Welcome Bubblers! (An honest review)

Coffee Lounge
#123

Thanks @JonL and everyones opinions. Thay are really helpful. I guess my next question is:

Does Wappler want to go in the same direction as Bubble, make it easier for non coders? Does Wappler have this in their road map. As a non coder I think my best bet is to start with bubble and then if my MVP goes well than move to Wappler in the future, you never know, I might have money to have a coder in the team. Yes, I would have to rebuild it, but thats a good thing if my MVP goes well, right? Un less of course Wappler have plans to make Wappler easier for non coders into their road map, than it might make sense to stay and wait.

So I guess my question is: Does the Wappler team plan to take Wappler into the same direction as Bubble, making it easier for non coders. I think it would hugely benefit, I think there are many people like my self, that see huge potential with Wappler and the freedom it has, but feel its to complex to use still for non coders.

Thanks

1 Like
#124

@mangooly indeed it is in our roadmap to make Wappler even easier for new users, integrating some features to help the so called ‘non coders’ build workflows easier and more visually.
More news about this and some other exciting new features are coming soon, so stay tuned!

8 Likes
Major new features coming soon
#125

Thanks for the quick reply @Teodor. Will stay tuned.

1 Like
#126

Ooh, I like being teased :wink:

1 Like
#127

So it’s one week since I purchased the license and I already finished my first full page. The login page :slight_smile:

Everything in frontend and backend is working peachy.

It’s a simple cover login page that you can see in any other BS4 theme.

But I remember when I started with Bubble that I needed at least 2 to 3 months to get something looking this good and behaving correctly for all viewports.

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Thanks for sticking with standards guys!

16 Likes
#128

Looks great @JonL! Although I’m spending a bit more time learning and setting up server actions and data bindings, my time spent designing with Wappler makes up for this, especially when compared to Bubble. Struggling with viewports is a thing of the past with frameworks like Bootstrap.

3 Likes
#129

multiple people from our team work simultaneously on the same project on wappler.

how we achieve this:

  1. have a onedrive folder with the main wappler project folder in it.
  2. keep ondrive syncing on all computers where wappler project is to be used.
  3. with synced code, working on same project is possible.

what is not possible - or at least we haven’t tried - is working on the same page at the same time.
in our experience we don’t need that. we just ask the other member to close the file and wait couple seconds for the updated file to sync over onedrive.

#130

Why don’t you guys use GIT? It’s meant for your use case.

1 Like
#131

we use git as well.

but find that onedrive auto sync is faster for sharing the progress with the team.

#132

I’m a long time bubble user that has decided to convert to wappler. I like your model better. You have done a nice job. There are a lot of things bubble does well, but I believe they made a critical mistake in building their platform around this notion that they had to lock people into it. The recent price increase is due to cornering the visual coding market, and it is a smart business move - in terms of generating more profit, but the unintended result is that it forced a lot of bubblers to second guess whether being locked into a plan that they have no control over is a smart business decision. Wappler seems to be in a position to fill that void. However, when I started using bubble three years ago I had zero coding skills. JS and Python seemed impossible to learn. I was overwhelmed. I have decent coding skills now, and setting up a server is not a difficult task. But I think a lot of visual programmers - whether they use bubble, or wix, or shopify, most of them are in the same boat that I was in. They might be able to make an A record and point it to a server, but that is about it. So for those people, I recommend that you provide hosting as an option. Because this platform is much more complex than bubble.

2 Likes
#133

Welcome @xander!

I think that is a logical thought, but I hope Wappler does not go that direction. Just consider how many resources Bubble is currently putting into dealing with their hosted infrastructure. They end up fighting fires due to hosting, instead of developing features for the editor. It is exacerbated by the fact that they roll changes several times per day on the production environment causing apps to behave differently. I could go on, but in short I hope this doesn’t happen – two different businesses.

EDIT: Now what I would support, is more documentation/examples on how to setup the server environment in support of Wappler. Having spent too much time this week setting up drivers for a few servers, I would have found value in that myself!

5 Likes
#134

Can’t agree with you enough. Dealing with infrastructure consumes too many resources.

However I think if Wappler explored that option in the future it would easier for them than Bubble. It’s clear that Bubble is poorly optimised and that is because they have reinvented the wheel too many times to abstract people from true coding. i.e. scheduled workflows as loops

I see Wappler more in the Webflow league of managed hosting. I am assuming that webflow produces friendly code compared to Bubble and that probably makes their hosting platform easier to maintain.

But I do prefer that they focus on development and deployment tools.

It would be great to have certain integrations with the main actors in cloud hosting. Something similar to serverpilot plus one-click deployments from GIT repositories.

So they don’t have to focus on the servers. You plug in some API/SSH keys in Wappler and with a click of a button you have a server deployed, linked to the domain you set and with your code deployed.

3 Likes
#135

Yep, that makes a lot of sense. That would definitely help make Wappler accessible to more people.

1 Like
#136

Suitable hosting is available at https://wapplerhosting.com

5 Likes
#137

Hi,
I am in a situation very similar to Mangooly, but perhaps more confused.

I want to build a website that is part course, part web app. The app side of things I want to gather information similar to a personality assessment, but then return results that have been ‘worked’ on. To explain, I have built what I want (roughly) in MS Excel. Then I want users to be able to store this and compare old to new as they keep using the product (or service) for years to come.

What I want to build is a membership site that has the three parts:

  1. Landing page, free stuff, blog, etc
  2. Course
  3. App

After reading ‘Unscripted’ (M J DeMarco) I want to ensure I retain control, this is a primary concern. I am also a bootstrapper and like Pieter Levels (book ‘Make: Bootstrappers Handbook’), I want to be able to create, understand, and keep running my own business website creation.

I have never coded except for AFL (Amibroker Stock Market Charting Software) and some stuff for a few months way back in 1991 (Machine Code and C+??).

I’m so confused, I want to launch something this year, I’m working hard for no income right now but still have a family to support. (old new dad).

I’ll attach a PNG of a Xmind Mind Map that is not complete of details, but you’ll get an idea of where I’m at in trying to understand all of the options.

No%20(or%20Low)%20Code%20Development%20Platforms
No (or Low) Code Development Platforms.png2489×3965 866 KB

So, my understanding of all that stuff that makes up a website is poor, so Wappler is going to be a hell of a learning curve that just maybe takes too long. Can I use Visual Lansa (no idea what it costs)? What about MS PowerApps?

The Static pages and the course part of my website are simple enough to do with an LMS (I was settled on LearnDash on Wordpress), but maybe not a great idea. Shit I’m so confused with all of the options.
I don’t even know what to ask anymore, except…help? Can I, should I, use Wappler?

Thanks in advance.
Baz

1 Like
#138

Wappler is the way you go. It uses modern standards, can even make native apps and run on your windows, gives you full control and lets you implement or change code. If you know how to make a proper database and I mean with all his 1:n logic, (btw I’m sure you know with C skills :smile:) then building a frontend with wappler in such short time is fun! Wappler isnt a hell of a learning curve, but yes its not for someone without html and db basics. With most apps you are completely betting on a company and not free to move or add smth. Wappler projects are working independent and you are in most of these software solutions locked in on some platforms. Give it a try, wappler is mindblowing!

All possible. The last point with „App“ I‘m really not a fan cause I never liked native Apps. I dont understand why people are downloading apps for smth where they can have a web project immediately visible and updated, without the hassle of using local phone space and annoying manual update. Of course some native functions like „notification“ is not easy to implement with html, or not possible yet…? But with all these different screen solutions I dont see why people are porting and coding each time for a new platform like android, windows, ios… blackberry? haha. Web and SaaS is the future, but yes sometimes for some functions you sadly need a „native“ app.

1 Like
#139

Thank you Freddy_Blockchain,
I’m afraid you presumed I am better than I am. I was about 17 or 18 years old, sitting up the back being an idiot the whole class (3 months of an electronics degree) of c+; I think I may have even failed the exam.

I have enjoyed learning the basics of MS Excel to create a few basic app type files but did not even get so far as using Visual Basic or Macros. AFL (Amibroker Formula Language) was easy enough to get the basics right but I never became hugely effective nor efficient at this.

If I was to use Wappler I am guessing it would be a hell of a lot of learning and work to set up a great looking course compared to LearnDash on Wordpress?
But Wordpress, I understand can turn into a mess and does have its own learning curve to maintain all of the add-ons. And wordpress will not give me a native app experience, the closet thing being a good form, linked to a spreadsheet…or something like that??

But am I better off learning (and using) Carrd and Typeform, or Webflow / Webwave? Or maybe EasyLMS and MS PowerApps? But then all these are lock-ins, yes? Maybe just to get my site up and running?

Am I able to understand all I need to in order to create a website with Wappler that will be a Blog, Landing page, Course (LMS), membership, and native windows/mac app (or is it just web browser?), and do so without it taking me more than 6 months to learn everything I need to know about databases, security, etc, etc?
I really want to have some product/service launched this year or early next? I’m working on borrowed time (savings $).

Again thanks to anyone that offers any advice or input. I am open to be put in my place if that is what needs to be done, and also ready to put in effort to learn what I need to.
Cheers,
Baz

#140

If you are on borrowed time I would suggest you use Bubble and forget about the lock-in for the time being. You will probably be able to launch your MVP quicker.

Your priority should be getting clients as soon as possible. Once you get some paying clients I would suggest you switch to wappler and start rebuilding.

Do not overcomplicate your Bubble app and don’t add unnecessary features as I can’t stress enough that as soon as you get clients you should come to Wappler and rebuild to retain full control over your code.

Wappler uses web technologies that scale way better than Bubble. Also, by the time you are ready to switch to Wappler I am pretty sure the team will already have implemented a nice set of friendly features for those of you without a technical background.

2 Likes
#141

Thank You JonL! I shall look into that suggestion and report back.

#142

It is just a suggestion as you say.

Another option is to pour all your time and effort into Wappler from day 1. It is time well invested.

You can build with Wappler every thing you can in Bubble and then some more. Dont forget that :slight_smile: