5 Techniques I Use to Build High-Performance Adalo Apps - From 180+ Projects

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After building over 180 production apps on Adalo for startups and businesses across the US, UK, and Australia, I’ve developed a set of techniques that consistently deliver fast, scalable, professional results.

These aren’t workarounds, they’re how Adalo is designed to be used at its best.

1. Navigate through relationships instead of filtering collections

Adalo’s relationship system is one of its most powerful features. Rather than loading a full collection and filtering it, I always navigate through the relationship chain. Current User => Orders is faster and cleaner than filtering the Orders collection by user. This is Adalo working exactly as designed, and it’s elegant when you use it right.

2. Keep list cards minimal, detail screens rich

A list component’s job is to help users find what they’re looking for, not display everything. I keep list cards to 3-4 fields maximum. The full details live on the record’s dedicated screen. This keeps browsing fast and the UX clean. Users find what they need quickly, then dive deeper when they choose to.

3. Store summary values for dashboards and badges

For features like unread message counts, total earnings, or average ratings, I store these as fields directly on the relevant record and update them with actions when data changes. This makes dashboard screens and badge counts load instantly. It’s a standard practice in app development and Adalo makes it straightforward to implement with its custom action system.

4. Separate images into their own collection for large catalogues

When building apps with large product or listing catalogues, I create a dedicated Images collection with a relationship back to the parent record. This gives me full control over when images load and allows me to build gallery features, multiple image support, and optimized browsing experiences that feel native and professional.

5. Use counted (Number) properties for statistics

Adalo’s counted properties are underused by most builders. Instead of building complex filtered lists just to get a count, I use counted properties to display totals: number of bookings, number of reviews, number of active listings. They’re fast, they’re simple, and they make building analytics and profile stats effortless.

These five techniques alone account for the majority of performance and quality improvements I make when I review client apps. Adalo gives you everything you need to build production-ready software, knowing how to use each feature to its full potential is what separates good apps from great ones.

If you’re building something and want a second pair of eyes on your structure or approach, book a free 20-minute call: consultation.webnux.org

Ali Bazzi | Adalo Expert and Community Leader | Founder of Webnux

Work with me: adalo.com/experts/ali-bazzi
Free audit: consultation.webnux.org

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Excellent, I will also add a recommendation about hiding components in certain situations - this is true in terms of UI/UX, and it is true in terms of Adalo performance.

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Thank you @nadavma2! Great addition, conditional visibility is one of the most effective techniques for keeping screens (especially dashboards) fast and responsive. Rather than navigating between screens, you control state visibility directly on the same screen, which eliminates reload overhead entirely. I apply this consistently on any screen managing multiple user states.

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Great information @Ali-Bazzi

One additional technique I’d suggest is using one-to-many relationships instead of many-to-many relationships whenever possible.

For example, let’s say you have Users and Groups, and users need to belong to groups. The simple approach is to create a many-to-many relationship where users can belong to many groups, and groups can have many users.

A better structure is to create a third collection called Group Members .

The setup would look like this:

  • A Group can have many Group Members
  • A Group Member belongs to one Group
  • A User can have many Group Members
  • A Group Member belongs to one User

This structure is usually much faster to query, easier to scale, and gives you more flexibility. You can also store extra details directly on the Group Member record, such as the date/time they joined, their role in the group, status, permissions, or anything else related to that membership.

It takes a little more setup, but it creates a much cleaner and more scalable database structure.

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Great addition @Flawless. The junction collection pattern is exactly right, and the real bonus is what you can store on that intermediary record. Role, status, permissions, joined date. Things that simply don’t fit anywhere else in a direct many-to-many setup.

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