Adalo vs Bubble: Which Nocode tool is right for you?

Both platforms facilitate the creation of web applications using Nocode. Bubble, with its visual development environment, stands out for its remarkable flexibility, enabling the creation of tailor-made applications, positioning it as one of the most complete tools on the market.

On the other hand, Adalo is renowned for its ease of use and intuitive approach, ideal for beginners or those looking to complete projects quickly. 

In this article, we take a comparative look at these two platforms, highlighting their respective functionalities and areas of application.

What is Adalo?

Adalo, created in 2018, stands out for its accessibility, enabling individuals and companies to design mobile and web apps without requiring extensive coding knowledge. Adalo offers options to customize app branding and design, manage content via its integrated database, and easily publish the app to any app store or custom domain, i.e. publish native apps.

What is Bubble?

Launched in 2012, Bubble is a full-stack platform dedicated to web application development, featuring a visual programming interface. It enables back-end and front-end design, and the creation of workflows. Its considerable flexibility enables the creation of customized applications according to users' needs.

User interface

Adalo's drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to design and build application interfaces. With its component library and over 50 ready-to-use templates, application creation is made easy, leaving users to focus on the overall design of the application. 

Bubble's visual editor, on the other hand, requires a steeper learning curve than Adalo. But once they've mastered it, users can make the most of its advanced features and numerous customization possibilities, with over 1,300 templates to choose from.

Features

Both offer integrations with various third-party services, such as Stripe and Airtable, increasing the versatility and efficiency of the applications created.

As far as Adalo is concerned, the platform also enables applications to be monetized via integrated purchases and subscriptions, offering a viable way for application developers to generate revenue. We'll go into more detail in the "Solution deployment" section.

On the other hand, Bubble stands out for its advanced workflow and action functionalities, offering greater flexibility for developers wishing to create more complex functionalities. The presence of an integrated database is a major asset, as it facilitates data management within applications.

Their marketplace of plug-ins provides additional functionality and integrations, making applications developed on Bubble extremely adaptable to diverse needs.

Customization

Bubble differs slightly from Adalo in terms of customization and flexibility. Adalo offers a good level of customization with its pre-built components and templates, but can be limited when it comes to creating complex logic or customized actions. This makes Adalo more suitable for users who prefer simplicity and ease of use to advanced functionality.

In contrast, Bubble offers great flexibility and is easy to customize. Users can create their own workflows, actions and integrations for more advanced functionality and a unique application experience. The tool also allows the use of JavaScript, HTML and CSS to develop new components, animations or functionalities not available as standard on the platform.

At Alegria.solutions, we are used to working with Bubble. We developed a customized application for CXB HUB, a customer satisfaction specialist. The aim was to create an innovative tool enabling client companies to carry out a large-scale strategic diagnosis. To achieve this, we developed an application offering an automated roadmap, significantly reducing the time and investment required by a factor of 2 to 3. The solution includes questionnaires, a scoring system, a customizable roadmap, user management and a dashboard for tracking progress. 

Learning curve

Adalo is ideal for application development, thanks to its ease of learning and intuitive use. Even users with no coding skills can quickly create applications.

For its part, Bubble requires a little more effort to master its functionalities, particularly for those wishing to develop customized workflows and actions. Nevertheless, the wealth of documentation, available tools and community support make it easy to learn and master the platform.

Resources and Community

Bubble's comprehensive documentation, diverse tools and strong community support make learning and problem-solving easy. The platform also offers a dedicated"How to build" section on its website, which provides detailed guides to creating applications, more comprehensive than its competitor.

As for Adalo, the platform provides its own"Adalo App Academy", an educational resource offering tutorials, lessons and tips to help users develop their app creation skills. Adalo also boasts a strong community.

Support

The main distinction is that Adalo offers e-mail support only for its paid subscriptions, while Bubble provides e-mail support for all its plans.

User authentication

Bubble also excels in advanced user management and authentication tools, which are crucial for applications requiring a high level of user personalization and security.

For Adalo, authentication can be implemented by integrating the Xano backend or external APIs to connect to other databases.

Scalability

Bubble is designed to be scalable. With the right data structures, it can handle up to a million users without compromising performance. However, it is crucial to structure your application correctly to maintain optimum stability.

Concerns about Adalo's ability to support scalability are alleviated thanks to its collaboration with Xano, a backend solution. Its integration with Adalo enhances the platform's scalability. Adalo is equipped with a database, but the use of Xano is essential to guarantee the application's scalability.

Solution deployment

Adalo simplifies the uploading of native applications directly to the App Store, Google Play or a custom web domain, offering an easy way to deploy applications.

Bubble is primarily designed for creating web applications, not native apps for iOS and Android. Although it can create high-performance web applications, converting them into mobile apps for publication on the App Store and Google Play requires additional aids, such as plugins. However, users can manage this process themselves with the right tools and guidance.

Nevertheless, in October 2023, Bubble announced the future possibility of creating native applications. For the time being, it is only possible to register on a waiting list for this feature.

Collaboration

Both platforms enable real-time collaboration. Bubble has relaunched itsversioning system, enriching collaboration functionalities. The platforms have also introduced the ability for administrators to define role-based permissions and control who can work on the application, on which versions and with which accessible features.

Price

Adalo offers both free and paid plans. Publishing to the App Stores is possible with the Professional plan. And integration with Xano is available from the Team plan.

Bubble offers a range of pricing plans, including a free plan as well as several paid options. Notably, it is from their "Growth" plan that Bubble offers collaborative editing functionality, enabling multiple users to work together on the same project, and two-factor authentication.
It is also essential to consider "workload units" (WU), a metric introduced by Bubble in April 2023. This metric is crucial to understanding how applications created on Bubble consume resources. WUs encompass a variety of actions performed by applications, including database operations, web interactions and workflows.

For those wishing to deepen their understanding of this concept, a detailed article has been written on the subject, offering an exhaustive analysis of WUs and their impact on application development with Bubble.

Comparison table

Conclusion

The choice between Adalo and Bubble depends on the requirements and complexity of your project. Choosing a fullstack approach, combining both front-end and back-end, as Bubble does, is advantageous if you're looking for an integrated solution that simplifies development. If you're looking for a fast, intuitive solution for simple applications, Adalo is the ideal choice. Its ease of use and simplified interface are ideal for beginners, or for those who want to get an application up and running quickly without getting bogged down in complex functionality.