10 ms·

We’ll be ending web hosting for your apps on Glitch

213 points by js4ever 1y ago

brulard 1y ago
Sad. Do you guys know about a good alternative?
- raymond_goo 1y ago
  i will try https://www.gitlip.com/ https://www.gitlip.com/ and https://deno.com/deploy https://deno.com/deploy
busymom0 1y ago
As someone who had never heard of them, can someone explain what Glitch was used for?
- js4ever 1y ago
  It was a platform to create / edit / host frontend and node.js backend. It was popular because it was an easy and free way to deploy something on a playground. When it went out I was super impressed, but they failed to monetize it and got badly abused by bad actors
- alexjplant 1y ago
  Glitch the company also used to be Fog Creek of Joel Spolsky/FogBugz fame. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch,_Inc.
  - qilo 1y ago
    . (dot) got truncated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch,_Inc%2E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch,_Inc%2E
DannyPage 1y ago
I really enjoyed using Glitch as it allowed me to quickly publish and iterate on various experiments or try out new libraries like Datasette or HTMX. I am curious what Glitch will look like after July. If they aren’t hosting apps, will they still be hosting code and letting it deploy elsewhere? It says it’s not a full shutdown, but it doesn’t appear to say what will be left to do on Glitch after that date.
- drewda 1y ago
  Glitch was acquired by Fastly a few years ago, so perhaps the user-facing brand will continue on for a while on top of some Fastly hosted services...
steivan 1y ago
I've been a long-time Glitch user and am now looking for good alternative platforms. My primary use case involves online coding with a Node.js backend using Express and some React apps. If anyone has recommendations, I'd greatly appreciate it.
- LordShredda 1y ago
  I'd recommend, unfortunately, buying a cheap $200 netbook and running cloudflare tunnel on it. As long as you're relying on other people's computers for hosting you'll keep looking forever
  - andrewmcwatters 1y ago
    That's nearly 20 years of lowendbox provider annual payments for what this guy is asking for.
    - remram 1y ago
      Or even more years of GCP/OCI free tier VMs. https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#compute https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#compu... https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier...
  - lxgr 1y ago
    > As long as you're relying on other people's computers for hosting you'll keep looking forever > running cloudflare tunnel There's some irony here.
    - CharlesW 1y ago
      The Cloudflare dependency is for networking, not hosting. It would be very impressive to see a self-hosted service available over the internet without introducing a 3rd-party dependency or two.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
curiouser3 1y ago
glitch.com brings back memories of the pre-slack era Glitch MMO. What an amazing time that was, really beautiful game made by talented people, pivoted the communication side into what we now know as Slack
- BrenBarn 1y ago
  Heh, I was thinking about that game too. It was bizarre. Even more wild that Slack was just a byproduct of it.
  - DonHopkins 1y ago
    The same way Flickr was a by-product the online Game Neverending. By the same people! https://gamicus.fandom.com/wiki/Game_Neverending https://gamicus.fandom.com/wiki/Game_Neverending https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludicorp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludicorp
- 3036e4 1y ago
  I thought of that game as well, but I never played it or even knew about it at the time. I also forgot about the connection to Slack. What I DO remember is that they released the game art with a CC0 license after shutting down the game. The site seems to just redirect to a 404 on slack.com now. https://web.archive.org/web/20161124184152/http://www.glitchthegame.com/public-domain-game-art/ https://web.archive.org/web/20161124184152/http://www.glitch... https://archive.org/details/glitch-public-domain-game-art https://archive.org/details/glitch-public-domain-game-art
duck 1y ago
Why is Glitch and Pocket both shutting down the same day and announcing today? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44063662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44063662
- BoredPositron 1y ago
  Someone is looking for coin and doesn't find it.
- sureIy 1y ago
  You may be surprised to find out how many more things are happening today! It's definitely a conspiracy.
- add-sub-mul-div 1y ago
  Birthday Paradox
- pabs3 1y ago
  Ubuntu Launchpad mailing lists shutdown got announced today too. https://blog.launchpad.net/general/sunsetting-launchpads-mailing-lists https://blog.launchpad.net/general/sunsetting-launchpads-mai... Lots more shutdowns in the coming months: https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Deathwatch https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Deathwatch
  - rafram 1y ago
    This is... quite a list. Doesn't seem like people are really holding to the "notable or with user-generated content" rule. For instance: > 2025-07-01: Vrijeschool Waldorf elementary school will close, due to lack of schoolchildren. OK.
- aspenmayer 1y ago
  Coincidence or not, this seems like it could be related. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements-critical-national-security-program-protect-americans-sensitive https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements... > As explained in NSD’s Data Security Program Implementation and Enforcement Policy Through July 8, 2025, NSD will not prioritize civil enforcement actions against any person for violations of the Data Security Program that occur from April 8 through July 8, 2025, so long as the person is engaging in good faith efforts to comply with or come into compliance with the Data Security Program during that time. These efforts include engaging in compliance activities described in that policy, such as amending or renegotiating existing contracts, conducting internal reviews of data flows, deploying the CISA security requirements, and so on. > At the end of this 90-day period, individuals, and entities should be in full compliance with the DSP. This policy does not limit NSD’s lawful authority and discretion to pursue civil enforcement if entities and individuals did not engage in good faith efforts to comply with, or come into compliance with, the Data Security Program.
weiliddat 1y ago
Sad, one of the first of its kind. Created a bunch of one-off tools for friends and colleagues on glitch, but could see why it didn't really take off. For me I switched to other platforms like codesandbox, replit because the editor UX wasn't great for a long time. I get wanting the simplicity angle but having poor hints/autocomplete/etc is a hard sell for writing code.
biker142541 1y ago
Just coming to say this is a great example of how communication should be done for such changes. So many companies get this wrong, but this is thoughtful and to the point. Glitch was a springboard for myself as well, so very bittersweet (and I guess I need to migrate really old stuff... but to their point, this is super easy now).
- pyb 1y ago
  I can't tell from the post if Glitch is shutting down or not.
  - immibis 1y ago
    And that's how communication should be done. Uncertainty raises shareholder value. Somehow.
    - pyb 1y ago
      "On ne sort de l'ambigüité qu'à son détriment." a successful politician once said
- oblio 1y ago
  Does Glitch do anything else besides web hosting? If it doesn't, in what world is this good communication?
daveguy 1y ago
This is excellent communication and respect for their users. Applause for Glitch. Especially allowing users to retrieve resources for a full 6 months after the closure. If you appreciate this level of communication and respect, avoid Digital Ocean at all cost. They will fail to send you emails for a few weeks and then delete your resources permanently with no recourse. They are the literal opposite of Glitch. Avoid Digital Ocean. I would recommend Glitch remove Digital Ocean from their list of alternatives.
vorador 1y ago
Is this the end of fog creek? I remember they had shut down most of their services by the time their rebranded to glitch. I wonder if anything is left of the company besides Joel's blog posts.
- skeeter2020 1y ago
  Glitch isn't FC either, but to answer your question: is there anything left? Yes, giant piles of money!
  - madeofpalk 1y ago
    Fog Creek Software was renamed to Glitch, and they offloaded FC.
- kbrosnan 1y ago
  Trello sold to Atlassian. Stack Exchange and Stack Overflow sold to Prosus FogBugz sort of lives on at https://ignitetech.ai/softwarelibrary/fogbugz https://ignitetech.ai/softwarelibrary/fogbugz but it looks like one of those companies that buys software solutions and retains the minimum staffing to keep lights on.
bfdm 1y ago
This a real loss. I'll miss Glitch for rapid experimentation with UI and APIs together.
dmarcos 1y ago
Glitch has been a key piece of the A-Frame community (open source project I maintain) for almost a decade. I'm super thankful to the team! So many people started programming and had first steps in game and 3d graphics development with Glitch. It's sad to see it go. I was always somehow worried. They had an awesome and super generous free tier. You don’t even need to create an account! Unfortunately, it looks they couldn't make the numbers work.
- apitman 1y ago
  Are there viable alternatives for your community? Anything that's just as good?
  - dmarcos 1y ago
    Not that I'm aware of. I like glitch because the dev experience is the same as working on a local machine: a list of files, text editor, viewer. Anything you learn on glitch transfers directly to local development. Codepen, jsfiddle abstract away too much with the UI and different panels. You're coding their way.
    - apitman 1y ago
      Have you tried Val Town?
      - dmarcos 1y ago
        It makes me sign up to do anything. That's a deal breaker.
- karol_ 1y ago
  As someone who has been using glitch.com because of A-Frame and was teaching students to also use them together I am really sad by the news. It was a great thing to see students who had no experience with programming to create a virtual spaces in under an hour and after few more lessons using A-Frame in a creative way that I wouldn't even thought off. I guess I would also like to thank you @dmarcos for keeping A-Frame alive. My especially fond memory of it was during Covid lockdowns when my friend reached out to me that he had students of Art University feeling pretty bummed because they weren't able to do a end of a year physical exhibit and if I had any ideas to do a simple site to show the works. What we went with instead was to create a virtual gallery that evolved also in to place where people could stream live performances through the internet and even had a premiere of a CD of a band done there (https://vimeo.com/428814586 https://vimeo.com/428814586).
627467 1y ago
Unrelated: but the whole glitch labour union that lasted a year before it dissolved itself is the first thing that comes to mind when I read about glitch.
- singron 1y ago
  > Glitch’s 14-person staff will all make the move over to Fastly. However the Glitch union, which made history last year when it signed the white collar tech world’s first collective bargaining agreement, won’t be coming with it. https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/19/23126349/glitch-fastly-acquired-coding-anil-dash-fog-creek https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/19/23126349/glitch-fastly-ac... [This had substantially less coverage than forming the union, so I wanted to link it here]
Kiro 1y ago
I don't really agree with people saying this is good communication. What will happen with Glitch?
- mattbee 1y ago
  Yes! It's exactly what it says it's not, an Incredible Journey post, from Anil, who is a laser-sharp writer. I kept reading because I assumed they were going to - idk open source it or allow you to host Glitch apps elsewhere - but nope, it's just a straight shutdown announcement. What have I got wrong? I'd assume there is some obfuscation required by owners or whatever pending a change of ownership, something like that? Anyhow, RIP, if the internet has taught me anything it's that we can't have nice things for more than about 10 years.
  - Maxious 1y ago
    Considering Anil boldly stated "MCP is the coming of Web 2.0 2.0" https://www.anildash.com/2025/05/20/mcp-web20-20/ https://www.anildash.com/2025/05/20/mcp-web20-20/ I'd bet now the golden handcuffs are off, it's AI VC money time baby
- TheNewsIsHere 1y ago
  They’re shutting down. This is one of those classic examples of awful communication dressed up as some kind of “good news everyone!” treatise on a founders personal feelings while being clear as molasses about reality.
Jean-Philipe 1y ago
I'm a bit confused...if web hosting shuts down, what stays? Doesn't this mean glitch just shuts down altogether?
- karel-3d 1y ago
  https://me.dm/@anildash/114553094584569213 https://me.dm/@anildash/114553094584569213 > We’re thinking through what’s next. I’m really interested in how we can look at all the other amazing creation and app experiences out there (I really love stuff like Val Town and Fly.io and Deno and Netlify, etc.) and bring all those together for easily making and remixing new apps. Will take a bit to figure that out.
  - diggan 1y ago
    I'm similarly lost as GP, and even reading this, I feel like I'm missing something. If HN said they're disabling new submissions and comments, that'd effectively mean they're closing the site, and would probably say that outright. But Glitch aren't saying they are shutting down, but they're removing the feature that I thought made Glitch a thing. So nothing is left, yet they continue? Is this a 180 pivot or? Are there other features that will still be usable?
    - eitland 1y ago
      It could go the Piczo route—a website builder aimed at kids and teens, not for polished blogs or ecommerce, but more for one-off, personal and playful friend-to-friend sites.
      - diggan 1y ago
        > a website builder aimed at kids and teens They're still just hosting websites in that scenario, which seems to be exactly what they don't want to do. A bit like if GitHub decided they didn't want to host source code anymore.
      - dgimla20 1y ago
wilg 1y ago
I love the brass of putting "Our Incredible Journey" posts on blast right up top and then writing a post that even less clearly explains if they are shutting down entirely, why they are doing so, or what is going on.
deafpolygon 1y ago
Weird. Both Mozilla and Glitch are doing something on July 8. Is there something significant about that day? "On July 8, 2025 Glitch project hosting and user profiles will be shut down." "We’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025."
- altano 1y ago
  I think it's pretty common for more than one thing to happen on most days.
  - skwashd 1y ago
    It isn't unheard of for 2 companies to announce a shutdown on the same day. What is less common is for them to both announce it on the same day and last day isn't 4 weeks/30 days. When I saw this announcement after seeing pocket earlier, I immediately started to wonder if there was a regulatory change on 8 July.
    - aspenmayer 1y ago
      DOJ starts enforcement of the new DSP on that date, for one thing. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44071372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44071372
- aspenmayer 1y ago
  This was all I could find, but it actually may be related? https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements-critical-national-security-program-protect-americans-sensitive https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements... > As explained in NSD’s Data Security Program Implementation and Enforcement Policy Through July 8, 2025, NSD will not prioritize civil enforcement actions against any person for violations of the Data Security Program that occur from April 8 through July 8, 2025, so long as the person is engaging in good faith efforts to comply with or come into compliance with the Data Security Program during that time. These efforts include engaging in compliance activities described in that policy, such as amending or renegotiating existing contracts, conducting internal reviews of data flows, deploying the CISA security requirements, and so on. > At the end of this 90-day period, individuals, and entities should be in full compliance with the DSP. This policy does not limit NSD’s lawful authority and discretion to pursue civil enforcement if entities and individuals did not engage in good faith efforts to comply with, or come into compliance with, the Data Security Program.
troupo 1y ago
To people praising this communication: they've given everyone just 6 weeks to move off the platform. To quote a response from their forum: https://support.glitch.com/t/discussion-thread-project-hosting-ending-july-8/75660/27 https://support.glitch.com/t/discussion-thread-project-hosti... --- start quote --- I’m not a fan of those overly sweet, corporate-style messages that try to sugarcoat the truth: Glitch was simply too good to last, and you’re losing money... That said, my only real complaint is this: if you knew the situation wasn’t financially sustainable, you could have at least announced it a year in advance—not overnight. --- end quote ---
stuart_real 1y ago
[dead]
dustingetz 1y ago
$30M Series A by Tiger in 2018, acq by Fastly in 2022 for undisclosed price, shutdown in 2025. Fastly is a CDN and edge network. Glitch was used by Fastly for “internal training” and “internal sales tools” (kinda?), a far cry from “fullstack application platform in the edge”. https://blog.glitch.com/post/my-last-day-at-fastly/ https://blog.glitch.com/post/my-last-day-at-fastly/ https://www.fastly.com/blog/fastly-announces-acquisition-of-glitch-a-future-of-yes-code-at-the-edge https://www.fastly.com/blog/fastly-announces-acquisition-of-...
- reverendsteveii 1y ago
  is it me or does it feel like the american dream is quickly becoming "work super hard developing a new product that meets people's needs, then get bought out and shut down by one of the supergiant orgs that owns everything"?
  - dragonwriter 1y ago
    Big money exit without concern for what happens next has always been the VC-powered startup dream. You are probably spending too much time on a discussion forum sponsored by a startup accelerator if you think that defines the American dream, though.
  - dymk 1y ago
    No, that's the Silicon Valley-specific "Sigma Grindset" Dream
  - dughnut 1y ago
    This is why civil design software has not meaningfully improved in 20 years and is indistinguishable from its state 10 years ago. We’re living in a Dark Age. We just don’t realize it.
    - 392 1y ago
      Civil design software?
neuroelectron 1y ago
It's not realistic to provide a secure hosting infrastructure unless you're AWS-level.
philipwhiuk 1y ago
So... it totally is an Our Incredible Journey thing. They got bought, Fastly doesn't want it, they're killing it.
skrebbel 1y ago
I just can't get over the fact that this starts with > This is a big change, but it’s not an “Our Incredible Journey” post and then never, nowhere, at all, makes clear that the post means "We're shutting down Glitch". At least the "incredible journey" posts are clear about that, somehow this here is even worse. It suggests that they're just shutting some small part of it down but actually if I read it right (and the comments here) it actually means they're shutting the whole platform down but might someday want to try and do something else with the name and the userbase. I simply don't understand why people write like this. What's the benefit of trying to fool your userbase into thinking that maybe not that much is changing when in fact everything is? Who wins when, the day after they pull the last plug, lots of people email them in panic, because they hadn't realized that "important changes" means "we'll delete everything"?
- popalchemist 1y ago
  They write like this because they can't own what they're doing.
  - refulgentis 1y ago
    Ultimately the CEO jobs involving 10 figures of investments are selected before the company is built, for some intersection of self marketability, ability to market others...and most importantly, being willing to do anything to go with the flow.
- jeeyoungk 1y ago
  Yes, they tried to avoid the cliche by pointing at the cliche, but they weren't able to refute Our Incredible Journey. Though, this was a real product, with almost 10 years of operation; very few products last this long, and the product wasn't immediately shuttered after the acquisition, so it is unfair to categorize them into the same OIJ bucket.
- JeremyNT 1y ago
  Yeah I'm with you here. It's a bit ironic coming from Anil, who has quite a following on social media due to "calling it like it is" when big tech or VC culture does something rotten or self-serving. The doublespeak and evasiveness in this "incredible journey" post is exactly the sort of thing he'd typically criticize!
apitman 1y ago
I listened to a great podcast recently with one of the co-creators of Glitch: https://www.localfirst.fm/8 https://www.localfirst.fm/8
- pketh 1y ago
  oh hi that's me!
LahanF 1y ago
Anyway, all I can say is thank you Anil and team, Glitch helped me learn web dev 7 years ago, and also teach others. It’s just very sad that it’s ending like this, sugarcoating much.
_vufv 1y ago
We're building a similar product at https://gitlip.com https://gitlip.com We would love to speak to any Glitch users about their particular use case. Please reach out to natalie [at] gitlip.com
- raymond_goo 1y ago
  Very good first impression. Well done!
ggorlen 1y ago
Here's a sampling of the projects I've found on glitch. Many great projects will be lost. Are there any preservation efforts being undertaken? https://magnet-caper.glitch.me/ https://magnet-caper.glitch.me/ https://cave-in.glitch.me/ https://cave-in.glitch.me/ https://hydra-book.glitch.me/ https://hydra-book.glitch.me/ https://fishdraw.glitch.me/ https://fishdraw.glitch.me/ https://generative-placeholders.glitch.me/ https://generative-placeholders.glitch.me/ https://spades.glitch.me/ https://spades.glitch.me/ https://spurious-soup.glitch.me/ https://spurious-soup.glitch.me/ https://likelike.glitch.me/ https://likelike.glitch.me/ https://chordal-ps.glitch.me/ https://chordal-ps.glitch.me/ https://purrdata.glitch.me/ https://purrdata.glitch.me/ https://tempeh.glitch.me/ https://tempeh.glitch.me/ https://dither-cam.glitch.me/ https://dither-cam.glitch.me/ https://conways-webcam.glitch.me/ https://conways-webcam.glitch.me/ https://doodle-jump-html.glitch.me/ https://doodle-jump-html.glitch.me/ https://fragmatic-glsl.glitch.me/ https://fragmatic-glsl.glitch.me/ https://glitch.com/@potch https://glitch.com/@potch https://glitch.com/@PatrickWeaver https://glitch.com/@PatrickWeaver https://glitch.com/@ggorlen/my-stuff https://glitch.com/@ggorlen/my-stuff

213 points by js4ever 1y ago

brulard 1y ago

Sad. Do you guys know about a good alternative?

raymond_goo 1y ago
i will try https://www.gitlip.com/ https://www.gitlip.com/ and https://deno.com/deploy https://deno.com/deploy

busymom0 1y ago

As someone who had never heard of them, can someone explain what Glitch was used for?

js4ever 1y ago
It was a platform to create / edit / host frontend and node.js backend. It was popular because it was an easy and free way to deploy something on a playground. When it went out I was super impressed, but they failed to monetize it and got badly abused by bad actors
alexjplant 1y ago
Glitch the company also used to be Fog Creek of Joel Spolsky/FogBugz fame. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch,_Inc.
- qilo 1y ago
  . (dot) got truncated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch,_Inc%2E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch,_Inc%2E

DannyPage 1y ago

I really enjoyed using Glitch as it allowed me to quickly publish and iterate on various experiments or try out new libraries like Datasette or HTMX. I am curious what Glitch will look like after July. If they aren’t hosting apps, will they still be hosting code and letting it deploy elsewhere? It says it’s not a full shutdown, but it doesn’t appear to say what will be left to do on Glitch after that date.

drewda 1y ago
Glitch was acquired by Fastly a few years ago, so perhaps the user-facing brand will continue on for a while on top of some Fastly hosted services...

steivan 1y ago

I've been a long-time Glitch user and am now looking for good alternative platforms. My primary use case involves online coding with a Node.js backend using Express and some React apps. If anyone has recommendations, I'd greatly appreciate it.

LordShredda 1y ago
I'd recommend, unfortunately, buying a cheap $200 netbook and running cloudflare tunnel on it. As long as you're relying on other people's computers for hosting you'll keep looking forever
- andrewmcwatters 1y ago
  That's nearly 20 years of lowendbox provider annual payments for what this guy is asking for.
  - remram 1y ago
    Or even more years of GCP/OCI free tier VMs. https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#compute https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#compu... https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier...
- lxgr 1y ago
  > As long as you're relying on other people's computers for hosting you'll keep looking forever > running cloudflare tunnel There's some irony here.
  - CharlesW 1y ago
    The Cloudflare dependency is for networking, not hosting. It would be very impressive to see a self-hosted service available over the internet without introducing a 3rd-party dependency or two.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

curiouser3 1y ago

glitch.com brings back memories of the pre-slack era Glitch MMO. What an amazing time that was, really beautiful game made by talented people, pivoted the communication side into what we now know as Slack

BrenBarn 1y ago
Heh, I was thinking about that game too. It was bizarre. Even more wild that Slack was just a byproduct of it.
- DonHopkins 1y ago
  The same way Flickr was a by-product the online Game Neverending. By the same people! https://gamicus.fandom.com/wiki/Game_Neverending https://gamicus.fandom.com/wiki/Game_Neverending https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludicorp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludicorp
3036e4 1y ago
I thought of that game as well, but I never played it or even knew about it at the time. I also forgot about the connection to Slack. What I DO remember is that they released the game art with a CC0 license after shutting down the game. The site seems to just redirect to a 404 on slack.com now. https://web.archive.org/web/20161124184152/http://www.glitchthegame.com/public-domain-game-art/ https://web.archive.org/web/20161124184152/http://www.glitch... https://archive.org/details/glitch-public-domain-game-art https://archive.org/details/glitch-public-domain-game-art

duck 1y ago

Why is Glitch and Pocket both shutting down the same day and announcing today? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44063662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44063662

BoredPositron 1y ago
Someone is looking for coin and doesn't find it.
sureIy 1y ago
You may be surprised to find out how many more things are happening today! It's definitely a conspiracy.
add-sub-mul-div 1y ago
Birthday Paradox
pabs3 1y ago
Ubuntu Launchpad mailing lists shutdown got announced today too. https://blog.launchpad.net/general/sunsetting-launchpads-mailing-lists https://blog.launchpad.net/general/sunsetting-launchpads-mai... Lots more shutdowns in the coming months: https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Deathwatch https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Deathwatch
- rafram 1y ago
  This is... quite a list. Doesn't seem like people are really holding to the "notable or with user-generated content" rule. For instance: > 2025-07-01: Vrijeschool Waldorf elementary school will close, due to lack of schoolchildren. OK.
aspenmayer 1y ago
Coincidence or not, this seems like it could be related. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements-critical-national-security-program-protect-americans-sensitive https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements... > As explained in NSD’s Data Security Program Implementation and Enforcement Policy Through July 8, 2025, NSD will not prioritize civil enforcement actions against any person for violations of the Data Security Program that occur from April 8 through July 8, 2025, so long as the person is engaging in good faith efforts to comply with or come into compliance with the Data Security Program during that time. These efforts include engaging in compliance activities described in that policy, such as amending or renegotiating existing contracts, conducting internal reviews of data flows, deploying the CISA security requirements, and so on. > At the end of this 90-day period, individuals, and entities should be in full compliance with the DSP. This policy does not limit NSD’s lawful authority and discretion to pursue civil enforcement if entities and individuals did not engage in good faith efforts to comply with, or come into compliance with, the Data Security Program.

weiliddat 1y ago

Sad, one of the first of its kind. Created a bunch of one-off tools for friends and colleagues on glitch, but could see why it didn't really take off. For me I switched to other platforms like codesandbox, replit because the editor UX wasn't great for a long time. I get wanting the simplicity angle but having poor hints/autocomplete/etc is a hard sell for writing code.

biker142541 1y ago

Just coming to say this is a great example of how communication should be done for such changes. So many companies get this wrong, but this is thoughtful and to the point. Glitch was a springboard for myself as well, so very bittersweet (and I guess I need to migrate really old stuff... but to their point, this is super easy now).

pyb 1y ago
I can't tell from the post if Glitch is shutting down or not.
- immibis 1y ago
  And that's how communication should be done. Uncertainty raises shareholder value. Somehow.
  - pyb 1y ago
    "On ne sort de l'ambigüité qu'à son détriment." a successful politician once said
oblio 1y ago
Does Glitch do anything else besides web hosting? If it doesn't, in what world is this good communication?

daveguy 1y ago

This is excellent communication and respect for their users. Applause for Glitch. Especially allowing users to retrieve resources for a full 6 months after the closure. If you appreciate this level of communication and respect, avoid Digital Ocean at all cost. They will fail to send you emails for a few weeks and then delete your resources permanently with no recourse. They are the literal opposite of Glitch. Avoid Digital Ocean. I would recommend Glitch remove Digital Ocean from their list of alternatives.

vorador 1y ago

Is this the end of fog creek? I remember they had shut down most of their services by the time their rebranded to glitch. I wonder if anything is left of the company besides Joel's blog posts.

skeeter2020 1y ago
Glitch isn't FC either, but to answer your question: is there anything left? Yes, giant piles of money!
- madeofpalk 1y ago
  Fog Creek Software was renamed to Glitch, and they offloaded FC.
kbrosnan 1y ago
Trello sold to Atlassian. Stack Exchange and Stack Overflow sold to Prosus FogBugz sort of lives on at https://ignitetech.ai/softwarelibrary/fogbugz https://ignitetech.ai/softwarelibrary/fogbugz but it looks like one of those companies that buys software solutions and retains the minimum staffing to keep lights on.

bfdm 1y ago

This a real loss. I'll miss Glitch for rapid experimentation with UI and APIs together.

dmarcos 1y ago

Glitch has been a key piece of the A-Frame community (open source project I maintain) for almost a decade. I'm super thankful to the team! So many people started programming and had first steps in game and 3d graphics development with Glitch. It's sad to see it go. I was always somehow worried. They had an awesome and super generous free tier. You don’t even need to create an account! Unfortunately, it looks they couldn't make the numbers work.

apitman 1y ago
Are there viable alternatives for your community? Anything that's just as good?
- dmarcos 1y ago
  Not that I'm aware of. I like glitch because the dev experience is the same as working on a local machine: a list of files, text editor, viewer. Anything you learn on glitch transfers directly to local development. Codepen, jsfiddle abstract away too much with the UI and different panels. You're coding their way.
  - apitman 1y ago
    Have you tried Val Town?
    - dmarcos 1y ago
      It makes me sign up to do anything. That's a deal breaker.
karol_ 1y ago
As someone who has been using glitch.com because of A-Frame and was teaching students to also use them together I am really sad by the news. It was a great thing to see students who had no experience with programming to create a virtual spaces in under an hour and after few more lessons using A-Frame in a creative way that I wouldn't even thought off. I guess I would also like to thank you @dmarcos for keeping A-Frame alive. My especially fond memory of it was during Covid lockdowns when my friend reached out to me that he had students of Art University feeling pretty bummed because they weren't able to do a end of a year physical exhibit and if I had any ideas to do a simple site to show the works. What we went with instead was to create a virtual gallery that evolved also in to place where people could stream live performances through the internet and even had a premiere of a CD of a band done there (https://vimeo.com/428814586 https://vimeo.com/428814586).

627467 1y ago

Unrelated: but the whole glitch labour union that lasted a year before it dissolved itself is the first thing that comes to mind when I read about glitch.

singron 1y ago
> Glitch’s 14-person staff will all make the move over to Fastly. However the Glitch union, which made history last year when it signed the white collar tech world’s first collective bargaining agreement, won’t be coming with it. https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/19/23126349/glitch-fastly-acquired-coding-anil-dash-fog-creek https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/19/23126349/glitch-fastly-ac... [This had substantially less coverage than forming the union, so I wanted to link it here]

Kiro 1y ago

I don't really agree with people saying this is good communication. What will happen with Glitch?

mattbee 1y ago
Yes! It's exactly what it says it's not, an Incredible Journey post, from Anil, who is a laser-sharp writer. I kept reading because I assumed they were going to - idk open source it or allow you to host Glitch apps elsewhere - but nope, it's just a straight shutdown announcement. What have I got wrong? I'd assume there is some obfuscation required by owners or whatever pending a change of ownership, something like that? Anyhow, RIP, if the internet has taught me anything it's that we can't have nice things for more than about 10 years.
- Maxious 1y ago
  Considering Anil boldly stated "MCP is the coming of Web 2.0 2.0" https://www.anildash.com/2025/05/20/mcp-web20-20/ https://www.anildash.com/2025/05/20/mcp-web20-20/ I'd bet now the golden handcuffs are off, it's AI VC money time baby
TheNewsIsHere 1y ago
They’re shutting down. This is one of those classic examples of awful communication dressed up as some kind of “good news everyone!” treatise on a founders personal feelings while being clear as molasses about reality.

Jean-Philipe 1y ago

I'm a bit confused...if web hosting shuts down, what stays? Doesn't this mean glitch just shuts down altogether?

karel-3d 1y ago
https://me.dm/@anildash/114553094584569213 https://me.dm/@anildash/114553094584569213 > We’re thinking through what’s next. I’m really interested in how we can look at all the other amazing creation and app experiences out there (I really love stuff like Val Town and Fly.io and Deno and Netlify, etc.) and bring all those together for easily making and remixing new apps. Will take a bit to figure that out.
- diggan 1y ago
  I'm similarly lost as GP, and even reading this, I feel like I'm missing something. If HN said they're disabling new submissions and comments, that'd effectively mean they're closing the site, and would probably say that outright. But Glitch aren't saying they are shutting down, but they're removing the feature that I thought made Glitch a thing. So nothing is left, yet they continue? Is this a 180 pivot or? Are there other features that will still be usable?
  - eitland 1y ago
    It could go the Piczo route—a website builder aimed at kids and teens, not for polished blogs or ecommerce, but more for one-off, personal and playful friend-to-friend sites.
    - diggan 1y ago
      > a website builder aimed at kids and teens They're still just hosting websites in that scenario, which seems to be exactly what they don't want to do. A bit like if GitHub decided they didn't want to host source code anymore.
    - dgimla20 1y ago

wilg 1y ago

I love the brass of putting "Our Incredible Journey" posts on blast right up top and then writing a post that even less clearly explains if they are shutting down entirely, why they are doing so, or what is going on.

deafpolygon 1y ago

Weird. Both Mozilla and Glitch are doing something on July 8. Is there something significant about that day? "On July 8, 2025 Glitch project hosting and user profiles will be shut down." "We’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025."

altano 1y ago
I think it's pretty common for more than one thing to happen on most days.
- skwashd 1y ago
  It isn't unheard of for 2 companies to announce a shutdown on the same day. What is less common is for them to both announce it on the same day and last day isn't 4 weeks/30 days. When I saw this announcement after seeing pocket earlier, I immediately started to wonder if there was a regulatory change on 8 July.
  - aspenmayer 1y ago
    DOJ starts enforcement of the new DSP on that date, for one thing. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44071372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44071372
aspenmayer 1y ago
This was all I could find, but it actually may be related? https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements-critical-national-security-program-protect-americans-sensitive https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-implements... > As explained in NSD’s Data Security Program Implementation and Enforcement Policy Through July 8, 2025, NSD will not prioritize civil enforcement actions against any person for violations of the Data Security Program that occur from April 8 through July 8, 2025, so long as the person is engaging in good faith efforts to comply with or come into compliance with the Data Security Program during that time. These efforts include engaging in compliance activities described in that policy, such as amending or renegotiating existing contracts, conducting internal reviews of data flows, deploying the CISA security requirements, and so on. > At the end of this 90-day period, individuals, and entities should be in full compliance with the DSP. This policy does not limit NSD’s lawful authority and discretion to pursue civil enforcement if entities and individuals did not engage in good faith efforts to comply with, or come into compliance with, the Data Security Program.

troupo 1y ago

To people praising this communication: they've given everyone just 6 weeks to move off the platform. To quote a response from their forum: https://support.glitch.com/t/discussion-thread-project-hosting-ending-july-8/75660/27 https://support.glitch.com/t/discussion-thread-project-hosti... --- start quote --- I’m not a fan of those overly sweet, corporate-style messages that try to sugarcoat the truth: Glitch was simply too good to last, and you’re losing money... That said, my only real complaint is this: if you knew the situation wasn’t financially sustainable, you could have at least announced it a year in advance—not overnight. --- end quote ---

stuart_real 1y ago

[dead]

dustingetz 1y ago

$30M Series A by Tiger in 2018, acq by Fastly in 2022 for undisclosed price, shutdown in 2025. Fastly is a CDN and edge network. Glitch was used by Fastly for “internal training” and “internal sales tools” (kinda?), a far cry from “fullstack application platform in the edge”. https://blog.glitch.com/post/my-last-day-at-fastly/ https://blog.glitch.com/post/my-last-day-at-fastly/ https://www.fastly.com/blog/fastly-announces-acquisition-of-glitch-a-future-of-yes-code-at-the-edge https://www.fastly.com/blog/fastly-announces-acquisition-of-...

reverendsteveii 1y ago
is it me or does it feel like the american dream is quickly becoming "work super hard developing a new product that meets people's needs, then get bought out and shut down by one of the supergiant orgs that owns everything"?
- dragonwriter 1y ago
  Big money exit without concern for what happens next has always been the VC-powered startup dream. You are probably spending too much time on a discussion forum sponsored by a startup accelerator if you think that defines the American dream, though.
- dymk 1y ago
  No, that's the Silicon Valley-specific "Sigma Grindset" Dream
- dughnut 1y ago
  This is why civil design software has not meaningfully improved in 20 years and is indistinguishable from its state 10 years ago. We’re living in a Dark Age. We just don’t realize it.
  - 392 1y ago
    Civil design software?

neuroelectron 1y ago

It's not realistic to provide a secure hosting infrastructure unless you're AWS-level.

philipwhiuk 1y ago

So... it totally is an Our Incredible Journey thing. They got bought, Fastly doesn't want it, they're killing it.

skrebbel 1y ago

I just can't get over the fact that this starts with > This is a big change, but it’s not an “Our Incredible Journey” post and then never, nowhere, at all, makes clear that the post means "We're shutting down Glitch". At least the "incredible journey" posts are clear about that, somehow this here is even worse. It suggests that they're just shutting some small part of it down but actually if I read it right (and the comments here) it actually means they're shutting the whole platform down but might someday want to try and do something else with the name and the userbase. I simply don't understand why people write like this. What's the benefit of trying to fool your userbase into thinking that maybe not that much is changing when in fact everything is? Who wins when, the day after they pull the last plug, lots of people email them in panic, because they hadn't realized that "important changes" means "we'll delete everything"?

popalchemist 1y ago
They write like this because they can't own what they're doing.
- refulgentis 1y ago
  Ultimately the CEO jobs involving 10 figures of investments are selected before the company is built, for some intersection of self marketability, ability to market others...and most importantly, being willing to do anything to go with the flow.
jeeyoungk 1y ago
Yes, they tried to avoid the cliche by pointing at the cliche, but they weren't able to refute Our Incredible Journey. Though, this was a real product, with almost 10 years of operation; very few products last this long, and the product wasn't immediately shuttered after the acquisition, so it is unfair to categorize them into the same OIJ bucket.
JeremyNT 1y ago
Yeah I'm with you here. It's a bit ironic coming from Anil, who has quite a following on social media due to "calling it like it is" when big tech or VC culture does something rotten or self-serving. The doublespeak and evasiveness in this "incredible journey" post is exactly the sort of thing he'd typically criticize!

apitman 1y ago

I listened to a great podcast recently with one of the co-creators of Glitch: https://www.localfirst.fm/8 https://www.localfirst.fm/8

pketh 1y ago
oh hi that's me!

LahanF 1y ago

Anyway, all I can say is thank you Anil and team, Glitch helped me learn web dev 7 years ago, and also teach others. It’s just very sad that it’s ending like this, sugarcoating much.

_vufv 1y ago

We're building a similar product at https://gitlip.com https://gitlip.com We would love to speak to any Glitch users about their particular use case. Please reach out to natalie [at] gitlip.com

raymond_goo 1y ago
Very good first impression. Well done!

ggorlen 1y ago

Here's a sampling of the projects I've found on glitch. Many great projects will be lost. Are there any preservation efforts being undertaken? https://magnet-caper.glitch.me/ https://magnet-caper.glitch.me/ https://cave-in.glitch.me/ https://cave-in.glitch.me/ https://hydra-book.glitch.me/ https://hydra-book.glitch.me/ https://fishdraw.glitch.me/ https://fishdraw.glitch.me/ https://generative-placeholders.glitch.me/ https://generative-placeholders.glitch.me/ https://spades.glitch.me/ https://spades.glitch.me/ https://spurious-soup.glitch.me/ https://spurious-soup.glitch.me/ https://likelike.glitch.me/ https://likelike.glitch.me/ https://chordal-ps.glitch.me/ https://chordal-ps.glitch.me/ https://purrdata.glitch.me/ https://purrdata.glitch.me/ https://tempeh.glitch.me/ https://tempeh.glitch.me/ https://dither-cam.glitch.me/ https://dither-cam.glitch.me/ https://conways-webcam.glitch.me/ https://conways-webcam.glitch.me/ https://doodle-jump-html.glitch.me/ https://doodle-jump-html.glitch.me/ https://fragmatic-glsl.glitch.me/ https://fragmatic-glsl.glitch.me/ https://glitch.com/@potch https://glitch.com/@potch https://glitch.com/@PatrickWeaver https://glitch.com/@PatrickWeaver https://glitch.com/@ggorlen/my-stuff https://glitch.com/@ggorlen/my-stuff