May 23, 2025
The End of Glitch (Even Though They Say It Isn't)
The news is out! Glitch is shutting down project hosting and user profiles on July 8th, 2025. Like Jenn, I knew this was coming because working on a team for five years gives you the inside scoop, even after you’ve been gone for a year. I don’t envy Anil’s job in writing that blog post, or any of my incredible former teammates who are still at Fastly working to make this transition as painless as possible.
But let’s be real about what this is. The post carefully avoids calling this an “Our Incredible Journey” moment, but removing project hosting and user profiles is the end of an era. Glitch was a unique platform that fostered creativity, experimentation, and community, all while being affordable and accessible to developers of all levels.
One of my most memorable moments from my time at Glitch was watching my coworkers form the first recognized union in tech. As a manager when the organizing started, I got to witness the incredible work, sweat, and tears that went into building something historic. The Glitch Workers Union was groundbreaking – showing that tech workers could organize collectively and that companies could work constructively with unions.
When we moved to Fastly, we made the difficult decision to dissolve the union, but not before negotiating solid deals for everyone transitioning over. That movement didn’t die with our union though—it’s still growing bigger every day across the tech industry. Glitch workers proved it was possible, and others are following that path.
No place online lasts forever, and there isn’t a reason it should—a lesson I’m still learning. Glitch was a beautiful thing for a long time, and now we all need to find new homes for our projects and communities.
Where to Take Your Projects
If you built an Eleventy or simple HTML site on Glitch, Netlify will feel familiar and probably perform better. GitHub Pages for simple static hosting, especially if your project is already in a GitHub repo. Fly.io if you want more control and don’t mind a steeper learning curve.
The thing that breaks my heart isn’t just that another platform is shutting down—it’s that we’re losing one of the last places on the internet that prioritized joy and experimentation over engagement metrics and revenue optimization.
For a few years, Glitch was the closest thing we had to the early web’s spirit of “view source” and “anyone can build here.” But let’s be honest: we proved that you can’t build a sustainable platform around helping people create rather than consume—at least not in today’s internet economy.
If you’re migrating off Glitch and need help, the community forum is still active, and the team is committed to making the transition as smooth as possible. Take advantage of the code export tools—your work deserves to live on.