Bubble — The most capable no-code platform for building real applications — metered in workload units, where your bill depends on what your app does rather than who uses it.
Short answer: Bubble is a no-code application platform priced on workload units. Free provides 50,000 units a month with one app editor. Starter is $59 a month billed annually with 175,000 units, Growth $209 with 250,000 units and two app editors, and Team $549 with 500,000 units and five editors. Enterprise is custom. Workload units measure server activity, so cost scales with what your application does rather than with headcount.
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Verdict at a glance
Overall rating: 3.5/5 ★★★☆☆
Standout: Genuine application capability. Bubble builds real database-backed software with workflows and logic, not a website with forms — nothing else no-code goes as deep.
Watch out: Workload units meter server activity, so an inefficiently built app costs more than an efficient one doing the same job. Your bill depends on your build quality.
Bubble is the most capable no-code platform available and the hardest to budget for. What it builds is genuine software: a database, workflows, conditional logic, API connections, user authentication and a responsive front end, assembled visually rather than written. For founders and internal teams who need an actual application rather than a website with a form on it, nothing else in no-code goes as deep. The pricing model is where care is required. Bubble meters workload units, which measure server activity — every database query, workflow step and API call consumes them. Free provides 50,000 a month with one app editor. Starter is $59 a month billed annually with 175,000 units, Growth $209 with 250,000 units and two editors plus premium version control, and Team $549 with 500,000 units and five editors. The consequence is unusual and worth stating plainly: an inefficiently built application costs more to run than an efficient one performing the same function, because it consumes more units doing it. Your bill is partly a function of your own build quality, which is an incentive most software does not create and a risk most buyers do not anticipate. Powerful, and genuinely difficult to forecast.
Quick facts
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ideal team | Founders and teams building real database-backed applications |
| Learning curve | High — genuinely a development platform without code |
| Setup time | Weeks to months for a real application |
| Free trial | Free plan rather than a trial |
| Free tier | Yes — 50,000 workload units a month, 1 app editor |
| Metering | ⚠️ Workload units measuring server activity |
| App editors | 1 on Starter · 2 on Growth · 5 on Team |
| Key limit | ⚠️ Build inefficiency directly raises your bill |
Overview
Bubble builds applications rather than websites. You get a database with defined data types, workflows triggered by user actions, conditional logic, API connections, user authentication and permissions, and a responsive visual front end — assembled through an editor rather than written in code. Marketplaces, internal tools, booking systems and SaaS products have all been built on it. Among no-code platforms nothing else attempts this depth, and that capability is the reason to accept its complexity.
Pricing meters workload units, which measure server activity: database queries, workflow steps, API calls and scheduled processes all consume them. The free plan provides 50,000 units a month with one app editor, a development version, API connector, six hours of server logs, the component library, web debugger and native mobile editor. Starter at $59 a month billed annually provides 175,000 units and adds recurring workflows, basic version control, two days of server logs, a live website with custom domain, five build submissions a month and three live app versions. Growth at $209 provides 250,000 units, two app editors, ten custom branches, premium version control, two-factor authentication and fourteen days of logs. Team at $549 provides 500,000 units, five editors, twenty-five branches, sub-apps and twenty days of logs. Enterprise adds custom hosting location, a customisable server and dedicated support.
The workload model deserves emphasis because it behaves unlike per-seat or per-record pricing. Your bill reflects what your application does, not how many people use it — so a poorly structured workflow that runs four database searches where one would do costs four times as much, indefinitely. That creates a genuine incentive to build efficiently, which is arguably healthy, but it also means two teams shipping functionally identical applications can pay very different amounts. Anyone forecasting Bubble costs should build a representative feature first and measure its unit consumption, because no published figure will tell you what your specific application will cost to run.
Key features
- Visual database — define data types and relationships without SQL
- Workflows — logic triggered by user actions and schedules
- API connector — available even on the free plan
- User authentication and permissions — built in
- Responsive editor — visual front-end construction
- Version control — basic on Starter, premium from Growth
- Custom branches — 10 on Growth, 25 on Team
- Native mobile editor — with on-device testing, from free
- Sub-apps — Team tier
- Custom hosting location — Enterprise tier
Pricing (as of 2026-09-24)
Model: workload-unit metering measuring server activity, plus app editor limits · Free tier: yes — 50,000 workload units a month, 1 app editor · Entry paid: $59/mo billed annually (Starter)
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50,000 workload units/month · 1 app editor · development version · API connector · 6 hours server logs · component library · web debugger · native mobile editor and on-device testing |
| Starter | $59/mo billed annually | 175,000 workload units/month · 1 app editor · recurring workflows · basic version control · 2 days server logs · live website with custom domain · 5 build submissions/month · 3 live app versions · unlimited OTAs |
| Growth | $209/mo billed annually | 250,000 units/month · 2 app editors · 10 custom branches · premium version control · two-factor authentication · 14 days server logs · 10 build submissions/month · 5 live app versions |
| Team | $549/mo billed annually | 500,000 units/month · 5 app editors · 25 custom branches · sub apps · 20 days server logs · 20 build submissions/month · 8 live app versions |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Custom workload units and app limits · custom hosting location · customisable server · dedicated support team · pay by invoice or ACH |
⚠️ Workload units measure server activity — database queries, workflow steps, API calls and scheduled processes. Your bill therefore reflects what your application does rather than how many people use it, and an inefficiently built app costs more than an efficient one performing the same function.
⚠️ Two teams shipping functionally identical applications can pay very different amounts depending on build quality. Before forecasting costs, build a representative feature and measure its unit consumption — no published figure will tell you what your specific application will cost to run.
App editor limits are the other constraint: 1 on Free and Starter, 2 on Growth, 5 on Team. A second person needing to edit the application means Growth at $209, which is a 3.5x step from Starter driven by collaboration rather than by capacity.
Ratings breakdown
| Criterion | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ease Of Use | 3.0/5 | Genuinely a development platform; the learning curve is real |
| Features | 5.0/5 | The deepest no-code application capability available |
| Value | 3.5/5 | ⚠️ Capable, but workload metering makes costs hard to forecast |
| Support | 4.0/5 | Good documentation and community; dedicated support at Enterprise |
Pros
- Builds genuine database-backed applications, not websites with forms
- Workflows, conditional logic and API connections without code
- Free plan includes the API connector and native mobile editor
- 50,000 free workload units a month for learning and prototyping
- Version control from Starter, premium version control from Growth
- Custom branches for parallel development from Growth
- Sub-apps at Team for agencies and multi-tenant scenarios
- Large community and established ecosystem of templates and plugins
Cons
- ⚠️ Workload units make costs genuinely hard to forecast
- ⚠️ Inefficient builds cost more than efficient ones doing the same job
- ⚠️ Only 1 app editor on Starter; a second requires $209 Growth
- Steep learning curve — this is development without code, not simplicity
- $59 Starter is expensive against simpler builders
- Team at $549 is a substantial step for five editors
- Server log retention is short below the higher tiers
Who it’s for
- Founders building a real application rather than a marketing site
- Teams creating internal tools with genuine database requirements
- Businesses needing workflows, logic and authentication without engineers
- Anyone whose requirements exceed what a simpler builder can handle
Who it’s not for
- Teams needing predictable monthly costs — workload metering prevents that
- Two-person teams unwilling to pay $209 for a second app editor
- Simple portal use cases — Softr or Glide are far cheaper
- Anyone wanting AI generation rather than visual assembly — use Bolt or v0
Best use cases
- Building a marketplace or SaaS product without engineers
- Creating an internal tool with real database relationships
- Prototyping an application on the free 50,000-unit tier
- Running parallel development on custom branches from Growth
- Measuring a feature’s workload consumption before forecasting costs
Integrations
Bubble’s API connector, available even on the free plan, is the integration story — it connects to essentially anything with an API, and a large plugin ecosystem covers common services. The important caveat is that API calls consume workload units, so integration-heavy applications cost more to run. Design your integration patterns with that in mind, batching where possible rather than calling repeatedly.
How it compares
| Bubble | Softr | Glide | Bolt.new | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid | $59/mo annual | $19/mo (Basic) | $19/mo annual (Explorer) | $25/mo (Pro) |
| Metering unit | ⚠️ Workload units | Users and records | ⚠️ Updates | ⚠️ Tokens |
| Free tier | 50,000 units/month | 10 users, 5,000 records | 1 app | 300K tokens daily |
| Application depth | ⭐ Deepest here | Portals on existing data | Spreadsheet-backed apps | AI-generated full-stack |
| Editors at entry paid | ⚠️ 1 | Included by tier | Included by tier | 1 |
| Cost predictability | ⚠️ Depends on build quality | By users and records | ⚠️ $0.02 per extra update | Token rollover once |
| Best fit | Full no-code web apps | Client portals | Internal apps from data | AI app generation |
Bubble prices are vendor-published and verified 2026-09-24. Softr, Glide, Bolt.new and v0 figures are from published third-party reporting where the vendors’ own pages could not be retrieved directly.
Alternatives
Softr is far simpler and cheaper if you need a portal over data you already hold. Glide builds internal apps from spreadsheets with less depth and less complexity. Bolt.new and v0 generate applications with AI rather than requiring visual assembly, which is a genuinely different workflow and often faster to a first version.
Recent changes
Bubble’s published plans meter workload units measuring server activity. The Free plan provides 50,000 workload units a month with one app editor, a development version, API connector, six hours of server logs, the component library, web debugger, native mobile editor, mobile debugger and on-device testing. Starter is $59 a month billed annually with 175,000 units, adding recurring workflows, basic version control, two days of server logs, branding, a live website with custom domain, five build submissions a month, three live app versions and unlimited OTAs. Growth is $209 a month billed annually with 250,000 units, two app editors, ten custom branches, premium version control, two-factor authentication, fourteen days of logs, ten build submissions a month and five live app versions. Team is $549 a month billed annually with 500,000 units, five app editors, twenty-five custom branches, sub apps, twenty days of logs, twenty build submissions and eight live app versions. Enterprise provides custom workload units and app limits, custom hosting location, a customisable server, a dedicated support team and payment by invoice or ACH.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Bubble cost?
Free provides 50,000 workload units a month. Starter is $59 a month billed annually with 175,000 units, Growth $209 with 250,000 units and two app editors, and Team $549 with 500,000 units and five editors. Enterprise is custom. Costs scale with workload units rather than with user numbers.
What are Bubble’s workload units?
A measure of server activity — every database query, workflow step, API call and scheduled process consumes them. That means your bill reflects what your application does rather than how many people use it, which is an unusual model and the main reason Bubble costs are hard to forecast from published figures.
Why do two identical Bubble apps cost different amounts?
Because workload units measure activity, not function. A workflow running four database searches where one would suffice consumes four times the units, indefinitely. Build quality therefore affects your bill directly — an incentive most software does not create, and a risk most buyers do not anticipate before their first invoice.
How should I forecast Bubble costs?
Build a representative feature on the free plan and measure its workload unit consumption, then extrapolate to your expected usage. No published figure will tell you what your specific application costs to run, because the answer depends on how you build it. Do this before committing to a tier rather than after.
How many people can edit a Bubble app?
One on Free and Starter, two on Growth and five on Team. That is the constraint most likely to force an upgrade for a small team — a second person needing edit access means $209 Growth rather than $59 Starter, a 3.5x step driven by collaboration rather than by any capacity need.
Bubble or Softr?
Bubble if you need a genuine application with its own database, workflows and logic. Softr if you need a portal over data you already hold in Airtable or a similar source — it is far simpler, cheaper and faster to build, but it cannot do what Bubble does. Match the tool to the depth of what you are building.
Is Bubble worth learning?
If you genuinely need an application and have no engineers, yes — nothing else in no-code goes as deep, and the community and template ecosystem shorten the path considerably. But it is development without code rather than simplicity, so budget weeks rather than days, and expect the learning curve to be real.
Sources
- Bubble — official pricing page
- Costbench — Softr pricing 2026: 5 plans from $59-$323/month
- Adalo — Glide pricing 2026: plans from $25/mo, per-user costs explained
- Costbench — Bolt.new pricing 2026: free, $25 Pro, $30/member Teams
- Costbench — v0 by Vercel pricing 2026: 5 plans from free to $100/month
Compiled from public sources; last verified 2026-09-24. Pricing is subject to change — verify with the vendor. Ratings reflect editorial opinion based on documented capabilities, published pricing, and aggregated user reviews. DigiJaws does not accept payment for review placement or rating.
Bubble Review (3.5/5): Pricing & Verdict (2026). DigiJaws, 2026. https://digijaws.com/reviews/bubble-review/