First I want to let you know that Bubble is a great service with a lot of potentials, but it is very hard to understand.
I’m leaving bubble for four reasons:
Hard to use
Bubble bad design experience
Lack of Good video tutorials (e.g webflow rebuild common site each week)
Bad Design
I can do less with webflow, but it is:
Easy to learn with a lot of video tutorials of complete projects form start to end.
Easy to use/design build etc.
Good UI and UX for me as builder.
Comparing Webflow and Bubble is like comparing apples and oranges. Bubble is built for letting you build web applications, not static sites. If you just want to build a blog or a static web site, Bubble IS NOT the tool for you, and you probably will have a better time with a tool like Webflow. Webflow, at least today, is not build for data-intensive applications with a lot of user interactivity. Could it get there? Sure. Is it there now? Nope.
To pick at this a bit more, what about Bubble is hard to use for you?
What does “bad design experience” mean to you?
What are you looking for in video tutorials? Many members of the community make these, and do quite well with them.
What does “bad design” mean to you?
That’s good feedback, and definitely something for the Bubble team to focus on down the road for users that are looking for a more guided, straight-forward building approach.
Bubble has been a total game changer for both my business and my personal skillset as a ‘builder’. For my needs, I have found very few limits up to this point. Yes, limitations do exist, but I have found they are more visible with complicated backend functionality, application speed, and several visual elements (repeating group front-end, etc.).
If Webflow works well for you, then that is the right tool for you at this moment. If you end up needing more control and customization down the road, you’ll likely end up experimenting with Bubble again. Use the best tool for the job.
algorithms - that is, procedures for solving problems or performing functions
processes - sequences of steps to perform some function
data structures - ways of organizing and processing data (example, how to sort data)
These are all important elements of creating apps which Bubble does a great job compartmentalizing.
Another thing I like is that Bubble implements a strict MVC approach to development, forcing you to separate the UI from the logic and backend processes.
As @supernaturally mentioned, it’s been a game-changer for me too and I think it’s pretty epic… but it’s not for everyone.
I have issues understanding the processes and logic of the the webflows and I think the explanation of them could be better. That said, I think my bigger issue was too much Pink Floyd in the 80’s and 90’s… hahahaha, okay, back to being serious…
Joking haha but seriously, Bubble is super simple once you figure out the little tricks to improve your efficiency. I see a ton of people who don’t even take the time to learn how to use the Responsive Editor either.
Just checked out Webflow. Never heard of it before but it looks like Weebly, Wix, Squarespace, etc. Those applications are way more limited (on purpose) to appease their customer base.
I build simple sites and more complex apps on Bubble. Both work great! And Bubble’s list of limitations is getting smaller and smaller each day.
And lastly, the API Connector is the best thing ever!
@mousab.r from the series of responses here, I hope you’ll find that it’s worth revisiting your comments.
What’s missing from your post is what it is you’re actually trying to do. Would you mind sharing more in this regard.
If your goal a fairly static website, I would likely discourage you from using Bubble and encourage Webflow (or similar). However, if you’re goal is making an application with fairly sophisticated logic, then use Bubble.
I didn’t find it hard to use. The visual interface and workflow systems are extremely logical. There is a learning curve at first, but to be honest, the lessons on https://bubble.io/documentation are some of the best I’ve ever seen. It literally guides you though the process of the fundamentals.
Not sure what this means. Design is entirely up to what the user creates.
Thank you all for your reply, maybe I didn’t give it a time so I can get used to it.
I know that webflow is nothing to compare to bubble in anything, but all what am saying is that there are many things the could be way more better in term of design ( while building my app).
The learning curve of bubble is not to compare to webflow but it could be improved with tutorial made by the bubble team, for me I have hard time looking for remaking small app tutorial on youtube.
I’ll have some cool “How To” videos up in the next month or so. I believe there are some other great sources (you may have to spend a little money) that teach Bubble. You can find everything in this forum!
Maybe the Bubble community should reach out and work with the Webflow community to act as a bridge to integrate fast loading static pages with tons of SEO and interactivity, with a custom data base application. Webflow has a leg up on adding more advanced in SEO and produces fast-loading pages with a ton of scrolling effects. It would be cool if you could create a set of bubble widgets that integrate with webflow. A way to inject log in forms and repeating groups. I know there is a plug-in but is that only for users to log into Bubble? Now before I hear just put the app on a subdomain and use the webflow site on the main URL, let me bring it back to the page load speed, and the URL structure of bubble. Bubbles power would be to handle the mobile app and CMS capabilities and let webflow produce the front end stuff. Could something like this even be achievable?
Sorry guys but the page loading times are crucial these days, and I understand calling dynamic data will never compare to static pages. That is why you need the capabilities of both services to build some robust code free work environments.
Webflow is creating a bootstrap site with clean code that you can export. Offering a better user experience than Muse–as far as I can tell. As a web developer who’s clientele made up of small businesses that depend on affordable production, I am always looking for the best tools to get my clients the most value keeping within the budget. In my experience, there will never be one perfect tool, nor a cure all work around, but bridging platforms more intuitively could get you a lot closer. If the deal goes down, I get 3% that’s my consulting fee…lol. I don’t know. Just a lonely free lancer’s idea, ascending up from the trenches.
The challenge, as you’ve identified, is that any of the components loaded with Bubble are going to have the same speed issues that you do today. The rest of the page may load faster with Webflow, but anything relying on data hosted by Bubble is going to perform the same, possibly even worse.
The other thing you’ll have to deal with is the responsiveness of the Bubble elements. Not sure how the responsive engine handles it, and it may not work the same in Webflow. I haven’t tried it, but just things to consider.
I do agree that the webflow design tools are pretty slick. Personally, I’d love to do all my designing in a tool like Sketch or Figma, then import it into Bubble. A boy can dream!
The two are not comparable for me- Webflow builds quick and easy front end builds with a cms.
I would argue Squarespace is a better tool for simple websites with a cms. I actually believe 80% of websites can fit in a Squarespace template and recreating very basic sites from scratch is actually counterintuitive.
For the other 20% of online products with unique features I think Bubble is a game changer - a front-end/ back end full service programming tool that allows people to build MVP’s in an insane time frame.
Of these online products, again, I would argue that most are made up of 80% the same features most of which are covered by bubble and 20% real true innovation that requires an engineering team.
But I until I get there, i’m sticking with Bubble to launch all my MVPs and would recommend the same to any product builder out there.
On another note, I actually think that Bubble’s interface for designing UI in-browser is simpler and therefore better than Sketch etc. not to mention cutting that whole step out.
Thanks again to @emmanuel and the team for killing it.
Joining the others: I disagree (my only qualification being that the documentation could be more detailed). That said, if what you want to do can be done with Webflow, you might not need Bubble. I fiddled with Webflow and hit a brick wall when I realized that (at least at that time) there wasn’t a convenient way to perform workflows as in Bubble.
hahahaha, okay, back to being serious…
