Article

Performance and scaling

Bubble · manual.bubble.io Free Intermediate

This is Bubble's own guide, and it names the exact levers that decide whether a search stays fast as your data grows: put constraints on the search itself instead of reaching for :filtered, keep sorts and filters at the database level, and watch out for searches nested inside repeating group cells. It is written against how Bubble actually queries data, so the advice maps directly to the slowdown you are seeing, not to generic web performance. Treat it as your first checklist before assuming you need to rebuild anything.

• Filters shown in the search palette run on the database and are fast; :filtered runs in the browser after the data loads and gets slow past a few thousand records, so move that logic into search constraints.
• A search placed inside a repeating group cell runs once per row, which multiplies your query count; pull it out or restructure the data so one search feeds the whole list.
• Order constraints from most to least restrictive and prefer exact matches over 'contains' so Bubble can eliminate the bulk of records early.