External DB or Bubble DB?

Need help Database
1

Hi all,

we are currently in the MVP phase and are not sure whether we should go with an external DB (like Airtable or SQL) or the internal Bubble DB.

At the beginning we would probably handle smaller amounts of data (like >50.000). Data would be mainly pulled via an API call (just one API) that the clients initiate. But the amount of data to pull could increase rapidly in short periods of time.

My concern is that once something is built outside of bubble, the migration back to bubble will be hell, considering timeouts and issues for clients.

My developer is inclined to go for an external DB (i.e. Airtable). Also, the enterprise tier for Airable might be also expensive in the long term.

I have skimmed through the forum but sensed different opinions.

How have you tackled this issue? What are your opinions on the “External vs Bubble DB” question?

Looking forward to your responses,

coup

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I used a combo of both. For 80% of my data, such as customer information, text stored etc I use it on Bubble. But we host a fair bit of audio, which i’ve moved over to an S3 instance and just used the plugin. Works really well, and I can save the S3 file links inside my Bubble DB (which is how it works anyway if you were to store files on Bubble). Much more cost effective that way.

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Hi all sorry to bump this older thread but are there any new updates in regards to performance or other pros/cons of using internal vs external db? I love airtable but if Bubble performs better with its own db, I might as well stick with it. I anticipate having lots of concurrent users at certain days and times if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance