Should I Build My Web App On Bubble?

Question
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Hi, I’m relatively new here but have been scouring the forums and resources for many hours and hoping to get some honest feedback from experienced users of Bubble. I come from 12+ years on Wordpress and have fallen in love with the no-code web application visual builder of Bubble, which I have no doubt is top notch, but I am concerned with how the platform can handle fundamental tasks on the back side out of the box. I guess what I am saying is, I have no concerns with the front-side capabilities of Bubble, but as a non-developer, is there a lot of back-side work that needs to be done?

For instance, as part of my web application site, if I want to have a blog and post articles relatively frequently, it seems there is no efficient way to have a CMS in Bubble (I know, Wordpress spoiled me).

Also, if I want to sell access to my web application in the form of a subscription, is there a built-in emailing system that can send confirmation emails, contact us, abandoned cart, opt-in, etc.? Or, is this something that I have to configure with actions one at a time?

For e-commerce, do I need to build the cart, checkout, shipping, billing, fields and pages?

How about user management? Do I need to create my own dashboard page and connect it with the database to look/function how I need it to?

Sorry if I am sounding lazy because that is far from the truth. I am just not very good at logic/architecture and just don’t want to spend forever in Bubble setting up basic functions (most likely doing it incorrectly) when many platforms out there have it out of the box.

Appreciate any/all help, thank you!

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It’s all possible in Bubble, but not out of the box. You either need to build it yourself, or purchase a template that has most of this functionality built in that you can use as a starting point.

I will say this: in my personal opinion and experience, it’s better to use something like Wordpress for blogging and something like Shopify for an ecommerce experience than it is to build it on Bubble. Those tools are built explicitly for the job, and the customer support experience is built explicitly to help you do that job.

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As Andrew said, it’s all possible in Bubble.

If your whole site is a blog, use Wordpress or Ghost, you’ll have a better time. But if it’s just part of it, and you’re selling other things or offering a service then Bubble could be for you.

Stripe + MailerLite/Zapier combo is how I run my subscriptions. It’s really easy and no code required.

And I write blog posts on my site too, which I do with two basic pages I made - one contains published blog content, the other is basically my own basic CMS in Bubble with an advanced text editor plugin, photo uploaders and tag inputs.

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