Why partnering with a web design platform is the right move for your business

Duda is a web design platform for agencies, digital publishers, host providers and SaaS platforms who are looking to integrate a web design platform into their offerings.

Based in Palo Alto, their partners include a variety of industry-leading companies such as Hibu, Sensis, Shore, Broadly, and 1&1 Ionos.

A sampling of Duda’s clients—Source: Duda.co

Duda recently published an eBook, Why Partnering with a Website Builder is the Right Move, which provides an overview of what companies should look for in a web design platform, including a list of key features such as white labeling, integration-readiness, custom widget creation, and more.

The eBook covers the following topics:

• Options for providing a web design platform to your customers
• Which features to look for when integrating a website builder into an existing solution

This post will provide an overview of the key insights contained in the eBook which you can download for free here.

Content produced in collaboration with Duda.

Options for providing a web design platform to your customers

#1: Build your own solution

Many companies, particularly in the SaaS space, opt to create their own custom web design platform to offer their clients.

This path may seem like it makes a lot of sense – at first – but it presents several obstacles including the need for tremendous resources to keep the platform updated and aligned with current industry trends.

Your customers have many options when it comes to creating a website and competing with dedicated solutions can be an uphill battle.

Duda writes, “It’s important to remember that your website builder won’t be your customers only option for creating an online presence. Dedicated website builders that serve small businesses directly like Wix and Squarespace have huge engineering and marketing teams, and your in-house solution will be placed in direct competition with these platforms.”

#2: Purchase a product

Companies who don’t opt to develop a website builder in house, may instead decide to acquire a website builder.

A benefit to this approach is that you’ll skip the development process altogether, but there are pitfalls with this approach too.

The main issues that arise are the same as if you were to build the platform in house –  namely, the platform will require ongoing maintenance and updates which can dominate time and resources that may be better spent on other service offerings.

#3: Partner with a web design platform like Duda

Partnering with a web design technology platform is a cost-effective, scalable solution to integrating a website builder into your core service offerings.

A while label partner will enable you to offer a ready-made product that is run by a knowledgeable team who is familiar with the industry and continuously innovates the solution. This approach is much less costly than options #1 and #2.

A partnership approach means you can continue to focus on your core business, whatever that may be, while adding the robust offering of a website building platform to your suite of products and services. So how should you go about choosing a partner that works for you? It’s all about the features.

Features to look for in a web design platform

The Duda eBook outlines five key features that companies should look for when considering a web design platform to partner with.

These include white labeling, integration-readiness, custom widget creation, usability, and security. While Duda goes into detail about the desirability (or not) of each feature, we’ll provide a brief outline of each of them here.

White labeling: White labeling is the process of taking an existing technology or tool and branding it as your own, so that it’s indistinguishable from your existing offerings. The eBook argues the merits of keeping a tool’s existing branding (e.g., name recognition can be helpful) versus branding the tool with your own identity so that your customers have a seamless experience. Duda advocates for white labeling under your own brand. To this end, they offer a variety of white label tools and features that enable their partners to customize the tool.

Integration-readiness: Integrating website builder software (or any software) into your existing infrastructure requires a robust and flexible API. The eBook provides details on why this is important and includes examples of how Duda currently integrates with an existing CRM client.

Custom widget creation: A feature like custom widget creation is important for SaaS companies and other businesses because it enables them to customize features that are specific to their customers’ needs. These needs will vary widely depending on the industry (e.g., a booking widget may be important for a hair salon while an online shopping widget may be appropriate for a local retailer’s website).

Usability: The usability of a website building tool is important for both your internal team and your customers. The eBook highlights the importance of usability when partnering with a website building vendor including listing some features that are critical to achieving good usability. For example, Duda’s interface allows users to assign roles and permissions which allow users to edit their websites without breaking anything or causing problems for  development teams. 

Website security: Website builders such as WordPress are inherently vulnerable to being hacked (WordPress websites are the most hacked on the internet). Thus, when offering websites to your customers, it’s important to ensure their security. This can become a huge drain on resources and time. Duda advocates for closed web design platforms with a solid track record of offering secure websites with above 99.9% uptime, DDoS protection, and free automated HTTPS encryption.

Conclusion

It can be overwhelming when you consider all the variables involved in partnering with a web design platform—from deciding on whether to build the solution yourself versus outsourcing it to a third-party supplier to understanding what features you’ll need to keep your own customers happy.

It’s a big decision!

To get a better understanding of how Duda works with businesses, download their free eBook, Why Partnering with a Website Builder is the Right Move.