Before You Hire a Bubble Dev, Read This (Save Time & Budget)

Jobs / Freelance
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Hiring a Bubble Dev Should Feel Like Product Discovery Not a Job Interview

Founders treat hiring like procurement.

Lowest quote. Quickest turnaround. Big portfolio.

Step 1: Post on Upwork
Step 2: Pick the cheapest bid with 50+ projects
Step 3: Get a bloated MVP with zero scalability

Wrong Approach

I run a dev agency Wolf Nocode Studio and I’ve been working with Bubble for 5 years now, across everything from MVPs to full-scale platforms.

Over time, I’ve seen everything from Broken UX, No privacy rules, weird naming conventions and even show hide workflows on crack

Recently I’ve had a few founders come to me for fixes, and 90% of the time, the root cause isn’t the platform — it’s how the developer was hired.

Most founders approach hiring like they’re filling a role:

“I need someone to build me an Airbnb for X”

Here’s what I recommend:

Don’t treat it like a job interview.
Treat it like product discovery. Your goal isn’t to check off a skill list, it’s to see how they think.

Ask questions like:

  • “How would you structure the database to handle growth?”
  • “What would break at 100k users?”
  • “What’s your process for setting up privacy rules from day 1?”
  • “How do you design UX flows that are easy to maintain?”

You’re looking for someone who can reason through product decisions, not just click through workflows.

:triangular_flag: Red flags to watch out for:

  • “We’ll figure it out as we go” — that’s not planning
  • “We can fix scale later” — no roadmap
  • “We’ve built 200 apps” — but how many actually work well?

:white_check_mark: Green flags:

  • They ask you questions about edge cases and future vision
  • They think in terms of flows, not just pages
  • They explain trade-offs and decisions clearly
  • They’re not afraid to push back on vague requests

Bubble is a powerful platform.

But it’s only as good as the person building on it. A good Bubble dev is a product manager, designer, and developer in one.

So don’t just look at portfolios.
Vet how they think. How they plan. How they scale.

Questions Great Developers Will Ask You

  • “What’s the one core action you want your users to take?”
  • “How are you planning to acquire your first 100 users?”
  • “How do you want users to feel when using the product?”
  • “Do you think this feature is a must have or good to have and why?”

Good devs are strategic. They push back, offer suggestions, and help clarify your idea. They take time thinking about the idea more than actually building it.

Questions You Should Ask Them

They should explain their thinking and decision-making:

  • “How would you approach performance optimization when an app reaches 10k Users”
  • “What is your approach to creating databases?”
  • “What’s your approach to privacy rules and API security?”
  • “How do you test new features before rolling them out to the public?”

You’re not looking for perfect answers

You’re looking for clear thinking.

What Does a Good Bubble Build Actually Cost?

I’ve seen MVPs built for $500 and $10,000
Your aim is to find the right balance between pricing, timeline and quality. Pricing and quality are directly proportional, quality and timeline and inversely proportional, so pick wisely.

Bonus: Agency Tier ≠ Quality

Bubble shows Agency Tiers based on how much revenue each agency drives for Bubble (not quality).

Gold = High Revenue.
You might assume that a Gold tier agency is the best one out there, but it could mean that they’re just rolling out at pace.

These agencies may have dozens of devs building apps at speed.
You’ll see 200+ apps in their portfolio, but ask yourself how and why that number’s so high.

Bronze = Small Team
These are often solo or small-team agencies working with a few clients at a time.
Low volume. High touch.

Now I’m not saying every gold/silver agency is bad, and every bronze agency is excellent. I’m just saying do your research.

Don’t let the badge fool you.
Ask better questions. Vet the actual dev or team. Look for process, not just polish.

Want Help Hiring? We’ll Do It (For Free)

At Wolf Nocode Studio, we audit Bubble apps for fun. We’ve seen disasters built for $30K+. We also build apps lean, fast, and secure.

But here’s the thing, we’re also offering to help you hire the right developer. Even if it’s not us.

We’ll:

  • Clarify your project scope.
  • Source candidates.
  • Run technical interviews.
  • Give you our top picks.

Drop me a message if you’re interested in a second opinion

Jahanzeb Ahmed Khan
Founder @ Wolf Nocode Studio

10 Likes
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A lot of good points here. :raising_hands:

My clients are always surprised when I encourage them to get their clients first, or to test out their idea before going all in. Especially when they are bootstrapping and on a tight budget. My clients usually prefer honesty than trying to just make a profit. :blush: Thanks for the good questions to think about.

3 Likes
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Hiring a Bubble dev isn’t about speed or cost. It’s about finding someone who thinks like a builder. Loved this breakdown. More founders need to hear it. @jahanzeb.khn07

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Yeah, if developers are not thinking about scale from start that is a major problem, but it might not be a huge issue if the client is focused solely on getting a true to from MVP that will be ditched the moment they get product to market fit.

If goal of client is to fail fast and cheap, no need to worry about scale, but if they are building an internal tool or expecting to have a production app live on Bubble for months or years, the developer should definitely be thinking about how t scale the app from the beginning and not later.

I have started to tell my clients that I will not do something that I completely disagree with. Of course, I need to explain the tradeoffs and my decision not to do something, but I express to my clients I refuse to ‘put my name on something’ that I am not in agreement with their request.

Like brushing my teeth getting ready for bed at 1AM and needing to run to put pen to paper to get the idea written down.

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Everyone appreciates an honest person. I always tell clients with a tight budget that lets try to cut the the MVP to one single feature, and see if they can market it.

80% of the time they’re willing to do it

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Thanks

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100% agree here

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That’s true. :blush:

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Yeah, I think that good agencies often ask questions which would predict the actual success and viability of the business, like how do you actually plan to launch this and get your first users, or what’s your background that makes you a good person to launch this?

If the agency isn’t too bothered about that and is only concerned with taking your money for the launch, then it indicates they’re not actually interested and passionate in what you’re building, but just want to close the sale.

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Yes, that is true.

With questions like these you kind of vet the client as well. Is this the person I want to work with or are they just going to switch up on me on every invoice or feature that I build

I used to have a “You tell me and I’ll build it” approach but it usually took me to a place where there’s a lot of scope creep and misalignment with the client

So now I question almost everything. It’s my job to bring out the best version of the product