Plugins tab
The Plugins Tab extends the functionality of Bubble by installing and configuring plugins. Plugins add additional elements, events, actions, and data sources. These plugins are created by the Bubble Team and other Bubble users, and there are both free and paid plugins. Most external services connecting to the app, including payment providers such as Stripe, analytics providers such as Mixpanel and Google Analytics, and social networks such as Facebook, are packaged as plugins.
You can see the gallery of available plugins with the "+ Add plugins" button. Any plugins already installed in the app are shown in the left column of this sub-tab. Clicking on a particular installed plugin will show any configuration settings of that plugin in the right section, along with an opportunity for you to leave a rating of that plugin for others in the marketplace to see.
For more information to get started, see the "Using plugins" guide.
Many plugins will be updated over time by their creators. If you have a plugin installed in your app, new versions of that plugin do not immediately take effect for your app; this is because new versions might have changes that would break older functionality that your app may rely on. Instead, you will see the option to change the version of the plugin in the Plugins tab, on the details of that particular plugin. This allows you to change to a different version in development mode, assess and fix any issues caused by the update as needed, and then deploy to live. Note that similarly, you can also choose to move to an older version of the plugin, though there is no guarantee the older version will be available to revert to forever.
Clicking this button will open the plugin marketplace, where you can browse, install and subscribe to plugins in the Bubble ecosystem.
Plugins can extend various functionality of your Bubble app; these varying kinds of functionality are categorized in the "Types" filter. For example, "Action" refers to plugins that add new workflow action choices, while "Login service" is where you'd find plugins that let your end-users log in with an external website (e.g. "log in with Facebook"). A plugin can be categorized under varying types.
Categories are different use cases and themes that plugins are categorized by. The plugin author self-selects which category/ies to be listed under.
The Bubble ecosystem has free as well as paid ("premium") plugins. For paid plugins, sometimes you will have the choice of paying a one-time price, or subscribing to the plugin for a monthly recurring price. Remember that plugins are installed and purchased on a per-app basis.
We at Bubble have created a number of plugins to provide useful functionality to apps. Our ecosystem of Bubble users and developers have created even more plugins to help you!
Practically speaking, if you find a bug with a Bubble-built plugin, the Bubble team will triage and respond to you about it. If you find a bug with an ecosystem-built plugin, you should reach out to the plugin's creator with information about the bug.
The plugin gallery can be sorted by a number of different dimensions to help you more easily find plugins. You can sort by the plugin's name, usage (# of apps it's installed on), rating, publishing date, or price.