Is Bubble Overkill for Your App?

is bubble.io overkill for your app if you're currently researching which no code platform to use for an app idea you have you may have wondered this after all bubble is a full stack platform geared towards building datadriven complex applications so is it more than unique this video is here to help you answer that question first off let's go through an app example one of our own clients has built now keep in mind this app is past its MVP stage so it's not representative of a pilot app or MVP any longer that that said the core functions are all the same and it's going to give you a good peek into a live app example this application is a database of book recommendations made by personalities personalities can range anywhere from celebrities to political figures artists influencers authors you name it and the goal is for someone to come onto the app and discover new books so it's very easy for them to interact with this application they can browse through the various profiles of the personalities and learn which books each personality has recommended open up the profile of a book and you can see all of the personalities that have recommended that book so through this interconnectivity you can really be exposed to a lot of new reading material now this kind of application may seem like it doesn't need a robust platform behind the scenes to support at the end of the day it's essentially a directory with relationships right go from one profile link to another but you'd be surprised behind the scenes how much customization is actually required to make something like this work well well and work in a way that is incredibly easy for the user to move through on the front end this application is heavily dependent on its data structure a custom one at that not just to be able to search through the profiles but to support all of the relationships and to maintain accurate information um every single recommendation actually has a link back to its original source of where the recommendation was originally given so the personality may have mentioned the book in an interview or a social media post so there's a system happening behind the scenes to update this content and make sure it is accurate and reliable for its users not to mention the front-end visuals are stunning so bubble was a fantastic platform to build this app on with that example in mind let's talk bubble specifics so you can get a better idea of whether the platform is right for your particular app first off bubble is a full stack platform where you can build a highly interactive datadriven application without any code everything you need to create a real scalable application follow Under One Roof your database architecture your front-end designs and all of the logic in between to make things come to life one of the first things to consider here when determining whether bubble is too complex for your app is the user's front-end experience a simple experience does not always mean a simple build you'd be surprised a lot of the easiest applications that are out there where it's easy for you to move through as a user often requires the most custom work behind the scenes um a lot of times with our own clients we see the most energy is being given to an easy user experience on the front end um this takes time this takes work to make it easy for your users um and there's a couple of different components that can contribute to heavier logic behind the scenes for a smoother experience on the front end the first is automations if you plan on having anything automated for your users that's always going to require custom logic you're going to have to piece together those uh instructions for bubble to carry out a sequence of actions automatic for your users often times it'll also involve Dynamic information perhaps calculations manipulation of information so it is up to you to craft that yourself so that you can give your users a custom convenient experience on the front end another area of customization that you may be doing for your users is manipulating data so imagine an import feature your users are coming to your app with a CSV they want to import contacts projects tasks whatever it might be transactions and you need to change that data so that it can fit into the structure of your application perhaps you need to do further modifications calculations on that information to present it back to the user inside of the app in a new organized way the reason why they're there in your app in the first place so all of these steps require flexibility with the data and custom instructions that you have full control over next user accounts will always need customization you're responsible for setting up what a user account will contain obviously an email and a password are going to be defaults when it comes to Bubble application those are required but anything else you want to capture around a user is defined by you this isn't something that bubble is going to assume for you or create for you out of the box and one of the biggest areas that is up to you to customize that your users aren't even going to notice or even think about is your privacy rules so you have a custom data structure with a bubble application and from that data structure you can create custom security around who can and cannot access that data and then also to what extent they can access it if they can right is it an edit access is it a view only access this is completely defined by you this is also something that's not going to be done for you out of the box and you want to make sure that you address this uh so that your users have a safe and reliable experience on the front end so you need a platform that can actually support this type of flexibility uh where you can create these custom privacy rules around your custom data structure also real quick before we head any further I want you to bookmark this page for after this video coaching no code app ubble guide we've put together a pretty exhaustive written and video guide to answer all of your bubble related questions head there after this video I think it'll be really helpful for you as you head forward from here let's talk about the types of applications where bubble may not be as necessary and to be clear you can build these things on Bubble uh but the platform may just be too much for your needs the first is a static website if you're looking to build a general info website a land landing page um marketing material that contains static information you know you don't need user accounts or anything bubble may be too much platform for you there are plenty of website Builders out there uh where you can get things up and running very quickly things like WordPress Wix Squarespace there's many of those types of tools um that can serve that kind of need just fine um Bubble is really meant for more interactive uh highly datadriven Dynamic applications uh where you really need a lot of custom logic to make it come to life again you can build a static website on bubble but it's not really what this platform is meant for the next thing is if you need to create simple connections uh between tools you already use so an integration of some sort usually an integration means moving data from one system to another so you have a payment coming in from stripe and you want it to be sent to a Google spreadsheet for example uh now an integration is typically taking advantage of an API apis these days are super popular so a lot of web services out there already offer integration options almost out of the box where you can configure them right in that account um and create common connections so if that's all you're looking for I highly recommend you take a look and see what integration options you have there before you go and build a totally custom application because it may not be necessary now of course if you're trying to connect you know five different services in a very custom way there's a specific flow then yes a custom application could be very helpful for you but if you're trying to do simple common things um I would recommend looking to see what integration options are already available on top of that you can also check out zapier which is just an automation tool that can help you string together connections between uh the services that you already use so if you don't need a database if you don't need user accounts if you don't need any kind of front-end design for anybody to interact with and it's just that behind the scenes movement of data from one service to another uh this is a great tool that you can use and could serve your needs completely similarly if you're just looking to create wireframes bubble may be too much platform for you right if you're not looking to make it interactive in any way um and it's just the mockups then there are plenty of other tools that are designed specifically for that capability in fact a lot of those wireframing tools come with other features uh that make wireframing easier so collaboration tools where you can get feedback and have notes uh you can export style packages things like that uh again this is only if you don't expect to uh expand on those wireframes and make them part of a real live interactive application yes you can do it in bubble because of course there's a canvas there to create the pages that are going into the application but if all you're doing is just the mockups then I encourage you to look for other tools first now for the data side of things if all you're looking for is a database solution bubble may be too much platform for you again there's always exceptions to everything but if you're just looking to create and manage a data set then take a look at some other tools um such as air table superpa base backendless xano there's a ton of these out there that can help you set up a data set and manage it Standalone without having to worry about pages to design or uh logic to build automations to create anything like that as I said these are not hard rules but generally if you're trying to build One Singular thing or a very simple or common connection between tools you already use you may have other Solutions already out there that can do more of the heavy lifting for you um almost out of the box so I encourage you to explore those first you know is no code but you are in charge of building everything from scratch and if you're just going to be Reinventing the wheel on these things this is what we're trying to help you understand when bubble may be too much platform for you so for example if you're just trying to build an intake form for something there are so many different form Builders out there that can help you do that very easily and very quickly Google forms type form jot form and not only do these help you set up the forms but they can also help you embed your forms into you know a different website if you need share the forms collaborate with them customize their design if you need a place to collect email addresses for example to opt into your newsletter take a look at the system you're using to manage your newsletter in the first place those systems typically offer a way to embed optin forms into a website to share a link to a page that's already managed for you uh systems like active campaign MailChimp convertkit all of these email marketing tools already have these provided for you you don't necessarily need an entirely new application or website just to host that type of a form and another example of where you may not need to build a solution from scratch is customer support we see this all the time with our own clients thinking that they need to build um an entirely new project just to manage all of the customer support for their own users or clients there are lots of services out there that can help you um embed live chat widgets um that can help you create help articles that are searchable that can manage a ticket system for any emails coming in for your support so things like zenes help Scout intercom all of those tools are built specifically for that so just make sure you know what your options are now if you're thinking to yourself yes my app idea is simple there are solutions out there for it but what about in the future when I want to customize things more than those other Solutions offer if I want to have more control well this is a great thing to consider right if you want to expand your app what we're trying to do here is just make sure that you don't end up on a platform that's just not going to serve you um you know long term or you're not going to be able to take advantage up to the fullest so if you do plan on expanding your application right if you need more customization control flexibility over you know your logic over your privacy rules then it could be a really good idea to start out on the platform and then grow on it from there in fact that's what we have all of our own clients do they build their MVPs their first version of their application on Bubble we with the expectation that they're going to grow on it in the future um you don't need to use every Bell and whistle from the start but if it is something that you plan to expand further it's not going to be a simple little app or tool forever then this could be a good fit for you another area to consider for future plans is if you plan on building multiple tools uh you know we typically see this with our own clients who are looking to improve operations within their own business you know for example orders uh and checkouts need to communicate with an inventory system or invoices need to communicate with a a job tracking system or a scheduling system often times you know these internal operational flows are dependent on many different services that have a hard time communicating with one another data doesn't always translate very well it leads to more manual work and so we see folks coming in here to build custom bubble applications to solve these problems where all of the different modules of their business can communicate with each other much much more effectively so even if you're starting out with just building one area right one type of Tool uh even if it's a simple one if your future plans involve adding on to that toolkit and creating sort of a suite of of capabilities to make your business run better uh then starting out on the bubble platform so that you can grow in that way can be a great fit for you and finally here when it comes to future plans you should also consider whether you plan to bring on a team to support you for the long-term maintenance of the application this could mean maintaining your user base better um contributing to a data set if necessary or just maintaining the structure and build of the application long term troubleshooting things testing things um adding new features to it so you're going to want a platform that can support a collaborative um development environment behind the scenes and bubble has plenty of collaboration tools to support this all right I hope that was helpful and if it was the bubble guide I mentioned earlier is going to be able to answer a lot more questions for you as well so you can check that out over at coaching nood apps.com bubley guide and we'll see you in the next one

Channel: Coaching No Code Apps

Views: 556

Keywords: Bubble, bubble.io, no code, bubble for beginners, bubble comparison, should i use bubble for my app, bubble overview, bubble review, is bubble right for me, is bubble hard to learn, should i use bubble, is bubble right for my app, is bubble too complicated, how hard is it to learn bubble, bubble mvp development, should i build my mvp on bubble, should i build my app on bubble, bubble app platform, bubble app builder, bubble pros and cons, bubble.io overview

Id: foXcdEXv2Qk

Length: 14min 6sec (846 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2024