Bubble vs Natively for Mobile Apps: Why Natively Is the Better Choice

What Bubble Actually Is

Bubble is a no-code platform that lets you build web applications using a visual drag-and-drop editor. It's been around since 2012 and has become one of the most popular tools for building SaaS products, marketplaces, and internal tools — all as web apps that run in a browser.

Bubble's Core Strength Is Web

Bubble gives you a visual editor where you design pages, connect a database, and define workflows — all without writing code. The output is a web application hosted on Bubble's servers. For web apps, this works well. You can build complex logic, user authentication, payment flows, and dashboards entirely within the platform.

What About Bubble's Mobile Builder?

In 2025, Bubble launched a Native Mobile Builder in public beta. This was a significant step — it lets you design mobile screens within Bubble's editor and publish to the App Store and Google Play. But there are important things to understand about this:

• •It's still in beta — meaning you're building on a feature that's actively being developed and may change
• •Mobile requires a paid plan starting at $29/month with additional build allotment limits
• •Bubble's mobile builder is an add-on to a web platform, not a purpose-built mobile development environment
• •You cannot export your code — your app lives entirely within Bubble's ecosystem

The Learning Curve

Despite being a "no-code" tool, Bubble has a steep learning curve. Database structures, conditional formatting, responsive design, and workflow logic all require significant time to learn. Most Bubble developers report needing months of practice to become comfortable. If your goal is to get a mobile app built and shipped, that's a lot of time spent on a platform whose primary focus isn't mobile.

Why Bubble Isn't Ideal for Mobile Apps

The fundamental issue is simple: Bubble was designed to build web applications. Adding a mobile builder to a web platform is different from building a tool specifically for native mobile development. Here's what that means in practice.

Web-First Architecture

Bubble's core engine is built for rendering web pages. The mobile builder adds a layer on top of this, but the underlying logic, data handling, and rendering pipeline were designed for the browser. Native mobile apps have different expectations — gesture handling, native navigation patterns, platform-specific UI conventions, and direct access to device hardware.

Performance Considerations

Bubble apps — both web and mobile — run through Bubble's servers. Performance depends on Bubble's infrastructure, your plan's workload units, and the complexity of your app. Data-heavy apps and complex workflows can become slow. Native apps built with frameworks like React Native run compiled code directly on the device, which is inherently faster for most mobile use cases.

Vendor Lock-In

This is a big one. Bubble does not let you export your code. Your entire application — logic, data, design, everything — lives inside Bubble's ecosystem. If you outgrow Bubble, want to switch platforms, or need to customize something beyond what Bubble supports, you have to rebuild from scratch. For a mobile app you plan to grow, that's a serious risk.

Limited Native API Access

Native mobile apps need access to device-specific APIs: push notifications, camera, biometric authentication, background processing, NFC, Bluetooth, and more. A platform that was built for web and later added mobile will always have limitations here compared to a framework like React Native that was specifically designed for native device access.

The App Store Reality

If you want your app on the Apple App Store or Google Play, you need to understand what these platforms expect. Apple in particular has strict guidelines about what qualifies as a real app.

Two paths to the App Store

Bubble Web App vs. Natively Native App

Bubble Web App

Web-based / Wrapped PWA

WebView / PWA Wrapper

Not truly native code

App Store

Risk of guideline 4.2 rejection

Web-like experience on mobile

No code ownership

Natively

Describe your app idea with AI

Real Native Code

React Native + Expo

App Store

Passes Apple review

Real native experience

Full code ownership

Apple's Guideline 4.2

Apple's App Store Review Guidelines include section 4.2 — Minimum Functionality. This guideline specifically targets apps that are essentially repackaged websites or web views. Apps that don't provide native functionality beyond what a web page could offer get rejected. This has been a known issue for Bubble apps wrapped in web views, and it remains a risk for any approach that doesn't produce truly native code.

For a deeper dive into which no-code tools actually produce native mobile apps, see our guide on the best no-code mobile app builders.

What Users Expect

Beyond App Store approval, there's the user experience. People downloading an app from the App Store expect it to feel like a native app — smooth scrolling, native navigation gestures, platform-consistent UI, fast load times. A web app in a native shell doesn't meet these expectations, and users notice. Low ratings and poor retention follow.

Why Natively Is the Better Choice for Mobile

Natively exists for one reason: to make building native mobile apps as easy as describing what you want. It's not a web app builder with a mobile add-on. It's a mobile app builder, built for mobile from day one.

Purpose-Built for Native Mobile

When you describe your app in Natively, the AI generates a real React Native + Expo project. This isn't a web app wrapped in a shell. It's actual native code that compiles to native iOS and Android binaries. React Native is the framework used by Meta, Microsoft, Shopify, and thousands of production apps. Expo adds tooling that makes building, testing, and deploying straightforward.

Fully Online — No Downloads Required

One of the biggest advantages of Natively is that it runs entirely in your browser. There's no IDE to download, no code to pull to your machine, no Xcode or Android Studio setup. You open the website, describe your app, and start building. You can preview on your phone using Expo Go by scanning a QR code. The entire development cycle happens online.

Full Code Ownership

Unlike Bubble, Natively gives you the actual source code. It's clean, industry-standard React Native code that you can export to GitHub, hand to a developer, or continue building on your own. There is no vendor lock-in. If you ever decide to leave Natively, you take your code with you. With Bubble, leaving means rebuilding from scratch.

AI That Understands Mobile

Natively's AI is specifically trained for mobile app development. It understands native navigation patterns, mobile UI conventions, gesture handling, and the iOS and Android ecosystems. When you say "add a tab bar with three screens," it generates real native tab navigation — not a web-based tab component styled to look like one.

How to Build Your App with Natively

Bubble vs Natively: Side-by-Side

Here's a direct comparison of the two platforms when it comes to building mobile apps.

When Bubble Makes Sense

To be fair, Bubble is a strong platform if your primary goal is a web application. If you need an internal dashboard, a marketplace web app, or a SaaS product that runs in the browser, Bubble is a solid choice. The visual editor, built-in database, and workflow logic are well-suited for those use cases.

When Natively Makes Sense

If your goal is a mobile app — something that lives on people's home screens, uses native gestures and navigation, accesses device hardware, and gets distributed through the App Store or Google Play — Natively is the right tool. It's built specifically for this, the output is real native code, you don't need to download anything, and you own what you build.

Can I Use Both?

Absolutely. Many products have both a web app and a mobile app. You could use Bubble for your web dashboard and Natively for your mobile app, both connecting to the same backend. Different tools for different platforms, each doing what it does best.

Exploring other no-code platforms for mobile? Read our comparisons for Softr, Appy Pie, and WeWeb.

Frequently Asked Questions