Say I create an app that I plan on selling to many different users. Then later I add a new feature(s) to that app (along with its associated database). Am I able to “upgrade” the app of the existing apps that users have already bought, or do they have no choice in starting with scratch each time i.e overriding their existing database?
When you hit the “deploy to live” button it only updates the app, it doesn’t touch the live database if that’s what you’re asking.
I am not sure if it answers the question. Say I create a text chat app right. I transfer that app to a Bubble user. They use it for a month and accumulate 100 users in that time. Then I add a video feature to that same app. Now I want my client to also have that video feature. How does he receive this updated app without losing his 100 users?
I know I can manually add it for him but my question is can this be done automatically on scale? as in an “upgrade” type maneouvre? e.g in the case if I had 50 such type app clients.
Do you mean you are creating a new Bubble app per user? That won’t scale at all because you would be making tons of changes on all the apps. If that’s what you mean you should just make one huge app with all your users and privacy rules set up so they only see data they are supposed to. Then when you add a video option it will just “appear” for everyone when you push the update to live and they refresh the page.
If you are wrapping your app so it is for Android/iPhone then it’s just a fancy web browser and would also auto-update.
- I am creating a full app.
- I am selling this app to individual Bubble users (the same way bubble users buy templates except mine is a full functioning app). I transfer a copy of the app from my account to theirs.
- This app of course has its own database and users.
- I sell this app to 100 Bubble users.
- I have now updated the original app with a new feature.
- How do I send those 100 buyers this update?
Yea I think as soon as you start transferring a copy to someone else it now it’s “disconnected” and is it’s own app. Maybe someone else can chime in with more knowledge but I’m pretty sure the way you’re describing the buyer would need to get a copy of your app again and start from scratch as you mentioned.
Especially on the market you can’t natively sell an app (just plugins, etc) there probably isn’t built in functionality for pushing your app to other buyers.
Once they get the app transferred to them they can make changes as they want. Is that something you even want or wouldn’t you want full dev control and they’re just a buyer?
Well the advantage of the model I mention is I create just one app that is needed in a certain niche and market this app to that niche and hopefully attract many buyers from said niche. Then all I do is keep transferring that same app over and over to new buyers. Does that make sense?
Yea lets see if anyone comes in with more info. But sounds like if you had an app for each niche market you would need to add the feature manually to each.
And little niche apps could be so specific to their use-case it’s almost like if you add a video call feature, how would it integrate into each one automatically? I feel like wouldn’t a “start video call” button need to be in different places depending on the app? I’m just thinking about it
Not really. Lets say I create a project management app for plumbers. I have studied the market and I add features to this app that I know plumbers need. I then go off of bubble and market this app to where plumbers are. “own your own plumbing project management app”. They open bubble accounts and buy it from me.
Then to make more money down the line through “upselling”, I add a new feature to this app (same feature applies to all apps), and offer them to buy this upgrade. Its a good strategy except for the part where I apparently would have to add that new feature manually to each buyer’s app.
In any event, I hope there is at least an easier “best practise” work around that someone can advise me with? I appreciate the time though Tyler in trying to understand my scenario
Maybe take a look at using Sub-Apps…
Hmm I just skimmed through the sub Apps Bubble page and on the surface it seems to be using the right type of language I am looking for. Thanks for that. I will look into it. If someone else has opinions though on this topic please do share.
Do you know if there is a limit on how many sub-apps one can create?
Do you know if there is a limit on how many sub-apps one can create?
Not to my knowledge (but I don’t have any personal experience using sub apps) - but there are some posts here on the forum which might be worth a read to get some more insight…
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Totally forgot about sub-apps since I don’t deal with the Production plan but thanks @adamhholmes for the reminder of this feature. Looks like it has a lot of smarts like auto optimizing the pushed changes, etc.
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I must be missing something here… aren’t you just describing software as a service?
But they don’t want to open Bubble accounts… they just want project management software for plumbers, and you can sell it to them as, you know, a service (not as an individual Bubble app).
Again, I have to be missing something because that is literally software as a service. Anyway, I’m sure I am the only one out in left field here, so, I will leave you folks to it… carry on. 
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Hi Mike
Saas model unfortunately won’t work because that means dozens if not hundreds of separate databases under one app ( I am ambitious so its actually thousands) and I am not convinced Bubble can handle that. Its saves me the headache if I just sell one app to each buyer instead of them paying monthly. Does that make sense? Also I am not sure if the seperate subdomain for each Saas app issue has been resolved yet.
So the hook I am thinking of is pay once to own your own app.
Honestly, no… well, not to me, at least. At my current day job, we have tens of thousands of customers, and they don’t have “separate databases under one app.” All of the data is stored across the same tables, and access to the data is controlled on a per-customer basis in a secure manner. Like I said, though, I’m obviously not getting it, so apologies for inserting myself into the mix here.