Q: External Database and API
I've built on Bubble before, but I'd like to get away from their increasingly expensive monthly fees.
I'm looking at the database and operations limits. My question is this: If I use an external database and use my own API key to link that database to Frontly, would viewing data in the external database use any operations credits?
For example, one of my web apps is a nonprofit that displays 3D virtual tours. I use an external database to manage those tours and their information. I would use Frontly to be the frontend app to display the tours, but they would be hosted in AWS and managed in an external database. Would displaying those tours via Frontly use any operations credits?
Patrick_Frontly
May 15, 2025A: Hi there,
Right now Frontly's 3 database options are the 'Frontly Database', Supabase and Google Sheets, so we unfortunately don't have the ability to connect to an AWS hosted database currently.
It's something we're looking into - more of a generalized database approach, but we don't have an exact timeline on this right now, sorry about that!
But to answer your question anyway, our 'operations' system applies to all data sources. We found over the past 3 years that operations (even if running to an external database) are the best / most consistent measure of load on our system and best reflect the true cost for us to host the platform.
This is why we now offer unlimited users / apps on the free plan, but allow upgrade for branding and more operations.
Thank you for your interest!
Strak