User Interface and Experience
Ease of Use
It is a popular no-code platform for visual programming. The process of app creation doesn’t require coding. It is based on working with different building blocks available on the platform.
As a result, users even without any specific tech skills can build high-performing AI-powered apps for various needs.
The platform often becomes a choice for beginners. However, if you have never dealt with such platforms before, you will need some time to understand how you should work with Bubble to create applications in accordance with your unique requirements.
WordPress was launched in 2003 and since then managed to become the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. Today it powers more than 40% of all websites available online.
Its hosted service WordPress.com is a good choice for beginners and small teams looking for a simple platform to launch a blog or website.
WordPress.org, a self-hosted platform, gives businesses more flexibility, which is why it's often used for complex projects.
Customization
Bubble gives businesses plenty of built-in features, like templates and ready-to-use components, making it easier to build apps. But apart from this, Bubble also provides a lot of tools for those who want to customize their solutions. Bubble’s drag-and-drop editor and workflow system are well-suited for this.
Developers can not only expand the functionality of their apps with their custom JavaScript code but also change basic interfaces using HTML and CSS.
Moreover, business can connect their applications and websites to custom data sources based on their unique needs. Bubble supports all the most popular SQL databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MS SQL.
When you need to make your WordPress vs Bubble choice, it’s very important to understand the exact purposes that you have for your project.
Though both platforms provide extensive customization options, the types and areas of these customization possibilities will differ.
WordPress is primarily a content management system. Given this, its users get significant customization freedom with the help of its themes and plugins.
When you want to enhance your site with custom tools or any sophisticated designs, you may need to rely on the coding skills of professional developers who have expertise in HTML, CSS, and PHP.
Templates and Components
Bubble offers a wide range of ready-to-use templates and components for a quick start.
Today its collection includes hundreds of templates designed for different purposes and use cases. While some of them are paid, others are provided for free.
A convenient filter-based search system allows users to find a suitable template just with a couple of clicks. For example, there are templates for marketplaces, landing pages, blogs, portfolios, project management tools, and many other solutions.
Apart from this, users can enhance their projects with customizable UI components and plugins.
WordPress provides its users with a rich collection of widgets, themes, and templates.
Themes set the overall look of a website, while templates define the layout for individual pages or sections.
Many themes can be adjusted, allowing businesses to tailor them to their specific needs.
But for those organizations that want to have full control over their websites and functionality, WordPress offers some advanced options, including the possibility to install custom themes or build their own.
Short Recap
Ease of use: It is a user-friendly platform that can become a good choice for beginners with minimal or even zero tech skills.
Customization: The platform comes with a set of built-in features, but it also allows for customization. Developers can use JavaScript to add more functionality to their apps.
Templates and Components: Bubble offers a variety of templates and UI components that make building apps faster and easier.
Main strength: There are a lot of ready-to-use templates designed for different use cases.
Main weakness: If users have never worked with any platforms of this type, the learning curve can be pretty steep.
Ease of use: The standard functionality of the platform is available even to beginners. However, for more advanced options, relevant skills are required.
Customization: Custom HTML, CSS, and PHP code can help to significantly expand the functionality of the built websites.
Templates and Components: The platform comes with a variety of widgets, themes, and templates that can work for different business needs.
Main Strength: It provides well-designed themes that look good and offer plenty of ways to customize them.
Main Weakness: Making deep custom changes isn’t easy and usually requires an experienced developer.
Features and Functionality
Core Features
The key functionality of Bubble is built around its drag-and-drop interface. With its help, even non-tech business users can create their custom apps with efficient workflows and smooth data exchange with the required databases.
For building apps and websites with basic features, no coding skills are required.
However, if standard components and templates do not address your business needs, you can also introduce your custom code to change the basic functionality of your solutions.
When you need to make up your mind in the Bubble or WordPress dilemma, you should know that WordPress is not inherently a no-code platform, it supports a variety of plugins that enable no-code functionality. More advanced applications still require coding.
WordPress separates design from content creation. With the Gutenberg editor, users can create content using a simple block-based interface, while design and layout changes are usually done by customizing a theme or using a page builder plugin.
Advanced Features
Bubble is an AI-powered platform. Thanks to the built-in artificial intelligence capabilities, it can create and update a frontend part of your solutions based on prompts made in a natural human language. It means that you can just describe your ideas in the language that you use for communication on a daily basis, while Bubble’s AI page builder will do all the rest.
Apps built with Bubble can be seamlessly connected to various AI tools, including DALL-E and ChatGPT.
For advanced users, Bubble also offers the possibility to add new designs to their apps by importing them from other tools. Though it can be a helpful option, it is associated with a row of technical issues. Users may need to fully rewrite some of the imported parts.
WordPress is widely recognized for its strong SEO features. By using plugins, such as Yoast SEO, businesses can easily optimize and adjust the SEO settings of their websites for better performance.
The major part of the advanced functionality of WordPress websites is added via plugins.
For instance, the AR for WordPress plugin serves as a comprehensive tool that enables businesses to showcase 3D models of their products in an engaging Augmented Reality experience. This functionality is accessible to website visitors through smartphones or tablets.
The WordPress platform also provides a plugin dubbed Voice Assistant Dialog Navigation. It makes it possible to integrate voice search functionality into websites.
Automation and Workflow
As Bubble is based on the principles of the workflow-centric programming model, workflows play a key role in how apps function and how they respond to the requests received from users.
To create a workflow, users need to define a triggering event. This event will indicate the time when a workflow will be activated. Another crucial element of any workflow is a reaction to each trigger that should be represented by a sequence of actions that should follow the trigger activation.
Bubble offers some standard workflows. But users can also customize them in accordance with their unique business processes.
WordPress supports a great number of plugins that can help businesses automate and customize hundreds of workflows.
For example, Uncanny Automator offers the simplest solution for automating WordPress sites without any coding.
It allows users to create seamless automation in just minutes, effortlessly linking WordPress plugins, websites, and apps through billions of customizable combinations.
Automation is based on specific triggers that should be set for each desired action to address various business needs.
Short Recap
Core features: The platform is equipped with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that can address the needs of professional developers and non-technical users.
Advanced features: Bubble allows its users to leverage the capabilities of its AI app builder that can understand prompts in natural language.
Automation and workflows: The platform provides great possibilities for building custom workflows for process automation.
Main strength: There are a lot of no-code options for building powerful web and mobile apps.
Main weakness: The import of design from other platforms may require developers to fully rewrite some of the imported parts.
Core features: The platform supports a variety of plugins intended for different purposes. They can be added to websites and even without any coding skills.
Advanced features: Strong SEO features are among the top benefits of the WordPress platforms.
Automation and workflows: Automation and customization of workflows can be performed with a number of available plugins supported by WordPress.
Main strength: The platform offers access to an impressive number of plugins that can address practically all business needs.
Main weakness: Though WordPress supports no-code functionality, for advanced customization coding is a must.
Integrations
Third-party Integrations
Bubble enables users to smoothly integrate their apps with a wide range of external tools and services with the help of APIs.
- AI: OpenAI Assistant, Leap AI, Synthflow AI, Anthropic Claude AI.
- Payments: Stripe, PayPal, MercadoPago.
- News: Typewriter Text, DeepAI Text Summarization, RSS Feed.
- Calendar: Calendar from Google, Calendly.
- Geolocation: Google Maps, Mapbox Maps, OpenWeatherMap, IP Geolocation.
- Chat: Twilio, Chat and Messaging Lite, Drift Live Chat.
- Customer support: Offline Notify, ClickSend SMS, Emoji feedback widget, Intercom.
To better understand which platform, WordPress or Bubble, suits you more from the perspective of integrations, you can view a full list of the available options on the official Bubble website.
WordPress.com enables businesses to integrate with third-party applications, expanding the functionality of their sites.
- eCommerce and Business: WooCommerce, Call Now Button, Google Analytics for WooCommerce, etc.
- Booking and Scheduling: Appointment Booking Calendar, Events Manager, and more.
- Social: Facebook for WooCommerce, Pinterest for WooCommerce, Custom Twitter Feeds, Social Chat, etc.
- Email: Mailchimp for WooCommerce, MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress, WP Mail SMTP by WPForms.
If you want to have a look at the entire list of third-party plugins supported by WordPress, you can find them here.
Ease of Connection
With Bubble, users can easily connect their apps to any third-party services that have APIs.
For instance, it is possible to integrate Bubble apps with the majority of popular authentication providers or payment processors.
It is also possible to rely on JavaScript plugins to integrate services that are not built into Bubble.
New functionality and integrations can be added to WordPress sites in a no-code way with thousands of plugins.
Moreover, many third-party services offer the possibility to log in or connect to WordPress with the help of a special button. After opening their accounts, WordPress users can easily approve the connection of the application by clicking the relevant button.
Short Recap
Third-party integrations: Bubble offers great possibilities for integrating apps with external tools and services.
Ease of connection: The connection of services and tools that are supported by Bubble is a pretty simple task even for non-tech users.
Main strength: Today Bubble has a rather impressive plugin marketplace. But what is even more important is that it is continuously expanding.
Main weakness: Bubble allows users to create custom plugins but it is a rather tricky process for those who do not have relevant expertise.
Third-party integrations: WordPress allows businesses to significantly expand the functionality of their websites by means of various plugins.
Ease of connection: Integrations can be performed fully without coding.
Main strength: The collection of available plugins is quite rich. It can address practically all the most common business needs.
Main weakness: If you need to integrate any external services that are not supported by WordPress, this task can be rather tricky.
Performance and Scalability
Speed and Efficiency
Apps and workflows on Bubble run quickly and efficiently, and the platform can scale as your needs grow.
But if your app becomes larger or more complex, you might need to upgrade to a higher plan to get more server capacity and keep everything running smoothly.
The performance of WordPress apps depends on factors like hosting, themes, plugins, and site optimization.
To improve speed, WordPress uses caching to reduce server load and a CDN to distribute content across multiple servers worldwide.
Scalability
Bubble excels in scalability, with apps designed to scale automatically. As apps grow, they can transition to a Dedicated Cluster. As a result, they can ensure complete isolation from the main user base and ample capacity to handle increased traffic.
Thanks to this scalability, some Bubble apps can handle over 500,000 daily page views on Dedicated Clusters. Applications on the main cluster can achieve over 30 million monthly page views.
For complex site development, it’s crucial to choose hosting that can adapt and grow with your site. While shared hosting can be a cost-effective option, it often falls short when handling client or customer demands.
WordPress.com provides managed hosting that makes it easy for your website to scale. Your site gets its own dedicated server and resources, so other websites won’t slow it down.
Short Recap
Speed and Efficiency: Bubble is designed to run fast and efficiently. Its scalable architecture and optimized infrastructure help keep everything running smoothly.
Scalability: Apps scale automatically, so performance stays stable even as traffic or workload increases.
Main Strength: The platform keeps apps running smoothly and at high speed.
Main weakness: If users plan to launch complex applications, they need to invest in higher-tier plans to leverage added server capacity.
Speed and efficiency: WordPress implements a range of measures to ensure stable site speed, such as caching mechanisms and a built-in CDN.
Scalability: Businesses can leverage the benefits of managed hosting provided by WordPress.com.
Main strength: The platform offers a lot of tools to optimize the performance of the launched websites.
Main weakness: Complex websites may face difficulties in scaling which may lead to unstable performance.
Security and Compliance
Data Security
Security is among the top priorities for the Bubble platform. To ensure strong protection of the built apps and the data they work with, the platform relies on DDoS protection and AES-256 encryption mechanisms.
The platform supports SSO (single sign-on) functionality, which can be introduced with the help of plugins.
Apart from this, to strengthen the security of the platform and enhance user experience, Bubble allows users to log in via external services such as Google or Facebook.
When you choose WordPress.com hosting, the platform handles your website’s security and data protection.
Every WordPress.com site, even those with custom domains, is automatically encrypted.
It also comes with Jetpack Scan, a built-in security tool that runs daily checks for malware, harmful plugins, and other potential threats.
Compliance
Bubble follows the SOC 2 Type II standard, which can be viewed as a strong demonstration of its commitment to data security and protection.
To support data privacy, Bubble aligns with GDPR and other relevant regulations. Nevertheless, using Bubble for creating your web or mobile apps does not automatically ensure compliance.
Users on their own are responsible for configuring their apps and documentation correctly to meet GDPR requirements.
WordPress.com is dedicated to adhering to the GDPR and provides users with tools and resources to help them better understand and comply with the regulations for their websites.
Sites with relevant capabilities can install third-party plugins. However, it will be the site owners’ responsibility to ensure that the plugins they use handle data in compliance with the GDPR.
At the same time, it supports plugins that can help users prepare their websites to meet cookie consent requirements under regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, DSGVO, the EU cookie law, and other notice requirements.
Short Recap
Data Security: Bubble keeps user data safe by following strict security practices.
Compliance: It also provides tools to help developers meet legal and industry requirements.
Main strength: The platform provides resources, including consent forms and data deletion workflows, to support GDPR-compliant practices.
Main weakness: While Bubble offers compliance tools, developers must properly configure workflows and policies to achieve full adherence to regulations like GDPR.
Data security: WordPress introduces powerful measures to ensure high protection of websites and data.
Compliance: The platform provides users with tools and resources to create compliant websites.
Main strength: The security tool called Jetpack Scan conducts daily checks on every WordPress.com site
Main weakness: If site owners rely on external plugins, it will be their responsibility to monitor the compliance of their websites.
Pricing
Plans Overview
Free Plan
- Cost: Free
- What it offers: This plan provides access to only the most basic features. For example, users can leverage a rich component library, as well as an API connector, and 1 app editor. It includes up to 50K workload units per month and 6 hours of server logs.
- For whom: Users who have never worked with Bubble before.
Starter Plan
- Cost: $29 per month (billed yearly) or $32 per month (billed monthly)
- What it offers: The plan includes everything that is available to the users of the free plan. Apart from this, this plan provides extra features like custom domains, recurring workflows, and basic version control. Moreover, it opens access to basic security checks and AI functionality.
- For whom: Teams that need to launch their MVPs and simple apps.
Growth Plan
- Cost: $119 per month (billed yearly) or $134 per month (billed monthly)
- What it offers: The Growth plan includes 2 app editors, two-factor authentication, premium version control, unlimited security tests, and a wide range of advanced features.
- For whom: Businesses that have complex requirements for their projects.
Team Plan
- Cost: $349 per month (billed yearly) or $399 per month (billed monthly)
- What it offers: Users of this plan can get access to 5 app editors, 25 custom branches, scheduled security checks, and security alerting, among other extra features and tools.
- For whom: Teams looking for significant scalability.
Enterprise Plan
- Cost: Custom pricing
- What it offers: This advanced option for enterprises offers significant flexibility and various premium opportunities, including priority support.
- For whom: Enterprises that plan to build internal and customer-facing apps and have specific requirements for security and scalability.
WordPress offers two primary platforms, WordPress.com and WordPress.org, each with distinct pricing structures.
WordPress.com
The platform offers various pricing plans tailored to businesses with different needs, ensuring that users are not obligated to overpay for features or resources they don’t require.
Moreover, there is a flexible system of discounts. Paying yearly users can get up to 55% off in comparison to monthly payments. Paying every 2 or 3 years, they can leverage discounts of 65% and 69% respectively.
Pricing plans
- Free: To start your journey with WordPress, you can choose a free plan. However, it’s best suited for beginners and comes with limited features and functionality.
- Personal: $4/month, includes a custom domain, 6 GB storage, and removes ads.
- Premium: $8/month, 13 GB storage, adds advanced design tools and premium stats.
- Business: $25/month, 50+ GB storage, offers custom plugins and themes.
- Commerce: $45/month, designed for online stores with full eCommerce capabilities.
- Enterprise: Prices start at US$25,000/year, the plan can be fully customized to meet the individual demands of each enterprise.
WordPress.org
WordPress.org is a free, self-hosted platform, but running a site comes with extra costs. You'll need to pay for things like a domain name, hosting, an SSL certificate, and any custom themes or plugins you want to use.
Short Recap
Pricing: The platform has a flexible approach to its model. The offers start with a free plan for basic use and scale up to feature-rich options for growing businesses and enterprises. Higher-tier plans include enhanced customization and many other advanced features.
Suitable for: Bubble often becomes a good option for smaller teams and startups as its starter plan looks like a pretty affordable option. Nevertheless, the price significantly increases with the expansion of features available in the higher-tier plans. As it is typical for such platforms, if you need to use Bubble for more complex projects, you need to have a well-planned budget.
Pricing: WordPress offers flexible pricing options to cater to a wide range of users, from individuals to businesses. WordPress pricing varies depending on whether you use WordPress.com (hosted) or WordPress.org (self-hosted), so it’s important to take into account a lot of factors before choosing the best option for you.
Suitable for: Its flexibility, extensive plugin ecosystem, and user-friendly interface make WordPress a suitable platform for many types of businesses. However, while the prices look quite affordable for small teams, the higher-tier plans are rather expensive, even for big companies, which can be a barrier for many of them to use WordPress.
Use Cases
Type of Work
Bubble’s flexibility and no-code capabilities make it a powerful tool for building applications across various industries. The list below includes some examples of solutions that can be developed with Bubble.
- CRM platforms. CRM systems built with Bubble can help businesses manage customer relationships, track interactions, and automate workflows without needing to code.
- Internal tools and dashboards. Businesses can automate their processes and equip employees with efficient tools, such as inventory management systems, progress-tracking apps, and employee portals.
- Blogs. Bubble allows users to build fully customizable and scalable blog websites including personal blogs, corporate news sites, and content platforms.
- eLearning websites. With Bubble, users can create online education and training platforms, including course marketplaces, certification systems, and learning management systems.
To explore more use cases you can visit Bubble’s website.
WordPress websites can be tailored to various business needs with the help of plugins. This makes the platform an excellent choice for expanding businesses looking for an online presence, news websites, and eCommerce platforms.
- Personal blogs. WordPress is widely used for creating blogs and personal websites, offering an intuitive platform for writers, photographers, and creatives to share their content.
- Portfolios. Artists, designers, and photographers use WordPress to create visually appealing portfolios to display their work and attract potential clients.
- eCommerce stores. With plugins like WooCommerce, WordPress powers robust online stores, enabling businesses to sell products, manage inventory, and process payments seamlessly.
- News sites. WordPress is a popular choice for news outlets and online magazines, thanks to its ability to handle large volumes of content and support multimedia integration.
You can read more about WordPress use cases on the official platform’s blog.
Short Recap
With Bubble, businesses can efficiently build dynamic, fully functional apps with minimal time investments. Even users without any coding skills can build efficient apps.
The platform caters to businesses of all types and sizes.
WordPress can be the best option for projects where SEO is a key aspect.
It is also often chosen for content-rich websites such as blogs, portfolios, small business sites, and eCommerce stores.
Reviews
User Feedback
G2:
Bubble holds a 4.4 out of 5-star rating on G2, based on 159 reviews.
According to users, Bubble is easy to work withand can be chosen to build powerful workflows with minimal effort and time investments.
Nevertheless, some users indicate vendor lock-in as a serious problem with the bubble.io platform as it doesn’t offer any "generic" export capability.
G2:
Based on more than 2.5K reviews on G2, the WordPress.com platform has 4.4 out of 5 stars.
Among the key strengths, the platform’s simplicity is one of the most popular.
According to users, the platform has features, menus, and tools that are easy to understand.
However, some users regularly face plugin issues.
Conclusion
The first thing that you should bear in mind before making your Bubble or WordPress choice is the fact that these platforms cater to different needs.
Bubble’s no-code capabilities make it an excellent option for startups and entrepreneurs aiming to build an MVP quickly and efficiently. Apart from this, Bubble is often chosen for creating complex web applications featuring custom workflows and dynamic data.
WordPress, meanwhile, stands out as a leading content management system, ideal for creating and managing content-rich websites. It is highly helpful for launching news sites, blogs, and eCommerce stores. To facilitate customization, it provides an extensive library of themes and plugins.
Therefore, your final decision should be primarily based on your project’s complexity and goals.
Already have made up your mind and are looking for help from tech specialists? At Akveo, we have rich expertise in working with low-code and no-code tools, which allows us to cope with the set tasks quickly and efficiently.
But if you still have doubts regarding the choice of the platform or the app concept, don’t worry! We can also provide you with professional consulting. Contact us to learn more about our services.
