App Academy is necessary based on our research. We have a lot of people churn because they canāt figure out how to build, and because they need support on everything else outside of building (design, marketing, business processes, etc.) Yes content exists out there, but having it in one location in an interactive format is really helpful. And the App Academy is free, unlike Udemy. Also, everybody who is working on the academy canāt work on features and performance. The AAA team is the education and community team, not product and engineering. And the teachers arenāt all internal. We havenāt hired anybody new in regard to the academy. Most of the content makers are people in our community and people outside of our community. For instance, Ben Tossell from Makerpad has a course on the academy. We will have marketing pros making courses and design pros making courses. None of this is actually costing us money, too. Itās just a major time investment. Majority of my time is onboarding and shepherding people into the Academy to make and publish content.
Victor is the man. He is making a course! 
I really appreciate that you take the time to post here. Iāve only been working with Adalo for a few months, but I settled here after a long search for solutions, and have been absolutely dedicated to learning the platform, leveraging its strengths, and building an app that (hopefully) will quantum-leap my business operations. This is really the stuff of dreams for small business and entrepreneurs, and I donāt want my appreciation for that (and you&the team) to be completely lost in the pleading and complaining that I do.
But, If I could please, please impress upon you that the bugginess of the platform (and general performance of course) - whether or not you understand it or find it āconfusingā - has GOT to be a priority. It is absolutely RUINING my experience with Adalo to the point where after 700+ hours of my life invested in learning the platform and building a management app for my business, today for the first time I have been seriously considering leaving. Iām having an increasingly hard time seeing myself making it over the finish line with the way the platform has been acting up. And Iām a FANBOY, let me tell ya. I have been positively raving to anyone who will listen that this is the future of entreprenurial software development, going to change fundamentally how businesses operate, upend the app market as we know it. No-code is the future, and Adalo has got a lot of things right. The platform is absolutely unmatched (IN THEORY) for what Iām using it for.
But, if you check my history, youāll likely see Iāve been increasingly ācomplainyā as recent bugs and issues have crushed my productivity on the platform. Long-established sections of my app have broken and I donāt know if Iāll be able to fix them. Each new functionality I add seems to take 10X longer than it should due to having to delete and rebuild buggy components and screens, and create elaborate work-arounds in logic and data structure because simple stuff that should work just doesntā¦ And now, after spending another 8 hours today trying to solve a bug without resolve, realizing I just need to abandon several screens and dozens of hours of work, and either rebuild those screens from scratch or scrap that section of the app altogether, Iām at my wits end.
I had a great 500+ hours of building, and yes, I had loads of bugs through that time, but I was able to learn and adapt and re-do and work-around. But now, my app is too big, too complex to have to rebuild over and over. These last couple hundred hours have been brutal and decreasingly productive. Iād thought a lot of my early tribulations could be chalked up to inexperience, but now I know that canāt be all of it. Random screens that were working fine suddenly start in with the white screen of death, Or key functionality that had been working all along suddenly literally just stops working across the app, or a series of screens start having untraceable errors on linking/data pass-through (and NO, its not a mistake in linking screens that are missing data - I can demonstrate to the contrary). And thatās just the big bugs that break things, not even the dozens upon dozens of little bugs like logic inputs dissapearing in components, visibility settings that refuse to work, even simple ones, simple logic specifications that just frustratingly donāt work. All of which, randomly, may actually start working if you delete and rebuild them enough, at which point you just have to slowly back away from the screen hoping not to look at it wrong or touch it again out of fear of it breaking again. And troubleshooting takes FOREVER because the editor is so laggy and theres absolutely no way to identify the source of a problem without going through component by componetnt, verifying everything is right, and when youāve verified everything is right you then need to go through component by component, deleting and rebuilding until things work. Itās rough.
Pleasee, please impress upon whomever will listen to you this fact. I would stake a decent amount of my retirement savings betting that THIS is the #1 reason for your āchurnā problem. Your āreasearchā tells you people have trouble learning the platform? Hogwash, itās by far the most intuitive and easy to learn platform out there. Anyone with an iota of software experience should be able to figure it out. You guys have great documentation on the basic features, and like has been said, a plethora of additional resources for learning abound and are easy to find. This forum alone could serve as a functioning AAA.
Itās not that people come on the platform and canāt figure it out - itās that they come on the platform, follow the tutorials, learn how it operates, get all excited, build build build, but thenā¦ Things donāt work. The editor lags. The editor freezes. Things that theyād worked hard to perfect suddenly break and become frustratingly impossible to fix (most common āsolutionā on the forum is ādelete components until it works again then rebuild itā), then, the editor lags some more. This might all be fine for vanilla toy apps, but if youve spent multiple days perfecting the layout, formatting and āprogrammingā of a beautiful report screen, only to have it go irrecoverably buggy, just deleting and rebuilding is not a great thing to hear. And vanilla toy apps arenāt where youāre going to make your money - those people will come and go and wonāt be sustaining customers, or theyāll run on your free plan. People who build real tools and become dependant on your system is where your money is. And if someone like me just canāt get there due to the bugginess and performance problems, then youāve got a big, big problem.
Itās not that AAA is a bad idea. Itās not that any of the ācoolā things you say are in the pipeline are bad ideas. Itās just that none it means jack if when the wheels hit the road if the platform either simply doesnāt work, or kinda works but is an almighty exercise in patience and perseverance to get it to work. You can run the worlds best driving school, teaching people every intracacy of operating a car and navigating the roads, but if they then hop in the blingy, flashy car you give them, and the steering wheel pops off in their hands, careening the car of a bridge abutment, then all that education and bling was for naught.
And, correct me if Iām wrong, but comments and/or timelines on Adalo fixing its CORE functionality are conspicuously absent from your update posts. That, I think is one of the more frustrating things. āIt confuses meā, and ādonāt worry we hired a guyā arenāt cutting it. At least not for me.
Iām taking a breath tonight, and tomorrow Im going to reevaluate what I want to accomplish with the app. I may be able to scale back my ambitions, accept a much less capable app but maybe one that I can limp across the finish line for now and put to use through our busy season. Then, when things slow down again, I can reevaluate whether to continue to develop the Adalo app, or move to a different platform.
I may be 100% wrong on this. But I doubt it. If anyone in this community of active, invested, intelligent users disagrees with me, or finds that my depiction of what the actual real-world experience of working in Adalo for 700+Hours isnāt true to form, please speak up. I would be HAPPY to reevaluate my stance. In fact, Im so far into this, with so much invested, that I HOPE Iām wrong.
I feel like this could drive me to drinkā¦ But if it does, Iāll be drinking to Adaloās success, and to better days ahead. Iām still with ya all, Iām just also really, really discouragedā¦
What a post !
While I share your concern about learning curve, it can be different from person to person, I am not talking about willingness to learn but initial knowledge can play bigger role than we think.
Your commitment to this tool is encouraging, but surviving and balancing the feature and workaround could not be understated.
If you make apps for your own usage, meaning you are not building for your clients, certainly you can prioritize which features are the most relevant right now which can be bug-free and which features will implemented later.
The path that you are taking are most likely the same path everyone else did, some manage to survive and become expert, some are no longer active, but if any given time we manage to avoid the limitation and stick to what works, rewards are achievable.
Again, I share your concern and most people are, but the necessity to raise after certain drawback is not a bad idea.
@jessehaywood knows a little about my drawback too, probably my hours here can speak too.
As far as this thread is concerned, youāre the voice and ears of the company to us. As you mentioned, youāre the messenger.
My goal with my comments is to simply get the word spread to the proper Adalo staff member.
At this point, I think we can all agree that performance and functionality trump the marketplace. I bet that we can all also agree that non-component developer users would have preferred if Adalo addressed the major issues and limitations that we are currently facing instead.
While I do understand the convenience and marketing-side of the new marketplace for 3rd party developers, this had to have been a lot of extra work to provide regular Adalo users with the 3rd-party components in one place, essentially taking time away that could have been spent on the core product that we so desperately want to be flawless.
Thatās probably the biggest reason why this release was upsetting.
I agree with @Yongki that the learning curve is different, depending on the userās background in development and how well a user is capable of learning on their own. Thatās what I felt was so great about this forum vs the academy. Regular users can jump in and ask the dumbest, simplest questions to advanced, complex questions and get a direct answer fairly quickly without judgment.
As a person that spends 6 to 12 hours a day in the Adalo editor and on the forum, I feel like I can speak for all regular adalo users that we want Adalo to focus on the core product before creating extra gadgets and gizmos that may or may not help with churn.
Imagine if Adalo focuses on the core product. You know, squashing the bugs, making the platform super-freakin streamlined, increasing performance, etcā¦ Youād have fewer people jump ship because of the bugs/limitations. Youād have more people signing up because everything actually works as intended. Youād have more people recommending Adalo to others.
Iāve read many posts about people canceling their subscription because of Adaloās bugs/limitations.
Iāve read many posts about users NOT upgrading from a free plan because of Adaloās bugs/limitations.
Iāve personally been hesitant to recommend Adalo to some people because of Adaloās bugs/limitations.
Iāve launched 12 apps to the app stores and Iām always scared that the apps will mess up (and they often do). When they do, I get blasted with emails and messages from clients and their app users that the apps arenāt working, which adds a vast amount of unnecessary stress. My clients pay a lot of money for these apps and the current bugs/limitations can negatively impact the reputations of my clientsā businesses as well as my business and personal mental health.
My take would be
performance >>>>>> core product (bugs,limitation)>>>marketplace>>new component>AAA
I can agree with @Yongki and @Flawless
It is thanks to adalo that I am where I am now, that my primary job has become developing apps with Adalo.
I have been attending the forum since itās launch and working on the editor every day, and I have been expecting an improvement in performance for two years.
The worst thing is to deliver a working app, only to see after a week that something inexplicably doesnāt work, and then customers get mad at you when you are not to blame. This is the weak point of nocode development in general.
But me, like everyone else, was expecting a big leap in quality after fund raising, but it did not happen.
The performance problem is a serious problem and often the one that prevents the user from approaching Adalo for the first time.
Once an adequate level of performance has been re-added, the road will only be downhill
Having said that, the work of the community manager @jessehaywood is perfect, since he has been around, the activity on the forum has definitely increased and improved, he has added very useful sections and does an excellent job on social networks, really nothing to say.
What should be improved according to my point of view is Dev-CM-Adalo Users communication, as for this update in which we expected new free lists and buttons but this was not the case.
Correct. But a messenger can only say what he knows. I just try to share what I have knowledge of. Sometimes Iām transparent to a fault. Sometimes my communication is lacking. But thatās why I am bringing town halls back. It gives you the opportunity to voice your questions, and it gives me the opportunity to take those questions and find answers. Thatās all I can do.
I agree with what you are saying. Iāve acknowledged that. I donāt know what more to say there. I donāt know what it takes to improve performance and prevent bugs. But again, thatās why Iām doing the town halls, so that I can find out and then share that information with you.
As an example of what it could take to improve performance, look at Canva. Iām a big Canva user and have been almost since their inception. They ran into performance and bug issues as well. They came to a crossroad and had to make some tough decisions. They then rewrote their entire code base from scratch. They started off as an MVP, and then exploded in popularity. The growth exposed flaws, and then they had to do something about it. Adalo is a very similar story to Canva. Started off as an MVP and then exploded in popularity, and now we have some flaws that are exposed. And these flaws arenāt simple fixes. We canāt just throw money at it. Rewriting the entire code is an option, but it would take a long time and there would be a lot of silence from Adalo during that period. I really wish I had more information about this. If I did, Iād share it with you.
As to funding, @eugen, once again, that money went toward people. 12 to 35 employees. We went from staying alive as a startup, to building an organization. Creating systems, hiring people, and positioning ourself for the future, is what leadership prioritized. And I stand behind their decisions there. Half of our staff are now engineers/QA/CX. Thatās the first step in improving performance. It takes man power. But you also make a good point about communication from Dev-CM-Adalo. Once again, this is why Iām bringing town halls back. Next Wednesday is the first one.
Just a simple āI heard what you said, I understand what you said, and Iāll pass it to the right person to get an answerā would suffice.
And thatās why I voiced my opinions.
Weāre all on the same page here.
1 more addition here to the Town Hall @jessehaywood
Communication can and should go both ways. If yāall want help or would like our opinion on something, ask us. Iām sure you know who all the regulars are in the forum. The Town Hall should be an open, two-way conversation where you also ask us questions about our processes, problems, and ideas to better solidify your teamās priorities, processes, problems, and ideas.
Who else better to ask than us people that live and breathe Adalo?
Weāre always here willing to throw in our 2 cents to improve Adalo. 
Iām sure thereās a logical reason for the order that things are getting completed, however, a simple poll to the users here can provide a ton of valuable data from the most dedicated users that are in the tool day-in-and-day-out.
Comparison with Canva is perfect. Thatās what I was asking myself, why such a big platform has a slow and laggy mobile app.
Thank you to everyone voicing opinions and concerns. Iām actually on vacation today and am about to be in the car traveling. I wonāt be able to respond the rest of the day or weekend. Iāll be back on Monday.
Just wanted to say that in case there is more conversation and Iām not responding. Didnāt want yāall to think I was ignoring you. Iāll just be chillen 
Iām torn between Michael Jackson eating popcorn meme and crying Jordan meme right now. Loving the dialogue but also crying for the hope of eventual performance improvement lol Look forward to the town hall, please send email reminders if you can or at least make sure itās posted to Twitter and on here. Iām sure you will anyway 
Also a side note, what do yāall think of weekly Twitter spaces? Iāve been toying around with that idea in my mind. Just open dialogue, conversation, and hangout.
Iām 100% down anytime that Iām free when itās happening. Would be great to chat about Adalo with other makers.
This was on reddit this morning and I feel called out:
Is someone spying on me? How did they get every detail right?? Lol. 
I would love if Adalo became very centralized (comparatively speaking) - With the hopes that it would become extremely reliable, faster, easier, less fixing, less forum talk. wasting time here.
Imagine all components & only the best 3rd party components integrated & as easy to use as Adaloās core feature set. ā if nerds want to deal with tech issues. great. I DONāT.
We could spend more time creating, shipping, testing, & {hereās a thoughtā¦ sarcasmā¦} CREATE VALUE for others. - - Less time with forums, stupid twitter, adalo university, banter with component makers ( do the deals with components & coders behind the scenes ), &. we wouldnāt have to waste more money on experts (just like coding) just to test ideas. WOWā¦ what a concept.
What PROBLEM is ADALO solving?
A. Coders donāt have an outlet to sell software
or
B. Mere mortals canāt create / ship apps quickly & affordably
I would hope that it is clear to Adaloā¦ The answer is B. DUH! (sorry for the sarcasm - shocked at how blinded yaāll can be with such a big opportunity)
Apple & Canva & other companies that make difficult stuff, easy for mere mortals, are winners!
Think about itā¦ if making an App were literally as easy as Keynote (I recall that is similar to what you all advertised. *false advertisingā¦cough cough)ā¦
People would be changing the world. Making apps. Talking about you. You all would be making money hand over fist. But, no, no, noā¦ you want to focus on a market place, marketing, making an Academy, being social, letting users sort out problems ā¦ with this "Open eco-system. LAME
Adalo has tried, tested, & failed. Stop protecting a shitty experienceā¦ move on. rebuild, no worries.
I have great respect for messengers. Please forward the idea of making everything super super simple, reliable, fast, even if itās slightly more limited at firstā¦ to decision makers at Adalo.
The amount of people that Canāt code is way way bigger than the people that can. That is your opportunity. . Remember, your board members only care about money. They donāt care about us.
Twitter sucks
regarding learning curve. One point why people need tutorials might be the issue that only wild work arounds for simple tasks are needed. Simple things like duplicated user could be avoided by core - no you have to make wild actions which make the app bigger and more complex just to prevent that useraccounts are doubled.