Welcome Bubblers! (An honest review)

As an ex Bubble user myself, I wanted to welcome those who are thinking of moving to Wappler probably because of this news

For those that are thinking of making the switch, I would say this…

IMHO Wappler is a fantastic tool that gives you greater flexibility than Bubble when it comes to being able to choose your own hosting infrastructure, software platform and database. It also allows you to easily tweak HTML/PHP/CSS code and best of all, NO per-app pricing and almost NO software-vendor lock in. You are free to export the full code produced by Wappler and take it with you. Something Bubble does not let you do!

I must admit though, Bubble does make database management a lot easier with their PAAS type solution, but with a little training and persistence, you’ll soon realise the benefits of learning to manage your own database.

There isn’t a ‘Plugin marketplace’ like Bubble provides but by using the powerful API tools, you can easily hook up to any external service.

To be honest, I was daunted when I first looked at Wappler. It’s probably taken me a good three or four weeks to fully appreciated where everything is located and the workflow. I wouldn’t consider myself a developer, although I do have a reasonable level of understanding of HTML, CSS, PHP and some database and hosting infrastructure knowledge. Now that I have had time to fully appreciate the power of Wappler, I’ve decided to make the switch and am now in the process of rebuilding all of my Bubble apps in Wappler.

For anyone new to Wappler, I would highly recommend you take a good look through the Docs here and here. @Hyperbytes and @psweb have also made some free training videos here and here which I would highly recommend you check out.

Brian also made a video here on how to build a full SCRUD application in 15 minutes.

Welcome to Wappler :smile:

TL;DR
Wappler vs Bubble

Pros:

  • Fully responsive design with the Bootstrap 4 Framework
  • Full native mobile app support via Cordova and Framework 7
  • Active community with quick response from the team
  • Full code export, no tie-ins (to a degree)
  • Choose your own hosting provider and infrastructure
  • No per-app pricing!
  • GIT versioning
  • API connector & OAuth2 Support
  • Full control over session cookies & local storage
  • Use database (MySQL, MS SQL Server, PostgresSQL) or JSON data sources

Cons:

  • Only a 7-day free trial
  • Could do with more documentation and tutorials
  • No built-in database management tools
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Great to hear that you have made the transition and thanks for the mentions
As to the cons, documentation is getting better by the day and there may be some development soon regarding in Wappler database management features.

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Thanks @Hyperbytes, I’ve also been following your webinars which have also proven to be very helpful

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Thanks for the review @max_gb!
As Brian mentioned, a database creator/management tool is planned and will be integrated in Wappler, so it will make it easier to visually create your database tables :slight_smile:

Also, in addition to our documentation we are working on a more newbie oriented intro/getting started guide which explains the basics of Wappler, its UI and the workflows for building a web site/app, so it will make the on-boarding easier for new users.

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Another long time bubbler here. Came here to for the very same reasons.

Let’s see what I can build in “7 days”.

Have you ever considered increasing the trial? 9-5 jobs and parenting doesn’t allow much time for trialing :slight_smile:

One thing that I love is how you guys have an open discussion in the feature request categories. Creating the roadmap between everybody. Love it.

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A big “cons” for Wappler vs Bubble is sharing apps ability.

One thing that makes Bubble great is its community. Not saying it’s better or worse. What I mean is that you can actually create apps for free and provide access to the online editor so other users can see and touch how it’s done.

When someone wants to show how something is done they can easily do it in a free app and provide the editor link. You can show a simple component, a simple workaround or a full-fledged app.

What I see here is a lot of ping-pong in the forum between the user that knows and the user that wants to learn.

If you managed to create of a way to share projects between wappler users that would be amazing.

And…yeah…I know how difficult that would be as you don’t host the apps :slight_smile:
Just saying why I believe Bubble community is more learningcurve-friendly.

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Hey guys.

I started porting over from bubble in June and could not be happier. My first release will be in a couple weeks. I’m here mainly because of the performance, frameworks, flexibility, hybrid apps, and no lock-in.

If anybody wants a sandbox area to TEMPORARILY try out wappler, I’d be happy to setup a virtual server instance for each of you on my server with phpadmin access for database management.

And shoot me any questions you might have about the differences with bubble! It won’t be for everybody, but I’m not looking back.

–Ken

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Hey Jon!

Good to see you here. For app sharing, you definitely don’t have the same flexibility, but you do have access to the front end source code, so you can grab that and load in wappler. Not the same, but something.

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I’m seeing many of the Bubble users asking about the “Infrastructure” and “Infrastructure costs” - not sure what all the worries about “infrastructure” are all about?
That’s just the hosting plan you purchase and there are thousands of hosting providers and plans you can purchase. Even if you have hundreds of thousands of users (which i doubt the regular bubble user’s case is) you can just sign up for services like Amazon … which offer auto-scaling as per your needs.
And if that’s not your case (hundreds of thousands of users) a regular web hosting service running PHP/Mysql would be a really cheap and reliable option.

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Bubble is a PAAS so they are most likely referring to the managed hosting service. So no worrying about fixing downtimes, adjusting ram/cpu, etc.

They don’t have to worry about the geeky part as it’s included in the price.

I would say that Bubble is for less tech savvy people.

They probably don’t know that there are managed hosting companies out there :slight_smile:

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Ken, glad to see you are quite happy with the change!

Agreed. I think in the end, the database side will be the bigger hurdle until that gets integrated. Personally, I love having the direct control, but that’s because of experience with sql.

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Hosting companies and Amazon-like cloud services are making it really easy to manage this yourself, using user friendly control panels :slight_smile: I think people are just scared of seeing words like “server” or “database” and don’t actually know how easy it is to setup these yourself.

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Most web hosts that run something like cPanel are basically managed. I wonder if I just knock up a quick tutorial on getting started on a shared hosting provider would help the bubble community. Like how to find one how to use cPanel etc etc. Its really not that scary once you’ve done it once. Not to mention if you go for a reputable webhost then they help you out with support tickets anyway backups are usally included etc as well

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Have you guys thought about integrating a self contained W/MAMP stack with your editor?

That would make a great case in front of people that want to open their website in a browser. A big selling point of Bubble is that you make a change and just reload the website and you can see it as an end user would do.

Have you tried Bubble? If not you should definitely. They have bad things, but also very good ones that could be easily translated.

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Yeah. DB administration is not a big problem for me either.

Coming from Bubble…those Custom SQL queries sound soooo enticing. If you know what I mean and I know you do!

Anyway, the first thing I am going to do in my first Wappler project is to plug Forest Admin. I hate creating admin backends!

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Amen. I’m reducing a lot of manipulation of data, by simply using those custom queries to get the exact data needed.

And it is so nice to not worry about speed! Hundreds of records pulled from an external api and inserted into the database in a flash.

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If you continue I will have to buy the license without evaluating. :joy:

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Okay fine… How about the clear separation of server vs front end? As soon as I get my web version out, I can turn around and create a mobile app version that uses the same backend logic, but presents in framework7 for native app look and feel.

Just give them your money for a month and see where you land… But I agree, they would be well served with a thirty day trial.

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So no more when did this workflow action occurs tomorrow?

Ok. I will take your word for it and take away some McDonalds’ meals to compensate my financials!

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