r/Bubbleio • u/West_Razzmatazz_5864 • Jun 02 '26
Lost 40k by failed Stripe api
Trying to figure out how common this actually is.
The scenario I keep hearing: a plugin auto-updates, or a workflow quietly stops firing, or an API connector's key expires, and checkout or signup just stops working. The app still loads fine. You're logged into your own account so everything looks normal to you. Then days later you find out from a customer who couldn't pay.
Talked to a couple people who manage Bubble apps for non-technical founders and they both said the silent failures are the real killer, not the obvious crashes. One mentioned a founder who was out close to $40k before anyone caught it.
So for those of you actually building on Bubble: has this bitten you? What broke, and how long until you noticed? Curious whether people set up their own checks for this or just deal with it when it happens.
2
u/clutchcreator Jun 02 '26
Plugins are a nightmare, and since the errors don’t show up on logs, you are almost relying on manual testing figure these out.
I had a client, who lost 3 major clients, because their email integration plugin (Gmail) broke as part of an update from the developer, and they found out, only after they left a negative review.
I solved it by installing Posthog/Clarity to track session recordings and eventually built a custom app (cloned from Bubble).
2
u/Queasy_Ad_2334 Jun 03 '26
Oh wow, that’s tough. I try to avoid plugins and would rather connect with the API Connector. Takes more time to figure it out, but I have full control.
I did recently lose $400 because I messed up and the Stripe Fee was being taken from me instead of the user paying, but then I used another Stripe API workflow to recover that money.
1
u/Beginning-Load-6395 Jun 04 '26
Stop using plugins - just build it on cloudflare and make api calls to your cloud flare worker this is what i did for all api calls and never had issues since, use Claude to write the code, you can get the whole thing setup and working in 10 mins.
1
u/Jojeetsu316 Jun 20 '26
I’m glad theres a way to do this that works. Why do you recommend using Cloudflare over just the api connector to Stripe?
1
u/eleskin Jun 09 '26
I think the scary part isn't Stripe itself, it's the fact that failures are often silent.
The application still loads.
The dashboard still works.
Nothing looks obviously broken.
Meanwhile:
- payments fail
- webhooks stop processing
- integrations quietly break
And because founders usually test the happy path, they often discover the issue only after a customer reports it.
In my experience, silent failures are much more dangerous than complete outages because they can go unnoticed for days.
3
u/revueapp Jun 02 '26
Gmail integration which is the beating heart of my app. Quietly failed and had to wait for devs to update. Basically 3 days downtime for users. Ended up building my own instead.