What are your thoughts on the new agency tier system? I have concerns about the revenue metric, which seems to favour large agencies, overlooking performance per developer.
It seems incredibly unfair to me that a high quality, small agency can compete on two of the metrics - client satisfaction and certification - but has absolutely no chance of competing on the third.
In my opinion, it’s crucial to create a level playing field where smaller agencies can compete on an equal footing, albeit within a rating system. Average revenue generated per developer would seem a much fairer assessment and ensures agencies of all sizes have an opportunity to thrive.
It’s the value generated for Bubble though, so presumably a total in USD. They could just divide each agency’s USD total by the number of developers it has?
Thanks for the feedback and I appreciate you surfacing this recommendation.
Our goal in introducing the tiers is to enable developers and agencies of all sizes and experience to grow on Bubble (ex: ALL agencies will receive enablement and support moving forward).
We really like your recommendation of calculating revenue per developer - unfortunately this is not possible today based on existing infrastructure but we will explore this in the future when roles are more granularly defined.
While we’re really excited about launching these tiers tomorrow, it is just one of the ways we’re helping agencies of all sizes - be it solo freelancers or large teams - stand out and win more business. We hope to see you at the event tomorrow where we’ll be talking about these tiers and some of our other exciting releases.
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I appreciate the effort to enhance the quality of the agencies marketplace, particularly the introduction of certifications and client satisfaction ratings.
I still worry that the revenue aspect (or at least my understanding of it) will be more of a representation of size rather than quality, with most large agencies being Gold and most small agencies being Bronze. I think that would be a kick in the teeth to a lot of good agencies, and I doubt it’s really the result that Bubble Group set out to achieve.
Each agency’s total value divided by their number of agency seats is more suitable in my view - easy to calculate from the data you have available to you. It offers a fairer assessment and, in combination with the certification and satisfaction ratings, provides a better guide on agency quality.
I look forward to learning more about the changes later on today
i have less reasons to start an agency now now as its super hard to advance the ranks. thats not good as you want people who bring many leads or speak about bubble at many events to start agencies, dont you?
its very annoying how bubble is building things without user feedback, just how they think things should be built instead of asking people.
This is ridiculous. The idea itself and the rating system both make a lot of sense, but the revenue limits that categorize the tier are just cruel for small agencies. Are they deliberately trying to discourage smaller agencies and trying to stop aspirants from investing time and effort into the Bubble Ecosystem?
There are other no-code builders that do not have such incomprehensible structures in place, and some of them are as good as Bubble if not better. This new tier system will help people move away from the Bubble ecosystem and invest their time, efforts, and energies into an Ecosystem that treats them fairly.
If the veterans like @NigelG and @TipLister are voicing against it then Bubble needs to reconsider its approach.
So if you’re a Gold agency you get extra support from Bubble, plus priority views for clients and proposals that come through, plus extra materials straight from bubble to help you win clients, while other tiers get less of all the above.
I’ve already had conversations about this, and it basically is a huge net gain for anyone already Gold, and a huge net negative for anyone in Bronze. The number of bubble proposals that go to the top 3 or so agencies vs everyone else is already massively unequal, this is just going to exacerbate that. I’ve said this to others, why would anyone use a Bronze agency now? The clients are just going to see this as the ‘lowest’ tier, and assume your work is going to be ‘lowest’ quality. You may even be better off ditching the agency plan, never mentioning your Bronze or Silver status, and just adding yourself as a collaborator to client’s apps.
Bubble would be better off doing what Webflow does and requiring agencies have at least X amount of live client sites, and then someone at bubble review them for performance and approve them as a verified agency. I’ve seen people who aren’t even listed as an agency produce great work, and I’ve seen work from agencies I’m sure will be Gold that just isn’t functional, they should just copy Webflow’s whole approach.
Also surely bubble should be helping the people just starting or at Bronze level more to help them get larger, rather than the other way around? They’re surely the people who need the resources/support more?
Exactly … So
The Big Boys (I’ve got nothing against them) get more visibility = they get even more clients = They get even bigger
The smaller ones get less visibility = they get even lesser clients = get even smaller
It’d have been fair if Bubble based it on quality rather than quantity. Reviews system is the best way to go. Just like on other marketplaces, the more reviews you have (with higher rating) the more you sell. For example, a vendor with 500 5* reviews would sell more than a vendor with 100 5* reviews. That’s okay. At least the smaller vendor has the chance and aspiration to move up in the chain. Fiverr and Upwork are a great example of this.
This proposed (or I’d rather say Imposed) system clearly wouldn’t work for smaller agencies and if it’s implemented then not only there will be very few new agencies, but the current number of agencies will also go down with time. How can they put a barrier at main entrance of the very ecosystem that they want to grow? This will only hurt Bubble and their investors in the long run.
Honestly, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
It seems to reward larger agencies based purely on their size. The largest agencies are being given a head start just because they’re big and can make more money.
A smaller agency might be more skilled, have high client satisfaction or have a team of certified developers. Yet, the current tiers will put them in the lowest category.
This will definitely lead to misconceptions about an agency’s quality based on its tier.
Etsy promotes sellers based on the quality of their products, not how much money Etsy makes from them. However, Bubble seems to focus only on agencies that make the most money for them.
And this will lead to a feedback loop of the top agencies getting the most business while the smaller agencies will struggle with the ill-worded bronze tag.
Bubble could have followed Webflow and used their Professional and Enterprise Partners terminology.
The document quotes " The annual subscription revenue Bubble earns from apps you’ve transferred to clients" - I wonder if this applies similarly to apps that you are a collaborator on, but you are not part of the app creation from the start.
Reminds me of when Zapier introduced their experts plan. This plus the recent pricing announcement just reaffirms that Bubble is really only caring about larger clients going forward. I guess it gives us until October next year to ensure we have alternative plans in place.
With each change, alienation of a larger % of users happens, seems crazy but also seems like that is the plan to change the customer and user base.
I see nothing but price rises, A/B testing on pricing, and gouging and pain going forward. Super unfortunate but it is what it is.
This is very similar to how BigCommerce, a major E-Commerce platform, handles agencies - However, the biggest difference is atleast Bubble doesn’t CHARGE you to go up tiers… Imagine if that was the case.
First, from the perspective of a small bubble agency, this doesn’t feel like an upgrade, it feels like a downgrade. We are paying the same amount of money per seat per month as we were when we were just considered an agency, but now we’re considered a “Bronze” or “Silver” agency, which basically translates to “Bottom tier” or “2nd tier”. What form will the priority listing for Gold and silver take? Will any chance of leads from the agencies page dry up because we’ll be relegated to the bottom of the barrel?
Second, I think bubble is vastly missing out on many ways that agencies, particularly smaller ones, provide value to the bubble ecosystem. For example:
Agencies who help users with their existing apps rather than building them from scratch
Agencies who provide invaluable freeware in the forms of plugins and templates as lead generators or Karmaware
Agencies who focus on instruction sessions and learning
Agencies who develop custom integrations and plugins for pay
None of these seem to be factored in to their calculations (some of them I’m not even sure you could accurately), which incentivizes the “create and forget” model of development over all others. This will inevitably lead to larger numbers of shoddily-made apps with lower user retention as agencies have to adapt to stay competitive.
Third, they clearly seem to be pushing use of their new systems, even when they’re not gaining organic traction. I have serious doubts, for instance, that the certification system will be much more than a waste of time. If they are demanding 100%, then the bar for certification has to be pretty low, so it won’t signify much.
EDIT: Apparantly we also have to pay for that certification, so that’s just more cost for a system that isn’t that useful if its required anyways.
I seriously hope they have an open Q&A at their developer summit today. I’m sure many of us have plenty to say.
imo this will tank their business. Larger clients don’t want to use bubble: it’s not reliable enough, plus they have the money to hire traditional developers, giving them much more control. It’s the small clients that bubble provides the real value to.
