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Why Bubble is our no-code app builder of choice

Hundreds of no-code tools are available for fast and easy development. However, not all have the power and flexibility to handle your concept as it scales and evolves.

We choose Bubble because it gives us complete control over design, functionality, and extensibility for every app we build. With Bubble, we don't fear encountering features we can't deliver on. Trusted by thousands of companies and backed by the best partners, Bubble is our clear technology partner of choice.

200k

Active Bubble developers

500k

Applications built on Bubble

93%

Annual user base growth

What you get

Benefits of using Bubble to build no-code apps

Complete control

Unlike no-code tools with specific use cases (like Webflow for marketing websites or Shopify for eCommerce), Bubble is a comprehensive "visual development" platform designed to mimic the flexibility of coding. Builders define each workflow step, each search parameter, and each database field in their application. As a result, Bubble requires more training and expertise, but can produce virtually any modern app configuration.

Workflow tab in the Bubble editor showing a place order workflow and additional workflow steps
A Bubble editor view of the design tab, where a user is snapping a text element to an order confirmation block

Pixel-perfect design

The Bubble platform supports fully responsive and pixel-perfect design, allowing builders to accomplish any UI/UX. Most of our clients use our Canvas design framework and preconfigured modules to accelerate the initial build, but Bubble allows our team to implement custom design tweaks or complete app reskins at any point with total precision.

Fully extensible

While Bubble offers a vast array of functions natively, a key consideration for any no-code app builder is its ability to work well with third-party services and custom code to extend its capabilities. Bubble's plugin ecosystem and flexible API connector tool make it easy to add anything from Google Maps to Stripe payments to a custom AI algorithm built with code. This extensibility magnifies the power of Bubble to tackle any functionality.

A Bubble editor view of the plugins tab, showing various third-party integrations to the app including Stripe, Twilio, Slack, Airtable, SendGrid, and etc
A Bubble editor view of the logs tab showing a dashboard for monitoring application capacity and usage

Scalable and secure

A key value in the Platform-as-a-Service approach is the world-class and fully maintained infrastructure that powers your application. Bubble is built on AWS and is constantly monitoring and improving its platform behind the scenes. This means 99.9% uptime, the ability to scale virtual computing power with a click, and dozens of security measures. So your technology will keep up with your scale and protect you from threats.

Bubble Use Cases

How organizations can use no-code & Bubble to build apps

Startups launch and grow their products 10x faster

  • Keep your equity, and launch your business without a CTO
  • Iterate to find product-market fit and land your first funding round
  • Test new concepts quickly, keep your developers focused on core technology

Existing businesses automate key business functions

  • Remove the cost and risk of manual processes by building automated logic to connect tools or execute tasks
  • Ditch meetings and emails and build software tools specifically designed to help your team or external stakeholders manage critical processes
  • Test new concepts quickly, keep your developers focused on core technology

Venture studios test real products, not clickthrough mockups

  • Launch and incubate a startup within an organization using the leanest approach
  • Run more real experiments each quarter to identify areas to invest in scaling
  • Test new concepts quickly, keep your developers focused on core technology

Bubble vs. Traditional code comparison

When should you build apps with Bubble?

Good fit for

Platform

Good fit for

  • Responsive web applications accessible through the user’s mobile or desktop browser.
  • ‘Wrapped’ native applications that the user downloads from Google Play or App Store but are a shell around a web app.

Not a good fit for

  • Fully native applications, similar to Uber, WhatsApp,etc.

Functionality

Good fit for

  • Database-driven applications with user authentication - marketplaces, sales tools, productivity tools, collaboration platforms, dashboards, social apps, etc.

Not a good fit for

  • Highly technical products - app builders, image/audio/video editors, email clients, etc.

Design

Good fit for

  • Most kinds of modern, responsive designs.

Not a good fit for

  • Designs that are heavy with animations and native functionality (e.g. swiping).

Integrations

Good fit for

  • Applications that integrate with any modern REST or SOAP API or directly with PostGres, MySQL and Microsoft SQL databases.

Not a good fit for

  • Applications that need a deeper integration with a legacy system. Note: this often can be solved by having a middle integration layer written in code.

Scalability

Good fit for

  • Applications that scale to 100k-200k daily users.

Not a good fit for

  • Applications that scale to 1m+ daily users.

Hosting

Good fit for

  • Applications that can be hosted in the cloud.

Not a good fit for

  • Applications that need to be hosted on-premise.

Compliance

Good fit for

  • GDPR, PCI (through external providers), and other types of standard compliance.

Not a good fit for

  • Complex compliance types
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Environment

Carbon credit marketplace for industries to measure and standardize carbon accreditation, trade credits to offset greenhouse gas footprint.

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Environment

Carbon credit marketplace for industries to measure and standardize carbon accreditation, trade credits to offset greenhouse gas footprint.

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Environment

Carbon credit marketplace for industries to measure and standardize carbon accreditation, trade credits to offset greenhouse gas footprint.

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Environment

Carbon credit marketplace for industries to measure and standardize carbon accreditation, trade credits to offset greenhouse gas footprint.

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Environment

Carbon credit marketplace for industries to measure and standardize carbon accreditation, trade credits to offset greenhouse gas footprint.

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Environment

Carbon credit marketplace for industries to measure and standardize carbon accreditation, trade credits to offset greenhouse gas footprint.

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Environment

Carbon credit marketplace for industries to measure and standardize carbon accreditation, trade credits to offset greenhouse gas footprint.

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Environment

Carbon credit marketplace for industries to measure and standardize carbon accreditation, trade credits to offset greenhouse gas footprint.

Product Type Examples

What types of apps can Bubble build?

Example: We built a vintage apparel marketplace where sellers can specify rules to list their goods, evaluate market demand, and determine if an item is sold directly or entered into a raffle contest.

Marketplaces

You can use Bubble to build a custom product, service, rental, gig, or content marketplace faster to start testing and iterating. Common features include:

- Listings & profiles
- Inventory & order management
- Peer-to-peer payments
- Messaging & notifications
- Scheduling & booking
- Ratings & reviews
- And more


Example: We designed a financial services platform that allows teams to work with clients to prepare taxes, financial plans, and provide other services. Additional features included file sharing, video conference, and book keeping.

Productivity Tools

You can use Bubble to build tools to manage or automate processes and collaborate with teams. Common features include:

- Team management
- Workflow automations
- API integrations
- Users & roles
- Analytics
- Messaging
- And more

Example: We built NotRealTwitter, a fun demo of just how powerful Bubble is!

Social Networks

You can use Bubble to build a social media platform that helps your community find and engage with one another. Common features include:

- Profile management
- Messaging
- Upvotes
- User likes
- User connections
- And more

Example: We created an analytics tool to help enterprise sales professionals visualize compensation plans as correlated to performance metrics like quotas, payout percentages, and annual recurring revenue.

Analytics & Data Visualization

You can use Bubble to build custom tools to extract insights from your data. Common features include:

- Complex calculations
- Charts & tables
- Dynamic configurations
- Admin portal
- API integrations
- And more

Example: We built a CRM for companies to connect prospects with previous clients for references and testimonials. The platform integrates with other CRMs to identify loyal customers, incentive them to join as an advocate, and matches them with prospects like themselves.

Sales tools

You can use Bubble to build custom tools to supercharge your sales team. Common features include:

- Team management
- Deal configuration
- Pricing algorithms
- CRM integrations
- Analytics
- And more

We have built integrations for IT teams to migrate cloud and on-premise data, automate data loading processes, and generally reduce the load on development to increase team efficiency.

Middleware

You can use Bubble to build middleware that connects one of your systems to another. Common features include:

- Admin interfaces
- REST/SOAP API integrations
- Scheduled workflows
- Batching
- Webhooks
- And more

faqS

Common questions

What is Bubble?

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Bubble is a no-code visual programming platform designed to help you build software and applications without code. It specializes in responsive web and mobile apps with dynamic databases and complex functionality. This differs from other no-code platforms like Webflow, which focus on front-end design for static websites. Bubble is open-ended, and like a traditional programming language, there's no fixed set of possibilities to the type of product you can build. This means you don’t have to work within the rails of a specific use-case.

What capabilities can my Bubble app have?

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Bubble specializes in responsive web applications with dynamic databases and complex functionality. This differs from other visual programming platforms like Webflow/Wix, which focus on front-end design for static websites.

Common features include (but are not limited to):

  • User accounts (signup with email or social)
  • Creating/browsing items from the database
  • API integrations & external database queries
  • Forms & surveys with dynamic results
  • Payments (direct, subscription, or peer-to-peer)
  • Charts, graphs, data visualization
  • Notifications through email, SMS, or push
  • App analytics (e.g., Mixpanel, Amplitude)
  • Integrations with AI / machine learning services or custom algorithms

Bubble supports the integration of custom code plugins for areas where it does not natively support the desired functionality

What types of products is Bubble not good for?

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There are a few categories of products that Bubble isn't yet good for:
- Apps that need to work without an internet connection
- Apps that have complex regulatory requirements
- Fully native mobile apps (e.g. Whatsapp or Uber) - though web-based mobile apps are supported

Will I be able to scale my app built on Bubble?

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Yes. We always design apps to optimize for scale, based on our understanding of the potential features and user behavior our client envisions. The Bubble technology is built to scale, with the ability to upgrade server capacity as needed (including migrating to a dedicated AWS cluster) to service a growing user base. Bubble provides simple dashboards and notifications to track app capacity usage to help you adjust as needed.

Will my Bubble application be secure?

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Yes. Bubble is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is itself compliant with certifications such as SOC 2, CSA, ISO 27001, and more. All data behind Bubble apps is stored in the cloud using AWS and is generally hosted on AWS West Region (Oregon, US) which maintains a state-of-the-art security infrastructure. Below are more of Bubble’s security features:

  • AWS: All data behind Bubble apps is stored in the cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS), the industry standard. Data is generally hosted on AWS West Region (Oregon, US) which maintains a state-of-the-art security infrastructure.
  • Encryption: Bubble encrypts all traffic to bubble.is over https, and encourages and supports users to use encryption on their own domains. All user passwords are stored salted + encrypted on Bubble's database; other user data is encrypted at rest (Bubble is on AWS RDS). Note: a more technical Bubble audit report is available upon request.
  • SSL: Bubble apps can add SSL encryption to their own domains under any paid Bubble plan. The default bubble domain includes SSL.
  • Dedicated infrastructure: For large and complex apps, Bubble offers plans with the ability to be on a dedicated AWS cluster (as opposed to shared clusters managed by Bubble), which leads to more reliable performance and greater security.
  • External database support: For projects requiring specific database setups (e.g., using a client’s Azure infrastructure, or a HIPAA-compliant data vault), the Bubble application can be set up to interface with a separate database using API calls. This slows development vs. using Bubble’s internal setup.
  • Logs: Every action that changes data in a Bubble app's database is logged, which enables auditing if needed.
  • Privacy rules: Bubble enables role-based privacy rules for apps, which restrict what data is sent from the servers to the user's hardware. This provides an additional layer of security so that data does not fall into the wrong user's hands.
  • Privacy policy: Bubble's privacy policy can be found at bubble.is/terms. Bubble employees do not have access to view customer data, except when necessary to resolve engineering issues with the platform. Access to customer data is restricted based on job role. Access is periodically audited to prevent abuses.

Can Bubble integrate with an existing external database as the backend?

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Yes, as long as it’s a cloud-based database, Bubble connects to any kind of external services that expose an API for reading/writing (including payments, sources of data, authentication providers, etc.). Additionally, it is fully extensible via Javascript plugins. You can create your own plugins to add connections to non-supported services, add elements written in Javascript, or write server code.

Note: working entirely from an external database can slow development efforts since part of the advantage of using Bubble is the integrated nature of the platform. The resulting speed is still significantly faster than custom code.

Who owns the IP rights to my application?

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You own the rights to your concept, your application, and all user-generated data created through the app. Airdev retains the ownership of the IP for our predesigned page and element templates that we use across multiple projects. More details on this distinction can be found in the client contract you can review before approving a build.

Can Bubble export my app to code? Can I export my data?

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No. A Bubble application’s “source code” cannot be exported to a conventional programming language. It is possible to export a JSON file representing all elements and actions (e.g., for archiving), but this has limited value for teams looking to migrate to traditional dev resources.

However, a Bubble app’s data is always easily portable, either in CSV tables or through the data API. This makes it easy to migrate to a future platform that has been built using conventional methods.

Is Airdev able to support and extend my application as it grows?

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Yes, you can come back to us at any point after the initial build for additional work. You can request ad-hoc updates or sign up for a monthly plan, which will come with a certain amount of team capacity.

What technology will my application be built on?

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We build on the latest visual programming framework, Bubble, which allows us to build incredibly quickly and flexibly with minimal technical input. This reduces the cost and headache to our clients, and increases app stability out of the gate. Bubble itself is written in CoffeeScript running on Node.js, uses Postgres databases hosted on AWS, and exposes POST or GET APIs for third-party connections. The app can be easily connected to external APIs and the app's database can be easily exported. Learn more about Bubble here.

Are Bubble apps SEO-optimized?

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Yes, Bubble handles core SEO properties and provides a number of tools for customization, including:

  • Metatags can be set at the application level (e.g., site name, description) and page level (OG tags)
  • H1, H2, H3, H+ tags can all be set at the element level within a page
  • Friendly page URLs can be defined (e.g., user or product profiles)
  • ALT attributes can be set on images.
  • A sitemap can be defined and exposed for the app

What are the pros/cons of building native mobile apps on Bubble?

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The main benefit of using Bubble for mobile apps is that you are really just managing one application, instead of separate web, iOS, and Android versions. This means that you get:

  • Consistent features: Your users can enjoy the same features and user experience on any device, so you won’t say “we don’t have that for mobile yet”.
  • Single team: You only need to manage the team building and maintaining your web application, and only need to build each feature once.
  • Seamless updates: Any updates we make to the application are instantly reflected across all platforms and don’t have to be submitted to Apple/Google for approval every time.
  • Lower cost: A single application instead of multiple applications means significantly lower development and maintenance costs.

There are a few categories of apps for which this approach isn’t well suited:

  • Offline apps: Bubble apps are cloud-based, so they require an internet connection.
  • Apps that require deep native integrations: We can’t build apps that integrate deeply with your phone’s hardware - bluetooth, accelerometer, background GPS tracking, etc.
  • Apps where the cloud-based approach is too slow: Certain types of mobile apps, such as messengers or games, must respond very quickly (<0.1s) to user actions. We can’t achieve that level of speed because our apps live in the cloud and not on a user’s phone.

What are the limitations? What can you not build?

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There are a few categories of tools that we can't help with:
- Fully native mobile apps (e.g. Whatsapp or Uber) - though web-based mobile apps are supported
- Existing products written in code
- Apps that need to work without an internet connection
If you're not sure whether we can do what you need, we would be happy to help you find out!

What types of products is Bubble good for?

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Bubble is a highly flexible programming framework, which makes it a good fit for building almost any kind of a web application. These might include marketplaces, sales tools, productivity tools, and practically anything else with users and a database.

Are Bubble apps mobile responsive?

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Yes, Bubble has a powerful responsive engine that allows for full customization of responsive behavior to support all devices.

What’s the difference between Bubble vs. Webflow?

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Both Bubble and Webflow are no-code tools that allow users to build web pages and eCommerce platforms. However, Bubble is better for developing complex web apps and mobile apps, while Webflow focuses on building aesthetic and responsive websites. Webflow is a good fit If you want to quickly build a few landing pages with strong SEO to increase searchability and organic reach of traffic. However, if you’re looking for a more customized, complex experience that integrates a database or web app portal, Bubble can give you more freedom. 

What’s the difference between Bubble vs. Retool?

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Both Bubble and Retool are rapid development platforms that equip users with drag-and-drop elements for building internal business tools. However, Retool is a low-code platform built for developers to generate pre-configured code faster, whereas Bubble is a fully no-code platform where all programming logic is abstracted. This means that with Bubble those with no technical background can build entire web apps without writing any code.

What’s the difference between Bubble vs. Wordpress?

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Both Bubble and Wordpress are platforms that allow non-coders to set up a website, create content, and publish it. Wordpress is an open-source CMS that is great for setting up basic websites. It can be extended with plugins and themes that may bring all the features a user needs. However, if you want to move outside of those boundaries (e.g. control every aspect of design and functionality), then Bubble offers far more flexibility. 

Want to learn if Bubble is a good fit for you?
Chat with our team about your project.