Should You Use a Template for Your Bubble App?

if you're building a no code app on bubble should you use a template now when you're using bubble.io it essentially gives you a blank canvas upon which you can build your app you can design the front end the backend you can create all the workflows the logic all the functionality but you can also choose to use a template to get started which puts the base layer of that front end that back end those workflows that functionality in place and you can then tweak modify build on top of or expand on that but there are some pros and cons to using templates and so if you're moving forward with building your no code app on bubble i want you to be able to make the right decision for you and for your app on whether or not you should use a template now make sure you stick around until the end because i also want to guide you into a free extended training so if you are starting to build your app you can move forward a lot more strategically and a lot more correctly so stick around for that now first if you're new around here my name is kristen and i'm the co-founder of coaching no code apps where we help non-technical entrepreneurs build custom apps so they can either launch their app-based businesses or grow their existing businesses all without coding all right so the first thing i want to do is take you over to the templates page on bubble itself now there are other companies that offer templates but bubble has its own marketplace where you can also find these templates and if you come to the template page of bubbles site you'll see a very large collection of these templates now some of them as you can see are free and some of them are going to be paid some of them are going to be paid you're going to have to pay for them on the lower end in terms of price point some of them are going to be a lot more expensive and it really depends on what you're wanting obviously with something that's free or that costs less you're probably going to be getting less functionality with something that costs more you're probably going to be getting fuller functionality within that template and so if you're just looking to get started and really just want to see what kinds of templates are out there this is a really good place to start that said before we go any further i want to talk through the pros and the cons of using templates because while templates can be really helpful and really advantageous in some situations in others they could end up leading you and your app astray and so i want to make sure you have all the information before digging in too far so that you can make really just the right decision for yourself as you move forward so let's start with when you should use a template because there are a handful of situations where templates can really benefit you in the process of building and launching your app and even learning how to manage and maintain and grow your app moving forward so the first situation in which you should consider using a template for your no code app is if you are only building at this stage at least a really simple prototype with limited functionality so we won't go too deeply into this because we have other videos that talk about it but a prototype and an mvp a minimum viable product those are two different things just the same as an mvp is different from a full scope app for example now a prototype is something you use to convey your idea maybe you are pitching your idea to investors but you're not building it out yet you want to get validation for that idea first well then you could put together a prototype which can be pulled up on a laptop a tablet a phone but has very limited or maybe even no functionality but you can still convey the idea of your app using it better than you could if you were just talking about it for example so templates can be really good for that because some templates are going to you know if you had a dashboard app that you wanted to build you could pull up a template for dashboard apps you could change some of the coloring the branding to make it look like your own and you could have some of that very core baseline functionality already in place again just to convey your idea and you could do that without having to add on adjust or modify the template at all and so if you're really just looking to put up a put together a really quick prototype templates can be great for that and they can save you some time on that same note another reason why you might want to use a template is if you're just using the template for one specific feature within your overarching app so let's say you are building your own app and you've built out the core functionality but there is a piece of functionality that you could employ a lot more quickly with a template and it would not affect your overall app or your overall learning process which we'll talk about in a minute but that will help you move along a little bit more quickly in in using the template and an example of this is you know if you look at these templates on the screen here we have a landing page so this is not a full-blown app with a full scope functionality this is a landing page that you can just employ really quickly this over here is a registration form so again obviously not a full-blown app but if you don't want to create your own registration form and you like the way this one looks then you could employ it in your app really quickly and have it up and running without having to do any of the heavy lifting on your end and you can also see here that there's a template for a dashboard so if there is a dashboard component within your overall app and it doesn't need a lot of custom functionality and you like what you see here and you just want to really just plug it into your app and you don't care to expand or build on top of it or really adjust it and you could take this put it into your overall app as just another component to add on to on the flip side though aside from using a template to move a little bit faster in some situations really the the most effective way to use templates and the way that i would really recommend you use them if you are is just to learn you know as someone who is coming into the no code space there's a good chance you're doing so because you want to have some level of control over your app at least that's what our students and our clients want they want to understand how their app is built so that they can grow and manage and really just keep scaling their app thereafter a lot more easily than if they were outsourcing and relying on developers for the lifetime of their app and so with templates you can even if you're not using a template in your app or even if you use it at first but then build on your own so that you can build from the ground up templates can serve as a really great learning resource to help you understand how things are built to help you kind of really just take a peek behind the scenes and and see how the functionality has been put together now caveat here is that there's not one way to build every single feature or every specific functionality there are many ways to do it and there are ways that are going to be right for some people in some use cases and some apps and those ways that are right for them might be completely wrong for someone else and so i do want you to keep in mind that with app development that's really just the nature of it there's a lot of variation there are lots of different ways you can do things and there's lots of context that has to be taken into the picture to effectively build your app and so you can learn a lot from templates but i want you to keep in mind that a lot of templates are going to be source in in the sense that you know anybody can build a template and put it out there for someone else to use and so you just want to make sure that if you're using a template for learning processes that it's very contained and that you understand there could be other ways to do something there could be other ways to do something that's right for you so it's using templates as a positive in that way but just keep that in mind so that you can have the the bigger picture as you move forward now there's one other situation in which you might find a template to be useful and that is if you are not actually the one who's going to be building your app so maybe you don't care about having that level of control over your app that we had talked about maybe you really just want to get it up and running as quickly as possible and you want someone else to do it and that's fine if that's the case but in that situation if you can find a template that can lay the groundwork for what you're building and then have a developer for example come in and build on top of that template or expand it then that could ultimately help you move just a little bit more quickly because you're kind of jumping ahead from the starting line before bringing someone in to ultimately build the rest of the app now all that being said there is a caveat to this one as well that i want you to be aware of and that's if you're outsourcing and you're starting with the template sometimes developers are going to want to build the app from scratch regardless they might not want to come in and use a template and that really goes back to what i was saying about how there are always multiple ways to achieve the same thing and so for one developer they might do something one way another developer might do that same thing a completely different way and so if you're bringing a developer in and they're going to be expanding on a template you're going to want to make sure that they're happy to start with a template and that that is actually at the end of the day going to help you move forward more quickly or if ultimately they're going to have to start over anyway so just keep that in mind and the way to figure that out is really just to ask if you find a developer who you're outsourcing with ask them if that's something they're okay doing or you might find a developer who does development work and also creates templates and if that's the case then it's a pretty sure bet that they'd be happy to modify their own templates so keep that in mind if that's the path you're going with your app so looking at the different situations that we've talked about so far it can seem like using a template is a really great place to start and those are some good places to start with templates if they fit your situation but i want to make sure you are thinking of the big picture and i say that in having worked with a lot of entrepreneurs who have started with templates and tried to make them work and inevitably have ended up coming back and restarting and so there are some other situations in which you might not want to use a template and i want you to be aware of those so that you can avoid any potential backtracking and just move forward a lot more quickly and in a much more streamlined way with your app so the first one on the list for reasons why you might not want to use a template is if you're not open to potentially rebuilding your app and i say this and i've already given a little bit of context to this but i say this because if you're using a template you are starting with someone else's work and especially if you're new to app development and you've never built an app before you've never used bubble before you you're really going through the learning process from the very start if you use a template to build the base layer of your app or to kind of cover the base layer of your app and then you try to start a few steps ahead in expanding customizing that template and really just moving forward your app from there you could have a really hard time and i see this happening with a lot of people who get started with templates because if you use someone else's work an existing template to form the base of your app well those are the foundational pieces that you really have to understand if you want to be able to effectively build and grow on top of that so it's kind of like if you're trying to learn a new language and you go right into the second level of the language where you're having conversations but you haven't covered the first level which is conjugating verbs right you're gonna have a really hard time at that second level if you don't start at the first level before that and it's the same with apps and so you know thinking about creating the correct database structure and how that ties in to the front end of your app and you know how all the foundational pieces work with the navigation of your app the overall architecture if you don't understand those things and those are all the things that should come first before you start putting on those more niche features and that more custom functionality if you don't understand those and you could have a really hard time in later stages as you try to build on top of that template and that means that ultimately there's a good chance you'd have to start over and that's the thing i've seen a lot of entrepreneurs do is they get to that point they go through all that work and ultimately they end up just coming back at the end of the day starting over scrapping the template building their app from scratch so they can have the understanding of how their app has been built and more importantly why it has been built in a certain way because until you understand that again you're going to really struggle to build on top of it and continue growing now of course this applies to a situation where you would be using a template to form the base of your app as a whole so we talked about how templates can be more more complex more involved and some templates can be really contained you know like a registration functionality so assuming you're looking at using a template to build the basis of your app that's where this applies because chances are you're going to want to build on top of that regardless even though it is forming the the foundation the template is kind of laying that foundation you're going to need to tweak it you're going to need to build on top you're just not going to find a template that literally has every feature and piece of functionality that you need because that's kind of the point of building an app right you're building something unique and so you're going to have to plan on expanding and customizing templates and if you don't understand the core before you go and try to do that you could have a really hard time another situation where i would want to potentially steer you away from using a template is if your only goal is to just be able to launch faster now i know we already talked about how some of the pros of using template positives involve being able to move more quickly but again taking a step up and kind of looking bigger picture here if your only goal is speed is to be able to move quickly then it can be tough to move forward with a template and actually achieve that at least how you've envisioned it and this goes back to what i was just saying about not really understanding how the base of your app is being built and therefore really struggling and adding on a lot of extra time in those later stages trying to just figure it out when a lot of times if you had just started from scratch in the first place you'd ultimately be able to move forward probably more quickly now if you are only looking for speed then using some templates that have just the really contained functionality could help but if you're using a bigger more full scope template i i just want you to be aware that there's a good chance you're not going to be able to move as quickly as you think you are and again i say that after having had lots of conversations with entrepreneurs who understandably want to launch their apps quickly and want to use no code tools to do that and some people want to launch an app using a template in maybe a couple weeks maybe even a month and i rarely seen that or i really see that being realistic for people again just because of the lack of understanding of how it has been built and so usually what ends up happening if your only focus is on speed and you're using a template because you want to move fast usually what ends up happening is you have to bring on a developer to either take over that template or just start the app from scratch anyways again if your only priority is speed and so just keep those things in mind as you move forward to add to all of those and to kind of sum everything up if you are the type of person who wants to build a no code app because you want to be able to control and manage it and maintain it and grow it on your own without having to rely on developers or agencies if that's why you're coming into this space and you're building an app then i would encourage you to think re really think about using a template and i know i've mentioned this already but i have to emphasize it again so that you're aware if you if you use a template to form the base of your app and then you try to build on top of that you you could have a really hard time understanding the necessary fundamentals that will allow you to continue growing and scaling on your own later the way i like to look at this is if you're outsourcing your app you're going to be relying on developers really for the lifetime of your app even after you launch and maybe most of that is focused on the day-to-day maintenance you're still going to have to be reliant on someone else to take care of that i i usually call that being handcuffed to a developer and that's not to say that using a developer is wrong if it's right for you then that's great obviously it's just something to keep in mind but if that's not what you want and i know a lot of people don't want that then you can end up feeling the same way if you start with a template and then you try to have that control as you grow and as you scale you can end up kind of feeling like you're a little bit handcuffed because if you don't truly understand how the template was created and why things were done in a certain way then you're just going to have a hard time expanding on top of it and so you can feel like you're handcuffed to the functionality of the template and again the whole reason why you're building an app is because you want to create something that's unique and so you don't want to be handcuffed to that functionality so if you really don't want to be reliant if you want to be more self-sufficient if that's one of your priorities then using templates to learn can can be helpful using templates just for really contained features that can be helpful it's not necessary but it can be helpful if you if you want to but using it to form the foundation of your app and growing and expanding on top of that isn't always as easy or straightforward as simple as it sounds so i hope that gives you a clear view of the positives to using templates some of the negatives potentially and whether it's right for you really just based on your priorities because that's what's important here now i mentioned at the beginning of this video that if you're moving into these next steps with your app you're you're just starting out or you know maybe you have started and you're still in those early stages and you want to make sure you are moving forward in the most strategic ways possible in the most correct ways possible ideally then we have a free training over at coaching no codeapps.com forward slash workshop that will take you through a process of making sure you're building the right features with your app at the right time in the right order so you can launch the right things at the right time it'll take you through some specifics on bubble and using the no code tool and leveraging it for your own needs and really just what's possible with no code tool so you can move forward having that bigger picture view and really just with more confidence and more strategy so head to coachingnocodapps.com forward slash workshop for that we'll hope to see you there and i hope you found this helpful thanks so much for watching we'll see you in the next one

Channel: Coaching No Code Apps

Views: 12,537

Keywords: Bubble, bubble app builder, build an app without coding, apps without code, visual programming, no code app development, bubble.io, bubble.io tutorials, no code movement, no code mvp, no code apps, bubble.is, bubble tutorial, bubble.is tutorial, bubble help, bubble support, bubble.io tutorial, bubble app tutorial, bootcamp, buildcamp, bubble.io lesson, no code app scale, scalable no code app, launch no code app, bubble templates, bubble app templates, no code templates

Id: j9lNy1XlXZU

Length: 21min 13sec (1273 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 06 2021