I've Built 6 Apps With Bubble and I Have Regrets

Look, I didn't choose this life. Client needed an app fast, budget was shit, and somehow I ended up building 6 production apps in this thing. Here's what actually happened.

The Good Parts (Yes, They Exist)

Prototypes happen fast: Built a working CRM in 2 weeks that would've taken 2 months in React. Client saw their data flowing through visual workflows and signed the contract immediately.

No deployment bullshit: Hit save and it's live. No Docker containers breaking, no CI/CD failing because someone fucked up the yaml file, no "works on my machine but not in production" bullshit.

Database changes don't kill you: Add fields without writing migrations. Change column types without breaking production. I hate SQL migrations and this just handles it.

The Parts That Make You Want to Quit Programming

Everything breaks when you touch anything: You know what pisses me off most? Renamed one field from "Company" to "Organization" and watched 47 workflows die. Spent the entire next day fixing what should've been a 5-minute change. There's no refactoring tool so you're manually hunting through every workflow like some caveman.

The expression editor makes me violent: They killed the advanced editor in 2023. Now adding one condition to a complex expression means rebuilding the whole fucking thing from scratch. It randomly resets your work halfway through. Why the hell would they remove something that actually worked? I've lost entire afternoons to this piece of shit.

Performance is completely random: Same page, same data, sometimes loads in 1 second, sometimes takes 8. Users think the site crashed. I've watched conversion rates tank because checkout pages randomly became slow as hell.

Workload units are pure chaos: My logistics app burns anywhere from 50k to 500k units per month with identical traffic. Nobody knows why. Bubble's docs explain it like it makes sense but it's complete black magic. Bills just show up and you pay them.

Where It Doesn't Suck

Internal tools: Perfect for expense trackers and admin dashboards. Employees don't care if it takes 3 seconds to load.

Quick prototypes for funding: Built a marketplace prototype in a month that got $500k. Would've taken 6 months in React and the client would've been broke by then.

When clients want to "see the code": Try explaining async/await to someone who thinks WordPress is complicated. They can actually follow visual workflows.

But anything real? You'll hit the ceiling fast. Had to rebuild a whole app in Next.js because Bubble died at 200 concurrent users.

They say it's "no-code" and you just drag stuff around. Bullshit. Took me 6 months to build what I could've coded in React in 3 weeks.

The First Month: Pure Suffering

First week: Drag a button onto a page, feel like a god. "Look ma, I'm building an app!"

Week 2 or 3, I think: Try to make the button actually do something. Discover workflows. Spend like 4 hours figuring out why clicking works sometimes and does fuck-all other times.

Around week 3: Learn about privacy rules. Database locks down completely. Nothing works. Bubble's docs explain privacy rules like you should already know what the hell they are.

Week 4, maybe 5: Finally get data showing up. It's the wrong data. Learn the difference between "Search for" and "Get from database" after rebuilding half the app.

What Actually Takes Forever

Building expressions: Want to check if a user can edit something? That's a 15-part conditional that takes 20 minutes because the editor randomly resets halfway through.

Database relationships: Spent like 3 days, maybe 2, trying to show orders for each customer. Couldn't figure out how to link the fucking database fields properly. Coming from SQL, their relationship system made zero sense.

Making it not slow: My first app was so goddamn slow users thought it crashed. Loading 100 items took 8 seconds. Turns out everything affects performance and there's no real way to optimize it.

Debugging is a Nightmare

No real debugger: You get some basic step-by-step thing that shows which workflow action ran. Doesn't tell you why your data is fucked.

Everything fails silently: Workflow just... stops. No errors. No logs. Nothing. You manually trace through every action hoping to find where it shit the bed.

Version control sucks: Break something? They added version control but it's garbage. Can't rollback individual changes, just nuke entire versions. It's nothing like Git.

When You Finally Get It

After 6 months, maybe 7, I could build functional apps. But I wasn't really faster than coding. Just solving the same problems with a shittier tool.

Sweet spot: Internal tools, quick MVPs. If 3-second load times are fine, Bubble works.

Breaking point: Real traffic or complex logic. Hit the wall on a payment processing project. Bubble's delays made real-time impossible.

Mobile is Still Broken

They say "native mobile apps" but it's buggy as hell. Tried building a mobile version:

• Push notifications work when they feel like it
• Debugger doesn't work on mobile at all
• Performance is even worse than web
• Half the plugins break in mobile

Save yourself the headache. Stick to web apps.

After 3 years and multiple disasters, here's who Bubble actually works for (spoiler: probably not you).

Use Bubble When:

Need prototype fast for funding: Built marketplace MVP in 4 weeks, got $500k. Would've taken 4 months to code and client would've been bankrupt.

Internal employee tools: Expense trackers, admin dashboards. Nobody bitches about 3-second load times when it's just employees.

Client wants to "understand the app": Visual workflows make sense to non-technical people. Try explaining React to someone who struggles with WordPress.

Budget under $10k: If client has real money, hire developers. If they have $5k total, Bubble might be your only shot.

Don't Use Bubble If:

Speed matters at all: My e-commerce checkout took 8 seconds. Lost like $15k in abandoned carts because users thought the site crashed. Could've been more, who knows?

More than 200 concurrent users: Logistics app crashed at like 300 users online. Maybe it was 250? Hard to tell when everything's on fire. Had to rebuild the whole thing in Node.js.

Want to own your code: No export exists. Zero. When client wants to migrate, you rebuild everything from scratch.

Need real-time anything: Payments, live chat, real-time updates - forget it. Bubble's delays make it impossible.

The Cost Reality

Workload units: Total scam. Same app, same traffic, bills from 50k to 400k units per month. Their pricing calculator is pure fiction.

Hidden bullshit:

• SSL costs extra (everywhere else it's free)
• Custom domain costs extra
• More than 1GB storage? Pay up
• Every API call destroys your quota

Enterprise pricing: $500/month for 500 users. Just hire a developer at that point.

What I Wish I Knew 3 Years Ago

Use Bubble for quick prototypes, plan your escape from day one. Great for proving concepts, terrible for anything real.

Every successful Bubble app I know either stayed tiny or got rebuilt properly.

The AI Marketing is Bullshit

They added ChatGPT integration like they invented AI. It's just an API call that burns workload units. You can do the same in any real language without vendor lock-in.

2025 Update: It's Getting Worse

Workload costs are insane now. People burning 7 million units overnight from simple mistakes. Everyone's switching to external databases but then bitching about 1-second delays.

Mobile pricing went live in October. $10-$130 extra per month plus limits on app builds. Because why not squeeze more money out of trapped users?

Community is pissed. Forum full of posts about how it's "impossible to build scalable apps in 2025" due to unpredictable costs.

My Final Take

Three years ago I thought Bubble would replace coding. Now I use it for prototypes and bail as soon as the client gets real budget.

Want it done right? Hire developers.
Want it cheap and fast? Maybe Bubble.
Want it cheap, fast, AND good? Pick two.