I’ve jumped over from the Bubble community to learn more about Glide and get involved.
A bit about me:
My no code journey started in 2016 when I used Bubble to launch my first startup, raise venture capital and build a profit making company in the fashion space.
I create course content in my spare time over at buildstartup.co but I’m mostly a no code developer and startup coach presently.
I’ve helped build the tech and launch the careers of many other startup founders using no/low code tech.
I love the simplicity of Glide, it’s got me thinking a little differently about solving core problems. Excited to see what the future holds.
We think Bubble is pretty hardcode! Glide is young and not as powerful yet, but we hope to provide similar power with a better developer experience. We’d love your feedback as a Bubble pro as we do this.
Can you tell us what are the major differences or (pros and cons) you see in each platforms: bubble and Glide. This might give some insights to the Glide team for them to improve… although i am sure they know from their own perspective… but a user perspective would still be a good knowledge.
I am curious about their mobile app specifically coz i dont see that mentioned much
Thanks for the welcome. Bubble is indeed very powerful but it doesn’t come without it’s problems. I wish sometimes that it would give new non technical founders more training wheels instead of a blank canvas. On the plus side I feel it’s laid the foundations for the no code movement.
I’m personally enjoying the simplicity of Glide and the fact that the logic is done in sheets and not in the front end or workflow layer. It’s giving new founders/ dabblers a more structure, thoughtful approach to product development in a safe environment.
I’m looking forward to more dynamic logic in the future but certainly having fun at the moment.
Hey Nao. Bubble isn’t very mobile app focussed - their core strength is web applications. Bubble has had mobile focussed development on their roadmap since 2016 but nothing to show for it unfortunately. I’ve been building mobile responsive web apps and wrapping them in webview as a workaround. I know Glide is doing something similar but it feels slicker. I think Bubble are looking for a novel solution to the Apple store problem and won’t focus on mobile app development until they find a solution to this. i.e. one click deployment. Problem is, I don’t know if Apple will ever come round. We just need to find workarounds and push on. I admire Glide for this.
Bubble is a mature player in the no code space - you can literally build anything and their API capabilities are excellent. Bubble tech is divided into 3 sections - front end layer/ workflow layer/ database layer. It has a bit of a learning curve however and if you’re new to application development, it will still be an uphill battle to launch something decent without a bit of an understanding of application structure and UX.
Glide has pushed on regardless of the Apple store conundrum and I think the solution is fine. Every app I install is usually from an advert link or publication link and never from browsing the app store. On the tech side I’m enjoying solving problems in sheets. The main this is that (it appears that) new founders are pushing out decent working applications - even if it’s a little sandboxed. I’d say 90% of deployed Bubble apps are a little Frankenstein in nature due to new founders working on a blank canvas and trying to ship complicated products too quickly. I literally fell into this trap myself and built a career around trying to help solve this problem.
To summarise - two very different product offerings. Bubble is a blank canvas with logic executed on the front end and workflow layer. Glide is sheets logic with a sandboxed front end. I’m absolutely in love with Glide though, really pleased to join the community.
I have the same opinion. The way Glide allow us to build our logic in simple G Sheets is simply amazing. It opens door in the data driven app world, which is very close to the real business use cases.
And such data driven apps don’t usually have to be available in playstore, all the time as they can be shared using pub links.
Glide fits into this market very well… i just hope the backend or desktop based solution is also in the making… coz for every business, there has to be some sort of a backend to manage.
