Has anyone used Bubble.io?https://bubble.io/

Krystal·Oct 29, 2020

Hi all! I'm looking to create a quick & dirty prototype of a marketplace website to test with a user group. My goal is to test a concept before investing in a lot of engineering. While doing some googling I came across bubble.io.Let me know if anyone has used it before! Curious what people's likes/dislikes were.

teresaman·Oct 29, 2020

Tagging @DebDurham as she's recently been looking into Bubble!

DielD·Oct 29, 2020

Hi there. I have circled back to bubble after try several other platforms. Initially my concern was the ability to convert to native apps, since that now has free and paid solutions and the ability to import Figma design files, I’m ready to give it another try.The zerocode UI templates are free for those taking the DIY route, though I can see how $250 or so would save time to focus on what makes your app special.It would be great to hear what others think or learn. I’ve also tried Glide, Adalo, Bravo and Thunkable. Good luck!

teresaman·Oct 29, 2020

Thanks Deb for sharing your thoughts!!

Krystal·Oct 30, 2020

Thanks for sharing, Deb! I'm gonna give Bubble a whirl.

helenaahlstrom·Oct 29, 2020

Interested to hear more about this as well. I recently stumbled on zeroqode.com that make app templates for bubble.io. They have a few marketplace templates such as https://zeroqode.com/template/marketly---full-marketplace-template-1562603835166x116161099662759550 Haven't used them, but seemed like a nice & quick way to do a marketplace prototype

Krystal·Oct 29, 2020

Thanks! I'll check it out!

TanyaMedukha·Oct 30, 2020

I have, in June. It was the first no code platform I tried. I found the platform to be poorly-designed and really buggy. The community is active and that's what supports Bubble's popularity, but the solutions to even the most simple problems are usually convoluted workarounds. Not nontechnical developer-friendly.

Krystal·Oct 31, 2020

Thank you so much for sharing Tanya

TanyaMedukha·Oct 31, 2020

Out of my search I did find one no-code software that was really-well built-Mendix. Their web app has basic functionality and they have full functionality with a desktop program. It's all free, there is phone support, and they make money on hosting packages.

claires·Oct 31, 2020

Disclaimer: My old fund invested in Bubble. We used Bubble to build our MVP (you can check it out at Topknot.app). We found it to be powerful for building secure web apps. It lets us do a lot on the backend. It’s design functionality leaves a lot to be desired. We’re glad we made the decision to do our initial build on it. Worth noting that our team is technical. I’d imagine that building on Bubble without a strong CS base would be a challenge.

Krystal·Nov 03, 2020

Got it - thank you so much for sharing Claire!

smka·Jan 13, 2021

@krystalpersaud Hi! I used bubble to develop and I'm not a coder (but am pretty tech savvy). You definitely have to have a basic understanding of how programming works in order to build on it. So you need to be able to think like a programmer but you do not need to know how to actually code. I found it an awesome way to build a stable and feature-rich MVP. There are a lot of learning modules and you can get help from the community when you get stuck. I do recommend buying a template to start with bc it will help you get most of the setup right to begin with - that really helped me. Good luck!

Krystal·Feb 16, 2021

delayed - thank you smka!