I am taking issue with Wappler because although it looks like the perfect tool to create web apps with no or low code well read on…
Wappler looks really enticing, I have personally done front-end in the past and also created a weather app using vanilla JS so I have a basic understanding of how things work under the hood (although I am not a pro by any means).
Can somebody answer my question?
If Wappler is such a great tool and has these amazing functionalities why is it SO undermarketed while it’s been live for the last 3 years?
Their YouTube channel has so little views so little content, in some videos comments are disabled (now that’s a warning sign right there) and it doesn’t look like somebody is putting any serious effort to market it but at the same time they have dedicated so many hours days months and years to build the actual thing. Strange.
What’s going on, what’s the problem, Wappler has been around for the last 3 years but it’s non existent on the internet, it only has a website (with spelling errors in places…) and their story is a bit vague and is repeated again and again in a few areas on the internet and there is no real representation, no faces, no people promoting the thing, it’s like it operates in the shadows by shy people who don’t want to be in the front.
Why don’t they get a couple of people to promote such big software?
Obviously you understand my frustration because although Wappler looks like a great tool to create powerful web apps, well you just can’t trust it because the company is totally faceless and you don’t know if it’s going to be there (granted you can export your app which obviously makes things better but still).
I would really like to get into it but I think I will have to go with Webflow + Zapier + Airtable + Etc + Etc to create what I want just because of the reasons above.
Thanks for reading and all thoughts, opinions, suggestions are welcome.
Marketing cost money, lots of money. Wappler spends their time and energy on developing the software itself. Just hang around a bit and you will get all the answers to your questions.
I was a long time user of tools like webflow and bubble, and then I discovered Wappler a couple months ago.
I understand what you mean as everyday I’m asking myself how it’s possible that Wappler is so unknown when it’s 1000x better than bubble, which almost everyone knows about.
For now, I just see it as a selfish advantage for me as it feels almost like an unfair advantage to use Wappler when competing with people that use tools like webflow or bubble.
You can literally do everything with Wappler, and the clean code that it produces means that you’re building something real, scalable, with good foundations.
I wouldn’t go back to tools like webflow or bubble even if they would pay me to use them.
The team behind Wappler is the same team that have been building plugins for Dreamweaver for around 20 years. That’s how I first learned about it having used DMXZone over the years.
There’s definitely a huge amount of space for marketing but that would cost a lot of money and they are investing everything in the product. I’m assuming there are enough users to make it a financial success and there’s probably the thinking that more users means more support which means less time developing so, as long as there are enough to make it successful, there isn’t the need to spend a fortune getting more.
I kind of like it being quite niche as it gives me a good advantage as a user of it. But that doesn’t really answer your question.
I have no affiliation or inside knowledge, it’s purely my take on it as a long time user. I invested in their Indigogo campaign after realising the potential and haven’t looked back.
It’s truly unique and unbelievably powerful. Absolutely worth the investment both in license and time.
Hi @Savy,
It's not by intention - not having a section on the website showing our photos, we're too busy developing the app that we probably forgot to add this on our website. Maybe we should improve this
The team behind Wappler is the same that is behind the biggest Dreamweaver Extension producer - DMXzone, which we've been running for almost 21 years.
I can assure you, there is nothing shady behind Wappler or the team.
Actually there are a few photos of (part of our team) from the conferences we visited on our Facebook page
We're a self funded / bootstrapped company, and marketing is actually not our main focus indeed. We don't have a huge team of marketing text writers and advertisers as the companies funded with millions by investors.
I was not aware of that, maybe send me links to these videos so i can fix this.
Not at all. You must have seen companies that get too big and self destruct?
I love the fact that I, and all the users, have a direct line to the team, the boss, the developers, everyone. They probably know me by name and I can give feedback, requests, etc. and they always listen and respond. Take Adobe as the opposite example - if I contact them about anything, I have almost zero confidence I'll get a reply which relates to my original question and there definitely won't be an update containing a feature I requested.
Listen, it might be me, it's hard to trust faceless products or organizations (I don't use Facebook sorry),
faceless I mean by not seeing anybody anywhere at all, neither Youtube or website, no bad intentions here.
Plus no other Youtube channels talk about Wappler on Youtube, when you search Wappler on Youtube only your channel comes up, it's 2021 going to 2022 i don't know...
And then you have the 7 day trial which alright thanks a lot but how would one manage to spend enough time to start trusting the product and to decide to put all the time is required to learn it in 7 days?
I don't know, the business model confuses the heck out of me, no disrespect it's just how I honestly feel.
As long as Wappler continues the way it does it is a matter of time to be widelly known and accepted. First of all the concept of low code is still very misunderstood by the majority of Project Managers. Low code will keep on growing as a concept for development and with it Wappler will do. Secondly, in a world where WP is still considered as number 1 the way to go for web development, there is still some time needed so that people understand how they get trapped in a system that at the end makes their life harder and adds big costs to daily maintenance and techincal support.
I’ve been designing for several years now. I first come across these guys round 6 years ago with DMX extensions for Dreamweaver. I have been a client of theirs ever since.
Trust me they are certainly not faceless in anyway shape or form. The support from @Teodor@George and @Patrick is second to non…I spent years with issues from Dreamweaver and ZERO support from the multi Billion Dollar Adobe.
Then along came Wappler (I just wish I could of afforded to back it from day 1) At first I was like you and a little unsure about it, but I though I would give it a go. At first I hated it, but then I came to love it once I had learnt about it and how to use it.
I personally have not touched Dreamweaver for years and I would NEVER go back to it.
The community for Wappler is like nothing you have ever seen, the support and advice is unreal and available 365 days a year.
Personally Wappler gives me an advantage over other designers and my productivity has gone through the roof.
You don’t have to understand a business model to appreciate the product.
marketing costs money and that is recovered from either investors (which will cause for the recipient to chase stupid stuff other than building good software) or from customers (no, thank you, do not want to be paying more that what we are now).
good people will be drawn to it gradually and someday it’ll burst like so many other success stories out there.
but yeah, being active on twitter or linkedin - sharing the story a bit more won’t hurt for sure for Wappler.
and might i add - happy to pay what we are paying right now. its great value. just dont want to be paying more than that just so 100 people can see the ad and 98 ignore it.
Yeah as an outsider these are starting to make some sense now especially when investors come in that’s a different beast, you lose your freedom as a software creator and you become more of like a servant to these folk even if the software and the users have to suffer for it, you have to “reach” quotas and stuff, yikes.
Maybe they are not everywhere doing podcasts and writing press notes. But I can assure you they are real and are twice as professional or more than the people that build those products you mentioned.
You will figure this out(that they are real) if you are able to join them in future conferences and have a beer with them. For the professionalism just stay around here and you will notice.
There are only missing one thing to make them perfect. Finding a way to release their stuff open source and still make the profit they deserve while keeping the contributors engaged and happy.
If they figure that out this software will change the world and they will get all the free marketing they need.
But even to accomplish something like that, going from proprietary to open source, requires a lot of time and dedication. Knowing these guys, Open Source is just a matter of time and a bit of wishful thinking on my side
On the other hand, if they never decide to go down that road I will still support them because there is actually nothing out there than can compete with them in product, support or price.
Edit: However, if someone comes around that provides the same and is open source then my heart will break in one thousand pieces. Only @Teodor sending huge amounts of beer could tip the scales.
Edit2: All this love and support reminds me that I have to renew my subscription. There ya go. Go treat yourselves with some beer guys.
@Savy I’ve been involved in another project that has consumed a lot of my time and I haven’t been able to work on Wappler projects. I took the financial decision to keep wifey happy to cancel my subscription for a couple of months. Now I just subscribed again and I can continue where I left it. My apps were still online and working for the users and now I get to develop cool new features. During those months a user raised a bug. As I knew how to fix it quickly I just opened the file in Microsoft Visual Code fixed it and committed the change to my repo. With what other product out there can you do that?
One of the things I’ve learned in business is that everyone has their own motivation.
Some want to be famous and earn millions. Those people get funding and shout from the rooftops. It doesn’t mean they create the best product. It just means they are ambitious, noisy and maybe greedy too. They can have a half decent product and a big marketing budget and make lots of money.
Others want to quietly do what they love, and do it really well. They have to have a totally amazing product, as their only marketing is word of mouth. The internet has now enabled millions of people to do this, and when you stumble across such a company it’s feels like you have struck gold.
What is interesting with Wappler is that many of us are using it to create our own businesses as App Entrepreneurs. I’m close to launching mine, so this balance of marketing and development is very real right now.
The one things many Wappler new users would like to see is more investment in training materials, and I personally think that creates a barrier-to-entry for complete no-coders… but that is the choice of the team in where to spend their time.
Their direct support and creation of the community here has been a complete inspiration to me, and is a model I will be following as my own product hits the streets.
So in short @Savy, in my humble opinion, you have hit gold!
just so 100 people can see the ad and 98 ignore it.