Building a Better Website Builder: An Interview with Dorik’s Co-Founder, Mizanur Rahman
Dorik, a website-building platform co-founded by Mizanur Rahman and Anwar, was inspired by a simple yet powerful mission: to create an easy-to-use, highly customizable, and affordable tool for building websites.
In an interview with Website Planet, Mizanur shared that after years of creating and selling website templates, they identified a gap in the market for a builder that could serve both beginners and professionals. Launched as a side project in late 2019, Dorik quickly gained traction with users who appreciated its blend of simplicity and flexibility.
Today, Dorik continues to innovate and evolve, focusing on enhancing user experience and efficiency to stand out in the crowded landscape of website builders.
What inspired the creation of Dorik and what is its core mission?
It’s a bit of a long story. Anwar and I have been building and selling website templates since 2014. From that experience, we started receiving requests from our users to create a website builder specifically for those templates. However, initially, we couldn’t do it because of technical limitations and because our ideas were not well-organized or aligned.
In late 2019 and early 2020, we decided to start working on this project full-time. It began as a side project to see if we liked it and if it was feasible. When we started giving early access, we aimed to blend three key elements into the platform: ease of use, high customization, and affordability.
There are many website builders out there, but they often fall into one of two categories: easy to use but lacking in professional customization options, or highly customizable but not user-friendly. We wanted to combine the best of both worlds, making Dorik easy to use and highly customizable while also being affordable.
From the start, users loved it. Even those new to website building found it easy to use, while more experienced users appreciated the level of customization available. For almost four years now, we’ve continued to work with the same vision: creating a platform that is easy to use, highly customizable, and accessible to most people. This is the core mission and story behind Dorik, and so far, we’re doing great.
How does Dorik simplify the website-building process for users?
We have multiple ways to build a website. First, we offer AI website building, where users can write a prompt, and we generate a website for them. This is probably the simplest way to build a website and is perfect for those in a hurry, who don’t have time to learn a website builder, or who need a website or landing page in 5 to 10 minutes. You just write a prompt, and your website is ready.
Second, we provide professionally designed templates. These are ideal for users who don’t want to start from scratch or aren’t designers but still want a professional-looking website. They can choose a template and customize it as needed.
Lastly, our platform is highly customizable for professionals. They can start with a template and modify it extensively to suit their needs, or they can build a site from scratch.
So, whether you need the simplest solution with our AI builder, some level of customization with our templates, or a highly customized site from scratch, we have options for each type of user.
Can you tell us more about Dorik’s features and what sets it apart from other website-building platforms?
When it comes to features, most website builders offer similar tools, so it’s not the features themselves that set Dorik apart. Instead, it’s our focus on workflow efficiency. The key question is: How much time can you save by using one website builder over another? Since time is money, we have always focused on improving the existing workflow rather than just building unique features that might not be useful to the user.
From day one, we aimed to combine ease of use with high customizability. This approach already sets us apart from other platforms, which often focus on just one of these aspects. For example, some platforms are easy to use but not highly customizable, while others are highly customizable but difficult to learn, requiring months to master.
At Dorik, we offer both. If you want to build a website in 10 minutes, that’s possible. If you prefer to spend more time fine-tuning your site, you can do that too. Our workflow is the main differentiator, not just the features. We continuously work on ways to save more time and money for our users. The goal isn’t to build a lot of unique features but to provide a platform that saves time and money for our customers.
Can you share a success story where Dorik helped a user create an impactful website?
While I can’t share personal details about our customers, I can tell you a story about an agency owner who has found great success using Dorik. This agency owner has built over 200 websites with our platform. You can imagine the impact of 200 websites, each serving different clients, who in turn have their own customers and users.
We also have other users who have built 100 or more websites. Our platform’s affordability makes it particularly attractive to agencies, freelancers, and small business owners who need to create a lot of websites but don’t have a large budget. Their customers also often look for something affordable, which makes Dorik a perfect fit. These users are very dedicated to our platform because it allows them to build numerous websites without incurring high costs.
How does Dorik ensure its platform is accessible and user-friendly for both beginners and professionals?
As I mentioned earlier, this is one of the most challenging aspects of our work. When we develop a new feature or update an existing one, we always need to consider two things: it must be easy to use for beginners, and it should have enough advanced features to satisfy professionals.
Our entire team works on achieving this balance, from the design team to the development team. We gather feedback from everyone on how a feature should function or how a specific part of the platform should operate. We take a case-by-case approach, aiming to create a platform that is beginner-friendly while still offering robust features for professionals.
We also collect feedback from our customers on how they use the platform, and we use that information to design features that cater to both beginners and professionals.
What new features or updates is Dorik planning to introduce in the near future?
Currently, we’re mainly focused on improving our existing features. We have a solid base of users who need better support and more enhancements to the features we already offer. However, we do have some significant new features in the pipeline. For example, we’re looking to introduce options like “Pin to Website” and Figma-to-website integration, which we hope to launch within the next year. Additionally, we plan to add advanced Airtable integrations, likely within the next six months.
Right now, our primary goal is to refine our existing features to better serve our current customers. We believe that happy customers naturally attract more customers. We’ve built a wide range of features already, and we feel we have enough to continue acquiring new users. Our focus is on polishing and enhancing these features to improve the overall user experience.
Find out more at: www.dorik.com
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