How to Build a Dribbble Clone with Bubble

What Dribbble Actually Does

Dribbble is a portfolio platform where designers upload shots, get feedback, and connect with companies looking to hire. The core loop is simple: upload work, get discovered, get hired. It combines a visual portfolio grid with social features like likes, comments, follows, and collections. There is also a job board and a freelancer marketplace layered on top.

At its core, Dribbble is a content-heavy social platform with strong search and discovery mechanics. That makes it a solid candidate for Bubble because the data model is straightforward and the interactions are well-defined.

Core Features to Build

Start with the features that drive the main user loop. You need user profiles with bio, location, skills, and a portfolio grid. The shot upload flow needs to support images, titles, descriptions, tags, and colour palettes. Social interactions include likes, comments, follows, and collections (saved shots). Search and filtering by tag, colour, and category round out the discovery side.

The job board is a separate but connected module. Companies post roles, designers apply, and the system matches based on skills and portfolio. You can phase this in after the core portfolio experience is live. Same with the pro/team subscription tier which gates analytics and hiring tools behind a paywall.

Data Types in Bubble

Your primary data types are User, Shot, Comment, Like, Follow, Collection, Tag, and Job. The User type extends Bubble's built-in user with fields for display name, avatar, cover image, bio, location, website URL, skills list, follower count, and following count. Store counts as numbers and update them with backend workflows to avoid slow aggregation queries on the front end.

The Shot type holds image, title, description, tags (list of Tags), colour palette (list of texts), category, view count, like count, comment count, created date, and a reference back to the creator User. Keep the image field as a single image for the grid thumbnail and add an images list field if you want multi-image shots later.

Comment links to a Shot and a User with a body text field and created date. Like is a join table between User and Shot. Follow is a join table between two Users (follower and following). Collection belongs to a User and holds a list of Shots. Tag is its own type with a name and a shot count for discovery sorting.

Job has fields for title, company, description, location, salary range, job type, required skills, and a reference to the posting User or Company. If you add a Company type, link it to Users who represent that company.

Workflows and Logic

The shot upload workflow creates a new Shot thing, uploads the image to Bubble's file manager, attaches tags (creating new Tag entries if they do not exist), and increments the creator's shot count. Use a backend workflow triggered on shot creation to extract dominant colours from the image if you want automated colour palette tagging. Otherwise, let users pick colours manually from a preset list.

The like workflow checks if a Like entry already exists for the current user and shot. If not, it creates one and increments the shot's like count. If it does exist, it deletes the Like and decrements the count. This toggle pattern is standard across Bubble social apps. The follow workflow is identical in structure but operates on the Follow type between two users.

For the feed, run a search for Shots where the creator is in the current user's following list, sorted by created date descending. Add a trending feed by sorting all shots by like count within the last 7 days. Use Bubble's search constraints to filter by date range. The explore page uses a broader search with optional tag, colour, and category filters applied dynamically based on user selections.

Comments are a simple create workflow that adds a Comment thing linked to the shot and user, then increments the shot's comment count. Threaded replies can be added by giving Comment a parent Comment field, but keep V1 flat to reduce complexity.

UI Components and Layout

The main grid uses a repeating group set to a fixed number of columns (3 or 4) with each cell showing the shot image, creator avatar, title, like count, and view count. On hover, overlay the shot with a semi-transparent layer showing the title and action buttons. This hover effect uses Bubble's conditional visibility on a group within the repeating group cell.

The shot detail page is a full-width layout with the image centred, creator info in a sidebar, and comments below. Use a floating group for the like and save buttons so they stay visible on scroll. The profile page has a header section with avatar, bio, stats (shots, followers, following), and a tab group switching between the user's shots, collections, and liked shots. Each tab loads a different repeating group with the appropriate data source.

For the upload flow, use a multi-step form inside a popup or dedicated page. Step one handles the image upload and basic metadata. Step two handles tags and categorisation. Step three is a preview before publishing. Use custom states to track which step the user is on and conditionally show or hide each step's group.

Privacy Rules and Permissions

Set privacy rules so that shots marked as private are only visible to their creator. All public shots are visible to everyone, including logged-out users. Comments and likes are publicly readable but only createable by logged-in users. User profile data is mostly public, but email and sensitive fields should be restricted to the user themselves and admin roles.

For the job board, job posts are publicly visible but applications are only visible to the posting company and the applicant. Use privacy rules on the Application type to enforce this at the data level rather than just hiding UI elements.

What to Skip in V1

Do not build real-time notifications, animated transitions, team workspaces, or a full hiring CRM. These are features that add weeks of development without validating your core value proposition. Skip the pro analytics dashboard, custom domains for portfolios, and integrations with design tools. You can add all of these iteratively once you have users engaging with the basic upload-and-discover loop.

Also skip building a custom colour extraction algorithm. Use a simple colour picker with preset options. Automated colour extraction requires server-side image processing that adds unnecessary complexity in Bubble.

Cost and Timeline

A solo builder can ship the core portfolio and social features in 4 to 6 weeks on Bubble. Adding the job board extends that by 2 to 3 weeks. Bubble's pricing starts at $29 per month for the Starter plan, but you will likely need the Growth plan at $119 per month for the workflow capacity and file storage a media-heavy platform requires. Budget for a paid image hosting or CDN integration if uploads grow beyond what Bubble's built-in storage handles efficiently.

Total cost for the first 3 months including Bubble subscription and any plugins runs between $400 and $600. That is a fraction of the $30,000 to $60,000 a custom-coded MVP would cost with a development team.

DIY vs Hiring a Bubble Developer

If you are a designer or founder with no Bubble experience, expect a significant learning curve on the data modelling and workflow logic. The UI side will come naturally if you have design skills. The backend logic for social features, counts, and privacy rules is where most people get stuck. You could learn as you go, but it will add 3 to 4 weeks to your timeline.

Hiring an experienced Bubble developer gets you to launch faster with cleaner architecture. They will set up proper backend workflows, optimised searches, and scalable data structures from the start. For a project like this, expect to pay between $5,000 and $12,000 for a senior Bubble developer depending on scope and timeline.

Ready to Build?

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If you want a Dribbble-style platform built right the first time, work with a team that has shipped dozens of Bubble apps at scale. Talk to Goodspeed Studio about your project and get a scoped plan within a week.