productivity, but it also helps them project a more professional and authoritative brand image to their customers – as opposed to WordPress, which focuses more on web design and development and less on satisfying the other business-related needs of your agency.

The best part is, Duda’s editor is intuitive and very easy to use.

In fact, that doesn’t put Duda far behind WordPress when it comes to convenient platform navigation and use. All the bells and whistles you can hope to find to create a fully functional and responsive website can be found ready to rock in one platform.

As you can see, with how user-friendly their website builder is, it will only take agencies a fraction of a time to build their clients’ websites.

Agency-Targeted Design and Management Features

Right when you think it couldn’t get any better, it does.

Duda is truly a platform for agencies, while WordPress is generally a platform for individual users (although many would be willing to contest this statement).

But the proof is in the pudding.

When you use Duda, you also gain access to their three main libraries that offer agency-centered collaboration and convenience, such as their wide range of templates, widgets, and sections.

Additional Key Points to Consider for Duda

It’s worth pointing out that we’ve only scratched the surface of what Duda is capable of.

What is clear is how the company places value on giving the best website building experience for business owners and agencies, showing how Duda advocates for the positive growth of the digital marketing landscape.

The platform even has a client dashboard where your customers can manage their accounts by accessing their analytics and resetting their websites (among other things).

On top of the ideas we’ve already covered, the platform still has several other functions and features that make it right for agencies.

  • Mobile-optimized websites that load as fast as lightning to give visitors a topnotch on-site experience.
  • One-click deployment of sites as progressive web apps (PWAs), for near-instant site access which gives users access to your content even when they’re offline.
  • Hosting for all of your clients’ websites, allowing for simplified multiple project management from a single dashboard.
  • Duda has site admin and user roles to make the collaboration between clients and agencies easier.
  • Enterprises can use the Duda’s API to sell their own website builder platform.
  • SSL certificates at no additional cost.
  • A powerful content personalization engine.
  • The platform possesses everything that you need for your site to be GDPR compliant.

With all the features that the platform possesses, the fact that Duda can do far more for agencies than just help with their website building-platform becomes glaring.

Conclusion

Make no mistake, both platforms are great for agencies in their own right.

Both possess impressive qualities and features that make it possible for any agency to set up shop in the digital world — even without any of the team members having prior knowledge of web design and development.

WordPress will always have a spot in the hearts of certain types of agencies. Especially those that place more value on custom-coded design elements needed for specific business functions. And this is understandable. Not every agency is the same.

However, for agencies that value the convenience of having turnkey solutions that are specifically designed to accommodate agency needs, there’s just no beating Duda.

In the end, the decision lies in what the agency feels is best for their specific business goals and vision.