Choosing tools and deciding on an MVP – Bubble V/S FlutterFlow
The MVP
What’s a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? It’s something built quickly and cheaply to test out if any people exist who want what you’re trying to sell. You then want to get feedback from these early users on how to develop your product before you spend on developing it further.
In essence, you don’t want to end up in a place where you’ve hired a team, spent millions in making a product, and then you realize your product doesn’t solve the problem you thought it does. Or worse yet, no one really feels the problem too much that your product solves! These things happen more often than you’d think.
That’s why – MVP!
My MVP Process
As discussed in last week’s email, I was creating a mock-up of the product on Figma – designing all screens and what each click will lead to. I was also checking out two no-code app building tools – Flutterflow and Bubble.
I’ve now abandoned making screens on Figma! After checking out FlutterFlow for a week, it’s clear that the tool has the things I need to build the MVP and that you can design all screens directly on it. Figma then, is a needless step. I’ve now started directly on FlutterFlow.
Bubble V/S FlutterFlow
This is a debate that you’ll have if you’re building an app. My take is if you are building a SAAS product or app that’s web first or doesn’t need native app features (like push notifications), use Bubble. It has a lot more tutorials, and does a lot more. It can’t build a native app though, and doesn’t give you the source code. If you are building something that’s app first, use FlutterFlow! You get a native app, and more impressively – it gives you the source code! Though, in most cases where no-code tools aren’t enough beyond the MVP stage, you’ll end up starting the build from scratch, the fact that FlutterFlow lets you download the source code could potentially save development time and cost when moving forward from MVP to full product.
Build Timeline:
FlutterFlow has a decent learning curve to it. The tool is low-code, and does require a fair bit of tech skills and understanding to use. Especially because it needs a separate database integration (Firebase), while Bubble comes with a database built into the tool itself and no separate integrations are required. FlutterFlow is slightly higher on the learning curve because of this aspect, but it’s worth it for the native app functionality.
Factoring that in, and giving myself time to watch a ton of tutorial videos and read forums wherever I get stuck, I think I can build the MVP in 45 days.
About BehindTheBuild:
I’m a bestselling author, campaign consultant and data analyst working on building a startup, and documenting the entire journey at BehindTheBuild. The BTB newsletter is your inside view into the building and scaling up of a startup from zero to millions. The idea is to show how a multi-million dollar startup can be built without the need for much financial resources, and from anywhere in the world. If you’re interested in startups, entrepreneurship, testing ideas and running ventures, please do subscribe to the weekly newsletter (sent out every Friday):