Do you already have the data
Bubble vs Softr is mostly a question about where your data lives. Pick Softr if it is already in Airtable, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Notion, Salesforce or a SQL database and you need a client portal, internal tool or directory on top of it. Pick Bubble if you are building a product from scratch: a visual editor for pages, workflows and a database, an AI agent for the first draft, and native mobile publishing. You can build almost any web product in Bubble, and the learning curve is real.
Checked Oct 2026. Bubble prices come from bubble.io/pricing, which shows plans billed yearly. Softr prices come from softr.io/pricing, where yearly billing takes two months off.
Workload units against app users
Bubble, billed yearly:
- Free: $0, 50K workload units a month, 1 app editor, a development version only, no custom domain.
- Starter: $59 a month, 175K workload units, custom domain, a live web app, and 5 mobile build submissions a month.
- Growth: $209 a month, 250K workload units, 2 app editors, 10 mobile build submissions.
- Team: $549 a month, 500K workload units, 5 app editors, 20 mobile build submissions.
Softr:
- Free: $0, 5 AI credits a month, 5 app users, 5K database records, 500 workflow actions a month.
- Basic: $19 a month, 10 AI credits, custom domain, conditional form logic, 5 team and 5 client app users, 50K records.
- Pro: $99 a month, 50 AI credits, Softr branding removed, Google sign-in and one-time codes, granular permissions, custom code and API connectors, 10 team and 50 client app users.
- Business: $329 a month, 3 builders and 100 AI credits.
Two different meters are at work. Bubble meters server work in workload units. Softr meters people: app users who log in, records you store, and workflow actions.
Blank canvas or building blocks
Bubble gives you a blank canvas and a lot of control. You place elements, define data types, and write workflows such as "when this button is clicked, create a thing and send an email". Bubble's AI agent can now generate a first version from a prompt, and Bubble describes the result as an app inside its visual editor, with pages, workflows and a database, rather than a code file. You keep refining it there.
Softr gives you building blocks and a data source. Connect Airtable or Google Sheets, or use Softr Databases, then add list, table, form and detail blocks, and set who can see what. The AI co-builder can draft an app from a description. Softr's pricing FAQ makes a point that matters: when you run out of AI credits you can keep building with the no-code editor.
A simple test: build a client portal where clients log in and see only their own projects, invoices and files. Softr will usually get there faster. Then add a custom approval flow with several steps and conditional emails. That is where Bubble's workflow engine starts to earn its learning curve.
Modelling anything or connecting what exists
Bubble has its own database and lets you model anything, with privacy rules on each data type. Logic lives in workflows, and backend workflows can run on a schedule. That flexibility is why people build full SaaS products on Bubble.
Softr is happiest with business data. Its pricing lists 42 connected apps on Free and Basic and more on higher plans, including Airtable, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Notion, Salesforce and SQL databases. App users are counted by unique email across all your apps, and Softr separates team users, on your company domain, from client users. Count your users before you pick a plan.
Phones, hosting and the branding bill
Bubble's pricing lists a native mobile editor, mobile debugger and on-device testing even on Free, with build submissions and live app versions on paid plans. If a store app is part of the plan, Bubble covers it in one product.
Softr builds web apps that work on phones. Hosting is included on both, with custom domains from Bubble Starter and Softr Basic. On Softr, removing its branding needs Pro at $99 a month, and each extra custom domain is $15 a month, or $13 billed yearly. A portal for three clients on their own domains adds up faster than the $19 headline suggests.
From 5 clients to 50
Growth hits each platform in a different place. On Softr, the meter is people and records. A portal that goes from 5 clients to 50 moves you from Basic to Pro, because Basic covers 5 client app users and Pro covers 50, and Softr notes that extra app users can be added on Pro and above. Records move from 50K on Basic to more on higher plans.
On Bubble, the meter is server work. Ten users who each run heavy searches can cost more than a hundred who mostly read. Starter includes 175K workload units a month, Growth 250K and Team 500K.
So a small client portal with simple pages tends to stay cheap on Softr until the user count jumps. A product with fewer users but complex logic tends to fit Bubble's model better. Estimate your users and your heaviest page before picking.
Which one for your project
- Client portal on an Airtable base. Softr, live in days.
- Two-sided marketplace with payouts and reviews. Bubble.
- Internal tool for a team of eight, mostly forms and lists. Softr Basic or Pro, depending on branding.
- A product with its own mobile app. Bubble, from the same project.
Leaving either platform
Both are platforms you build inside. Bubble apps run on Bubble, and Bubble frames its AI output as an app you edit in its editor, not a codebase you hand off. Softr apps run on Softr, though if your data lives in Airtable, Google Sheets or a SQL database, the data itself stays where it was. That is a real advantage for Softr: the hardest part of any move, the data, is already outside the builder.
When you want code, not a platform
If you like the idea of no-code but want the result as real code, VibeDream is a different approach. You describe the app in plain words, by typing, recording a voice note or attaching a screenshot, and a live preview appears in seconds. It writes a React + FastAPI app, or a Phaser game, and every file is in the Code tab with ZIP export and GitHub sync.
Putting it online is one screen: press Put it online, pick a vibedreams.ai name, and it is live in a few minutes with HTTPS, at 5 credits per update. Your own domain needs a TXT and a CNAME record, explained in the deployment guide.
It is not the better pick for portals on Airtable data or for native store apps, and VibeDream's one-tap payments are coming soon. There is no free plan; see pricing. For a quick look at finished output, open the Aesthetic Waitlist template or the getting started guide.