# Bubble Buyer's Checklist: What to Check Before You Pay > Before paying for Bubble: per-app plans by tab, workload units and overages, no code export, US hosting, mobile build caps, no refunds, annual lock-in. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/bubble-buyers-checklist — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_ --- Bubble (bubble.io) is worth a card only after you have checked a handful of gates, and most of them sit outside the price card. The bill is per app, not per person: Bubble's Starter plan (Web) is $32 per month billed annually or $39 per month billed monthly, per app, and a project that also ships a native mobile app sits on a pricier tab. The Free plan never goes live. Usage is metered in workload units that can add charges or take the app offline. There are no refunds and no code export. Settle those points first; the feature list comes second. **$0.30 per 1K WU** — Default overage on Bubble's Starter, Growth and Team plans, on by default, billed monthly - **Per app** — Each Bubble project needs its own plan - **175K WU** — Monthly workload included in Bubble's Starter plan - **No refunds** — Bubble plans, converted trials and AI credit packs ## Which tab, which plan, how many editors Every project carries one plan, and the project type decides the tab. A web-only app sits on the Web tab; a native iOS or Android app needs the Mobile tab; one project holding both needs Web & Mobile, which shares one database, one set of backend workflows and one workload allowance. Ten projects mean ten plans. App editors are a feature of the plan rather than seats you buy: one on Free and Starter, two on Bubble's Growth plan, five on Bubble's Team plan and a custom number on Enterprise. Inviting any collaborator at all starts on Growth. | Need | Lowest plan | |---|---| | Live web app, custom domain, no Bubble branding | Starter | | Data API and Workflow API, plugin subscriptions, CSV import and export | Starter | | Second editor, custom branches (10), two-factor login for app users, unlimited advanced security tests | Growth | | Full app configuration export as JSON | Growth | | Five editors, sub apps, scheduled deployments, custom alerts, scheduled security tests | Team | | SSO, hosting region, dedicated instance, static IP, uptime SLA, direct database access | Enterprise | - Read the grid from the bottom up. One Enterprise-only need, such as data hosted outside the US, decides the purchase before price does. - Count who will edit the app. A second builder means Growth. - If an agency builds for you, its account cannot deploy live. The project moves to your account and you buy the app plan. > ⚠ **Annual plans bind for the year:** Bubble's annual plans renew unless canceled at least 30 days before the anniversary, and early cancellation does not end the full-year commitment. Bubble gives no refunds. ## Workload units: the meter that keeps running after launch Workload units (WU) measure the server work an app causes: searches, writes, API calls, scheduled workflows, emails and file uploads. They are counted per app and per calendar month, they do not roll over, and the Development version spends them too. The monthly allowances are 50K WU on Free, 175K on Starter, 250K on Growth and 500K on Team. Clicks that stay in the browser, such as showing or hiding an element, cost nothing. AI credits are a separate allowance for building with the Agent, and neither one can stand in for the other. Past the allowance, a paid app keeps running and pays overages of $0.30 per 1K WU on Bubble's Starter, Growth and Team plans. Overages are on by default and arrive monthly on a separate invoice, even on annual plans. Switch them off and the app goes offline at its limit until you re-enable them, buy a tier or the next period starts [1]. Workload tiers add blocks of WU at a lower rate; Tier 1 adds 200K WU for $26 per month on annual billing or $29 per month on monthly billing, per app. By our arithmetic, Tier 1 beats default overage once your extra need passes about 87K WU a month on the annual tier, which requires an annual app plan, or about 97K WU on the monthly tier. Below that line, overage is cheaper. Bubble emails at 75% and 100% of the allowance, and the Logs tab breaks usage down by page, workflow and element. A pilot month in Development shows which pages and workflows cost most, before live traffic adds to it. The full tier ladder sits in our [Bubble pricing breakdown](/articles/bubble-pricing). - Decide in writing whether a runaway month should cost money or take the app offline. - Give every recursive workflow a stop condition. One without it can drain the allowance. - Lock public API endpoints, since unauthenticated ones can burn WU. > 💡 **Measure workload in Development first:** Build on Free and read App metrics in the Logs tab before choosing a paid plan; if you want the 14-day Starter trial, start it within 10 days of creating the app. Development spends WU too, so you can see which pages and workflows cost most before launch; live traffic will add to it. ## What you can carry out, and what stays Bubble apps run only on Bubble. There is no code export, so moving off means rebuilding the logic somewhere else [2]. Your data does leave, as CSV, JSON or NDJSON from the editor on paid plans (Starter and up), and Bubble's FAQ offers a raw JSON file of the app's logic to help a migration; full app configuration import and export starts on Growth. The Bubble MCP, in beta, lets an outside AI agent read the app's design and logic and recreate it in code without guaranteed fidelity. Hosting, database, sign-in and backups then become your job. Lapses matter as much as exits. When a paid plan is canceled, the live app keeps running and consuming WU until the billing period ends, then loses paid features, including the connection to its custom domain. If a mobile plan is removed, live mobile versions pause, and after 14 days a new build is required. Bubble also states that, should it ever shut down, its source code will be released under an open-source license so apps can run on a self-hosted Bubble server. Treat that as Bubble's statement, not a contract term. Our [Bubble review](/articles/bubble-review) weighs the lock-in. - Export a test copy of your data in your first paid month and open it. - Price a full rebuild as the real cost of leaving. ## Hosting, security and the October 2026 incident Self-serve apps run on AWS in the US West Region, with no choice [3]. Region choice, a dedicated instance, a static IP, an uptime SLA, single sign-on for Bubble accounts and direct database access all belong to Enterprise. Bubble says its platform is SOC 2 Type II compliant and offers a GDPR data processing agreement, yet that does not make your app compliant: you act as the controller and need your own audit. Bubble's Terms also let it use what you type into Bubble AI, and what comes back, to train those tools. Security testing scales by plan. Bubble's Starter plan includes five basic tests in the security dashboard; Growth adds advanced checks and unlimited tests; Team adds automation and scheduling. On Starter, the dashboard detects advanced issues without showing their details. The dashboard only flags problems. Privacy rules are yours to write, and without them any data sent to a device can be read. Bubble's preliminary root-cause analysis (November 2026) says an attacker got partial access to Bubble's production systems and some user data in October 2026, including private plugin data such as credentials plugin developers had saved. It also targeted individual apps through platform issues that reached stored credentials or data even in correctly set-up apps, and through settings such as privacy rules that granted access; affected owners were contacted. Bubble's review had not shown that app databases or app user data were read through internal-system access, and a final RCA will follow. - Run the security dashboard and review every privacy rule before launch, including rules the AI Agent generated. - Mark API keys private in the API Connector. > ⚠ **Overages off means offline:** If you disable overages on a paid Bubble plan, the app goes offline when it hits its workload limit and stays down until you re-enable overages, buy a tier or the next period starts. ## Mobile builds, live versions and store accounts Native iOS and Android apps are built on React Native, and Bubble labels its native mobile builder beta as of November 2026. The browser's simulated device works on Free, but a live mobile version, TestFlight or Google Play testing, and store release need a paid plan on the Mobile or Web & Mobile tab. Bubble's Starter plan (Mobile) is $42 per month billed annually or $49 per month billed monthly, per app. Bubble's Starter plan (Web & Mobile) is $59 per month billed annually or $69 per month billed monthly, per app. Allotments differ by plan. Starter allows 5 builds a month and 3 concurrent live versions, Growth 10 and 5, Team 20 and 8; failed builds and builds Bubble requires do not count. Apple charges $99 a year for its developer program and Google $25 one time, paid to them under your own accounts. Run-mode password protection on the Mobile tab is an Enterprise feature, while web apps get it from Starter. As of September 2026, Face ID, Touch ID and offline mode were not supported. Our [Bubble mobile guide](/articles/bubble-mobile-app-builder) walks through publishing. > 💡 **Choose the tab before the plan:** Web, Mobile and Web & Mobile are priced differently on Bubble. One Web & Mobile project shares a database and workload allowance across both apps. ## Contract terms, the trial and who answers support Read the commitment before the features. There are no refunds: a paid month cannot be refunded or credited, a converted trial is not refunded, and AI credit purchases are final. Annual plans renew for another year unless canceled at least 30 days before the anniversary, and canceling early does not end the commitment to the full year [4]. The billing switch carries Bubble's label of savings up to 20%, but the real figure is lower: on Bubble's Starter plan (Web), annual billing saves $84 a year by our arithmetic, about 18%, and on Growth (Web) about 11%. The only trial is 14 days on Bubble's Starter plan, for new apps started within 10 days of creation. It places a $1 card hold and converts to paid Starter unless canceled. Student, education and nonprofit discounts exist on request, with no published amount. Support grows with the plan. Paid subscriptions get help through the Support Center, and Bubble says bug reports through its AI chatbot run around the clock with a two-hour average response. Team adds a one-on-one demo and a consultation service with audits; Enterprise adds a dedicated account manager and 24/7 support. We found no phone or live-chat support for self-serve plans. - Set a reminder 30 days before any annual anniversary. - Pay a failed charge within seven days, or the subscription may be terminated. ## FAQ **Does a bigger database make Bubble searches cost more workload?** No. Bubble's manual says database size does not change a search's workload cost; what it charges for is the search plus each thing it returns. Bubble says an app's costs depend mostly on database usage rather than on the number of users. **How many custom domains can one Bubble app use?** One domain or subdomain per app; more need sub apps: the main app must be on Bubble's Team plan and each sub app needs its own plan. The domain cannot contain the word bubble, and HTTPS can take 24-36 hours after DNS is set. **How many Data API requests can a Bubble app handle?** Bubble's manual lists 15,000 requests per minute on Starter, 25,000 on Growth and 35,000 on Team for the Data API and Workflow API, which are not available on Free. **Can I switch between monthly and annual billing on Bubble?** Yes, any time, and moving between paid plans is instant and prorated with credit for unused days. An annual plan still binds you for its full year. ## The bottom line Bubble fits a buyer who wants a visual app with its own database and workflows, web and native mobile in one project, and accepts that the app lives on Bubble for good. The risks are predictable once named. Pick the tab before the plan, count editors, measure workload in Development, choose the overage setting deliberately, and test a data export early. If a region, SSO or an SLA is mandatory, talk to sales before building anything. Then sign up monthly, watch the meter for a few weeks, and commit to a year only when the numbers hold steady. ## Sources [1] Bubble Manual: FAQ: Pricing and Workload — https://manual.bubble.io/account-and-marketplace/account-and-billing/pricing-plans/pricing-faq (2026-11) [2] Bubble Manual: Application and data ownership — https://manual.bubble.io/account-and-marketplace/application-and-data-ownership (2026-11) [3] AI App Security Features: SOC 2, GDPR & More - Bubble — https://bubble.io/security (2026-11) [4] Terms - Bubble — https://bubble.io/terms (2026-11) [5] Bubble pricing page — https://bubble.io/pricing [6] Bubble Privacy Policy — https://bubble.io/privacy