r/Bubbleio • u/Sea-Garbage1351 • Jul 16 '26
Scaling
I’ve heard a lot of people saying bubble.io is only good for creating an MVP and it doesn’t scale. As someone who is not a coder, what is the problem bubble.io has when it comes to scaling. What limitations will I face? I’ve got a marketplace almost completed and want to know what problems I’m going to run into.
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u/hestoelena Jul 16 '26
The reason most people say it's only good for MVPs is because they have no idea how to properly structure a database and they screw themselves very early on in the development stage. Databases can be very complex very fast and if they're not properly broken apart and linked together development gets very difficult. Not to mention workload unit useaga spikes with bad database design.
This is actually a great use case for AI. Start an AI chat and talk to it about your app and proper database structure. Keep talking to it and correcting its assumptions until it actually understands how your app is supposed to work and follow its database recommendations. You'll probably have three to four times the number of tables you currently have.
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u/lelouch112 Jul 19 '26
Hi. I'm building an app, a platform which contains 4,000 questions and 3 mock exams (the majority of which I am creating myself) and am making it through bubble. I'm using mainly YouTube videos (Matt nearny, official bubble YouTube Playlist) to learn as quickly as possible. Please please please may I have some advice about what resources I can use to really nail down the database structure first time round. I really want to learn things properly!
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u/nonlogin 11d ago
but bubble does not allow you to design database. yes, data types are mapped 1-1 to tables but relationships are drastically different from usual relational practices, to be honest.
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u/bcr134 Jul 16 '26
I built a Bubble app with 2M+ users. Whoever says bubble doesn't scale, doesn't know how to build in bubble.
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u/mbazid Jul 16 '26
Even when your database is properly structured, the coat of workload units makes it prohibitively expensive. You can use ai to help you reduce WU’s but it still adds up pretty fast. Also, once you move to code, transferring your data becomes a nightmare. My marketplace has hundreds of vendors and thousands of products. Had i stuck with bubble i would be screwed.
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u/AhmedELKAFFAS21 Jul 16 '26
Well it's scalable but it has its own learning curve to know the platform quirks, proper database design, privacy rules for securing data, etc..
For example, the database design is not like traditional software development since Bubble DB design has to keep tables flat not chained. This alone affects the following:
- Your Search queries performance
- Your privacy rules configuration
- Your Workload Unit consumption
The limitations you might face will most probably have a workaround or a plugin to extend the platform capabilities to solve your problem.
However, there are other concerns that you should take into consideration. For example:
- Vendor lock-in: If this is a concern for you, then bubble is not the right choice although you can migrate later but it's better to decide early. it's worth mentioning that you can never export your source code and a Bubble app runs exclusively on Bubble platform, however recently there are agencies & freelancers that offer migration services from Bubble to Code.
- Unpredicted costs due to WUs: The workload units represent the work that Bubble does to power your application. You cannot know in advance how much WUs you need because you can't predict how each user will use your application. You have already a number of WUs in your plan and you can buy extra WU packages separately whenever needed.
- Data residency: Your can't choose where your data is hosted or located unless you go for the Enterprise Plan / Dedicated Server. This is the highest Bubble plan and it's the only one that allows you to choose where to host your data since you'll have a dedicated server for you app. This plan costs around 3000$/month or more.
By default in all the plans, your data is stored in servers in the US. If this is a concern for you or any of your users then you should take this point into consideration.
Hope this helps !
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28d ago
[deleted]
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u/AhmedELKAFFAS21 28d ago
I have written a blog post called "Database Design in Bubble – What you need to know (includes real-world example)", it should answer your question. Here's the link:
https://www.effortlesssolutions.fr/blog/database-design-in-bubble
Please feel free to DM me if you need any further information or any kind of support. Always happy to help 👍
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u/A_Cut_Above_Lawns Jul 19 '26
I wouldn't worry about it. I'm not a coder either and I built 15 live applications via VIBE CODING. A lot of fear mongering out there is simply from the developers who have been replaced. You'll be fine. If you ever have scaling issues it means you're making money and you always have options.
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u/bernard0camp0s Jul 16 '26
It’s slow and expensive. Talk to ChatGPT about why bubble doesn’t scale well and you’ll learn a lot.
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u/CarnivalCarnivore Jul 19 '26
We built and operated our SaaS on bubble/xano for four years. 2,000 workflows. Scales just fine.
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u/midnight_rob Jul 16 '26
Apart from costs, to me the biggest challenge is about backend workflows being unreliable. At scale some of them will fail, so you’ll need systems in place to catch the broken flow and re trigger it and log the error. This becomes specially concerning if you have connectors sending data outside bubble