Is the Bubble Plugin Business Worth It in 2025?
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If you're thinking about building a Bubble plugin to sell on the marketplace, you're probably wondering whether it's actually profitable in 2025.
The short answer is that most developers don't make meaningful money from Bubble plugins, and the market has gotten significantly harder since the early days.
We dug through hundreds of forum threads, analyzed marketplace data, and talked to actual plugin creators to figure out what's really happening.
Here's what developers need to know before investing months into building a plugin they hope will generate income, based on the research methodology we use in our market clarity reports.
Quick Summary
Building a Bubble plugin in 2025 is rarely worth it for most developers looking to generate meaningful revenue.
The marketplace is overcrowded with over 7,000 plugins, profitability follows a power law where a tiny percentage captures most revenue, and ongoing maintenance creates a significant time burden that often exceeds the income. If you're evaluating this opportunity, our market clarity reports provide the research entrepreneurs need to make these decisions with actual data rather than guesswork.
The exceptions are highly specialized plugins solving specific pain points that aren't already addressed, built by developers who can commit to long-term support and have realistic expectations about treating this as a patient business investment rather than passive income.
What Do Developers Say About the Bubble Plugin Market Online?
We scraped through Bubble forums, Reddit discussions, and developer communities to find the most common opinions about entering the plugin marketplace today.
These aren't cherry-picked complaints but rather the recurring themes that show up across hundreds of threads and conversations.
- "Too many plugins doing the same thing already" (Very Common)
The Bubble marketplace now hosts over 7,000 plugins, with Toolbox alone having over 800,000 installs. Developers consistently express concern that for most common needs, multiple plugins already exist offering similar functionality. Users complain that selecting just 3 paid plugins costs more than a Bubble subscription itself, and there's widespread fear that cheaper alternatives will continue flooding the marketplace with duplicates.
- "Revenue rarely justifies the time investment required" (Extremely Common)
Template creators report that revenue follows a power law distribution where a tiny percentage captures 90% of revenue, and the same pattern appears in plugins. One developer noted they would have made significantly more money building MVPs or doing contract work than selling templates. Multiple developers mention the biggest ROI from marketplace products comes from the lead funnel for contract work, not actual sales. Plugin creators rarely share revenue figures publicly, suggesting modest earnings, and significant discrepancies exist between install numbers and actual paying customers.
- "Constant updates and support requests never end" (Very Common)
Bubble regularly requires plugin developers to upgrade to new API versions with strict deadlines, such as the mandatory migration to Plugin API v4 by January 2024. Developers must constantly check compatibility with Bubble's latest updates, creating an endless maintenance cycle. Both templates and plugins come with expectations of follow-up questions and ongoing support. When plugin sellers stop supporting a plugin, it becomes free rather than disappearing, which means you can't simply abandon the project without losing all revenue.
- "Getting noticed among thousands is nearly impossible" (Very Common)
A template creator who made $8,000 in sales noted that distribution and getting eyeballs were major challenges, with most creators struggling with the same discovery issues. The marketplace recently added a 'Featured plugins' section specifically to help showcase less popular but high-quality plugins that wouldn't otherwise get attention. The marketplace's search and filtering systems have improved but still make it difficult for new plugins to gain traction against established ones with thousands of installs. This is exactly the kind of market dynamic we analyze in our market clarity reports across different platforms.
- "High-quality free alternatives undercut paid plugin viability" (Common)
The most popular free plugin, Toolbox, accumulated 168,282 installs in 2023 alone, with other free plugins also showing massive adoption. A forum thread dedicated to "Native/Better Solutions to Paid Plugins" actively promotes free alternatives. Developers face pressure to offer free versions to gain traction, but this makes monetization difficult. Users vocally complain about plugin pricing, arguing that 3 paid plugins cost more than Bubble itself, creating downward pricing pressure across the marketplace.
- "Requires JavaScript expertise most Bubblers don't have" (Common)
Beginners report that Bubble's plugin documentation doesn't help those starting to learn JavaScript, with difficulty understanding core concepts like instance.canvas and instance.data. Developers note it took 80 hours to develop even a simple dropdown plugin, with the cost of learning plugin workarounds factored into pricing. A comprehensive plugin-making course exists specifically because the knowledge gap is so significant. Most Bubble users are non-technical, creating a limited pool of potential plugin developers who can actually build quality products.
- "Your business depends entirely on Bubble's decisions" (Somewhat Common)
Plugin sellers are subject to Bubble's marketplace policies and moderation, with plugins potentially removed if complaints aren't resolved. Developers have no control over platform-level changes like pricing models or API deprecations. Plugin creators report transaction tracking issues where subscriptions don't show in marketplace profiles. As an intermediary platform, Bubble takes a revenue cut and controls distribution, leaving developers vulnerable to policy changes. The entire plugin business can be affected by Bubble's strategic decisions or platform stability issues.
How Much Commission Does Bubble Take on Plugin Sales?
Bubble takes a 25% commission on all plugin license payments, whether they're subscription-based or one-time purchases.
This means if you sell a plugin for $20/month, you keep $15 and Bubble takes $5. If you make $10,000 in monthly revenue, you take home $7,500 and Bubble gets $2,500. At $100,000 in annual sales, you'd net $75,000 while Bubble collects $25,000.
Plugin pricing on the marketplace ranges from $3 to $300 for single-use licenses, giving you some flexibility in how you position your product.
The commission structure is straightforward and applies uniformly across all plugin types, so you can calculate your potential take-home revenue easily once you estimate demand.
In our market clarity reports, for each product and market, we detect signals from across the web and forums, identify pain points, and measure their frequency and intensity so you can be sure you're building something your market truly needs.
What's the Best Bubble Plugin Business Model: Subscription vs One-Time?
Bubble officially states they see value in subscription models because it aligns incentives between plugin builders and users for ongoing support and updates.
However, they offer three options (subscription only, one-time only, or both), and the most successful plugin makers like Zeroqode and TechBlocks offer both models to let the market decide.
| Factor | Subscription Model | One-Time Payment |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue predictability | Monthly recurring revenue creates predictable cash flow and compounds over time | Unpredictable spikes and valleys, requires constant new customer acquisition |
| Customer lifetime value | Significantly higher if customers stay subscribed for years | Limited to single purchase amount, no ongoing revenue per customer |
| Support expectations | Ongoing support expected and financially justified by recurring payments | Support expected but harder to justify resources for non-paying users |
| Customer perception | Some customers resist "yet another subscription" and prefer ownership | Appeals to buyers who want to own tools outright without ongoing costs |
| Initial conversion rate | Lower barrier to entry with small monthly commitment | Higher upfront cost can reduce conversion but attracts committed buyers |
| Churn risk | Customers can cancel anytime, requiring ongoing value demonstration | No churn, but also no recurring revenue stream |
| Update incentive | Strong financial incentive to maintain and improve plugin continuously | Less financial motivation for updates after initial sale |
| Market positioning | Positions plugin as ongoing service with continuous improvements | Positions plugin as tool purchase, may charge separately for major upgrades |
| Cash flow timing | Slower initial revenue buildup but more sustainable long-term | Faster initial cash injection but requires constant sales pipeline |
| Best for | Plugins requiring ongoing API maintenance, regular updates, or continuous support | Simple, stable plugins with minimal maintenance or niche tools for specific projects |
Is the Bubble Plugin Market Highly Concentrated?
Yes, demand is extremely concentrated in the Bubble plugin marketplace, following a classic winner-takes-most dynamic.
In 2023, just two developers (Zeroqode and TechBlocks) accounted for 9 of the top 10 paid plugins, completely dominating the paid plugin space. The most popular free plugin, Toolbox, accumulated 168,282 installs in 2023 alone, while the top paid plugin (Air Native) only managed 15,726 installs. All of the top 10 plugins have been around for at least a couple of years, showing that established plugins with large user bases find it significantly easier to grow further.
The gap between free and paid plugin adoption is massive, with free plugins like Toolbox (168,282 installs), AirAlert (81,402 installs), and Air Copy to clipboard (71,247 installs) dwarfing even the most successful paid plugins. The rich-get-richer dynamic means new plugins struggle to gain visibility against established competitors who already dominate search results and have thousands of reviews and installs signaling trust.
The concentration extends to categories as well, with 4 AI-related plugins appearing in the top 10 new plugins of 2023, indicating that demand clusters around trending technologies and established categories like Media, Location/Maps, Social Networks, Payment processing, Data management, Visual Elements, Charts, and PDF tools.
What Bubble Plugin Categories Are Already Overcrowded?
These are the plugin categories where building something new is basically pointless because dozens of alternatives already exist and compete for the same users.
- Social media sharing and embedding plugins
- Basic form builders and input enhancements
- Simple countdown timers and clocks
- Standard payment gateway integrations (Stripe, PayPal)
- Generic popup and modal builders
- Basic image galleries and sliders
- Simple email verification tools
- Standard calendar pickers
- Generic notification and alert systems
- Basic SEO meta tag managers
- Simple URL shorteners
- Generic table and list formatters
- Basic video embedding plugins
- Standard user authentication flows
- Simple text formatting and editors
- Generic analytics integration plugins
- Basic color pickers
- Standard file upload handlers
- Simple QR code generators
- Generic cookie consent banners
- Basic progress bars and loaders
- Standard map embeds (Google Maps, Mapbox)
- Simple rating and review systems
For each competitor, our market clarity reports look at how they address — or fail to address — market pain points. If they don't, it highlights a potential opportunity for you.
What User Pain Points in Bubble Aren't Being Solved by Plugins?
These are the frustrations that Bubble users consistently complain about on forums but that no plugin currently addresses effectively.
- Workload unit consumption is unpredictable and unmanageable
Users struggle with unpredictable Workload Unit costs as applications scale, with sudden spikes from 2-4k units per day jumping to 45k without understanding why. Bubble's built-in metrics show what happened but don't help predict future costs or identify optimization opportunities before bills arrive. This creates anxiety for developers who fear their successful apps will become financially unsustainable, leading some to avoid certain features or limit user growth despite having working applications.
- Backend workflows are impossible to debug properly
Developers cannot effectively debug backend workflows because Bubble's debugger only works on the client side with visible page elements. When API workflows, scheduled workflows, or recursive backend processes fail, users have no way to inspect parameters being passed, see intermediate states, or understand why workflows aren't triggering as expected. This blind spot makes backend development feel like programming in the dark, significantly extending development time.
- Responsive design requires excessive manual work
Creating responsive designs in Bubble is notoriously difficult, with developers spending excessive time manually adjusting element positioning for different screen sizes. Elements that appear correctly in the editor spontaneously misalign when viewed on actual devices, with images jumping on top of text or buttons disappearing entirely. Many users report rebuilding entire pages from scratch multiple times or maintaining separate mobile/desktop versions, essentially doubling their development work.
- SEO meta tags can't be truly dynamic
Bubble severely limits dynamic meta descriptions and social sharing tags, forcing developers to use workarounds or JavaScript injection that search engines may not properly index. While page titles can be dynamic, the description field only allows "Current User" or "App text" references, making it impossible to properly optimize product pages, blog posts, or user profiles for SEO. This limitation means Bubble apps struggle to rank in search results or display properly when shared on social media.
- Version control merge conflicts are a nightmare
When merging branches, Bubble identifies that conflicts exist but forces developers to manually click through every single action in complex workflows to find the actual differences between versions. For workflows with dozens of actions, this means spending hours comparing changes line-by-line without any visual indicators showing where conflicts actually occur. This turns what should be quick merges into multi-hour debugging sessions that make team collaboration difficult.
- API connector setup is confusing and error-prone
Setting up API connections requires understanding OAuth2 flows, header formats, and parameter structures that aren't well-documented within the platform itself. Users frequently encounter authentication errors, receive HTML error pages when expecting JSON, or can't figure out why their API calls return empty responses. The initialization process provides cryptic error messages with no guided workflow to identify whether issues stem from incorrect endpoints, malformed headers, or authentication problems.
- Plugin updates silently break working apps
Plugins can silently break applications when they're updated, deprecated, or when their external dependencies like CDNs experience outages. Users discover their perfectly working apps suddenly fail after a plugin auto-updates, but Bubble doesn't provide version pinning or rollback capabilities for plugins. Identifying which of dozens of installed plugins is causing slow page loads or errors requires tedious trial-and-error uninstallation, and recent platform-wide outages were traced to third-party CDN failures in plugins.
What Will Be the New Bubble Plugin Needs in 2026?
By 2026, AI-powered low-code platforms are expected to enable up to 80% of business app development, but the current Bubble marketplace has limited native AI plugins beyond basic integrations.
The edge computing market is estimated to grow to $15.7 billion by 2025, driven by the need for faster data processing in IoT deployments. This represents a virtually untapped category in Bubble's plugin marketplace, with massive opportunities for IoT device management, real-time sensor data integration, and industrial IoT connectors that don't currently exist.
The ADA Title II compliance deadline is April 26, 2026 for public entities serving populations of 50,000 or more, requiring WCAG 2.1 AA standards compliance. Data from Utah State University's WebAIM Million Project revealed that 96.3% of the top million homepages do not comply with ADA standards. This creates urgent demand for WCAG compliance checkers, automated accessibility testing, screen reader optimization, and ADA lawsuit prevention tools that barely exist in the current marketplace.
Global subscriptions for 5G are projected to hit almost 4.6 billion by 2028, with 5G connections forecasted to reach 8 billion by 2026, enabling ultra-low latency features that current Bubble plugins don't support for real-time collaboration, live streaming, AR/VR integration, and instant data synchronization that will become standard expectations.
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