April 2022 Summaries

Kieran, the author of the text, is a well-regarded leader in the no-code community and has been building in public since launching his Twitter account in 2019. He initially built spreadsheets to build apps, but after discovering Bubble, he was able to build full SaaS web apps with ease. Kieran's most exciting projects on Bubble include enabling users to add YouTube links or upload a video and record video comments directly into the browser, as well as building a CRM and messaging platform for community managers. He also built a no-code landing page builder called Yep.so. Kieran found resources such as the Bubble forum and videos by Gregory John at Buildcamp helpful in his learning journey. To advise others just starting out on their Bubbling journey, he suggests finding a motivational goal, building an app for a good cause, or solving a personal problem. Kieran has benefited from building in public, which has helped him build an audience of over 13K followers and motivated him to tweet more content.

David Law, founder of HonedHub.com, a professional learning and development marketplace application, built his platform using Bubble, a no-code tool, which enabled him to launch the app four months faster than projected. The simplicity of Bubble's point-and-click web editor allowed David to quickly build out a solution to connect freelance specialists with clients in the education sector. With HonedHub.com, users can find specialists in just four easy steps, post projects, and manage jobs, pay, and chat with freelancers through the app's safe and secure dashboard. David discovered Bubble after researching online development forums and courses, and was impressed by its shallow learning curve, great community, and speed of building out ideas. Since launching HonedHub.com, the platform has attracted many L&D freelancers across various specialties, and David plans to expand the app's features to become a destination for anyone seeking freelance instructional designers, classroom trainers, and other specialist learning services.

Pablo Heredia's career has been shaped by his desire to connect with others and share his learning process. He started building simple web products without coding skills, using no-code tools like Squarespace, until he discovered Bubble, which became his platform of choice. Joining LaunchMBA, a community of no-code builders, accelerated his progress and led him to participate in the Makerpad challenge, where he co-built an app with Janel Loi. Pablo's experience with Building in Public has helped him grow his knowledge rapidly, attract a growing audience on Twitter, and eventually quit his full-time job to pursue Bubble full-time. He now shares his knowledge and skills by teaching others through his newsletter, Bubble Makers, and continues to build web apps for AirDev and develop his own curriculum for aspiring Bubble builders. Pablo's advice is to learn in public, interact with others, and apply feedback to improve, rather than overthinking the process of building in public.

Building an Indie Hackers clone with Bubble involves creating a platform for users to create and share content, interact with each other, and participate in communities around specific topics. The process starts by designing the user interface and database schema, followed by building workflows that enable features such as post creation, group creation, and community engagement. Key components include a "new-post" page, a homepage that displays posts from users, and a repeating group element for displaying content on the groups page. As users interact with the platform, workflows are triggered to create new data in the database and update the user interface accordingly. By leveraging Bubble's visual design tool and pre-built database, developers can build a functional Indie Hackers clone without extensive coding knowledge, making it accessible to makers of all skill levels.

Bubble is a no-code tool that enables users to build web applications visually without code, cutting down development time and costs. It allows for faster iteration and scaling, making it ideal for bootstrapping startups and product ideas. With Bubble's platform, users can create custom, complex web products entirely visually—without code—for a reasonable monthly subscription. While some investors may be skeptical about no-code tools, the benefits of reduced cost, faster iteration, and scalability make Bubble an attractive option for many startups. The company has been profitable for years before raising funding, and its stability is ensured by its controlled growth strategy and public commitment to releasing its code in open source.

Gokul Madan, founder of the Vault, is a creator who was initially confused about how to utilize Web3 tools but learned hands-on by using Bubble to build his app, which helps creators mint and sell NFTs and provides exclusive content to their supporters. The Vault uses Web3 plugins on Bubble to make it easy for creators to add content and mint NFTs that can be sold to supporters directly on platforms like OpenSea and Rarible. Gokul's background is in analytics consulting, but he has always wanted to be an entrepreneur and discovered no-code tools like Bubble after listening to a podcast and building a rudimentary app in two weeks. He chose to build the Vault on Bubble because of its powerful point-and-click web editor and cloud hosting platform, which allowed him to learn Web3 technicalities by actually building something. The Vault has won several milestones, including being accepted into the On Deck No-Code fellowship and winning the "Best Bubble Build" award, and Gokul plans to grow it and get more creators on the platform, focusing first on tech and digital product creators.

Bubble is a platform dedicated to empowering individuals to create applications without coding, and it explores various tools like Backendless, a no-code platform offering both frontend and mobile backend-as-a-service features. Backendless provides three Cloud plans aimed at small businesses and individuals, along with two "Pro" plans for medium to large businesses that require scalable solutions. It offers a visual frontend builder and native mobile development tools, enabling users to build web and mobile apps or utilize it for mBaaS needs. Compared to Bubble, Backendless has fewer integrations and marketplace offerings but provides more dedicated SDKs for mobile and web developers. Alternatives to Backendless for building native or mobile apps include Adalo, Glide, and Thunkable, while Bubble is highlighted as a leader in the no-code movement, offering a powerful web editor and cloud hosting for building customizable web applications. Bubble promotes a strong community of builders, with over 500,000 users, and supports entrepreneurs by showcasing successful apps and offering a free plan to start building.

Platformative is a web app designed to make it easier for voters to compare candidates in elections by providing a direct, unbiased, and concise platform-focused approach to learning about their candidates. The app was built using Bubble, a no-code tool that allows users to build fully customizable web applications without extensive coding knowledge. Matt D'Avirro, the founder of Platformative, aimed to create an app that would help educate voters, reduce partisanship, and promote unity by presenting candidates in a neutral and policy-focused manner. The app has already gained traction with 13 candidates submitting their platforms and averaging over 100 unique users per day, with plans to expand to more elections in Canada and the US market in the future.

This guide is part of a four-part App Guide series covering resources for building popular app types, including marketplaces, CRMs, and dashboards. It focuses on using Bubble to build a social media app without code, offering tips and resources for makers looking to launch their own apps or learn what's possible with Bubble. The guide covers key concepts such as creating data structures, designing user interfaces, building features and functionalities, and launching the app. It also provides additional resources, including one-on-one coaching sessions, templates, and bootcamps, to help users get started with Bubble and build their social network apps.

Building a custom dashboard using Bubble's no-code platform can be achieved without traditional coding expertise, thanks to the evolving no-code landscape. Depending on data and end-use cases, dashboards come in various forms, and Bubble offers capabilities such as design flexibility, data visualization, and notification triggers. With pre-built integrations and plugins, users can easily connect with data sources and depict their data visually. The platform also allows for scalability, and users can hire agencies or take one-on-one coaching sessions to learn the basics. Key considerations include planning and designing the user interface and page structure, setting up data sources and structures, building out features with workflows and plugins, and launching the dashboard on a custom domain.

This guide is part of a four-part App Guide series covering resources for building popular app types, specifically customer-relationship management (CRM) tools, using Bubble's no-code web app builder. Building a custom CRM traditionally requires expertise in software engineering, but with Bubble, makers can create powerful software without coding knowledge. The guide provides tips and resources for users to build their own CRM apps on Bubble, including examples of successful CRM apps built on the platform. It covers topics such as data structure configuration, user interface design, feature building with workflows and plugins, launching the app, and iterating based on user feedback. The guide also introduces the benefits of using Bubble's no-code tool for building web apps without code.

This guide provides an overview of how to build a marketplace app using Bubble's no-code web app builder, covering topics such as data structure configuration, user interface design, and feature development with workflows and plugins. It also highlights the benefits of using Bubble for building marketplaces, including its ease of use, scalability, and integration capabilities. The guide includes examples of successful marketplace apps built on Bubble, as well as resources for learning more about the platform and getting started with building your own app.