Hello dear bubble community members, i hope your all well. Today i was speaking to a friend who is a developer. Hes spent a long time being one and works in a high post in a well established organization. I asked him about bubble ( as im a newbie ) and that i wanted to build a marketplace. He said this was a wireframe and cannot be used commercially, and that the data will be bubble’s and that this could not be scaled. I could not go in details about this but wanted members input on this. Would be glad to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you all
- Bubble is not just a wireframe.
- The data does not belong to bubble.
- Bubble is scalable if you have the budget for it.
I am curious to learn which company does your friend works at?
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I agree with absolutely everything except for one part - the part after “He said”. 
Unfortunately, he’s wrong on all counts. This is not a matter of opinion, BTW - neither his nor mine - but rather an issue of objective facts, verifiable in the real world. I’m not suggesting he was deliberately misleading, but each of his claims is patently false.
False. Bubble is a combination reactive front-end framework, back-end database, visual page designer, and visual programming language - a far cry from a “wireframe” app.
False. As evidenced by numerous existing Bubble apps.
False. This is clearly stated in Bubble TOS.
False. Again, there are already apps in use at scale.
Now, that’s not to say Bubble doesn’t have limitations and downsides, and whether or not it’s the best choice for your project is something you’ll have to decide. It’s free to set up an account and use, so try it for a couple weeks or so, and decide for yourself.
-Steve
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May things wrong with his response.
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you aren’t stuck to wire framing, you can literally build almost anything on bubble.
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the data doesn’t HAVE to be bubbles. You can go on a dedicated plan and use static bubble instances. OR the better route, use bubble for front end and connect to fire base or your own SQL and control all your own data.
Building multiple apps the one thing I’ve came to realize is bubble has very few restrictions if you’re creative.
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He is correct about the data part, don’t listen to the other posters on here as this is the reason we just finally left bubble. You cannot access the database directly and it is hosted in the United States. The only way to access it is on a dedicated plan which they told me started at $1,500 a month. When people say there are other ways to access your data that is correct, but it’s so much work and it’s all workarounds and hacks to get it going that it’s way too much hassle. Andjust to be clear you can of course access your data, I’m talking about accessing the SQL database directly. That is not possible so the only way to analyze anything is exporting a million CSV files. The amount of time I spent trying to access and use our data was insane. I’d really steer clear.
He is wrong about the wire frame part though as you definitely can build full applications here which we did do. But our issue is our application got too big and now other companies want to license it but we hit a wall because we can’t have our data hosted in the United States and bubble just isn’t scalable so we had it completely rebuilt in custom code and it runs much better.
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Those are all very fair points. How long did it take to rebuild in custom code? How did you handle transitioning users?
I think the terminology is incorrect, the developer friend means prototypes not wireframes. And I would agree, Bubble apps do not scale. @kashif.yusuf there are many posts already discussing this you should find them, I would not recommend you to spend energy with bubble. Try Wappler is a great powerful and fast alternative.
Have you built any commercial applications?
Okaay, so what i am understanding is that bubble is capable of doing alot, but if the purpose is to use commercially then the best way forward it to have it custom built, is this correct?
In fact, he isn’t.
Then you’re talking about something other than the issue raised by the OP. The question was about data ownership - not about where it resides or ease of access.
That’s not to say that those aren’t important considerations or that they aren’t worth mentioning - depending on where you’re located, the type of app you wish to build, and other business considerations - but the fact remains that Bubble does not own the data.
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This is kind of a yes and no.
Look, if you have money to spend and you want to be under the mercy of / sometimes manipulation of the developer who built you the custom app.
Or You don’t have time to learn bubble just go ahead and have your app custom built.
However if you want to build it in bubble and have it functional even if we assume it is prototype don’t you think it is an advantage? Since you will try your idea and see if it works or not? If you succeed and you made alot of money and time to scale you will not feel sorry to build custom made if you like.
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This is a great point. Regardless of the winded arguments against Bubble’s alleged lack of scalability, as a techpreneur, your best bet is always to start with a focused proof of concept. Bubble excels at this.
I work with a team of brilliant hackers. We now build all our MVPs with Bubble and have yet to find the need to go native once we have several thousand users.
And to this point. Hiring a studio to build a good MVP can easily reach $20k+. Instead, if you have strong evidence that there’s a market for the solution you are offering, budget will quickly become the least of your worries.
Ultimately:
Bubble is means to an end, the end being proof of concept, product-market fit and early adopter feedback. This is the only thing that matters early in a product’s life. It doesn’t matter if you went native, Bubble, Wrapper or something made with pen and paper.
Bubble has proven time and time again to free you from long and expensive ship cycles so you can focus on the master goal: product-market fit.
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So a person can practice here, make something, then when it reaches a point, he can use it commercially and also can move further to rebuild it and customize to use commercially,
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Absolutely 100%