Can you build scalable apps with bubble.io?

bubble.io. By far the most advanced no-code app builder on the market today, well, in my opinion.

I first found Bubble when I was building my first app, Scooped, back in 2018-19. I had no formal app building experience, but prior to using Bubble had scraped together something really janky using Airtable, Zapier, Wordpress, and Stripe's API for processing payments all to help people get their snow shoveled in a more efficient manner.

I rebuilt the entire app on Bubble in about 3 weekends, and it was WAY better than before. Frontend, Backend, Payments, everything all in one place. Even better, it worked. Well. I had built a mobile version of my app using Thunkable prior to Bubble, but ended up just scrapping all that and using it only to display my Bubble app in a native environment to get it on people's phones.

It wasn't until 2 years later that I was able to make Bubble app development my full time gig by finding an opportunity in my sales job to build an app that would handle some onboarding processes. I'll admit I was slightly hesitant to use Bubble to build a large application for a massive company that had the potential to scale to be something huge. I had read a lot about Bubble's ability to scale and many had commented on it being a great platform for hashing out ideas and building an MVP but that you'd eventually need to rebuild in something more stable and scalable. Regardless, I pushed on, putting faith in the Bubble team's vision.

Here are a few things I've learned after having 50,000 users on a bubble.io application:

1. You can definitely scale an app built on bubble.io.
2. Their file management system can be tricky.
3. Paying for access to backend workflows during your initial build is worth it.
4. Be careful what plugins you install.
5. Leverage the forum.

Let's break those out and discuss.

First, you can definitely scale an app on bubble.io.

The app I'm working on for my employer is meant to help process the onboarding and management of travel nurses. It works by allowing our sales teams to invite users to the app where they're able to create their account and upload all their documents. We also are now handling time collection for pay processing and have plans to grow to include more business functions. The app started small but like all projects, it grew in both scope and complexity very quickly. Was the database structure set up correctly from the start? No. Is it perfect now? No. Same with the front end experience. But it's getting there. That's one of the huge advantages of Bubble: The ability to iterate and pivot very, very, quickly. We're able to put something to work relatively quickly and get it out the door. If it doesn't work exactly as we thought it might we can adjust on the fly and keep moving. It works well because it's agile and agility is what you need. We've grown to managing millions of database records and averaging 3.5 Million Workflow Runs per month. We've also got a team of 4 including myself working on this one application. Bubble's team management isn't perfect, but using their fairly seamless version management system we make it work. Ask me more about that if you'd like to know specifics :)

Next, the bubble.io file management can be tricky.

A huge part of our application's purpose is collecting documents like resumes, certifications, etc for purposes of helping people get jobs. To date, we've collected and created a little more than 460,000 documents. PDF's, Images, Word Docs, you name it, we've probably had it uploaded. Even Bubble's largest plan is limited to 50GB of file storage, which can be increased but at $1/gb it can get pricy pretty quickly. We got around this by using box.com for file storage and leveraging a plugin to a service account. That's costing us about $75 per month but the storage is unlimited and it's easy to work with. I recommend it if you've got it in your budget. Additionally, I recommend utilizing a data type for documents with a file field. If you're using Bubble's storage and the file ever get's lost from your database it's going to be almost impossible to track down and remove from storage. It can be done but it's not fun.

Third, get on a paid plan with access to backend workflows as soon as you can afford it.

I don't think there was ever a time that I ran this app on the free plan, but I have with others and it's just not worth it. Pay the $30 per month to build your app with backend workflows from the start cause you'll want them when you scale and it's easier to do it from the start. It's so easy to mess up building something and ruin the users experience by creating really complex workflows that are hard on the users device. Leveraging backend workflows makes this better by allowing your Bubble app to do the legwork. Plus, you also get access to scheduling workflows and creating recursive workflows for handling large amounts of data.

Also, be careful what plugins you install.

I can't tell you how much time I spent trying to figure out why my app was crashing for my users early on. Weeks. I tried everything to figure out what was going on. Bubble makes it as easy as possible but their suggestions just didn't make sense. Then. I deleted an element related to a plugin I had installed that was meant to handle searching for records more efficiently. Boom. Problem solved and no more crashes. I didn't realize that the plugin was loading a ton of data into the browser so it could perform the searches it was doing. It ultimately didn't really need to be on the app so I haven't touched that plugin since. I've also had some experiences with plugins that are supposed to do one thing but don't quite do it well. Just read the reviews. If you find one that has negative reviews but want to give it a try, just do so cautiously and know that it might not work out the way you want.

Lastly, leverage the bubble.io forum

According Bubble's website there's now over 2,000,000 apps built on Bubble. That's a LOT of developers. Or a few really ambitious ones I guess. Thankfully, many of them utilize the Bubble forum to get answers to their problems and many very experienced Bubble developers find joy in helping others understand the platform. Whether you've got an idea and need eyes on it, or ran into an issue or aren't quite grasping a concept, the forum is a great place to go. Once you're feeling comfortable with your Bubble skills you can even find employment in the forum!

Bonus

If you're looking to learn more about Bubble before diving in, check out Matt Neary 's YouTube Channel here. He's got great content and is an excellent teacher! I can't recommend him enough.

Also, for a more in-depth look into how to properly structure your Bubble database and make your app secure, Petter Amlie is one of the best of the best. You can read more about everything he has to offer including his extremely insightful ebooks here.

What am I missing? What have you learned from scaling a Bubble application that everyone else could benefit from knowing?