You might know Glitch as that colorful website where people host weird little coding projects. Or maybe you remember it as the place where the "Hello World" of the modern web happens. But there is a much stranger, more frustrating story behind the company called Glitch that nobody and everybody wanted. It is a story about how a company can be the absolute soul of the internet and still struggle to find a place in a world obsessed with scale.
It’s easy to forget that Glitch didn't start as Glitch. It started as Fog Creek Software, the legendary outfit founded by Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor. These guys were tech royalty. They gave us Trello. They basically built Stack Overflow. They were the people who taught a generation of programmers how to actually manage a team without losing their minds. And then, they decided to build a "friendly" creative community.
That’s when things got weird.
The App That Was Too Good for Business
Glitch was built on a premise that felt almost dangerously optimistic for 2017. The idea was simple: coding should be like playing with Legos or editing a Google Doc. You see something cool, you click "Remix," and suddenly you have your own version of that app running instantly. No servers to set up. No terminal commands to memorize. No "DevOps" nightmares.
It was a revolution. Honestly, it was the first time the web felt fun again since the days of GeoCities.
The problem? Everyone loved it, but nobody knew what it was for. Was it an education tool? A toy? A professional hosting platform? A social network for nerds? Because it tried to be all of those things at once, it became the company called Glitch that nobody and everybody wanted. Investors wanted the next GitHub. Users wanted a digital playground. The founders wanted a more humane web.
Those three things don't always play nice together.
👉 See also: LG UltraGear OLED 27GX700A: The 480Hz Speed King That Actually Makes Sense
Why the Tech Giants Kept Their Distance (At First)
In the venture capital world, people love "moats." A moat is something that stops a competitor from killing you. Glitch’s moat was its community. It had this incredible vibe—inclusive, artistic, and deeply anti-corporate. If you go to Glitch today, you'll still see hand-drawn illustrations and a UI that looks like a pack of Fruit Loops exploded.
But for a long time, the "big money" looked at Glitch and saw a hobby. They didn't see the enterprise value. They saw kids making "fidget spinner" apps and Slack bots that told jokes.
While companies like Vercel and Netlify were sprinting toward the "Professional Developer" market—focusing on speed, deployment pipelines, and corporate security—Glitch was busy making sure you could add stickers to your code editor. It was a classic "Nobody wanted it" scenario from a purely cynical, profit-driven perspective. And yet, every single developer at those big companies had a secret Glitch account where they prototyped their best ideas.
The Paradox of Friendly Code
The magic of the platform was always "Remixing." This is the core of why Glitch is the company called Glitch that nobody and everybody wanted. In a standard coding environment, if I want to show you how a piece of code works, I have to send you a zip file or a GitHub link. You then have to download it, install dependencies, and hope your version of Node.js matches mine. It's a headache.
On Glitch, you just send a URL. The other person clicks one button. Boom. They are running your code in their own sandbox.
What the Industry Missed
- Low Barrier to Entry: It turned "non-coders" into creators overnight.
- Real-time Collaboration: Multiple people typing in the same file like a Google Doc. This was years ahead of VS Code Live Share.
- Instant Deployment: The moment you stop typing, the app is live. No "build" step.
Despite these innovations, the business model was shaky. They launched "Glitch Pro," but it was a tough sell when so much of the platform's value was wrapped up in being a free, public commons. They were building a public park in a world where everyone else was building gated communities.
✨ Don't miss: How to Remove Yourself From Group Text Messages Without Looking Like a Jerk
Fastly and the "Nobody" Phase Ends
By 2022, the narrative shifted. The era of "cheap money" for startups was ending. Companies had to prove they weren't just cool—they had to be useful. This is when Fastly stepped in and acquired Glitch.
It was a move that made total sense and no sense at all. Fastly is an edge cloud platform. They deal with high-level infrastructure, security, and massive data delivery. Glitch is... well, it's Glitch.
But Fastly saw something. They realized that the hardest part of the "Edge" is getting developers to actually build stuff on it. By buying the company called Glitch that nobody and everybody wanted, they bought an ecosystem. They bought the "on-ramp."
Suddenly, the "hobbyist" tool became a strategic asset for a multi-billion dollar infrastructure company.
The Reality of Being a "Niche" Legend
If you talk to veteran developers like Anil Dash, who served as Glitch’s CEO during its most transformative years, you get a sense of the struggle. They weren't just trying to build an app; they were trying to protect the "Small Web." The Small Web is the idea that the internet shouldn't just be five giant websites filled with screenshots of the other four.
Glitch was—and is—the resistance.
🔗 Read more: How to Make Your Own iPhone Emoji Without Losing Your Mind
But being the resistance is expensive. It requires expensive servers and even more expensive engineers. The friction between being a "cool community" and a "sustainable business" is where Glitch lived for half a decade. Most startups die in that friction. Glitch survived, but it had to change its skin to do it.
Lessons from the Glitch Journey
We can learn a lot from how this played out. If you are building something today, you have to look at the Glitch trajectory as a warning and an inspiration.
First, community is not a business model. It is an accelerant, but you need an engine to pour it into. Glitch had the best community in tech, but they struggled to find the "killer feature" that businesses would pay $50,000 a year for.
Second, user experience is the ultimate competitive advantage. The reason everyone "wanted" Glitch was that it removed the pain of starting. If your product makes the first five minutes of a user's experience feel like magic, you will always have a fanbase.
Third, the "nobody" part of the equation is often just a matter of timing. In 2017, the idea of a "web-based IDE" was a niche toy. By 2024, with the rise of AI coding and cloud-native development, it's the industry standard.
How to Use Glitch Today (For More Than Just Play)
If you haven't touched the platform in a while, it’s worth revisiting. It’s no longer just for making toy apps. It has become a legitimate tool for the modern workflow, especially if you're trying to integrate AI.
- Rapid AI Prototyping: If you're messing with the OpenAI API or LangChain, don't waste time setting up a local environment. Remix an existing AI starter on Glitch. You'll have a functioning chatbot in three minutes.
- Webhooks and Integration: Need a quick endpoint to catch a Shopify or Stripe webhook? Glitch is still the fastest way to get a URL that can receive a POST request.
- Educational Sandboxes: If you're teaching a team or a client how a specific piece of tech works, give them a Glitch link. Don't send them a PDF manual.
- Static Site Hosting: It's still one of the most painless ways to host a simple Vite or React project without worrying about the underlying "plumbing."
The company called Glitch that nobody and everybody wanted taught us that the web doesn't have to be boring. It doesn't have to be corporate. It can be messy, and weird, and colorful, and still be incredibly powerful.
The "nobody" who wanted it were the people looking at spreadsheets. The "everyone" who wanted it were the people actually building the future. Usually, it's a good idea to bet on the latter.
Actionable Insights for Creators and Developers
- Audit your "First Mile": Look at your own projects. Is there a "Remix" button equivalent? How fast can a stranger get value from what you've built? If it takes more than 60 seconds, you're losing people.
- Embrace the "Small Web" Philosophy: Not every project needs to scale to a billion users. Sometimes, a tool that solves a specific problem for 1,000 people is more valuable than a generic tool for a million.
- Prototype in Public: Glitch's success came from people sharing their "half-finished" work. Stop waiting for your code to be perfect before you host it. Use a platform that encourages experimentation to get feedback early.
- Bridge the Gap: If you’re a founder, find the intersection between "delightful for users" and "essential for enterprises." Glitch lived in the delight, but the longevity came from the essential infrastructure provided by the Fastly acquisition.