What do you like best about Bubble?
The promise by bubble.io as a whole to make it possible for anyone to write software, is very much true with this platform. It's definitely not intuitive for beginners (but they are working on this!), but the capability of the platform and encompassing everything you need to get started including database, middleware, APIs and front-end, along with a very large marketplace of both plugins & agencies able to build out functionality - it is everything you need to get started with a fully-functioning webapp. There is very little more they could add to the capability, to be honest - including the fact it has real-time data updates, which many competing platforms lack. You can also integrate with any other platform you wish via APIs, or via plugins - so it is truly a very flexible platform. To be completely honest, it is an enjoyable experience using bubble to build an app most the time, and it is rare I encounter a completely insurmountable issue. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What do you dislike about Bubble?
Vendor lock-in is a serious problem with bubble.io. You have no "generic" export capability that you could readily move into other platforms, meaning you are pretty much stuck once you scale to a certain point, as you will be effectively forced to stick with bubble.io, or rebuild from scratch elsewhere. Whilst you can export your app and data, they are in formats that are not readily importable into any other platform. This is especially the case with the app itself, which cannot be stood up standalone (e.g. self-hosting), nor can it be imported into any other platform, or even read by a human (it is purely code). The backend also is hosted solely in the US - which is not ideal for other regions, as performance can be very slow for a user in another country. Furthermore, leveraging internal functionality (e.g. the database) makes for some very slow performance in many use cases, which increasingly worsen as you scale the amount of data and users. Heavy optimisation is a necessity to get anywhere with the platform - more often than not, requiring you to learn the intricacies of how bubble.io works behind the scenes if you want to get performance and not have it cost you a mortgage on your home due to the WU pricing from sub-optimal code.
Due to the opaque pricing structure based on "Workload Units (WU)", which are calculated using hidden metrics on bubble's back-end infrastructure, the more you use the platform - the more it will cost you to run. This means that scaling requires you to either minimise your usage of the platform, or leverage alternative solutions to minimise the usage. This SIGNIFICANTLY detracts from the platform, since to save costs you are effectively forced to look elsewhere for core components that bubble.io is offering - such as database - simply to avoid being gouged on pricing. This is especially a problem for startups, since if you were creating a consumer-facing app and happened to go viral on social media - you could rapidly run out of funding if you were relying on the "workload unit" pricing model, since the work your app is doing for all your new customers would effectively price your startup out of the market before it's even reached scale! Effectively, this means that bubble.io is targeted for two customer classes: the VERY early startup (who has few customers to create workload), the VC-backed venture (with enough funds to build a new app outside bubble) and the enterprise customer with deep pockets. There is no customer class for those self-funded categories trying to build something in their garage off spare change.
Bubble.io has community forums that are literally the only source of help for a "bubbler" for marketplace plugins. But if you say something the community moderators (who aren't necessarily employees) don't agree to - expect to be PERMANENTLY banned, without so much as a warning. These permabans also cannot be contested, cannot be undone, and effectively result in you losing all access to any help for building your app. If you encounter an issue with bubble.io itself - you still retain access to bubble's support even if this happens to you (and bubble does have friendly and helpful support staff), but they will NOT help you whatsoever if the issue has anything to do with a plugin from the marketplace, or if you are simply trying to work out how to solve a basic issue with your app. You are literally on your own. For scaling a business on the platform - the fact that they would treat paying customers in this manner who contribute in the forums, then allow literally no avenues of recourse, is a major red flag for using their platform for scaling a business. The fact that a community forum is even allowed to be operated in this manner calls out serious concerns on their operating model, as other non-bubble forums are littered with similar experiences from others. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
