So I actually made a 30+ page book called "The Guide To No Code Marketplaces" that I just launched and it's completely free. You can download it at guides.everythingmarketplaces.com.
Of course it depends on specific use cases & your business requirements, which I cover & provide a framework for in the book.
Also to note is that the book and above is with actual examples of marketplaces at some sense of scale, actual liquidity, and revenue. You can of course use other platforms to build a prototype that looks great, but operating & scaling a marketplace is another story. I've built & operated quite a few (some seven-figure GMV and revenue), so feel like can chime in here with some actual insights.
I work at a no-code software development agency, and over half of the projects that come our way are marketplaces. We use Bubble.io for 95% of all of our projects, but feel it works particularly well for marketplaces.
If you're looking for examples of design in end products, both Quillit.io and KidsBook.io were built using Bubble. We've written an article on "How to Build a Marketplace Without Code" that provides an overview of self-building tools like Sharetribe (and actually links out to one of @yoroomie 's videos!), and potential outsourcing options.
At the end of the day though, scaling your marketplace is what deserves the vast majority of your attention. We always recommend going with the leanest option possible. 9 times out of 10, that means taking a day or two to decide between Bubble and Sharetribe, and then spending as much time as you can on aggregating supply & demand. Best of luck!
Thank you for sharing :) The 2 website you linked to are super slow though :/ No way they are getting anywhere with those load times :( Would you have other Bubble examples that have decent load times ?
Hmm curious what's indicating slow load times? Both those sites load in under a second when I visit from my browser. And I know Google Page Speed Insights will sometimes give very poor scores to Bubble apps, but we've found it's generally a pretty subjective indicator of actual performance. Have used the Pingdom Speed Test tool to compare site load times, and while many Bubble sites still get a C, it's a bit more consistent.
The AirDev site itself is built on Bubble, and performs well; is it also slow for you?
There are quite a few such marketplace SaaS software out there. I tried Arcadier (https://www.arcadier.com/) as they had a 30 days free trial. Their Marketplace trial does come with pretty good marketplace themes, they do have some advanced features allowing HTML & CSS edits to allow visual edits. I didn't use them though.
While not necesseraly No-Code tool, i would suggest you research themeforest (wordpress, drupal) templates. From memory some of them have lots of functionality pre-configured already. With gazilion addons, a typical marketplace, could be done without no coding. https://themeforest.net/search/marketplace
I used a few Wordpress templates for other (non-marketplace) projects before and they tended to break at some point (with very little or bad support because the devs behind those templates don't make much money from them generally). Happened with 3 different templates that were highly rated and best selling iirc.
I’m also launching my own marketplace and spent weeks searching for the best alternative. When I first landed in Sharetribe I had the same reaction: this looks bad as hell.
I continued looking and found out that Zeroqode has some good templates for Bubble, so I started learning the tool. It’s not easy. Possibilities are endless, but its not easy. Plus, the template costs USD300.
After lots of search and testing, I decided to go with Sharetribe Go after all. I created my own good-looking landing page on Wordpress and linked it to Sharetribe under a sub domain. If you know some CSS, you can actually make Sharetribe a little better as they allow you to insert code on the backend. If you don’t know any CSS I’d say you can either just launching with what yo have and, if the idea works, upgrade to their Flex plan (much more customization options but code needed), or you can get someone to tweak the CSS and make the marketplace look a little better.
I really don't understand why Sharetribe Go looks so bad. Sharetribe clearly has the ability to design something better based on their other pages. I feel like they might be leaving a lot of revenue on the table.
I totally agree. It doesn’t seem like lack of care either. I’ve been following their co-founders and all Sharetribe content for a while and they seem legit. I’d imagine the bad design would be to encourage people to the Flex plan, which is way more expensive. If that is the case this is just a very poor decision.
It seems like they are really focused on customer acquisition but not giving enough attention to their entry level product. Agree with you that it’s a lot of money left on the table, as many people must sign up and give up due to the painfully bad design
Thanks for sharing your point of view :) The real value add for me is getting something fully prebuilt that I can just start using so I can validate an idea, which should have been Sharetribe Go. No point in me getting the Flex product as I would still need to write code.
many people must sign up and give up due to the painfully bad design
That's exactly what happened to me quite some time ago. I was thinking : "ok, this looks really bad. But maybe I could write my own css ? Hmmm. Not worth the time. Let's move on to something else."
Yeah you can certainly make it better with some CSS, which is what I’m doing, but it is still far from pretty. It’s a ready made solution, tho, making it very easy to just launch an mvp. Good luck 💪🏽
I’m still in development stage as well. I’ve signed up for Sharetribe with a dummy account just to see how much I can change inside, that’s how I’ve discovered the ability to change the CSS. Then you can find the landing page (on Wordpress) at sideline.pt (not ready yet and not linking anywhere) and the dummy marketplace on Sharetribe at soon1.sharetribe.com. This is all dummy stuff, but you can see the difference (albeit not very big) the CSS edits have on a normal Sharetribe Go plan compared to having no edits.
If you want to compare, Huego.io does the same thing — landing page on Wordpress (or other landing page builder) and marketplace on Sharetribe Go with a sub domain.
So I actually made a 30+ page book called "The Guide To No Code Marketplaces" that I just launched and it's completely free. You can download it at guides.everythingmarketplaces.com.
The TL;DR on it is:
P2P: Sharetribe
B2C: Sharetribe, Bubble
B2B, Managed Marketplaces: Bubble, Webflow
On-Demand: Bubble
SaaS-Enabled Marketplaces: Bubble, Webflow
Of course it depends on specific use cases & your business requirements, which I cover & provide a framework for in the book.
Also to note is that the book and above is with actual examples of marketplaces at some sense of scale, actual liquidity, and revenue. You can of course use other platforms to build a prototype that looks great, but operating & scaling a marketplace is another story. I've built & operated quite a few (some seven-figure GMV and revenue), so feel like can chime in here with some actual insights.
Lastly, if you want to see some real examples of no code marketplaces, their tool stacks, integrations, etc you can see this directory I made at https://everythingmarketplaces.com/#nocodemarketplacedirectory
Hi Mike, thanks for sharing your awesome book!
🤩 Incredible, thanks for sharing!
I work at a no-code software development agency, and over half of the projects that come our way are marketplaces. We use Bubble.io for 95% of all of our projects, but feel it works particularly well for marketplaces.
If you're looking for examples of design in end products, both Quillit.io and KidsBook.io were built using Bubble. We've written an article on "How to Build a Marketplace Without Code" that provides an overview of self-building tools like Sharetribe (and actually links out to one of @yoroomie 's videos!), and potential outsourcing options.
At the end of the day though, scaling your marketplace is what deserves the vast majority of your attention. We always recommend going with the leanest option possible. 9 times out of 10, that means taking a day or two to decide between Bubble and Sharetribe, and then spending as much time as you can on aggregating supply & demand. Best of luck!
Thank you for sharing :) The 2 website you linked to are super slow though :/ No way they are getting anywhere with those load times :( Would you have other Bubble examples that have decent load times ?
Hmm curious what's indicating slow load times? Both those sites load in under a second when I visit from my browser. And I know Google Page Speed Insights will sometimes give very poor scores to Bubble apps, but we've found it's generally a pretty subjective indicator of actual performance. Have used the Pingdom Speed Test tool to compare site load times, and while many Bubble sites still get a C, it's a bit more consistent.
The AirDev site itself is built on Bubble, and performs well; is it also slow for you?
That one loaded faster ^^ Thank you for sharing :)
I'd also opt-in Sharetribe or Bubble - you can find clonable templates easily. Keen to see your output :) @LeoNeo
Just discovered Kreezalid. This tool lets you create your online marketplace in no time without technical skills.
You can test www.kreezalid.com/fr
This is sharetribe alternative.
Surprised no one has mentioned Sharetribe.
It has been mentioned multiple times already in this thread :)
Otherwise there's always good ol' Wordpress + Marketplace theme + Dokan plugin (for multi=vendor marketplace)
Tried that. Templates would break after a few weeks for no reason (or were already broken in less obvious ways).
That what I did with kareeba . WordPress with some plugins
There are quite a few such marketplace SaaS software out there. I tried Arcadier (https://www.arcadier.com/) as they had a 30 days free trial. Their Marketplace trial does come with pretty good marketplace themes, they do have some advanced features allowing HTML & CSS edits to allow visual edits. I didn't use them though.
Thanks for the link! Arcadier looks nice. What other marketplace SaaS are there?
While not necesseraly No-Code tool, i would suggest you research themeforest (wordpress, drupal) templates. From memory some of them have lots of functionality pre-configured already. With gazilion addons, a typical marketplace, could be done without no coding. https://themeforest.net/search/marketplace
I’ve been enjoying Stacker. It’s a no code tool with Airtable as the database
Most likely bubble would be your go-to, because of the amount of flexibility it'll provide you.
With that said, however, you can use something like ShareTribe if you're looking to just have a quick marketplace up without much customization.
I am exploring this as well. One of the possibility is Wordpress directory templates.
I used a few Wordpress templates for other (non-marketplace) projects before and they tended to break at some point (with very little or bad support because the devs behind those templates don't make much money from them generally). Happened with 3 different templates that were highly rated and best selling iirc.
https://www.sharetribe.com/
I’m also launching my own marketplace and spent weeks searching for the best alternative. When I first landed in Sharetribe I had the same reaction: this looks bad as hell.
I continued looking and found out that Zeroqode has some good templates for Bubble, so I started learning the tool. It’s not easy. Possibilities are endless, but its not easy. Plus, the template costs USD300.
After lots of search and testing, I decided to go with Sharetribe Go after all. I created my own good-looking landing page on Wordpress and linked it to Sharetribe under a sub domain. If you know some CSS, you can actually make Sharetribe a little better as they allow you to insert code on the backend. If you don’t know any CSS I’d say you can either just launching with what yo have and, if the idea works, upgrade to their Flex plan (much more customization options but code needed), or you can get someone to tweak the CSS and make the marketplace look a little better.
Good luck!
I really don't understand why Sharetribe Go looks so bad. Sharetribe clearly has the ability to design something better based on their other pages. I feel like they might be leaving a lot of revenue on the table.
I totally agree. It doesn’t seem like lack of care either. I’ve been following their co-founders and all Sharetribe content for a while and they seem legit. I’d imagine the bad design would be to encourage people to the Flex plan, which is way more expensive. If that is the case this is just a very poor decision.
It seems like they are really focused on customer acquisition but not giving enough attention to their entry level product. Agree with you that it’s a lot of money left on the table, as many people must sign up and give up due to the painfully bad design
Thanks for sharing your point of view :) The real value add for me is getting something fully prebuilt that I can just start using so I can validate an idea, which should have been Sharetribe Go. No point in me getting the Flex product as I would still need to write code.
That's exactly what happened to me quite some time ago. I was thinking : "ok, this looks really bad. But maybe I could write my own css ? Hmmm. Not worth the time. Let's move on to something else."
Yeah you can certainly make it better with some CSS, which is what I’m doing, but it is still far from pretty. It’s a ready made solution, tho, making it very easy to just launch an mvp. Good luck 💪🏽
Thx ^^ You too :)
Could you please share a link here or via DM? Trying to understand better the subdomain approach as I too am beginning to play with Sharetribe.
I’m still in development stage as well. I’ve signed up for Sharetribe with a dummy account just to see how much I can change inside, that’s how I’ve discovered the ability to change the CSS. Then you can find the landing page (on Wordpress) at sideline.pt (not ready yet and not linking anywhere) and the dummy marketplace on Sharetribe at soon1.sharetribe.com. This is all dummy stuff, but you can see the difference (albeit not very big) the CSS edits have on a normal Sharetribe Go plan compared to having no edits.
If you want to compare, Huego.io does the same thing — landing page on Wordpress (or other landing page builder) and marketplace on Sharetribe Go with a sub domain.
Wow thanks for the details, y buena suerte!
Thanks, same to you :)
That one looks bad imo (was already aware of it) :( but thanks for answering ^^
Agreed
watch it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l09uvaDcFKg
Thx ^^