The preview works. The live app is a different place.
You test in the editor, as yourself, with your data. Your users arrive on the published app, logged out, on your domain. A lot can differ between the two:
- Login sends people to the preview address or to localhost, because the live domain is missing from the Redirect URLs in Supabase.
- A secret exists in the editor but not where the app runs.
- Stripe test mode and live mode have different webhook secrets. After the switch to live, people pay and the app never unlocks their plan.
- Confirmation emails come from Supabase's built-in email service, which only delivers to your team. You get them. Your users don't.
- The custom domain loses its DNS record or certificate while the lovable.app address keeps working.
None of these shows up in the preview, and none of them takes the site down.
Lovable Project monitoring and AxoWatch: use both
Lovable's Project monitoring is in beta on Pro, Business and Enterprise. It reviews your code and recent visitor errors on a schedule (daily by default, or weekly) and emails you important findings. Lovable's browser testing clicks through the preview in a real browser when you ask it to.
Both look from the inside. AxoWatch looks from the outside, at the published app on your domain: it logs in every hour on Starter and every 30 minutes on Pro. Lovable is good at finding the cause in your code. AxoWatch tells you that real visitors can't get through.
They barely overlap, so turn on both.
Flows to set up first
- Login: log in with a test account and check that the dashboard appears. This catches broken auth, redirect URLs and missing keys.
- The sign-up form: fill in the form and stop before the final button, so no new accounts pile up. Or go all the way to "Check your email" if your app deletes test accounts.
- The way to payment: open pricing, pick a plan and check that the Stripe Checkout page opens. Stop there. Never let a check pay with a real card.
- Your main feature: the one action people pay for, done with the test account.
Then add an uptime check for your custom domain. It also warns you before the SSL certificate expires.
What AxoWatch doesn't do
It doesn't scan your app for security problems. Lovable has security scans built in, and for anything sensitive a review by a person is worth it. A flow also can't open your inbox, so it won't tell you whether a confirmation email arrived. Test that by hand with an address outside your team.