Bubble, Glide, Softr and Adalo all let you build an app with logins, a database and workflows — without writing code. What separates them is not the editor. It is what you are charged for as the app grows: server workload, data rows and writes, logged-in users, or simply how many apps you publish.
Web plan, Starter, billed annually ($39/mo billed monthly). Priced per app.
Glide Classic, Explorer, billed annually ($25/mo billed monthly). See the Classic / GlideOS note below.
Basic, billed annually ($25/mo billed monthly). Unlimited apps on every plan.
Builder, billed monthly ($624/year billed annually). Flat rate, no usage metering on paid plans.
| Bubble | Glide (Classic) | Softr | Adalo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Custom web apps, SaaS and marketplaces with their own logic | Team apps built from spreadsheet-style data | Client portals, directories and internal tools | Member, booking and community apps that must be in the app stores |
| What you are billed on | Workload units — server work: database searches and writes, backend workflows, API calls | Rows, updates and users — data rows per app, syncs/writes to external sources, and users who sign in with a work email | Records, users and workflow runs — database records, people who log in, monthly workflow actions | Published apps — a flat plan fee; paid plans are sold as having no usage-based charges |
| Free plan | Yes — 50,000 workload units/month, development version only, no live deployment | Yes — unlimited drafts, up to 25,000 rows per app, but no publishing | Yes — 5 app users, 5,000 records, 500 workflow actions/month | Yes — unlimited test apps, 500 records per app, no published apps |
| Paid plans from | Starter $32/mo billed annually ($39 monthly), per app, incl. 175,000 WU/month | Explorer $19/mo billed annually ($25 monthly), 1 published app | Basic $19/mo billed annually ($25 monthly), 10 app users, 50,000 records | Builder $65/mo billed monthly ($624/year), 2 published apps |
| Mid-tier reference | Growth $119/mo billed annually — 250,000 WU/month, 2 editors | Business $199/mo billed annually — 30 work-email users and 5,000 updates/month included | Pro $99/mo billed annually — 60 app users, 500,000 records, 10,000 workflow actions/month | Business $200/mo billed monthly ($1,920/year) — 5 published apps, 10 editors |
| Publishing gate | Live deployment and a custom domain start on paid plans | Publishing starts on Explorer; custom domain and branding from Maker ($49/mo billed annually) | Custom domain from Basic; branding removal from Pro. No native app-store publishing on any plan | Web and native App Store / Google Play publishing start on Builder |
| App output | Web app (responsive); a separate mobile track exists at different prices | Progressive web app (PWA) — runs in a browser, not a store binary | Web app / PWA | Native iOS and Android apps plus web, from one project |
| Code export | None — data can be exported (CSV / Data API), app logic cannot | None — but data can live in your own Sheets / Airtable | None — data can live in an external source you control | None |
| Trade-off to know | The bill moves with traffic and with how the app is built — efficient searches cost less than wasteful ones | Work-email users need the Business tier, and frequent syncs to Sheets / Airtable consume your update quota | Three meters at once; "team users" (same email domain as you) have a much smaller included allowance than client users | Predictable billing, but the step from 2 to 5 published apps is a jump from $65 to $200 a month |
Prices are USD, before tax, as published by the vendors in November 2026. Bubble prices above are the web-only track, per app; its combined web + mobile track costs more. Glide now sells two products: the figures here are for Glide Classic, the spreadsheet-to-app builder. Its newer AI product, GlideOS, is priced separately in credits (Basic $25/mo and up) — check which product a price quote belongs to. Softr's limits apply to its built-in database; if you run Softr on Airtable or another external source, that service's own pricing and row limits apply on top. Plans change — always confirm the current price and limits on the vendor's site before you buy.
Monthly plan prices hide the real difference, so here is one fixed scenario run through all four published price lists. Scenario: one business app, 20 users who all sign in with a work email, 10,000 data records/rows, about 6,600 writes a month (20 people × 15 updates × 22 working days), data kept in each platform's own database or tables, and — for Bubble — an assumed 300,000 workload units a month. These are calculations from published prices, not measurements from an app we ran.
| Platform | Calculation from published prices | Year total |
|---|---|---|
| Bubble (Growth, web) | $119/mo plan incl. 250,000 WU. Assumed use 300,000 WU → 50,000 WU over × $0.30 per 1,000 = $15/mo extra → $134/mo | $1,608 |
| Glide Classic (Business) | $199/mo incl. 30 work-email users and 5,000 updates. If all 6,600 writes sync to an external source: 1,600 over × $0.02 = $32/mo extra → $231/mo. Kept in Glide Tables instead, the extra writes do not consume updates → $199/mo | $2,388–$2,772 |
| Softr (Pro) | $99/mo incl. 60 app users, 500,000 records and 10,000 workflow actions — the scenario fits inside the allowances, so no extra in this model. Note the team-user sub-limit below before relying on this | $1,188 |
| Adalo (Builder, annual) | $624/year flat, no usage charges in this model, plus store accounts if you publish natively: Apple Developer $99/year and Google Play $25 one-time → $748 in year one | $748 (year 1) |
Read this as a map of what each vendor charges for, not as a ranking. Bubble's figure is the one that moves: at roughly double the assumed traffic (550,000 WU/month), the same Growth plan becomes $119 + $90 overage = $209/mo, or $2,508 a year — and moving up to the Team plan does not automatically make that cheaper, because Team's larger allowance comes with a much larger plan fee. Glide's figure moves with where your data lives. Softr's moves when logged-in users or workflow runs cross their allowances — and its "team user" allowance (users sharing your email domain) is only 10 on Pro, so an all-staff app may need extra users or a higher plan even when the headline total of 60 looks comfortable. Adalo's figure only moves when you publish more apps.
Bubble is a full-stack platform: a visual editor, its own database, workflow logic and hosting in one place, priced per app. The free plan (50,000 workload units a month) is a development sandbox — you cannot deploy a live version on it. Starter ($32/mo billed annually, $39/mo monthly) is the first plan that goes live, with a custom domain and 175,000 workload units a month. Growth ($119/mo billed annually) raises that to 250,000, and Team ($349/mo billed annually) to 500,000. A workload unit is Bubble's meter for server work: a database search starts at a fraction of a unit and grows with the number of results returned, a database write and a server-side workflow action each cost a fixed fraction, and work that happens only in the visitor's browser costs nothing. Usage above your plan's allowance is billed per 1,000 units, with prepaid workload tiers offered as an alternative.
Glide (this section covers Glide Classic) builds a mobile-friendly progressive web app on top of spreadsheet-style data: Google Sheets, Airtable, Excel or Glide's own tables. The free plan allows unlimited drafts and up to 25,000 rows per app, but you cannot publish. Explorer ($19/mo billed annually) publishes one app for up to 100 personal users. Maker ($49/mo billed annually) adds a custom domain, branding removal and unlimited personal users. Business ($199/mo billed annually) is the tier for work use: it includes 30 users signing in with a work email, unlimited apps and 5,000 updates a month. An "update" is a data change or a sync with an external source; writes to Glide's own tables do not consume updates. Beyond the quota, updates and extra work-email users are charged per unit. Glide also sells a newer AI-built product, GlideOS, on separate credit-based pricing — it is a different product from the Classic plans priced here.
Softr builds client portals, directories, membership sites and internal tools. Apps, databases and forms are unlimited on every plan — what is metered is people and data: logged-in app users, database records and monthly workflow actions. The free plan covers 5 app users, 5,000 records and 500 workflow actions a month. Basic ($19/mo billed annually) raises that to 10 users, 50,000 records and a custom domain. Pro ($99/mo billed annually) covers 60 users (10 team + 50 client), 500,000 records and 10,000 workflow actions, and removes Softr branding. Business ($329/mo billed annually) covers 130 users and 1,000,000 records. Data can live in Softr's built-in database or in an external source such as Airtable, Google Sheets, Supabase or a SQL database — in which case that service's own pricing and limits apply on top of Softr's.
Adalo builds database-driven apps from a multi-screen visual canvas and — alone among these four — publishes native iOS and Android apps to the App Store and Google Play, as well as web apps, from the same project. The free plan is for building and testing: unlimited test apps, up to 500 records per app, and no published apps. Builder ($65/mo billed monthly, or $624 billed annually) publishes up to 2 apps with 5 editors, custom domains and store publishing. Business ($200/mo billed monthly, or $1,920 billed annually) publishes up to 5 apps with 10 editors. Adalo sells its paid plans as flat-rate, with no per-action, per-user or per-record charges — the bill changes when you publish more apps or add editors, not when usage grows. Publishing to the stores also requires your own Apple Developer account ($99/year) and Google Play developer account ($25 one-time), which are Apple's and Google's fees, not Adalo's.
Must it be in the App Store and Google Play? Among these four, only Adalo publishes native store apps. A browser-based app (including a PWA people can add to a home screen) is enough for most internal tools and portals — and all four can do that.
Users, data rows, writes, or traffic? Softr and Glide charge mainly when people and data grow. Bubble charges when server work grows. Adalo charges when the number of published apps grows. Pick the meter that grows slowest in your case.
Use the year-cost model above with your own user count, record count and write volume. Pay attention to definitions: a "user" on Glide's Business tier means a work-email sign-in, and on Softr a same-domain colleague counts against a much smaller team allowance.
None of these four exports your app as code — leaving always means rebuilding the interface and logic. What you can protect is your data: keep it exportable (CSV or API on Bubble) or in a source you control (Sheets / Airtable / SQL with Glide and Softr), and keep a note of your workflows so a rebuild is a translation job, not archaeology.
A workload unit is Bubble's meter for server-side work: database searches and writes, backend workflows and calls to external APIs consume units; work done entirely in the visitor's browser does not. Each plan includes a monthly allowance (175,000 on Starter, 250,000 on Growth, 500,000 on Team), and usage above it is billed per 1,000 units. The bill jumps when traffic grows and when the app is built in a way that makes each visit expensive — for example, searches that return large result sets, since a search is charged partly per record returned. Two apps with the same number of users can have very different workload bills.
Because Glide now sells two products. Glide Classic — the spreadsheet-to-app builder priced in this guide (Explorer $19/mo, Maker $49/mo, Business $199/mo, all billed annually) — has its own pricing page, while the main pricing page now shows GlideOS, a newer AI-built product priced in credits (Basic $25/mo and up). Many comparison articles mix the two without saying so. Always check which product a quoted Glide price belongs to.
Not in a way that serves real users. Bubble's free plan is a development version with no live deployment, Glide's free plan cannot publish, and Adalo's free plan includes no published apps. Softr's free plan is the most permissive for a small live portal, but it is limited to 5 app users and carries Softr's limits on records and workflow actions. In practice, publishing is where paid plans start on all four.
No — none of these four exports your app as runnable code. Bubble states this explicitly in its documentation; Glide, Softr and Adalo likewise run your app only on their platform. What you can take with you is your data: Bubble offers data exports and a Data API, and with Glide and Softr your data can live in Google Sheets, Airtable or a SQL database that you control. Moving platforms means rebuilding the app around that data.
On published pricing structures, Adalo's flat rate changes only when you publish more apps or add editors, so it is the simplest to forecast. Softr and Glide are predictable as long as you can estimate your user count, record count and write volume. Bubble is the least predictable in advance, because workload depends on both traffic and how the app is built — its published unit costs let you model it, but the model needs your real usage to be accurate.
Because this guide is compiled from publicly available vendor information, not hands-on testing. We are not claiming build-speed or performance results we did not measure. Where a judgment appears — for example, that a bill is hard to forecast — it follows from the published pricing structure shown next to it, so you can check the reasoning yourself.