Keep in mind, these major platforms started out and have always been open source. they are the major platforms for this very reason. You are correct, Bubble is still small. It will stay small, in part, because of this issue.
@radarcg what will be the real incentive for a company or individual to create bubble plugins, document them and provide constant support for free, considering the current nature of bubble?
Most plugin developers on Bubble have free as well as paid plugins (@ZeroqodeSupport has a number of free plugins).
Iām a plugin developer and have so far created more than 11 plugins all currently free.
Last time i checked my free plugins had been used in a total of about 41,000 different applications.
Maintaining and supporting plugins for a platform like bubble which is constantly under development is no joke.
I have two major plugins (each having more than 8000 usages) used in a number of production and commercial bubble applications.
I was once in class (iām a student) when I got a call from some unknown number in Europe. I went to pick up the call (donāt know how he got my phone number) and it was someone who uses one of my plugins in his commercial bubble application that had just gotten broken due to an update bubble made. His customers were complaining and he claimed he was going to lose customers if i donāt fix the plugin asap for him.
Remember the said plugin is free.
What is the incentive for me to leave my classroom to go and debug and provide a fix a free broken plugin for someone who is using it in his commercial application that heās making money from?
As we speak I have a number of bug fixes and feature requests for my FREE plugins.
I have more than 10 unreleased plugins that I have created and planned to release free but iām not going to have the time to support them so they are just sitting there ārottenā.
When a developer creates something for free there is no obligation for them to provide timely support and feature upgrades.
Wordpress is one of the most successfully web development platforms currently. It has a huge collection of paid and free plugins. Paid plugins on wordpress are mostly cheap this is because there is a huge userbase. Its easy to get 1000 people buying your plugin on wordpress within a year. Currently on bubble if youāre lucky you will get only about 10 sales for your plugin in a year.
Lastly developing an opensource software or free library for a language like javascript is different from developing a plugin for a rapidly changing platform like bubble which needs constant support. Creating the plugin isnāt the main difficulty. It is providing timely support and bug fixes that is the main concern. It requires some incentive.
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I appreciate the thorough response. But Iām sorry to say, the very points you make to support why they arenāt free, are exactly why they should be.
What do I mean by that?
Well, if your plugins were open source, then the support comes from the community. All those bugs? Let other developers take a stab.
You become liberated from all that burden. Instead, this fosters growth and much broader adoption. To your own point, you are lucky to even get a few sales per year, so it isnāt worth it anyway.
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@radarcg, all free plugins are open source.
Youāre a developer (at least a java developer), have you tried to support any of the free plugins so far.
I had never written a javascript code before i joined bubble. I was a Java developer like you.
I find it interesting that someone with a programming experience (unlike the many on bubble) havenāt created any free plugins (correct me if iām wrong) and yet is complaining about lack of free plugings.
Also note that some of the libraries for plugins require a paid license.
Iāve been working on a FullCalendar plus Schedular plugin. The scheduler component costs $500 for a developer license.
So youāre saying i should go a pay $500 to use a library to create a plugin. Then put it out there for free for people to use in their commercial applications that they make money from.
Then provide daily support for bug fixes and feature updates.
I might as well be a father christmas.
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I love open source as much as the next person, but people got to eat/drink/play too. 
I have no problem paying someone for a plugin that would take me way too much time to develop myself.
To say OSS is the only way, is wrong. You wouldnāt have billion dollar companies with large eco-systems around them if OSS was the only way. With OSS you HAVE to augment your development with selling services and not everyone wants to work on an hourly basis when they can make something once and sell it 1000ās of times.
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@radarcg here is a challenge. I wrote the Air Date/Time picker plugin. It is free. It is open source.
There is a lot of issues i currently need to address plus several feature requests.
Can you take a look at the plugin thread (š [FREE Plugin] Air Date/Time Picker - #384 by simon), note it is the longest thread (has most replies) in the whole bubble forum, then help me address some of the issues?
Youāre a java developer just like myself so it shouldnāt be hard.
Thanks in advance.
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@radarcg I just took a look at your activity thread on this forum.
Iām not trying to attack you or anything but just want to lay out facts.
I didnāt see any contribution in terms of helping people on this forum or creating any plugins.
Yet still youāre advocating for an open source community and ecosystem.
Such systems donāt happen magically. It requires people like you and me contributing.
Iāve seen people spending hours of their time just to answer peoples questions on the forum.
They may not be able to write plugins because theyāre not developers but theyāre helping the ecosystem by assisting people.
Youāve joined this forum for close to half a year, in all sincerity, please what has been your contribution to the bubble community and ecosystem.
Thanks
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My criticism is not specifically of plugin developers, but the business model that exists with the plugin ecosystem.
Personally challenging me to build plugins is not constructive. I would have the same statements all the same. Throughout my career I have contributed to open source where my development skills best apply (which is not in user interface development). Iāve organized and managed local meetups on big data technologies simply because it was something I believed in. This is all besides the point.
As for your plugins being open source, where exactly is the source? Doesnāt seem the plugin can be forked, and I see no links to the source anywhere.
But I digressā¦the point is, Bubble is an amazing platform that should be capable of attracting broad support of open source developers if their plugin incentive model was changed a bit. The model needs to be tailored broadening the user base rather than a poor revenue model.
Doing so will attract many more developers just like @seanhoots that see the potential.
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I donāt disagree at all. Iām not claiming everything has to be open source. The best open source is always supported by amazing professional service companies. My only point is, among all the amazing things Bubble is doing, their plugin model is not one of them. And this is very obvious. But why is debatable (hence this thread).
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Funny, thatās disabled for me.
Correctionā¦I was looking at the plugin you needed support with.
Iāve just tested in different browsers on my windows system and theyāre all enabled.
File a bug report to bubble if itās disabled for you.
Actually, their model is pretty good in my opinion. It allows for open-source plugins, as well as paid-for plugins. You and I, and all other Bubble users, can vote/support the best option for ourselves and also allow others to support, or not support, the business model and/or developers with our use of their plugins.
As @seanhoots is sort of saying too, you have the power, and voice through development skills, to help support the ecosystem by contributing new plugins, support existing plugin development, or using developed plugins in your apps.
The choice is yours and I think that makes Bubble, as a platform, fairly free and democratic.
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Believe me, Iād love to contribute plugins. I would if I were a UX developer. My professional development skills donāt translate well enough to craft professional user interface experiences. If they did, I would likely be like the majority out there using defacto platforms.
I find Bubble fascinating specifically because it appeals to technically/developer minded folks like me because of how powerfully flexible it is.
I just hope someone inside Bubble takes a hard look at their business intelligence to see if this revenue model around plugins is really working for them as desired. My fear is the biggest reason for user churn is or will become this poor plugin ecosystem.
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In my opinion, I think the plugin marketplace model is great, and attracts many plugin developers, and those looking to help users by creating free plugins. It does its job which is to allow Bubble to be more complex and used in more scenarios, while providing incentives to the developers.
The only thing I think that could be done differently, is allow paid plugins to be evaluated and tested before being bought. I donāt think anyone really minds paying for something useful and helpful to them. Itās not always entirely clear how useful a plugin is just by viewing a demo page.
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Itās easy to find excuses for oneself while complaining about those that have tried to contribute something.
You donāt need to be a UX developer to create bubble plugins. Almost all bubble element plugins are created from existing javascript libraries including those that bubble uses in the editor themselves.
You just need to be a good programmer to write plugins.
You started this thread by attacking @ZeroqodeSupport which has contributed so much to the bubble ecosystem.
But when it comes to you, youāre finding excuses for yourself why you canāt help.
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I think Bubble could do a bit more to incentivize Community development.
However I do understand that at this very moment it is not high priority.
Iām merely challenging the idea that the plugin business model is a hindrance if expanding the user base and elevating this platform to be among those other more traditional is the goal.
Others have decided that debating this topic is best done via ad-hominem. And worse, @NigelG felt I didnāt respond to his immature posts and thought a temporary ban on my account was warranted.
Clearly these types of conversations arenāt welcome.
Users see Bubble as a tool to make money, not to create things. Bubble is marketed towards makers, not developers. They come here because of the promise of making apps and starting a business online without having to code. That and small userbase is why the ecosystem of open source and free is quite limited.
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