About me

I started working with Bubble.io in August 2020, and in the last 2 years, I’ve overseen over 30 projects (small and large) at my company MomentumGroup.tech.

In that time, I’ve also taught around 100 students in:

• Bubble Bootcamps,
• Bubble’s Immerse pre-accelerator program,
• 1:1 in private mentoring,
• Momentum Academy program

I’m currently writing a book with Packt Publishing, teaching beginners how to learn Bubble in a systematic, curated, code-along style book (in a similar style to the Dummies and Idiots Guide series).

Before learning Bubble, I had been dabbling with all kinds of tech for the last 25 years, including Visual Basic, Access, SQL Server, MySQL, PHP, Python, and various Business Intelligence tools. I also took a subject in Software Design and Development for my final 2 years at school.

In my career before starting to work with Bubble, I have over 5 years of experience in delivering Adult Education. After that, I worked in a data engineering/business intelligence role for 5 years. Both of these roles were in the Healthcare sector. I’ve completed an MBA in Health Management, as well as worked hands-on as an Emergency Nurse.

So what?

It shows that I’m not a complete newbie to software, and I’ve had extensive experience working with data in previous roles. In terms of teaching and learning, I’ve experienced lots of different learning and teaching styles. I also delivered a lot of training before Bubble on a range of other topics.

Is Bubble.io hard to learn?

I wrote an article about this here. In summary, a beginner should be able to pick up Bubble.io and build something substantial in 1–3 months. What you will be able to build depends on:

• Your familiarity with technology and how web applications work.
• How much time you have to put into it?

For me, 3 months at 30+ hours per week was enough to build a substantial MVP which shows the speed of learning and what can be accomplished.

If you are a self-directed person, who is good picking up new skills that are both logical and creative, Bubble could be learned without significant difficulty.

Is Bubble.io worth learning?

Yes! If you want to build custom web applications for yourself, for clients, or for your small to medium business — Bubble is worth learning! It enables you to build the things you need, without having to learn to code or employ a regular software developer.

Bubble.io is worth learning if you are:

• A startup co-founder building a web applications
• A small to medium business owner seeking to systemize and automate your business
• An employee in a small to medium business seeking to systemize and automate
• Part of a professional product team, looking to find quicker ways to prototype and test digital products

It is also an increasingly popular employment opportunity or a great adjunct to your current skill set.

Why is it worth learning? It allows you to build custom web applications in 20–40% of the time of writing code. It is currently suitable for the kinds of apps that businesses would spend up to $1mil (USD) in development costs, and as it improves as a tool, will likely be suitable for even more expensive projects.

What is the best way to learn Bubble?

Here is a summary of the available ways:

Free online training and navigating the forum

There is plenty of free online training on Bubble.io’s academy page and at the Bubble forum. This is a great starting point. The difficulty of this is that you get the “how” but not the “why”. Also, you are usually presented with one option, but you don’t get to understand why you would choose this option vs the other ways of doing the skill. It’s also really easy to get stuck on something for hours if you just use the free online materials.

Paid online, pre-recorded training

There is also a great group of Bubble educators producing high-quality, online pre-recorded content. The price point is very fair for the level of quality offered by these people. The great benefit of this style of training is that it can be done at your own pace. The difficulty again is that you can sometimes miss the 1:1 support aspect, but some providers also offer this in various forms.

Bootcamp programs

Bubble offered a good Bootcamp program until June 2022, which I was part of teaching. The program was a good overview of the tool and introduced students to each feature in a systematic way. Unfortunately, this program has now ended, but some providers are continuing the live Bootcamp training delivered by Zoom, such as Momentum Academy. 

1:1 Mentoring

There is a great group of pay-by-the-hour mentors on both the Bubble site and in other places. I personally found Mentoring to be a great supplement to other forms of training. Often 2–3 hours with a mentor is enough to get all your hard questions answered, and propel you forward, saving lots of hours of fruitless trial and error.

Books

Since the increasing popularity of online pre-recorded training, I feel that the role of learning to code books has diminished. That being said, there are a number of great self-published books on Bubble already out there. I am currently writing the first professionally published book on learning Bubble with Packt Publishing. We will hopefully release this in late 2023.

How long will it take to learn Bubble?

I would say it takes up to 3 months of part-time usage to get a basic, broad command of Bubble. Within 6 months at this rate, you could be considered intermediate/proficient. After 12 months of full-time use, assuming you have worked on some challenging and substantial projects, you could be considered an advanced user of Bubble.

This all being said, I’ve met Bubble Developers who have accelerated this timeline and others who have used the tool for over 12 months who are still only “basic” level users. This is a lot to do with their pre-Bubble work experience and how active they have been in pursuing the use of all features of Bubble.

How much do Bubble developers make?

Highly skilled freelancers working casually on projects with top Agencies could be making up to $50USD/per hour while working on projects. Casual contracting rates can be even higher for those with high levels of skill or specialization, for example being able to product manage a small team and technically architect a complex application for a startup or business.

Like other industries, those working full-time as employees would earn less per hour because of the increased stability but they would receive employment benefits as part of their total package. Pretty awesome for a skill you can pick up relatively quickly.

Remote work

As Bubble is fully cloud-based, there is a great opportunity for those in lower-income countries to work for businesses in higher-income countries and enjoy an above-average earning potential relative to their peers.

Conclusion

As Bubble increases in popularity as a tool, learning Bubble is becoming a solid career move for brave early adopters. It can open a wide range of doors for those with high skill levels and great communication skills. It is suitable for those with both strong analytical skills and those who are able to synthesize information and find creative solutions to real-world problems.

Written By Will Ericksson

Managing Director of MomentumGroup.tech, Founder of Momentum Academy, and former Bubble Bootcamp/Bubble Immerse Instructor created over 40+ apps with Bubble.io.