Glitch

Glitch was a service (shutdown 2025-07-08) that allowed people to quickly create static and NodeJS applications in a browser or by importing a git repo. It allowed you to quickly prototype web applications in a complete IDE with built-in version control, sharing, custom domain support, and more.

2025-05-22 Anil Dash: Important Changes are Coming to Glitch (archived)

It worked similar to a CodePen or Gist but it allows you to write a Node.js-based server to complement the front end.

Why

2020-02-06 Glitch blog: Building Your Own Website, Once and For All

Glitch was an advocate of IndieWeb principles and methods and features such as:

How To

Alternatives to Glitch

2025-07-02 Jenn Schiffer: my official list of post-glitch.com hosting options (archived)

IndieWeb Examples

All examples are past examples as of 2025-07-08.

Sven Knebel made the authorship algorithm testing tool https://sturdy-backbone.glitch.me/ using Glitch
Marty McGuire made several projects using Glitch
- ~~A standalone IndieAuth authorization endpoint, ported from selfauth~~. (Archived source code). 2018-03-12 announcement.
- ~~A Micropub endpoint that can create posts on NeoCities sites.~~ (Archived source code). 2018-03-12 announcement.
- ~~Kapowski, a micropub client for posting animated GIFs.~~ Kapowski has been ported to PHP and moved from Glitch. Archived Glitch code
- ~~🕸💍, an IndieWeb webring.~~ Ported to PHP and moved from Glitch. (Archived Glitch code).

Other examples:

HTML slideshow a poorly responsive slidedeck, not recommended for use
CEO Anil Dash selfdogfooded Glitch himself with his personal site: https://twitter.com/anildash/status/1101212350403751936
- "I've been running http://anildash.com on there for a long time! :) https://medium.com/glitch/add-a-custom-domain-to-your-glitch-project-9a455eab2baf" @anildash February 28, 2019

Other Uses

Glitch is a common enough word that it has been used to mean other things:

Glitch game by makers of Slack
Wikipedia:glitch

Shutdown

Glitch shut down project hosting and user profiles on 2025-07-08.

Retrospectives

2025-05-28 Pirijan Keth: Saying Bye to Glitch (archived) - from a co-creator of Glitch, after the shut-down was announced
So long, Glitch, and thanks for all the apps
The End of Glitch (Even Though They Say It Isn't)
on 'important changes coming to glitch'
RIP Glitch
Glitched out
2025-07-02 Jenn Schiffer: my official list of post-glitch.com hosting options (archived)

Criticism

Made plagiarism easier: https://twitter.com/notwaldorf/status/1132320907727319046
- "Good morning to everyone except this asshat on Glitch who
  - took all of my projects with dashes in the name
  - remixed them to add his personal information
  - renamed them to the dash-free name so that typos go to his project
  
  Open source is the gift that keeps on giving. 🤦‍♀️" @notwaldorf May 25, 2019
Unmet salary transparency promise: https://twitter.com/nancy_hawa/status/1263858543448424449, thread: https://threader.app/thread/1263858543448424449, archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20200523195041/https://threader.app/thread/1263858543448424449
- "Shortly after Anil Dash started as the CEO of Fog Creek, he announced internally that we’d be making salaries transparent and had the website changed to claim we already had. Now, 3.5 years later @glitch has laid off staff members without ever honoring the promise." @nancy_hawa May 22, 2020

Why