Categories: Bio Link, No-Code&Low-Code
Au Revoir, Glitch: The End of an Era for Web Creators
A Bit of Bittersweet News for the Web Dev Community
Pour one out for a real one, folks. If you’ve spent any time in the creative coding space over the past few years, you’ve probably stumbled upon, remixed, or built something on Glitch. It was that quirky, colorful, and ridiculously friendly corner of the internet where building a web app felt less like work and more like play. Well, I logged on the other day and was met with a friendly but somber message: “Au revoir, Glitch!”
Yep, it’s the end of an era. Glitch as we knew it is changing, and project hosting officially ended on July 8, 2025. It’s a bummer, I know. It feels a bit like your favorite indie coffee shop getting bought out. The vibe is changing, and we’re all left wondering where to get our next coding fix. Let’s talk about what made Glitch special, what’s happening, and where we go from here.
What Made Glitch So Darn Special Anyway?
For me, Glitch was never just a tool. It was a digital playground. An online code editor that stripped away all the intimidating setup and configuration that can scare off newcomers. You just showed up, got an idea, and started coding. Instantly. It was brilliant.
A True Community Garden for Code
Remember the first time you “remixed” a project? It was magical. You could take someone else’s cool creation, pop the hood, and start tinkering with it as your own. This wasn't just about copying; it was about learning and building upon each other’s work. The platform was built for collaboration, letting you see your friends’ cursors flying around the screen as you coded together. It fostered a sense of community that’s pretty rare to find.
Visit Glitch
From Idea to Full-Stack App in Minutes
Glitch wasn’t just for simple HTML/CSS pages either. You could spin up a full-stack Node.js app, play with React, or even build a weird and wonderful WebXR experience right in your browser. It handled the backend, dependencies, and deployment. You could even import and export projects straight to GitHub, which made it a fantastic platform for rapid prototyping before moving to a more permanent home. It just worked.
The Realities of a Free Playground
Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The generous free tier was its biggest selling point, but it came with some strings attached. I’m sure we all remember the classic “sleeping app” problem. If your free project didn’t get any traffic for a while, it would go to sleep to save resources, leading to a slow initial load time. It was a minor annoyance, a trade-off we willingly made for a free, live server.
Plus, all free projects were public by default. This was great for the open-source spirit but not so great if you were working on a top-secret side hustle. To get around these limitations, you had to upgrade.
| Plan | Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Free | Basic features, intuitive editor, public projects, apps would sleep. |
| Pro | $8/month (billed annually) | Private projects, faster 'boosted' apps that stayed awake, more resources. |
The Pro plan, at $8 a month, was a pretty fair deal to get private projects and “boosted” apps that were always on. For many of us, though, the free tier was more than enough for our creative experiments.
The Shutdown Details You Need to Know
So, what’s the deal with the shutdown? The big news is that Glitch was acquired by Fastly, the edge cloud platform. It seems Fastly is integrating Glitch's tech and talent into its own ecosystem, which is focused more on edge computing. This means the community hosting platform we loved is being retired. Here are the crucial dates you absolutely need to know:
- July 8, 2025: Project hosting officially ended. Your apps are no longer live.
- December 31, 2025: This is your FINAL DEADLINE to log in and download your projects. After this date, they’re gone for good.
- End of 2026: Redirects from old Glitch URLs will be supported until this time.
My advice? Don’t wait. Log in now, find your old projects, and download the code. It’s better to have it and not need it than to lose all that work.
Where Do We Go From Here? Exploring Glitch Alternatives
The Glitch team isn’t leaving us completely high and dry. They’re pointing users toward a new workflow using GitHub Codespaces. Codespaces is a powerful, cloud-based development environment that runs right inside GitHub. It’s a more professional-grade tool, but it can fill the void left by Glitch, especially for those who were already using the GitHub integration.
Glitch has even provided a few starter projects to help people get going on this new platform, all leaning into Fastly’s edge computing services:
- Website on the edge: A simple starter for a basic site.
- 11ty on the edge: For building static sites with the popular generator, 11ty.
- Hello Compute: A starter for building a serverless edge computing app.
Of course, there are other great platforms out there too. Tools like Replit and CodeSandbox offer a very similar in-browser, collaborative coding experience. They might just be the new home for the vibrant community that once thrived on Glitch.
A Final Thought on Glitch’s Legacy
It’s easy to be cynical when a beloved tech platform shuts down. But I prefer to look back on it with gratitude. Glitch made web development more accessible, more fun, and less lonely. It was a fantastic teaching tool and a launchpad for countless creative ideas. It lowered the barrier to entry and proved that coding could be a communal, joyful act.
So, au revoir, Glitch. Thanks for all the fish… I mean, code. You were a weird, wonderful, and important part of the web’s story. The tools will change, but the spirit of building cool stuff with great people will live on.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is Glitch shutting down its hosting?
- Glitch was acquired by Fastly, and the company is shifting its focus to integrate Glitch's technology with Fastly's edge computing platform. As a result, the community project hosting service is being retired.
- When did Glitch hosting end?
- Project hosting on Glitch officially ended on July 8, 2025.
- Can I still download my code from Glitch?
- Yes, you can log in and download your projects until December 31, 2025. It is highly recommended you do this as soon as possible.
- Will my old Glitch links still work?
- According to Glitch, redirects for project URLs will be supported until the end of 2026, but the apps themselves are no longer hosted.
- What are the best alternatives to Glitch?
- Glitch recommends GitHub Codespaces. Other popular alternatives with similar in-browser and collaborative features include Replit, CodeSandbox, and StackBlitz.
- What was the point of Glitch Pro?
- Glitch Pro was the paid tier that cost $8/month. It allowed users to create private projects and gave them 'boosted' apps with more resources that didn't go to sleep from inactivity.
Conclusion
The closure of Glitch's hosting marks a significant shift in the landscape of online development tools. While it's sad to see such a unique platform go, it’s also a reminder of the ever-changing nature of technology. The key takeaway is to act now: save your old projects and start exploring the new generation of tools that carry on its legacy of making coding accessible for everyone. The web keeps building, and so will we.
