The Forum’s Pulse: A Question on Community and forum activity

Questions
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve been building on Bubble for a few months now, to launch my mobile app Deal Péi, and while I’m excited about the tool’s potential, I’ve noticed a change in the forum’s atmosphere lately. Conversations seem a bit more sparse, and some of the ‘knowledgeable’ voices that used to drive the public knowledge here seem to have gone quiet or moved on.

I remember a statement from the @emmanuel from the last AMA, suggesting that while some might leave the ecosystem, the platform’s evolution would eventually bring them back. I truly hope this is the case, as the strength of Bubble has always been its vibrant public community.

A few questions for the group:

  • To the long-timers: Do you feel the public exchange is slowing down, or is the conversation simply shifting to other formats we haven’t seen yet?

  • To the Bubble Team: How do you plan to keep the forum as the central ‘town square’ for builders, especially as more senior users transition to complex, private projects?

I’m still committed to my project here, but as a developer, seeing a healthy and active public forum is the best ‘insurance policy’ we have. Would love to hear your thoughts on how we can keep this space alive and kicking!

2

I think it’s undeniable that vibe coding and AI-assisted coding has captured a lot of the world’s attention. In that sense it would make a lot of sense to correlate that with less forum activity.

However, there’s a stronger driving factor here: AI answering questions for Bubblers. A lot of new bubblers are asking chatgpt/claude their questions while building with Bubble. They are also using Bubble’s AI support bot a lot more as well (I know because I’ve checked).

Online communities are changing around the world as AI gets better at quickly answering questions that might’ve taken hours/days in a public forum. From my perspective, I want to focus on making sure those that choose to spend time in the Forum have a great time.

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3

All forums usually have low times and busy times…

depends on a lot of things. If you follow any forums on Reddit, you see this.

One thing I would say, the mobile editor came out, which is new for everyone. Many of the questions on the forum now are about that…and less about the normal web apps. So, even the long time users don’t have as much knowledge about it as they do about web apps.

What I’m saying is the mobile thing takes up a lot of the discussion these days, which limits a lot of the discussion to those who have taken the plunge to try it

4

For me, as a long-timer, I have just been busy with a lot of Bubble projects. Our agency has grown a lot and we now have 7 developers on our team and everyone has a packed schedule. When I look on the forum to check in, I mostly see people’s questions get answered by new ones. So it’s hard to answer a question if someone is already working with them on it. I do think Bubble has been making some good moves lately by fixing these new editor bugs pretty quickly. Hopefully this continues in the same direction. :blush:

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5

The biggest pivot point was in early 2023 when the pricing model changed from Capacity to WU/Workload. Many ‘knowledgeable’ voices started leaving after that (for many reasons, don’t want to get too much into it), so it has been happening for a couple years now. Also @fede.bubble ‘s reason makes a lot of sense too.

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6

This. But also there’s another factor, which is the shift from narrowly focusing on meeting existing users’ needs (“power users”) to capturing new users (“growth”). @emmanuel has stated as such. You used to be able to come into the forums and say “this needs to be changed” or “you need to add this” and it would happen in a short time frame. Now there’s a roadmap and it’s not an interactive one. This lessens their motivation to post/interact.

Relatedly, the fact of the matter is that many people use Bubble as a stepping stone, and once the “oldheads” get tired of the constant limitations around the platform that they have to patch with duct-taped plugins and 3rd party services, they decide to leave for “greener” pastures. AI makes this even easier. This is the problem with not focusing on power users.

Frankly I don’t understand the strategy of wanting more $32/mo users at the cost of churning $209+/mo users, but I’m not privy to the exact unit economics.

I think the best way to get new users is to allow the power builders to make extremely popular/viral/successful apps rather than trying to market to new users directly. There has to be an aspirational aspect of, “this guy made it on Bubble, I can too (even if it means I need to power through it).” There are examples of this with the showcase, etc. but I’m talking about someone really influential or well-known. For example the Cal AI guy. That should have been possible with Bubble, but wrangling LLMs/sending files to 3rd party services/etc. is all very convoluted in Bubble, and these types of limitations make new users churn. It’s now 3 years into LLMs and we’re just starting to acknowledge that “JSON handling could be better.”

To the extent that Bubble focuses on building “apps,” it will continue to wane in relevance (with a concomitant reduction in forum activity). The idea of “apps” needs to go away. They’ve all been built already. I don’t want to ever hear about “apps” or “web apps.” 100% of the focus needs to be on “Bubble is the best place in the world to build AI apps.” That’s the only way forward. But they can’t make that claim (or even anything close to it) right now.

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7

I’ve been using Bubble since March 2018. At that time there were 3 websites that had the name Bubble.io in them and one of them was Bubble itself. There was maybe one youtube channel and a handful of how to build x clone type tutorials by the same one creator…so at that time, if you wanted to learn Bubble and needed help, the forum was the main place to be.

The shift began when all of the earliest adopters, the ones who populated the forum with tips and tricks they learned through hard work, creativity, testing and failing, and answered the questions of others or posted for help, had started to cement careers around building on Bubble. What that shift meant, was, those types, were starting their bubble development agencies and began focusing on creating content and products to build their business.

The forum in 2020 still was the biggest selling point of Bubble. All listing sites would include the Bubble community has it’s major competitive advantage, and at that time there were still loads of die-hard Bubble early adopters using the forum to ask for help and learn new tricks, plus highlight some products they may have released such as plugins or templates. A lot of the plugins from that time were first of their kind, and so the developers answered questions and provided lots of instructional videos on how to use those plugins.

I would say around 2021 there began to be more of a growth in Bubble community and Bubble reach, that those who previously mainly spoke about Bubble on the Bubble forum, began to use social media, such as twitter and slack channels to create more reach for themselves. More youtube channels began popping up and more and more how to build an app on bubble training courses and tutorials began being released. People were more likely to attempt to engage an audience to promote those products they built to further their careers and businesses, and had less time to hang out on the Bubble forum. And generally, they had already learned enough, and maybe didn’t have as much of a need or desire to be engaged in conversations around ‘how to do x’ types of posts.

Then around 2022-2023 there began a shift in Bubble forum posts, as there were more aggressive tactics employed by posters in which they were promoting themselves via attempts to talk negatively about other developers products. This type of post caused there to be a new sense of competition amongst developers for clients and spotlight attention within the community. Posts were people put out how a paid plugin could be done with custom code, attempting to garner attention and reputation for the poster while simultaneously painting a negative color on the paid plugin provider business.

There were also more experienced developers leaving to focus on their businesses, grow their social media following, or leaving bubble disgruntled as around 2023, Bubble really started to lose sight of what matter most to the most experienced Bubble developers.

What seems to have happened since 2023 is a lower number of new bubble developers making a career on bubble using the forum, and instead using social media to garner a following and potential client funnel, and less of a need to engage and ask questions, since most every basic ‘how to’ question was already answered on previous forum threads, so they could just search, read, learn and implement. Also, templates and plugins have become seen as less valuable tools for a developer so there seems to have been a slow down in releases, or just less new novel types of plugins released, so less conversation around any showcase posts for such products.

And every since early 2025, a major slow down in the amount of questions asked. In 2021, I could scroll and see 15-20 questions asked a day, in 2026, maybe 2-3. I think @fede.bubble is spot on in that being attributed to AI being capable of answering those questions. I also think more content online via youtube or smaller communities built around a developers product set, are reasons there are less need for new users to leverage the forum as a learning resource.

I think it is that and the fact that most stuff as already been done, and answered and there are less developers having to be in the trenches to find out and share how to do what has not already been done. The last time I saw a realistic ‘this is a new approach to things’ type of post that didn’t include a link to a AI inspired product, was about a year ago.

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8

Well, you also need to look at cultural changes.

I mean, 10 or 15 years ago…if you studied marketing…there was a boom time where people thought a lead magnet was a money machine. Basically, there was a contest to see who could hype a nonsense course the quickest and sell it to anyone wanting to make a fortune…

that phase died out when people realized it was mostly hype and false promises.

Same when no code came around. Everyone could build an app. The problem is that over 90% of the apps didn’t/don’t produce paydays.

The tourists started getting disillusioned, and the professionals stayed. Basically, how it always is: Every tech breakthrough brings a wave of people looking for a “money machine,” and every wave leaves behind a specialized group who actually know how to use the tool.

We’ve got the whole new era now with the vibe coders.

Suddenly there’s money to be made with apps that anyone can create in a couple of hours…

that phase will eventually go away too.

Creating an app is only about 20% of any success. The other 80% is what matters. Too many people never think…or think wrong about the 80% that matters. More agencies should focus on the 80% and teach people how to do it. By that I mean if you look at say 2010, agencies sold websites, in 2021 they were selling apps, these days they’ve got to sell results.

Anyway, that’s my way-too-deep philosophical thinking for this morning. I did a talk at a business meeting about this same stuff, and your response reminded me of it

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9

For me I am not actively reading or searching for my problems, due they are complex problems now.

I am not writing in order to help others due

  1. We are not inline with Bubble in this case, I tried to help beginners but Bubble keeps ignoring their part, so it is like swimming against the current.
  2. Fede banned me 2 times, and removed my post 3-4 times

I only give feedback, provide ideas and get involved in discussions here and there, some chats maybe with 5-6 people.

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10

Absolutely true and applies in a meta-level sense to Bubble itself. They’ve built the app but don’t know how to market it. They think consumers are rational. They’re selling features instead of “financial freedom” or “running a company by yourself.”

Someone who’s just getting into an app isn’t worried about “Day 2,” they need to be blown away by the Day 1 experience. And what’s the Day 1 experience for Bubble? A bunch of aging elements (Dropdown with a triangle that has no padding, a Slider with wonky rectangular handles, etc.), an AI Agent that designs beautiful (in 2013) apps, and no intuitive way to work with the most common API payload in the world (an OpenAI JSON response).

They have only gotten to this level of success because of “word of mouth” from the power users who they initially focused on, but who are no longer a priority and now have mostly jumped ship.

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11

No, I mean quite literally, when comparing no code builders in 2020-2021 any and all listing sites comparing available options listed on description of bubble the community as an advantage and most of time was the main advantage over other no code builders at the time.

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12

@randomanon is often harsh … but he’s correct.

Bubble needs some if its employees working on nothing but these little low hanging fruit fundamentals. First impressions really do count. All the basics should work flawlessly.

I LOVE bubble but currently do not dare touch the “undo” button as it keeps causing me random issues. Same with using keyboard for copy & pasting. It’s really bad that I’ve just started accepting these as quirks - no, randomanon is right, this is stuff we should be mad about - especially if we care about bubbles future! need to help them wake up. :folded_hands:t2::oncoming_fist:t2:

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14

Yes, times change. People change. The culture changes.

Most people don’t know that AOL’s dial-up connection to the internet ended just a few months ago (would have to look it up for the exact date). Yes, I guess there were some actual people still using it :grinning_face:

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15

Yes. Pretty well sums up my initial reply on this thread.

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16

My apologies.

Sometimes when a post is like a mini Netflix series, I scan it…

I’m guilty of some long posts occasionally, also :grinning_face:

Sorry if I misread your post

17

You should Binge it instead, that’s what mini Netflix series are best for right, those 3 part miniseries, an hour each episode chopped full of engaging content, getting you ready for that next episode starting in five, four, three, two, one, and your not going to bed just yet, one more hour…

18

Thanks, everyone, for your investment and for sharing your thoughts on this topic. It was very instructive to read all of your perspectives.

My first thought regarding the decrease in forum activity is that many people originally came to Bubble because it offered the flexibility of a visual editor, full-stack development, and security—everything needed to build an MVP. However, as AI has improved, those who were building MVPs here and driving forum activity have started moving to other stacks. It gives them more flexibility and quicker development… whether those apps will remain profitable or scale effectively on their own, we don’t know (and probably never will).

The fact is that the people who used to build on Bubble, asking for help and helping others with specific issues, are now leaving for other stacks or turning to LLMs for solutions instead of the community. It’s a shame to see this shift; the community that once pushed many of us to overcome technical hurdles is slowly fading. I wonder if this will make it harder for Bubble to foster truly complex applications in the future. If knowledge moves primarily to YouTube or LLMs—which reason based on documentation rather than real-world human experience—we lose that crucial ‘boots on the ground’ perspective.

Finally, I haven’t mentioned the people copy-pasting answers from LLMs to ‘help’ others. Sometimes it works, but other times it doesn’t because they haven’t tested the solution themselves. Regardless, I hope Bubble continues to push mobile app development, including more basic functions or at least opening the mobile plugin editor to give people more freedom to implement their own functionality.

20

Every community goes through cycles and many are going through this exact one right now due to AI disruption.

There’s always something newer out there, but newer isn’t the same as better. The AI tools getting attention right now are genuinely great, but so is Bubble. A lot of the frustration here comes from people who want Bubble to step up and compete, which I believe they’re committed to doing. That urgency can come across as negativity, but it’s usually born from wanting the platform to succeed. Though I’ll admit, some voices here seem more interested in sowing doubt & division than offering anything constructive.

The grass is only greener where you water it. :sun:

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21

When I first decided to take a dive into Bubble and learn it, it was right at about the time the whole new pricing thing came about.

Every day, it was about the pricing.

It really made me think hard at first…

I had been looking at Caspio, which was around longer than Bubble. Had a couple of phone calls from their rep, even.

I decided, though, that instead of looking at, say, a $3500 monthly bill for enterprise and considering that crazy, I would work towards getting there.

I mean, if I got 10,000 customers at $3.99 a month, why would I care about paying $3500 a month for everything Bubble offered?

Bubble is visual. Visual frontend and backend. That was/is a big selling point to me.

I can visually change anything.

Don’t chase every shiny thing that comes along. Don’t focus on how you need to do something, and focus on the why you want to do it. Don’t get into an analysis paralysis thing where you never accomplish anything because you’re always analysing everything and become stuck.

Anyway, long story short, I’m so glad I decided to stick with Bubble. The more you learn it, the more you discover how powerful and easy it is to use

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23

How do you measure what “the champion" is?

Building an app is only one part of running & maintaining a successful business.

Your friends ai build may “win” if it’s a race to get something up & running, but may lose in the long run if what is built isn’t designed well, secure, scalable & maintainable.

What are you building?

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