Duda?

KINDAYou can build the valuable core, but the established product has meaningful operational complexity. Pick one narrow promise for v1.

BUILD FIRST

One specific customer type and one primary use case
A vertical slice that completes the main job without manual workarounds
Visible limits, review steps, and a fallback when an external dependency fails

LEAVE FOR LATER

Broad third-party integrations
High-scale collaboration, syncing, and permissions
Automation that can cause harm without human review

RESEARCH NOTES

What this tool actually does.

Checked 2026-09-06

Duda is a SaaS website builder aimed at agencies and web professionals who design, publish, and manage multiple client sites. It offers a drag-and-drop visual editor with device-specific editing, a responsive framework built on ZURB Foundation, and DudaFlex sections using CSS Grid/Flexbox. Features include a developer mode for direct HTML/CSS access, reusable sections and templates, site-wide theme controls, content import from existing URLs, and a content library/CMS for text and business info. AI tools generate copy, sections, or whole pages. Dynamic pages can generate dozens or hundreds of landing pages from database content. REST APIs allow automation of site creation and updates. Agencies can white-label the platform end-to-end. Infrastructure includes 99.99% uptime SLA, automatic backups, and free SSL.

SOURCES

RESEARCHED BUILD PROMPT

Give this to your coding agent.

Build a focused replacement for “Duda”, a professional website builder for agencies that design and manage many client sites at scale. The workflow: an agency user picks a template, drags widgets onto responsive sections, defines a global site theme (fonts/colors), customizes per-device layouts, optionally edits HTML/CSS in developer mode, saves reusable sections, manages client content in a CMS, and publishes with white-label branding.

User-facing requirements:
- Visual drag-and-drop canvas with grid/flexbox sections (like DudaFlex), device toggles for desktop/tablet/mobile; each element editable per device.
- Widget library: text, image, button, video, gallery, form, map, menu/nav, and embed widget.
- Site theme panel defining global fonts, colors, button styles, backgrounds; theme changes propagate site-wide.
- Reusable section library: save any section as a snippet, insert anywhere or on any site.
- Developer mode: per-element HTML/CSS override in a code panel.
- AI assistant that generates copy or a full page from a text prompt.
- CMS: content models with fields (business hours, address, team), widgets bound to those fields so edits propagate to all instances.
- Dynamic pages: repeatable page template rendering one page per database record.
- Content import: from an existing URL, extract text/images into the editor and content library.
- Client management: invite clients, collect content via forms, publish with a client's custom domain.
- White-label: replace logo, custom domain, hide platform branding on the editor and published site.
- Publish to managed hosting with automatic SSL and version rollback.

Technical requirements:
- REST API for site creation, page updates, content changes, and publish (webhook-driven).
- Role-based auth: agency admin, designer, client reviewer with restricted editor scoping.
- Per-site asset storage and CDN; automatic snapshot/backup before each publish.
- Multi-tenant design: one platform instance serving many sites; per-site schema for pages and assets.
- Server-side rendering for SEO plus client hydration for the public site.
- Built-in page view and form submission analytics.

Implementation approach:
- Backend: Node.js/TypeScript + PostgreSQL (JSONB for page structure and CMS records), Redis for sessions/queues, S3-compatible storage, OpenAPI spec.
- Frontend editor: React; canvas as nested flexbox tree nodes; iframe preview extracting site CSS.
- Public sites: Next.js with ISR on subdomains/custom domains.
- AI: call an LLM to generate copy/pages from theme tokens + templates; AI output always previewed before publish.
- CSS engine: scoped CSS custom properties per theme; per-device media queries; sandbox any developer CSS.

Explicitly do not copy Duda's brand, logo, marketing text, or admin UI design. This is an original implementation with the described capability and workflow. 

Out of scope: full e-commerce, blogging engine, marketing automation, multilingual management, mobile app builder, plugin marketplace, and real-time multiplayer editing. Only one designer per site at a time.

Deliverable: a repo with a README covering setup (env vars for DB, S3, AI key), architecture overview, how to run the editor and public-site rendering, and important limitations (e.g., no plugin system, no real-time collaboration, AI output requires human review).

Visit the official product page