Bubble

Bubble is a full-stack no-code development platform launched in 2012 that enables users to build sophisticated web and mobile applications without writing code. The platform combines frontend design through drag-and-drop visual interface, backend logic via workflow automation, integrated PostgreSQL database management, and AWS-hosted infrastructure in a single unified system. Over 2 million users have built nearly 7 million applications on Bubble including SaaS platforms, two-sided marketplaces, CRM systems, internal business tools, social networks, booking platforms, community forums, fintech solutions, membership sites, e-commerce platforms, and custom dashboards. The platform powered apps that transacted over $1 billion in the past year, with successful companies like Dividend Finance raising $365 million in VC funding while running entirely on Bubble. Under the hood, Bubble uses PostgreSQL as its database technology hosted on Amazon Web Services with AES-256 encryption, automatically handling all server management, security patches, scaling, and deployment without requiring DevOps knowledge.

Learning Bubble varies from a few days for basic proficiency to 6-12 months for advanced mastery depending on your prior experience, learning intensity, and project complexity. Basic proficiency (understanding the interface, creating simple pages, performing basic workflows) takes a few days to 1 week through introductory tutorials and experimentation. Intermediate proficiency (building complex applications with user authentication, data handling, and custom workflows) requires a few weeks to 2-3 months—most beginners working 30+ hours weekly can build significant MVPs within 3 months. Advanced proficiency (developing sophisticated, scalable applications with API integrations, custom plugins, and performance optimization) demands 6-12 months of consistent practice—working several hours daily or 1-2 days weekly, you'll reach proficiency within 6 months and expert-level capability after 12 months of full-time use. Learning speed depends on prior coding experience (those with development backgrounds learn faster due to familiarity with logic concepts), learning intensity (full-time dedication at 30-40 hours/week accelerates learning versus part-time study), project complexity (simple CRUD apps can be built quickly once you understand repeating groups and database searches), and learning resources utilized (Bubble Academy, paid courses, one-on-one mentoring, and bootcamps all impact velocity). The steeper learning curve compared to simpler tools like Glide or Softr represents the tradeoff for Bubble's significantly greater power and flexibility.

Yes, Bubble can now build native iOS and Android mobile apps directly through its Native Mobile Builder, launched in beta in August 2025. This represents a major evolution from Bubble's previous mobile approach which relied on third-party wrappers. The Native Mobile Builder uses React Native behind the scenes while keeping development inside Bubble's visual editor, featuring fully native iOS and Android apps built directly in Bubble's mobile canvas, single-page architecture using custom states for navigation, pre-built components adhering to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and Google's Material Design, access to native device capabilities including camera, location services, and push notifications, BubbleGo platform for testing on real devices, AI-powered mobile app generation (beta) that creates native UI with data types and sample data automatically, and shared backend between web and mobile apps. Mobile-specific pricing was introduced on October 1, 2025, with options for web-only, mobile-only, or combined web+mobile plans. Mobile capabilities were free during the beta testing phase but now require paid plans to keep apps live. Before the Native Mobile Builder, Bubble users relied on mobile wrappers like BDK, Natively, or GoNative to convert responsive web apps into mobile apps using WebView technology, which had limitations around native performance and app store approval. As of November 2025, the Native Mobile Builder is still evolving with some features like in-app purchases in broader testing phase, and the ecosystem of mobile-specific plugins is developing, but it's ready for dashboard apps, CRMs, and many common mobile use cases.

Bubble's free plan is designed for learning, prototyping, and early development—not for live, production applications. Core restrictions include no live deployment (cannot publish your app publicly; free apps remain in development mode only), 200 database records maximum (quickly reached in real-world apps making the free tier unsuitable for production), Bubble branding (apps display "Built with Bubble" and cannot be white-labeled), Bubble subdomain only (apps hosted at yourapp.bubbleapps.io with no custom domain support), single editor (only one person can work on the app with no team collaboration), and 6 hours server log retention (very limited debugging capability). Workload and features include 50,000 Workload Units per month (sufficient for testing but limited for real usage), no recurring workflows (cannot schedule backend tasks or automated processes), no version control (cannot create multiple development branches), no two-factor authentication (limited security features), and limited API and plugin capacity (can use API connector and plugins but with monthly limitations). The free plan IS good for learning Bubble's interface and features, building prototypes and wireframes, testing whether Bubble fits your needs, developing MVPs before launch (then upgrade to deploy), and personal projects with fewer than 200 database entries and no public access. The Starter plan at $32/month ($29 annually) removes most limitations enabling live deployment, custom domains, no Bubble branding, and 175,000 WU/month—making it the minimum viable tier for launching real applications. Use the free plan to validate your concept and build as much as possible, then upgrade when you need to go live or exceed database limits.

Yes, Bubble remains highly worth it for the right use cases—particularly for startups, non-technical founders, and businesses building custom web applications, SaaS platforms, or marketplaces. Bubble is absolutely worth it when building startups and MVPs (enabling founders to launch functional products in weeks instead of months at a fraction of traditional development costs—companies have saved $300K-$1M per year), for non-technical founders (empowering entrepreneurs to build their vision without hiring expensive development teams or learning to code, with solo founders creating revenue-generating applications earning $200K+ ARR), and for specific application types (excelling at SaaS platforms, marketplaces, internal tools, CRMs, booking systems, and community platforms). Evidence of success includes apps transacting $1+ billion in the past year, Dividend Finance raising $365 million in VC funding while running on Bubble, Axial facilitating over 2,000 closed deals connecting 10,000+ financial professionals, and creators earning $3,000-$10,000/month building Bubble apps for clients. However, trade-offs exist including platform lock-in (no code export capability means you cannot migrate your app off Bubble without rebuilding from scratch—this vendor dependency is the price for managed hosting, automatic updates, and simplified infrastructure), learning curve (requires significant investment to master—3 months for basics, 6-12 months for proficiency, steeper than simpler tools like Glide or Softr), performance limitations (not ideal for ultra-high-performance applications requiring millisecond-level latency, complex 3D graphics, or processing millions of concurrent transactions), and Workload Unit costs (the usage-based pricing model can become expensive as applications scale, requiring continuous optimization to control costs). After years of evolution, Bubble is "a resounding yes—for the right projects." The platform's 2025 improvements including native mobile apps, AI agent features, and significant database performance enhancements make it more capable than ever. However, it's not suitable for every scenario—marketing websites are better on Webflow, mobile-first apps may prefer FlutterFlow, and enterprise applications needing HIPAA compliance should consider OutSystems or specialized healthcare platforms.

Yes, many creators generate significant revenue with Bubble through multiple monetization strategies. Building and selling your own SaaS or marketplace represents the most profitable approach, with apps generating $200K ARR before switching platforms entirely to Bubble, creators earning $4,500 in first month with 100+ paid subscribers at $5/month, SaaS platforms achieving $50K+ MRR, and marketplace apps taking 10% transaction fees earning sustainable revenue. Agency work and freelancing enables Bubble developers to earn $75-$125/hour building applications for clients with monthly project income ranging from $3,000-$10,000 depending on project complexity and client base. Template and plugin sales allow selling pre-built templates and plugins on Bubble's marketplace with templates typically selling for $100-$150 each (Bubble takes approximately 20% commission while driving significant marketplace traffic). Coaching and training provides opportunities to offer paid training, courses, bootcamps, or one-on-one mentoring to aspiring Bubble developers, and consultancy services enable providing guidance, app optimization, or technical support to other Bubble users on a project or hourly basis. Common monetization models include subscription model (charging users monthly or annual fees for access to your platform, working well for content-based apps, productivity tools, and exclusive membership sites), transaction fees (taking percentage of transactions between users typical for marketplaces, with platform owners charging 5-15% per transaction while Stripe takes additional payment processing fees), and tiered pricing (offering free basic plans with premium features unlocked through upgrades removing ads, adding features, or increasing usage limits). Revenue generation depends far more on marketing, sales, and service delivery than the platform itself—Bubble accelerates time-to-market and reduces costs, but business success still requires solving real market needs, effective customer acquisition, and strong execution.

Bubble enables 20-40% faster development than traditional coding at a fraction of the cost, but trades ultimate flexibility and code ownership for speed, accessibility, and managed infrastructure. Development speed differs dramatically: Bubble builds functional MVPs in days to weeks with rapid iteration through visual editor, while traditional coding typically requires months for comparable functionality due to coding, debugging, and testing processes. Cost comparison shows Bubble starting at $0-$32/month with no developer salaries during initial development (companies save $300K-$1M annually), versus traditional coding requiring hiring developers ($80K-$150K+ annually per developer) or agencies ($50K-$200K+ per project). Technical expertise required: Bubble needs no coding knowledge with visual drag-and-drop interface and plain language workflow logic, while traditional coding requires expertise in multiple programming languages, frameworks, databases, and DevOps. Flexibility and customization: Bubble offers high flexibility for most apps but constrained by platform capabilities (JavaScript only for custom code), whereas traditional coding provides unlimited customization with any language, framework, or architecture possible. Maintenance and updates: Bubble requires minimal maintenance as platform handles server updates, security patches, and deployments automatically, while traditional coding demands high maintenance burden with developers manually managing updates, security, bug fixes, and infrastructure. Scalability: Bubble provides scalable cloud infrastructure automatically managed handling 100,000+ daily users with optimization, while traditional coding requires careful architectural planning and manual scaling but can handle billions of requests with significant engineering effort. Code ownership: Bubble offers no code export with complete vendor lock-in (cannot host elsewhere or migrate without rebuilding), whereas traditional coding provides full code ownership where you can host anywhere, modify anything, and maintain complete control. Choose Bubble when speed to market is critical (MVP, startup validation), budget is limited (<$100K for development), building proven business models (SaaS, marketplaces, CRMs), or non-technical team needs full product capability. Choose traditional coding when ultimate performance is non-negotiable, code ownership and migration capability are required, building highly specialized or cutting-edge technology, or budget and timeline support custom development.

No, Bubble does not offer code export functionality, creating complete vendor lock-in. What Bubble does NOT provide includes source code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) that runs your app, backend logic or API endpoints as exportable code, executable application you can run independently, or ability to host your Bubble app outside Bubble's platform. What you CAN export from Bubble includes database export (raw data in CSV format through automated exports or API-based scripts, though this lacks preserved structure, relationships, or business logic), configuration files (JSON files describing workflows, but these are not executable code you can run independently), and design export (limited—Bubble offers some assistance exporting design elements if you decide to leave, but application logic must be rebuilt entirely). Who owns what: You own all data and content in your app, the ideas, branding, and intellectual property of your product concept, and your user base and business relationships. Bubble owns the proprietary platform and underlying technology powering your app, the generated code that makes your application function, and the hosting infrastructure and deployment systems. Migration reality: If you want to leave Bubble, you must completely rebuild your application from scratch using traditional coding or another platform. This can be prohibitively expensive, especially for complex applications—potentially costing $100K-$500K+ depending on app complexity. Bubble promises to open-source their platform code if they ever go bankrupt. However, since Bubble was developed starting in 2008, the technology is likely outdated, making it difficult and expensive to find developers to support legacy code. Alternatives with code export include FlutterFlow (full Flutter/Dart source code export) and Webflow (clean HTML/CSS code export). Vendor lock-in is the price you pay for Bubble's benefits: fully managed hosting, automatic updates, security patches, and simplified infrastructure. For most startups, speed and cost savings during crucial early stages far outweigh future migration risks. However, this dependency can affect perceived valuation if seeking acquisition or major investment. View Bubble as a platform for validation and early growth, not necessarily your permanent technical foundation. Many successful companies prototype on Bubble, prove product-market fit, raise capital, then rebuild with custom code when scale demands it.

Yes, Bubble can handle large-scale applications and enterprise use cases, but requires careful architecture, optimization, and often Enterprise-tier plans. Evidence of enterprise scalability includes apps transacting $1+ billion in the past year, Dividend Finance raising $365 million in VC funding while running on Bubble, Axial facilitating 2,000+ closed deals connecting 10,000+ financial professionals, Seagate using Bubble for internal tools, and platforms successfully serving 100,000+ daily users. Enterprise features in 2025 include dedicated infrastructure (isolated server instances separate from shared infrastructure, choice of AWS hosting regions including EU options, static IP addresses for enterprise integration, no workload-based pricing on dedicated plans) and security and compliance (SOC 2 Type II compliant, ISO 27001 certified, GDPR-ready with EU/UK data privacy measures, single sign-on support, multi-factor authentication, field-level privacy rules, and point-in-time data recovery). Performance improvements in 2025 delivered database searches up to 50% faster (P99 latency: 105ms → 58ms), reference deletion lookups up to 90% faster, automatic database indexing with no table size limitations, and separated data layer architecture for Enterprise customers. Bubble scales well for SaaS platforms with clear data separation and optimized workflows, internal enterprise tools and dashboards, marketplaces with proper database indexing and backend workflows, and applications up to 1 million mobile app users with optimization. Scaling becomes challenging for ultra-high-performance applications requiring millisecond latency, applications processing millions of concurrent transactions, real-time data-heavy operations beyond ~100 rows/second, and apps exceeding 100,000 daily active users without dedicated infrastructure. Enterprise limitations include not being HIPAA compliant (Bubble lacks HIPAA certification making it unsuitable for healthcare applications handling protected health information), no on-premise deployment (cannot self-host or deploy on private servers except dedicated AWS instances managed by Bubble), and vendor lock-in (no code export means enterprise applications remain dependent on Bubble's platform long-term). For organizations requiring absolute enterprise compliance, on-premise hosting, or code ownership, platforms like OutSystems or Mendix offer low-code solutions purpose-built for enterprise at significantly higher costs. Best practice for enterprise: start with Growth or Team plans to validate use cases, then move to Enterprise plans with dedicated infrastructure when scaling beyond 50,000-100,000 daily users. Bubble can absolutely support enterprise applications with proper planning, optimization, and investment in Enterprise-tier infrastructure, but it's best suited for mid-market enterprises and specific enterprise use cases rather than replacing mission-critical core systems requiring maximum performance, HIPAA compliance, or on-premise deployment.

Bubble offers five pricing tiers ranging from $0/month (Free) to custom Enterprise pricing, using a usage-based Workload Unit (WU) system that scales with actual consumption. Free Plan ($0/month) includes 50,000 WU/month, Bubble subdomain and branding, no live deployment, 200 database record limit, 1 app editor, 6 hours server log retention, best for learning and prototyping. Starter Plan ($32/month or $29 annually) provides 175,000 WU/month, custom domain, no Bubble branding, live app deployment, 1 app editor, 2-7 days server logs, best for MVPs and solo developers. Growth Plan ($134/month or $119 annually) includes 250,000 WU/month, 2 app editors, 10 app versions, 14 days server logs, premium version control, sub-apps feature, best for expanding SaaS and growing teams. Team Plan ($399/month or $349 annually) offers 500,000 WU/month, 5 app editors, 20 app versions, 20 days server logs, premium collaboration features, best for scaling teams with heavier workloads. Enterprise Plan (custom pricing) provides custom WU allocations, unlimited app editors, dedicated server instances, choice of hosting region, static IP addresses, 24/7 support, SSO and advanced security, best for large organizations and high-traffic apps. Understanding Workload Units: WU measure server resources needed to run your app, aggregating activities including database operations (0.2-0.5 WU per operation), page loads (0.15 WU), backend workflows (0.01-0.6 WU depending on complexity), and data transmission (0.000003 WU per character). You pay for actual resource consumption rather than arbitrary limits, with different plan tiers including different monthly WU allocations—if exceeded, additional WU can be purchased at discounted rates. Mobile app pricing (effective October 1, 2025) introduced separate pricing for mobile capabilities with three options: web-only plans (standard pricing), mobile-only plans (higher cost due to infrastructure and app store support), and web + mobile plans (combined pricing for both platforms). Cost scaling challenges include unpredictability (WU-based pricing can be difficult to forecast for complex applications with costs potentially spiking unexpectedly with traffic increases or inefficient workflows), requiring continuous monitoring and optimization to control expenses as apps scale. Despite potential scaling costs, Bubble remains significantly cheaper than traditional development ($300K-$1M savings annually) or enterprise platforms like OutSystems/Mendix ($20K-$50K/year).