Making a decision (Bubble or Wappler)

Wappler General
#1

Dear All,

I am very new here. In fact, I just get to know Wappler less than 3 days.
Apparently, I would like to do an app that embedded with NFT function, Web3 and etc.
I started to learn Bubble a few weeks ago. I bought a course about Bubble at Udemy as well as learning from the site. I managed to have a grasp on how to use it. After I found Wappler, I was very excited because Wappler allows the person to host himself. But I read that Wappler is not so easy to learn and use. It requires some programming knowledge. On top of that, I could not find much courses about Wappler or some demo on how to build sites similar to Instagram, OpenSea and etc.

I have near zero programming knowledge. I only know super basic html such as <> </>. That’s all. Very little knowledge even in the field of IT. However, I am a person who are very willing to learn even though am very old already (May take longer to learn programming, IT, Server knowledge and etc). But, time is limited as I need to develop an app ASAP since I wanna start up something. Yes, with limited capital in the beginning. Therefore, I gotta learn and do the app/ MVP myself.

Over here, I would like to sincerely seek some opinions on which platform should I use. I understand there are variety of pros and cons so I would like to know more. I read some of the past threads from Bubble to Wappler but because the situation is a bit different from me. So I think it is better for me to start a topic to seek for opinions. It is very important to me as I decided to commit myself into one platform (learn and develop an app and use it)) for a period of time.
All opinions are welcomed. Really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

2022: The Year in Review
#2

Hey Dav welcome, what you are asking is what most ask whether they come from Bubble or another platform. The best answer I can give you is that you have two options:

Option 1: Develop your application quickly without understanding any programming concept that will serve you in the future and charge quickly for the application. You just have to invest more money and less time and of course you will be stuck with Bubble forever.

Option 2: Develop your application according to your learning abilities in a steeper curve, since you come without any programming knowledge, you will surely invest more time than money but in the end you will end up with programming knowledge that will help you to use them even without Wappler .

With both you will feel joy and frustration, with Bubble you will feel frustration for always having to depend on them and continually paying for your developments to work and with Wappler you will feel the frustration of not being able to achieve what you want unless you spend long hours sitting in front of the monitor and practice over and over again in the same way that a guitarist must learn to play the guitar by practicing every day until a certain level of skill is reached.

There is a third option and that is to forget about all this and hire a programmer. There are no magic solutions and everything in life costs, it is up to you to decide what and how much you want to invest. Whatever you choose I wish you the best of luck and may you achieve what you seek :slightly_smiling_face:

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#3

Dear Max,

Thank you so much for your fantastic opinion.
After reading your reply, I am now thinking of starting of with Bubble first and at the same time, learn about Wappler, PHP, CSS, HTML and etc. But the cost will be huge if my app grow since I am planning grow since my intended app will be uploading photos and etc.
One question in my mind is, “if after a year or so, I decide to shift to Wappler, is it feasible to transfer all the data, member’s data, members’ uploaded photos and etc to Wappler.” The migration maybe a big issue.
Therefore, it pretty tough to make a decision unless the migration is not an issue.

1 Like
#4

This is from Bubble:

Bubble apps can only be run on the Bubble platform; there's no way of exporting your application as code. If you decide to move off the Bubble platform, you'll have to rebuild the application logic. We support automatically exporting user-created data in the form of CSV files.

Compare that to a Wappler application where the code can be ported to any other code editor.

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#5

Dear Ben,

Thanks for the valuable information. Does this statement from Bubble means that photos and etc cannot be exported to other platform.
If that is the case, an app resembling Instagram, Pinterest and etc, will likely have an issue if the app wanna migrate to another platform.

#6

Hi @davhappy. I’ve never used Bubble but have read all the posts here from people who have moved to Wappler from it. I’ve also kept an eye on their announcements.

I would say that if the only way of exporting data is via CSV files then it looks like photos won’t be included. However, I also would suggest that you would own the content therefore they should be obliged to let you download it. It’s worth asking them now before you make any decision.

Ideally, I would invest time in Wappler and not go down the route of Bubble as I’m sure you will wish you had later but if time is a problem and you’re happy for that transition later then go for it.

2 Likes
#7

Dear Sitestreet,

Thank you so much for the input. Yes, it is important to know whether I can obtain the content such as photos and etc or not when required.
Yes, ideally, I also wish to learn all the necessary skills to use Wappler effectively, but as I have zero programming knowledge, it may take a while. Is all those programming knowledge such as CSS, JS and etc are required? Can I use Wappler to develop an app without knowing any of the coding knowledge? How long it usually takes to acquire those necessary knowledge if I commit 2 to 3 hrs of learning everyday?

#8

I’m afraid it’s impossible to say how long it will take. I’ve been using Wappler since it first came out but I already had 20+ years experience with other tools and coding in general.

It’s not something you will become expert in in just a few weeks, I’d be confident of that. Yes, Wappler does the actual coding but you will need knowledge of the elements that Wappler creates like variable types, how forms work, interacting with the database, the database structure itself, etc.

What I will say, though, is that if something can be mastered quickly then it can’t as good as something which requires much more work. So Bubble might give you some solutions in the short term but I’m sure you’ll be wanting to go with Wappler fairly quickly after.

1 Like
#9

Hi Sitestreet,

Yes, I agree with you that it will take much longer than few weeks to be proficient in that. It may take months or even years to master it.
Yes, I also agree with you that I maybe wanting to go with Wappler fairly quickly after. In fact, it is not fairly quickly, but rather wanna go with Wappler now if there is not so much knowledge and time constraints.
Can I say that I should have basic knowledge as follows:

  1. HTML
  2. CSS
    3)Bootstrap
  3. Javascript
  4. Github
  5. Node.js
  6. SQL
  7. Databases

and many more…

I may need months just to know the basic. Many of them, I just gotta know of it last few days. Today, I am trying to find ways to list down what I should learn.

I really appreciate your information and opinions.

#10

Hi @davhappy

That’s a pretty good list. HTML/CSS/Bootstrap knowledge will be important for any web project.

NodeJS (or PHP/ASP) isn’t too important if using Wappler as that is where Wappler comes in as it writes all that code for you.

Github is optional but should be fairly quick to start using as, again, Wappler handles that for you so you just need to connect it to your repository and then do the basic processes of commit and push. It’s built into Wappler.

Database knowledge is important. You need to know how you want to structure the data, the different field types, etc. SQL knowledge isn’t vital but will help. Wappler writes the queries but having an understanding of how they work will be an advantage.

My summary of Wappler is that it’s aimed at coders giving them a much faster way of developing sites/apps with clean and reliable code. I have no idea how long it would take a non-coder to get an app developed. But something that might take me 1-2 weeks to do in a text editor is reduced to just a few hours in Wappler and that’s where it scores hugely.

1 Like
#11

Dear Sitestreet,

Thanks for so much valuable information.
Perhaps, it is really good to learn all these knowledge.

Wow! That’s fantastic!
By the way, I read that those login/sign up page are a challenge for non-coder in Wappler. Or perhaps I read wrongly.
Maybe once I have learned, all these are not a big issue.
Thanks again @sitestreet. You are very helpful.

#12

Hi @davhappy

It’s a pleasure.

You can create registration and login pages without touching code in Wappler. It’s not a challenge but then I’ve been using it for many years.

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#13

To get a good start on Wappler you really only need to know the basics of Bootstrap and how databases work. You don’t need to know how to code them at this point. Just the basics of how they work.

Once you have the basics of those just start building and ask lots of questions in this forum and learn as you need rather than trying to learn everything at once.

I have never used Bubble myself but I can say that following this board every day that there are a lot more users here that have come from Bubble than users leaving to go to Bubble.

Best of luck to you whichever path you decide! :wink:

1 Like
#14

Hi @sitestreet,

Thanks for the information. Let me try figure it out after I learn how to use wappler.

#15

Hi Brad,

Thank you so much for the inputs.

This paragraph sounds very good. Perhaps, I should learn how to use Wappler and from there, learn while building. As for how databases work, any example as to what exactly we should know?
So far, I never read anyone leaving Wappler to Bubble.

#16

Basically just the structure. Tables, column types and relationships. Again, no need to learn how to write a query or work with your database. Wappler query builders and database manager do the heavy lifting for you.

You mentioned you have used Udemy for some Bubble courses. Udemy has some great courses on Bootstrap and databases. They would probably teach you more than you even need to know.

Don’t get caught up on having to learning everything in Wappler. I have been using it since day one of early Alpha days and still don’t know everything. Not even close. But I know how to do the things I need to do very quickly with the help from this forum and the fantastic support from the team and user base.

I think you will find, learning what you need to know as you go along is less daunting than trying to learn everything. You don’t have to be a Wappler Master to build wonderful things.

3 Likes
#17

You’ve probably received a coupon code for a Wappler course upon registration on this forum, try it for for about 2 hours and see if you get the hang of it :wink: it teaches you the basics too (Bootstrap etc)

It’s the one by Ken Truesdale

2 Likes
#18

Dear Brad,

Thank you for the information. Yeah, you have a good point. I should get a course on Bootstrap and databases on Udemy.

Yeah, I think I was probably too caught up on the idea of learning everything. Perhaps, learn it step by step.
Another thing is that I couldn’t find any course on Wappler that teach how to make a website such as Instagram, NFT Marketplace, AirBnb and etc. All these kinda courses are very useful.

#19

Hi Apple,

Yeah, I received that. In fact, I went through a bit of it. But it seems to me that it is more complicated than Bubble. Well, I need to put in more time to get a hold on it. I will go through more in depth into the course before making any conclusion.
I will probably also download Wappler and try it. If I am not wrong, there is a free 7 days trial.

#20

Keep in mind that if it was as easy as watching a few videos and spending a few hours to get you to the point of being able to build the next Instagram then we’d all be out of jobs! Wappler really does speed up the development process by a huge amount but it doesn’t do all the work for you. Bubble tries to be that solution but, as a result, it is much more limited and the lock-in is a very serious issue.