Hey folks, a thread here to find solutions to use an external database with Bubble, hoping they will not bill API in the future ?
Solutions are welcome !
Xano has been my go-to. Really enjoy it, and use it for outside bubble projects as well. Highly recommend.
P.s. my instinct tells me Bubble will almost certainly cap API calls, so when that happens you’re either forced to use the bubble db, accept the huge cost, or leave bubble as it becomes unviable. Just my two cents…
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that’s what I’m afraid of…
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Xano ?
Here’s a short Auth one I did if interested
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So im thinking that as we would mostly still require a frontend solution for xano, which would you recommend?
they already do Rate limiting
Requests are rate-limited by default to 1,000 requests/minute per application and version (live / development). A rate-limited request will return an HTTP 429 error. On the Professional plan and above, you can add capacity units to get more. Each unit above 2 capacity units is an additional 1,000 API calls/minute/unit. This limit can be customized on Dedicated Plans.
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I know, but thank you for sharing for others here watching.
Maybe I should’ve reworded it. In my mind, I foresee bubble capping the amount total based on the plan and not on a per/min basis. But of course, just speculation. Either way, my point still kinda stands. To divert the bottle necks of api calls, you’d still need to be on a bigger plan with bubble. Which kind of defeats the purpose and thus still exponentially increases overall operating costs.
Thanks for sharing, it feels like rebuilding with an external back-end is also only a temp solution until Bubble charges for API calls, but at least it helps partially de-risk for leaving Bubble in the future!
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Any external DB won’t be as efficient as Bubble’s internal DB. For example, you can change a value in the Bubble DB and it automatically updates the UI. You can’t do that with an external DB.
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How about Webflow + Xano?
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Not true with many solutions existing. For example supabase can do that exactly like you would to it in bubble.
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Check out supabase, way cheaper than anything I have seen and you can self-host.
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I just want to add my 5 cents here. I’m in the software development since more than 12 years and I have seen that not only low-code / no-code makes software development easier, but also all software frameworks become better and better. For example, Django is a super powerful framework which gives you a lot of flexibility, react-admin is amazing for back-office solutions. Yes, it is not that easy as bubble, but you won’t face many problems limitation wise. With cloud hosting becoming easier every single day for me I loved bubble a very long time, but I will go back into the “real” software development.
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Hey @Sarah_Biberei
Does Supabase have realtime just like if you were using the Bubble database?
Do you have an example of your awesome videos?
Thanks a lot.
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Hey,
I don’t have an example recorded because we stopped making videos. But thanks for the compliment 
But to answer your questions, yes it is real-time. You may need to wait 1-2 seconds as they do the migration in the background.
It is a postgrest database the same as bubble uses. You can use all postgrest features available (writing functions, using triggers). I do think it is amazing. It is open-source. The scope is software development, though not no-code development. That’s why it is not that famous in this forum. You can also start with a free-version hosted in Europe (super important for me).
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Hey @Sarah_Biberei
Yeah the Europe problem comes for me as well.
What do you think about Xano vs Supabase?
What would you choose for example, for an invoicing app?
I haven’t used Xano so I can’t tell. I do know supabase because of its technology solution and I liked it beause of the possibility to self-host.
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