Wondering if anyone has successfully used a template to build an app for someone? either a one off or to make a SAAS?
I typically recommend against it. But it depends on where the app is in its stage, marketing/dev budget, expected time to market, expected user count.
I rather recommend going with a custom build with custom elements or using components from templates, frames, atomic fusion, etc to speed up the process.
You can save a ton of time with templates however scalability, bloat, templates not following best practice, are usually an issue.
There’s some framework templates that are specifically bad with bloat & using bad build practice as a trade off for being able to build apps quicker however they tend to scale pretty bad but make solid low user MVPs.
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You’ve answered a lot of my random questions on these forums, I really appreciate it dude!
I’ve tried templates a few times, and always end up scrapping them and going custom because of the same things you mentioned. But my experience is pretty small so I was wondering if I was missing out on a shortcut.
Thanks Chris!
I’ve started off with the Canvas template (AirDev) and launched it recently, hit our first milestone last week (1k MRR, woo).
That said, as soon as it’s feasible for me to get off the template, I will - for now it’s fine but it I’ve been advised it’s over-engineered and not as efficient as it could be.
But I managed to get from 0 to £1k MRR using a template and without the need for a developer.
Full disclosure, I am now working with a dev on an ad-hoc basis.
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That’s awesome Jamie, thanks for proving me wrong lol. I’ve yet make any money worth mentioning honestly. Had one app for one user, was making $4/month profit when the cost of sub was only $16/month.
Second app, no paying customers on and starting to realize it might not be worth dragging on any longer in.
Was thinking of just practicing making apps for people and companies and possibly using templates as a shortcut. But wanted to see if it’s actually worked for anyone else.
This is more where this comes into play
No Users yet, low marketing/dev budget and you’re bootstrapping I would 100% use a template.
Starting out if I had a client with a very low development budget I would start them on a template and make adjustments as needed. I got away from this as it’s not my ideal client.
But if you have an idea and a marketing budget behind it with lists you can advertise to and you expect 100+ users out the gate I wouldn’t use a template.
I do a lot of app audits and typically I see clients hit a crossroad of trying to further develop a typically poorly made for profit template (or poorly developed custom app) and incur a lot of tech debt up until you hit a point where worst case scenario I’ve seen apps loading all data on page and completing all actions on page takes a couple minutes. Then you have a user fall off, hurt your reputation, and have to step back and build it right or shut it down anyway.
Bubble CAN scale very very far, multi millions of records, billions of workflows, hundreds/thousands of concurrent users, etc but it NEEDS to be built to best practice.
I typically recommend everyone developing on bubble to read the bubble manual and stay up to date with its changes.
There’s things like API auth that even devs with multi years of experience are doing wrong simply bc they didn’t read the manual
In the end template or not is very dependent on the goal/stage of your project.
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There’s a manual?
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Templates suck.
You don’t know what’s going on, etc.
You’ll just get confused and frustrated.
If you’re feeling held back with design and UI, don’t worry. I felt that way when I started off too.
Use the templates as inspiration, but don’t actually use them. You can do google searches too.
I understand the layouts, etc. can be hard to understand, but the best way to deal with it is it do more of it.
That’s how I learned and understood it. The learning curve is steep, but trust me, it’s worth it.
No YouTube video will help you out 100%. Sure, refer to them, but focus mainly and implementing and hands on experience.
Start of by following these tutorials below, they’ll help you understand the more technical aspects of Bubble. (Custom States, etc.)
This is coming from a 17 year old. If I could learn it, you can too. Nothing good is easy.
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Truth is that bubbles documents and videos have come a long way from when i started using their service. Reading the manual as chris suggested actually taught me a lot, where as before i couldn’t hardly understand it.
Was actually about to start watching their more recent tutorials too, so funny you suggested it.
Appreciate the help!
Templates are good for copying the features you need but don’t build your app on them. If you do, you will end up having an app with tons of unused features that will create a mess.
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Ya, the times i’ve tried it’s only confused me trying to figure out how to use them.