What can no-code do? 5 impressive examples with Bubble.io

Although no-code is on the rise in one form or another in all industries without exception, the prejudice that no-code is "just kids' stuff" still persists in some people's minds. We want to do away with this - and we could hardly do it with a better tool than Bubble.
Published by
Adriano Villa Bascón
Created on
June 21, 2023

"You can't build complex applications with no-code, let alone entire business models." 

Although no-code is gaining ground in all industries without exception, the prejudice that no-code is "not yet good enough" still persists in some people's minds. We want to put an end to this - and there is hardly a better tool than Bubble.

Bubble is an all-rounder among no-code tools: Web applications and apps can be built with the tool in no time at all - and with an almost endless number of plugins and the ability to connect to APIs, the possibilities with Bubble are virtually unlimited.

We have selected 3 remarkable examples from our VisualMakers community and 2 projects from our Product Studio that are built with Bubble.

Homerockr - All tasks around the house always in view

Homerockr helps homeowners to keep track of all maintenance tasks around their home. This not only makes life easier for homeowners, but also contributes to maintaining the value of the property and the security of their own four walls. 

The app is not just a to-do list for maintenance tasks. The core of the app is the task manager, which allows users to put together their own individual maintenance plan from over 50 common tasks. This creates a visual overview with information on when action is required. Homeowners are also reminded of to-dos, for example to clean the guttering, check the fire alarm or check the heating pressure.

In addition to the Task Manager, there is also the refurbishment planner. Users can use this to plan the refurbishment requirements for all parts of the building. This offers an automatic calculation of when action is required as well as cost examples for better budget planning.

Homerockr is the work of Carsten Bohling. The idea arose from a personal need: better planning for the maintenance of his own four walls. When Carsten couldn't find anything suitable, he decided without further ado to build this solution himself. No-Code makes it possible.

When asked why he decided to work with no-code, he says

"As I had a strong marketing background and hardly any developer know-how, the decision was either to learn to code or go with a no-code solution. The AI hype was in the starting blocks and so it seemed quicker and easier to go with no-code. To get started, I did an accompanying course and looked for 2-3 templates on Bubble that I could use as a rough guide."

Carsten opted for Bubble because, in addition to its many functionalities, it has a very large and active community and an extensive plugin library. 

Homerockr is available as a desktop app, iOS app and Android app. 

Click here for the podcast episode with Carsten.

Swimmondo - the pool configurator

If you are a home and garden owner, then you may have already come across the Cologne-based company Swimmondo. The company offers personalized solutions for the construction and configuration of swimming pools. Customers can choose between different pool types, sizes and additional equipment options to create their individual dream pool. Their solution supports both DIY and professional pool construction, offering detailed e-learning instructions and personal project support. Swimmondo focuses on transparent pricing, with options for direct payment or financing.

Axel Altweger - the co-founder of Swimmondo - actually only joined the company back then to digitize the website. But he quickly realized that there was a huge business opportunity in this area.

Installing a pool is certainly not easy in itself. But many of the difficulties start with the research. If you want to find out who builds pools, how much it costs and how long it takes, you will realize that this process is often complicated and non-transparent. Swimmondo has simply built its own solution to this problem. 

Axel and his co-founder iterated with various tools until they decided on Bubble. Their website runs on WordPress, but the heart of Swimmondo, the request configurator, is built in Bubble.

Once potential customers have answered a few key questions on the website in a multi-step click flow, they are matched with an employee in the next step. The customer then goes through further aspects of their dream pool with the employee using a 3D configurator embedded in Bubble. And if everything is right, they can get started.

Thanks to Bubble, Axel and his co-founder were able to quickly build a product that has the potential to revolutionize an entire industry without writing a single line of code. They now employ Bubble developers full-time and are constantly developing the product further. 

Swimmondo was also able to publish a mobile app with Bubble. 

Although Bubble does not offer the option natively, Swimmondo was able to publish a mobile app in the app stores thanks to the Bubble Development Kit (BDK) so that it can be downloaded natively to smartphones. You can download the app here. 

We spoke to Axel in the podcast. You can find the episode here.

World Talent Services

Mateo Freudenthal is co-founder of the successful Cologne-based start-up Honestly, which the industrial engineering graduate founded in 2012 with two computer scientists. Back then, Mateo didn't have to take to the coding console himself.

Things have been different since 2023. At World Talent Services - a platform that places German-speaking people abroad with German companies - Mateo takes care of the technical implementation itself. 

Similar to other job platforms, World Talent Services also helps to mediate between companies and job seekers. But their service does not stop there. In addition to establishing contact, World Talent Services also takes care of the legal and technical aspects of recruitment on both sides. This includes drawing up the country-specific contracts, payment on site and equipping the people to be hired with laptops and checking the Internet.

Initially, the idea was to build a simple website. But Mateo quickly realized that they needed more: a two-sided platform where you can register as a talent or customer. At the time, Mateo was still new to No-Code, but not unfamiliar with it. He knew that No-Code would enable them to build a first version of the platform quickly and independently. 

After Mateo had obtained various platform suggestions from VisualMakers, he decided on Bubble. He was particularly impressed by the templates and the performance of the tool. For a few hundred euros and after just a few clicks, they basically had their MVP. A few more clicks later and the platform was ready. And they are still using it today.

"Most of the time I invested in launching [the platform] was taking away features," - Mateo told us in an interview for the VisualMakers podcast. 

World Talent Services is a great example of how no-code can be used to test and validate business ideas in a very short time. 

You can find the podcast episode with Mateo here.

ESG scoring for real estate - an app for the Arminius Group

The Arminius Group is a Frankfurt am Main-based company. They act as an independent transaction, asset and fund manager. Their focus is on sustainable commercial real estate. 

The self-proclaimed "Manufacture for sustainable investments in commercial real estate in Germany" has developed its own ESG scoring model to assess the sustainability of these properties. Previously, each evaluation was carried out using an Excel sheet, which was used to map the model. Unfortunately, Excel sheets not only become more error-prone with increasing complexity, but also more confusing. If, on top of this, many different people - both internal and external - with different access rights are to work with it, Excel quickly reaches its limits. 

With this challenge, the Arminius Group turned to VisualMakers. And so we transformed the same logic in its full complexity into a clean, clear and powerful web app. 

To achieve this, our development team used a combination of Bubble and Xano. Bubble served as a flexible front-end and Xano as a GDPR-compliant and scalable back-end. With Bubble, we were able to ensure that we could implement all of the Arminius Group's UI/UX requirements without users even noticing that it was a no-code solution. Thanks to Xano, we were able to build this modern front-end solution on a high-performance foundation that can also withstand high loads. 

At its core, the solution consists of a comprehensive questionnaire with several steps. All relevant data is recorded in this questionnaire and can be saved temporarily at any time so that it can be accessed again at a later date. The web app also allows the uploading of files such as images or certificates and a simple CSV download of all recorded entries. In addition, all data can be automatically transferred from the app to Excel if you need it there. 

The web app built by VisualMakers turned a chaotic Excel monster into an easy-to-tame web app that makes the ESG scoring of the properties in the Arminius Group's portfolio completely digital, collaborative and efficient. Most importantly, the process is now user-friendly. We are proud that the application is now a central part of the Arminius Group's daily work. 

You can find out more about the app for the Arminius Group in our case study.  

Platform for system certification - SaaS app for certflow

certflow is a start-up from Berlin. With certflow, the company has set itself the goal of driving forward the energy transition. Not by reinventing the wind turbine, however, but by connecting renewable energy systems to the grid faster than ever before. 

As certflow co-founder Gratian Permien told us in the podcast, the average time it takes for grid connection applications to be approved is 8 months and often much longer due to bureaucratic processes. This not only delays the energy transition, but also costs those who want to contribute to it with photovoltaic systems quite a lot of money. Because every day that the system is not connected to the grid is worth hard cash. That's why Gratian and his co-founder Jelena Mrvelj decided to digitize the process with certflow and thus significantly speed it up. 

Before certflow built its platform with the help of VisualMakers, the process was carried out using manual forms on paper. In addition, there were long waiting times at offices and the like, and yes, sometimes you even had to pick up the phone. In this process, a lot of technical data is requested, which must be accessible to all parties (e.g. installers, certifiers or project developers). These dependencies make the process very complex. The challenge was therefore to transfer an incredibly convoluted and demanding paper-based process into a clear and logically structured web app. A robust and scalable digital solution was needed. The whole thing also had to be quickly marketable.

certflow as a platform should bring together all the required services and documents in one place and thus facilitate the entire certification process. Users should be able to record their attachments on the platform using an intuitive form and comply with the official requirements of the certification process. Data that previously had to be recorded on several pages of paper is automatically compiled and linked via the certflow platform. 

To achieve this, we transformed the front end into a modern and clean design in Bubble. Bubble gave us great design freedom with high performance. But even though Bubble already has its own integrated database, we opted for Xano for the back-end. Xano provides us with an easily configurable PostgreSQL database and individual API endpoints (interfaces) - all with no-code. Xano integrates seamlessly with Bubble and simply offers better performance as a back-end compared to Bubble. 

You can find out more about certflow in our case study and in the podcast episode with Gratian.

And what conclusion do we draw?

Bubble.io has enormous potential for non-programmers to program web apps independently. Thanks to the many integration options via plugins, APIs and custom code, it is suitable for the rapid development of initial prototypes as well as for later product development - as it can be extended very easily. Tools such as Slack, Airtable or calendar integrations such as Google Calendar can be easily linked and open up countless possibilities to enrich your own product with features.

Paired with a back-end like Xano, Bubble is a no-code powerhouse. The only thing standing in the way of your successful and scalable software idea is to start mastering Bubble. You can start for free with our Bubble Fundamentals course.

If you want to know whether Bubble is the right no-code tool for your idea, join our community. This is where no-code builders and those who want to become one can discuss precisely these questions. 

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