When to use Xano as a Bubble backend?

About Xano

Xano is the fastest way to create a scalable backend for your application using No Code, although it requires some knowledge of code and relational databases. Each Xano account comes with a scalable server, a flexible database, and an API builder, to be done without touching the code. So you can transform, filter, and integrate data from anywhere.
To put it simply, Xano allows us to externalize the backend (mainly the database part and some of the logic) of our bubble app. Why can we do it?

Why outsource your backend ?

The question that often arises is the scalability of its application made with No-Code. Certainly, tools like Bubble can offer this evolution but we can observe limits when:

We have a large amount of data in our database;
We have to make several CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) requests on several objects of our database;
We need to use the same backend for a mobile app. This makes development easier;
We need to keep our data in Europe for example for an aspect of RGPD compliance;
We must have several authentication techniques;
Etc.

All these reasons may push us to use an external backend solution and Xano is a better solution, and it integrates better with Bubble through the API connector and here is the complete documentation in video to make this connection. And xano has a dynamic community, making it easy to find help if needed.

But you should know that an external backend has several flaws and disadvantages that you should reconsider before taking action.

External backend, a bad idea?

It should be noted that an external backend has several shortcomings such as:

An external backend is an extra load, which requires more resources, a subscription to more, an expertise that you need to have, but I can accompany you to allow you to better integrate your backend stack.

Bubble offers a complete and powerful workflow system, if all your integration is done with Bubble. But using an external backend doesn’t allow you to take advantage of the maximum power of Bubble.

Implementing an external backend, even if it’s in No-Code, requires some additional knowledge besides the mastery of Bubble. Like mastering relational database design, a brief knowledge of the code, mastering APIs and End point. Fortunately Xano has a complete documentation to help you with the implementation.

As you have seen, using an external backend is advantageous for some use cases. And in most cases, Bubble will be more than enough unless you find yourself in the above mentioned cases. But for Apps with more taffic and data, an external backend is necessary. Hence the scalability of his App with an external backend solution.

It is important to know that Xano is not the only external backend solution, you can use an external SQL database by using the Bubble connector. Or backends like , Back4App, Firebase, …