Marketplaces

Build your custom marketplace faster.

Coding a marketplace from scratch is too costly and SaaS platforms are too restrictive. Airdev uses the latest in no-code to build truly custom marketplaces in a fraction of time and cost.

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OUR CLIENTS

Trusted by 500+ forward-thinking startups and enterprises

$300m+ raised
$120m raised from Softbank
YCombinator funded
Techstars funded
Andreessen Horowitz funded
500 Startups funded

Unique marketplaces

Launch your marketplace in weeks…not months

Our no-code process saves you time and money without sacrificing the features you need, so you can get to market faster.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Build your marketplace the way you want it

Every product we build is custom fit to your exact requirements so you can bring your vision to life.

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.

Product Marketplaces

Help connect vendors and customers together in one place to buy and sell physical goods.

Common features

  • Inventory & order management
  • Peer-to-peer payments
  • Listings & profiles
  • Buyer-seller messaging
  • Ratings & reviews

We designed a marketplace to match users with financial advisors based on asset portfolios, goals, and an advisor’s expertise. The platform also included the ability to share docs, video & text chat, and prepare financial plans.

Gig Marketplaces

Connect workers with employers on a platform that makes it easy to hire for and find jobs.

Common features

  • Listings & profiles
  • Scheduling & booking gigs
  • Ratings & reviews
  • Messaging & notifications
  • Peer-to-peer payments

We launched a marketplace for property owners to list and rent storage space to tenants. The platform included a feature that calculated rental space cubic feet and a tenant's storage requirements to find the perfect match.

Rental Marketplaces

Enable individuals or companies to list and rent various types of assets.

Common features

  • Search & filters
  • Listings & profiles
  • Peer-to-peer payments
  • Booking & scheduling
  • Multilingual support

We created a marketplace for developers to list their own custom app integrations and allow users to review sample data, actions that can be performed, and request custom modifications.

Digital Marketplaces

Specialize in buying and selling digital assets like media files, copyrights, raw or preprocessed data.

Common features

  • Users & roles
  • Admin portal
  • Peer-to-peer payments
  • Search & filters
  • Analytics & reporting dashboard

We built a marketplace for aquaculture farmers to find commercial fishing vessels to service and harvest their offshore fish farms. The platform included contract negotiations and work productivity features like GPS tracking & logging of boats.

Hybrid Marketplaces

Combine key elements from various other types of software platforms like work productivity tools.

Common features

  • Messaging & notifications
  • Users & roles
  • Admin portal
  • Ratings and reviews
  • Analytics & reporting dashboard

We made a marketplace for companies planning team building activities to find single-day events in their locality or build an entirely customized corporate retreat at a destination venue.

Experiences Marketplaces

Connect people seeking and offering various activities and experiences such as guided tours.

Common features

  • Listings & profiles
  • Scheduling & booking
  • User ratings & reviews
  • Peer-to-peer payments
  • Buyer-seller messaging

We set up a marketplace for artists to list and sell their art, as well as receive requests for commissioned art and NFTs. Collaborators on commissioned work can negotiate if artwork will be purchased by one party or listed in the marketplace with both parties having a partial interest in the sale.

Other Marketplaces

Facilitate complex marketplace mechanics like contract negotiations, escrows, and machine learning.

Common features

  • Users & roles
  • Analytics and reporting dashboard
  • Messaging & file sharing
  • Peer-to-peer payments
  • Admin portal

Get a FREE assessment today!

Unique marketplaces

We use Bubble to 10x your build without sacrificing functionality

We choose Bubble because it gives us complete control over design and functionality. This allows us to build products from small MVPs to large enterprise builds that support thousands of daily users, in a fraction of the time & cost of traditional developers.

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Airdev's startup dna

Built for new ventures

Airdev was built to work with both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Half of our team are former founders and we've built the process to be lean and iterative.

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Startup budget, enterprise value

Our process is rigorous and consistently applied to ensure we deliver the highest quality product no matter how big or small your budget is.

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Product experts

We recruit and train the best talent and build cross-functional teams that work together from build to build. Team synergy enhances our ability to execute your build.

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Grow and iterate

Change is a constant in business. Our builds are designed to be flexible and extensible, and your team is ready to support you as you evolve.

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No-code development

Why we build on Bubble

No-code is becoming one of the hottest categories in tech due to its ability to launch products faster, respond to users more quickly, all while maintaining best-in-class tech under the hood. Though there are many no-code tools to build with, we choose Bubble because it is the world's leading no-code platform, trusted by thousands of companies and backed by the best partners.

$500m

VC investments in the no-code space in 2020

67%

Share of software Gartner predicts to be no-code by 2024

75%

Share of Fortune 100 CIOs with no-code as a 2021 priority

BUBBLE HIGHLIGHTS

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 code. 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

Bubble 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 tool 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.

Building with founders

We work with a great number of startups and founders and know the unique challenges you face and how to set you up for success.

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Founders at Airdev

One-third at Airdev have had previous founder experience. We know what it's like to start a business and are uniquely positioned to help you launch yours.

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Real startup value

Before you hire us, our team starts working with you to understand your vision, product, and industry and begin piecing together a product roadmap.

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Pillar for growth

Change is a constant for growing startups. Our builds are designed to be flexible and extensible, and our team ready to support you as you evolve.

Building with enterprises

We work with a great number of startups and founders and know the unique challenges you face and how to set you up for success.

Icon displaying a rocket taking off

Founders at Airdev

One-third at Airdev have had previous founder experience. We know what it's like to start a business and are uniquely positioned to help you launch yours.

Icon displaying a business briefcase

Real startup value

Before you hire us, our team starts working with you to understand your vision, product, and industry and begin piecing together a product roadmap.

Icon displaying multiple people

Pillar for growth

Change is a constant for growing startups. Our builds are designed to be flexible and extensible, and our team ready to support you as you evolve.

OUR PROCESS

Launch fast and scale quickly with our trusted process

We take lean to the next level, enabling startups and enterprises to get to market quickly to validate and learn.

Discovery

TIMING
1 week
TEAM
Account Specialist
DELIVERABLE
Confirmed fit (technical, budget)
High-level written proposal
PM match

This initial step is meant to help decide if we’re a good fit for your project. This includes assessing tech feasibility, your team’s goals, budget, and timeline, and aligning expectations so that we can together decide whether to proceed. 

You begin by booking a call with an Airdev account specialist to discuss your project and our approach. They will understand your team, what you are trying to do, and the most critical product requirements to get there. From this call they will write out a summary for our product team, which will review and confirm technical feasibility and budget/timeline alignment.

The result of this step is a high-level written proposal for the build: the features we would build, expected budget, and stages/timeline to get to launch. While the exact details will be confirmed during the formal scoping process, our aim at this step is to give you the information you need to have confidence that this is the right path for you. When you’re ready, you’ll put down a refundable deposit to reserve time with your PM for scoping.

Scoping

TIMING
2-3 weeks
TEAM
Product Manager
Senior Product Manager
DELIVERABLE
Detailed requirements with users, pages, and features
Refined budget, timeline, and milestones

The goal of the scoping step is to align on the exact features and architecture for your app. Taking the time to define everything upfront helps us to move quickly during the build, and ensures that you get what you are expecting.

We start by matching you with a Product Manager (PM) from our team who we believe will best serve your needs. During your calls with the PM, you’ll walk  through the entire app flow, stopping at critical points to decide what to include vs. push for later, and the best ways to solve for the requirements within budget. We typically anchor on the leanest approach, and let you push to add features as needed. Our team will perform technical research and document all requirements.

The result of this step is a detailed scope document that outlines the exact users, pages, and features your initial product will include, as well as a timeline and budget for the build. By this point you will have clarity on how your vision translates into a specific product.

Design

TIMING
1-2 weeks
TEAM
UX Designer
Product Manager
Senior Product Manager
DELIVERABLE
High-fidelity Figma mockups
Completed scope doc
Staffed build team & start date

With feature requirements in place, the final step to the pre-build process is to add high fidelity mockups that define what users will see as they interact with your product. This is where the UX designer comes in.

Using the written feature descriptions from the scoping doc, the UX designer creates a full set of custom Figma mockups for your app, using our Canvas design framework with your company's branding. This means you’ll get designs that are (1) custom to your features, (2) follow best practices and standard UX conventions, and (3) fit our build process so they can be assembled efficiently.

Once all pictures and words are combined, you have the entire scope doc that will serve as the blueprint for your build. You can submit any detailed feedback within this doc, and your PM can make adjustments as needed (including corresponding budget/timeline updates) until you are comfortable with the plan.

Some clients prefer to use their own custom designs, which can add a significant amount to build cost and timeline, so large majority of our clients opt for Canvas and consider a redesign post-launch.

Development

TIMING
1 week to several months (depending on complexity)
TEAM
Developer
UI Assembler
QA Specialist
Product Manager
DELIVERABLE
Fully functional app

With the detailed build plan in hand, the focus shifts to your Airdev build team, which builds and tests the complete application in weekly milestones.

Your PM will manage a team consisting of a lead developer, UI assembler, and QA specialist. Each week, the team builds and tests the features we have designated for that milestone, and delivers the working app along with testing instructions so you can confirm everything is working as expected. Your PM will hold a live delivery call with you to make sure we’re aligned and ready to proceed with the following milestone.

This stage ends when a full version of your app — with all features internally tested by Airdev — is ready for your final review before launch!

Review

TIMING
30 days
TEAM
Developer
QA Specialist
Product Manager
DELIVERABLE
Live app on your domain
Full IP transfer to client

Even the most basic software products have complexity under the hood, and can take some time to fully test and confirm. For every build, we provide a 30-day window of coverage from our team to confirm, launch, and support the application.

When we turn the app over to you, our internal team has finished our QA process, so the first step is for you to thoroughly review every aspect of the tool and flag anything that is not built according to the confirmed scope. We have a nifty widget so you can mark up the app itself to create tickets, which we clarify and resolve.

When you're ready to go live, we deploy your app on your custom domain and transfer all credentials and IP rights you. Celebrations and AirHugs for everyone! Any remaining time in the 30-day window is extra support just in case you spot anything that slipped through the cracks.

Support

TIMING
Ad hoc or monthly
TEAM
Varies depending on requirements
DELIVERABLE
Iterative launches

As you approach the end of your “review and launch” period, your Client Success manager will contact you to chat about what comes next. For most clients, launch is just the beginning since app generally must evolve in response to user feedback. 

We offer two forms of post-launch support: (1) one-time capacity to build discrete features, and (2) ongoing monthly capacity to maintain and build features over time from the roadmap. The former is typically best for early-stage clients on a budget, and the latter is best for more mature clients with a robust roadmap and need for constant support.

Overall, we recognize that your journey and needs can be unpredictable. Our goal is to give you control of when and how you use your Airdev team to get there.

Book your free Discovery today!

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Madeline Dangerfield-Cha

As non-technical, female founders of a mission-driven organization, we got a lot of feedback that our idea was nice but we needed to get a technical co-founder on board to be taken seriously. What AirDev has been able to accomplish in just a week is totally astounding and fits our needs perfectly.

We helped Mon Ami launch their 2-sided marketplace providing community support for elders, leading to successful VC funding and growth.

David Vitek

Working with Airdev was key to our strategy of building out a marketplace for kids activities. What would have once taken 6 months to build, we managed to get to market in 6 weeks. Airdev were very responsive and able to work through complicated challenges in a simplified way.

We helped Kidsbook launch a feature-rich event booking marketplace for kids' activities.

Gideon Silverman

Airdev was a true partner in the earliest days, helping us to validate our concept, get traction, and set the foundation for what we have today.

We built the product that helped AwayCo launch their surfboard rental platform and secure VC funding.

Matt Conger

In just two weeks, Airdev created an elegantly streamlined version of our previous gig management platform, built on top of our Salesforce data. The result became an instant hit with our network of linguists, while dramatically reducing the time we spend on ongoing maintenance.

We helped Cadence reduce stress and cost by connecting Salesforce data to a custom gig portal for thousands of expert translators.

Phil Meachin

Airdev has built a system that's allowed us to scale to hundreds of millions of dollars of loans per year, with tens of thousands of reps. Without them we wouldn't have been able to develop that core product nearly as quickly as we have.

We built a multi-sided custom CRM solution to help Dividend Finance book hundreds of millions in loans for solar panels each year.

FAQ

Common questions

What's the difference between using Bubble vs. Sharetribe to build a marketplace?

SaaS products like Sharetribe are great if you want to launch a product that perfectly matches the features that they offer. However, if you need something custom, our approach with Bubble is better because we have the flexibility to add or modify any functionality or design aspects of your marketplace. Read more on Bubble’s capabilities here

How much will my marketplace app development cost?

We price our projects based on how much effort they are going to take. The key factors are how much functionality you're looking to build, how complex the functionality is, and whether you use our design framework or implement a custom design. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to get a quote for your project, or read more about Airdev’s approach to pricing here. ‍

Will my marketplace app scale?

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 virtually without limit. Bubble provides simple dashboards and notifications to track app capacity usage to help you adjust as needed.

When should you consider building a marketplace with no-code?

A no-code approach to building a marketplace has several key advantages over a traditionally developed marketplace.

  1. You’re not technical. No-code platforms typically provide an intuitive visual interface that allows non-technical users to create apps without writing code.
  2. You have a limited budget. No-code is significantly cheaper than building your marketplace app from scratch. Before no-code, building and running a marketplace was a capital-intensive endeavor due to the high cost of hiring traditional software developers. No-code platforms can also allow businesses to iterate quickly and make changes without incurring additional costs.
  3. You want to move quickly. By building with no-code, companies can speed up development to get their products to market quickly, and iterate faster and more frequently. This is especially helpful for building a marketplace MVP, as it allows you to quickly launch, gather feedback, test the market, find funding, and adjust quickly.
  4. You want to test an idea. No-code is a great option for businesses that want to test a new idea and gather user feedback without committing significant resources to development. No-code allows you to create a basic version of an app and test its viability before investing further resources.
  5. You want more control. With no-code platforms you can create applications and make changes without having to write (or learn to write) code.
  6. You need stability. A fully hosted no-code platform takes care of security and technical maintenance for you. No need to worry about software updates, version control or downtime. 

When should you create a marketplace app with traditional code?

No-code software is the ideal approach for creating most marketplace apps – however, it’s not right for every case. Sometimes, traditional software development is a better fit depending on the marketplace product and team needs. If the underlying technology of your marketplace app is novel, or there’s a big strategic advantage to your app being proprietary, we recommend you build with traditional software developers.

Common reasons for bypassing no-code and instead needing code include:

  • Novel technology (e.g. machine learning algorithms)
  • Huge scale (e.g. app needs to support millions of daily users)
  • Custom visual interface (e.g. create something like Photoshop or iMovie within app)
  • Team capabilities (e.g. you have existing developers who need to stay busy)
  • You need your app to work total offline
  • You’re building on top of a traditionally-developed legacy app

How much will my marketplace app development cost?

We price our projects based on how much effort they are going to take. The key factors are how much functionality you're looking to build, how complex the functionality is, and whether you use our design framework or implement a custom design. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to get a quote for your project, or read more about Airdev’s approach to pricing here

What's the difference between using Bubble vs. Sharetribe to build a marketplace?

SaaS products like Sharetribe are great if you want to launch a product that perfectly matches the features that they offer. However, if you need something custom, our approach with Bubble is better because we have the flexibility to add or modify any functionality or design aspects of your marketplace. Read more on Bubble’s capabilities here

What is a two sided marketplace?

Two sided marketplaces are platforms that connect buyers and sellers of goods or services with each other and provide the infrastructure for the transaction. This can be a platform to sell physical goods, to find and book services, or  to search and rent assets. There are always at least two sides in a marketplace, one for supplying the product or service and one for acquiring the product or service.

Who owns the IP rights to my application?

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.

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

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?

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.

Book your free Discovery today!