Duda Versus Weebly: Which Platform Should You Specialize In?

For modern web design agencies, a polished and fully functional website is often just one platform away.

Content management systems, blog-publishing services, website builders — web design tools have evolved to a point where anyone can get a decent-looking site up and running without writing a single line of code.

However, as a web design agency, you shouldn’t settle for anything less than the absolute best.

Remember that the web design space is only getting more and more competitive.

If you want your brand to stand out, you need to choose the platform that delivers the best value for you and your clients.

In this post, we will take a closer look at two of the standout options — namely Duda and Weebly — and help you decide which one would best fit your web design agency.

But first, here’s a closer look at our contenders:

Duda: An All-In-One Platform for Agencies

Unlike the plethora of page builders and content management systems out there, Duda isn’t tunnel-visioned toward website creation. It also aims to improve team collaboration, client communication, and the brand-building aspect of website development.

Duda aims to provide web development agencies with the firepower needed to deliver cutting-edge service to their clients. Some of its key features include:

• Fully white-labelable back end
• Smart asset collection and submission
• Drag-and-drop website builder
• Robust user account management
• Built-in widget builder

Weebly: Distraction-Free Development Environment

As the older platform of the pair, you’ve probably heard of the user-friendly Weebly and what it’s built for.

Long story short, it’s one of the DIY-style website builders that prioritize usability above all. And to be fair, it does succeed in making the web development process as easy as possible.

Here are some of Weebly’s noteworthy features:

• Drag-and-drop page builder
• Minimalistic design
• Fast and responsive interface
• App center for expandability

Now that you’re familiar with both platforms, it’s time to see how their fare regarding the factors that matter in website development:

1. Usability

First and foremost, usability is one of the most sought-after factors that developers want in a platform.

The good news is, both Duda and Weebly adheres to the current norm of user-friendliness in the web development landscape.

Despite being launched over a decade ago, Weebly’s usability is nothing short of top-notch. It simplifies website creation projects by walking you through every step of the way.

Duda, on the other hand, also offers incredible usability, especially the page editor. Everything you need to create a functional website is neatly sorted in the left toolbar, from useful widgets to the advanced settings.

However, Weebly’s interface is arguably easier to use by a tiny margin. This is mainly because they have consolidated all the elements and tools you need in a single toolbar.

While the learning curves for both platforms are pretty much non-existent, Weebly earns a point by being slightly easier to use.

Winner: Weebly

2. Website Creation Workflow

As a web developer, your revenue potential isn’t tied to speed alone. Rather, it depends on the efficiency of your web development workflow.

Sure, usability is indeed important since it allows you to be productive with a platform as soon as possible. But once you’re over that hurdle, it all boils down to the time-saving features that make your output more streamlined and consistent.

With Duda, this includes the “Team Sections” feature, which allows you to save content layouts that can be replicated and used across multiple website projects. There are also dozens of pre-built, customizable sections that you can plug anywhere using the website editor.

For Weebly, the website creation workflow also seems to be as smooth, thanks to the fluid interface and the initial setup process that tailors the web design experience to your needs. Unfortunately, there is no option to create your own templates for certain website sections.

In addition to the reusable sections, Duda also features a smart asset collection tool that makes it easy for clients to submit their content — something that’s completely absent in Weebly. You can also import content directly from a website or Facebook page.

Weebly is undeniably fast and easy to use, but it doesn’t really have much to offer agencies that can help them streamline their web development processes.

Winner: Duda

3. User Roles and Permissions

Web design agencies need to be careful with what their clients can access in the platform.

Both Duda and Weebly have an integrated account management tool that lets you modify the access privileges of different users.

In Weebly, your options are somewhat limited to three different account levels: Admin, Author, and Dashboard Only.

Put simply, admin users have access to almost everything in a Weebly site. Author and dashboard-only users, on the other hand, can only perform a couple of tasks based on their assigned roles.

Authors, for example, may edit specific pages while dashboard users can manage comments, forms, and stats.

Duda’s user management tool, however, completely blows Weebly’s out of the water. Not only does it have nearly twice the number of user groups, it also gives you the option to create a new one from scratch.

When creating custom groups, you can manually enable or disable access to every single aspect of a website, giving Duda another point when it comes to user accounts and permissions.

Winner: Duda

4. Flexibility

Lastly, you cannot overlook the importance of flexibility in a digital platform.

Keep in mind that tools are supposed to empower the web developer, not put a cap on their potential. Fortunately, both Duda and Weebly provides enough legroom for agencies and individual users to be creative.

In Duda, you can create personalization rules that let you set events according to various conditions. You can display a popup, show a website section, play a special effect, run a JavaScript code, and more.

To augment the experience of clients, Duda also lets you personalize the back end via the custom branding editor. Some of the page elements you can customize include the logo, site dashboard colors, and login screen buttons.

For flexibility, Weebly’s strength lies in the “App Center,” which lets you find useful integrations that can accomplish just about any objective, from boosting traffic to adding a PayPal button.

The App Center could’ve single-handedly won Weebly another point for flexibility — if not for Duda’s built-in widget builder. It’s a powerful tool that lets you develop your own interactive experiences using pre-configured input and output options as well as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS codes.

Of course, the learning curve for the widget builder is indeed there. But since we’re comparing flexibility, then there’s nothing Weebly offers that can trump the ability to build your own widget without a third-party tool.

Winner: Duda

Verdict: Duda Wins

Overall, Weebly is definitely a tad easier to use and master, but it loses to Duda in terms of user management, flexibility, and the optimizability of the website creation workflow.

Duda simply outguns Weebly with its superior features that are built for web development teams.

While Weebly could be feasible for DIY projects and freelancers, web development agencies hoping to take their business to the next level should go with a platform of the same caliber as Duda.

Do you agree or disagree with our post? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!