I’ve been looking for a solution for a data-driven website and just come across Bubble - I use to be a Webflow user, but found the CMS limitations to be a little too… limiting. I am wondering if Bubble can meet my needs.
Essentially, I am building a reference guide, similar to a Wiki, and want to build dynamic pages that allow users to browse by topics, tags, and categories. Here are my needs:
The ability to create a dynamic database where I can have each reference item as a separate row, with multiple fields defining it.
The ability to insert text dynamically from the database into a webpage, surrounded by static text.
The ability to create multiple databases that can reference each other and that I can populate with dynamic variables that I can show on webpages.
The ability to list multiple items in a dynamic listing page and filter by specific fields.
No limitations on the number of databases, fields, rows, etc that I can have.
The ability to create a dynamic page for every row in a database, at a unique URL.
The ability for Google to crawl the entire website and provide good SEO assuming i get all the onsite elements right).
from what I’ve described, would Bubble be a good fit for me? I’m very happy to put some legwork into learning the platform, but am keen to know if it can do what I need.
This is probably the only one you will need a little thinking about. Plenty of guidance on the forum, but you would need a page for Google to pick up the dynamic pages (like an index).
Other than that, you can do it all.
You might want to look at one of the “headless CMS” products (I would recommend Contentful but they have done sill things with the pricing).
So pull all the content in via Bubble’s API connector and leave the content management in the CMS.
Thanks for the response - so am I correct in thinking that Bubble does not natively publish a website to the internet? In other words, do I have to use another service to publish a website and then pull in the content from Bubble?
I’ve been using Webflow and it allows for native publishing but has CMS limitations that I can’t really work around. And I know next to nothing about APIs, so having an all in one solution would be ideal.
Thanks for the answer - regarding management functions, I am expecting I will need to setup all the dynamic databases, content fields, dynamic pages, lists, navigation, layout, formatting, and copy. My plan is then to import data into the database, and then show it on each dynamic page through a unique URL, linked to from a dynamic list page that I will sort by tags or some other reference.
Do I have that about right, or are there other management functions I need to think about? Sorry, but I am new to the Bubble way of doing things - I’ve built a site in Webflow, and want to replicate that here.
