Every once in awhile I check in on the Template marketplace to see how it is progressing and what people are building. I’ve bought a few templates and used free ones to learn, but overall I’m pretty shocked at the pricing and lack of documentation.
There are templates going with prices of nearly $400 and no documentation. There is also the big issue that templates often have bugs and there is no way to update it once you’ve started building out your own app even if the template gets updated. Also, you can’t test them, and it’s quite hard to tell if a template is worthwhile without testing.
I understand that the Bubble team doesn’t want to spend their time policing the Marketplace, but my sense is it just isn’t up to standards. Theme Forest wouldn’t allow these high prices with no quality control and good support.
It also seems like the purchases are quite low even on the sub-$100 templates. Does the marketplace need to be improved, or abandoned, or do you think it is is just fine as is?
I’m one person, so everything I’m going to say is just my opinion. The idea of app templates goes against every reason I use bubble in the first place. I use bubble because I can start from scratch and build whatever I want, the way I want. I’ve looked at templates once in a while, but can’t see any compelling reason why I’d buy one.
If we had element templates, however, that’s a totally different story. The plugins that exist are fine, but the ability to have custom UI elements would be fantastic.
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I think there’s an overall quality/accountability problem for community generated templates, plugins, etc. Many are great, but some are missing core functionality, other’s aren’t responsive, and some are riddled with bugs.
I think it’d be nice if the creators were required to answer a bunch of questions about the templates and plugins so people who buy them know what they’re getting. This should include features supported, what support is provided / turnaround times, etc. This would be simple to implement and would go a long way.
It’d be nice if there were a centralized way for purchasers to list / explain bugs so both the developer can see a centralized list and also so potential buyers can see what bugs are listed, how long they seem to take to get fixed, etc. This type of transparency would help.
It’d also be nice if there were more feedback and ratings from people who’ve bought or used them in the past. Perhaps Bubble couple even soft-require a rating a month after using them or something like that. This would reward well-implemented templates and plugins and also ensure that user’s know what they’re getting when they make the decision to use 3rd party templates or plugins.
I second @andrewgassen on the idea of element templates. With bubble being what it is, many will have the ability to build what they want with a moderate amount of educational investment.
On the other hand, having things like streams, structured menus, file systems, etc built as elements would provide a really high value and cut down on time- justifying the cost.
Also, some simple walk through videos to see use of these would be much more beneficial to customers to support in implementation. Templates, although a good shortcut for some, tend to be difficult to modify or necessarily understand with little to no documentation and support.
I also haven’t found a need for it because the point of bubble is to build these on my own. I agree that an element marketplace would be more useful.
I agree that templates go against the very nature of what Bubble is intended for.
The only benefit I find in templates is to discover possibilities other Bubblers have come up with to create their app.
However, the templates are way too expensive and the quality of majority of them don’t justify the price tag.
