WordPress is a key technology and content management system for websites like TechCrunch. Now, Automattic, owner of WordPress.com, is responding to the changing state of the web by debuting a new service called Spacefast that allows users to deploy vibe-coded websites and apps.
Spacefast is designed to provide the infrastructure for vibecoded apps, such as databases, authentication, file uploads, email, and analytics, to enable them to function as websites, apps, or services. This product competes with the likes of Lovable and Emergent, which offer both an interface and rails for vibe-coded apps, but in a more open way.
Users can connect Spacefast to other agents and chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Hermes, OpenClaw, Grokbot, Muse, Pi, Cursor, Opencode, and Amp. Alternatively, you can connect your Git repository to Spacefast to get started.
The product is headed by Batuhan İçöz, who worked on it during one of the company’s hackathon sprints earlier this year. At the time, he was working on the company’s cross-platform messaging app, Beeper, and said he often received links to Vercel from non-technical friends while exploring vibe coding.
“We thought there had to be a better way for everyone to set up and deploy projects. Automattic already has great infrastructure, but we’ve traditionally been associated only with WordPress. We thought, why use Cloudflare when CDNs (content delivery networks) are just as good? So we started working on something called Stattic and now Spacefast,” he told TechCrunch by phone. told.
Eventually, İçöz spread the solution to his friends and added more features to make the product more dynamic. Automattic soft-launched the product in September to get feedback before launching today.
The company has seen a variety of use cases for the product, including individuals and organizations using it for internal mockups, slideshows, and offer-related websites. But that’s not Spacefast’s only competitor. Productivity and design software like Figma, Canva, and Notion have launched products that sit at the intersection of mood coding, mockups, and presentations.
Compared to something like Lovable, İçöz believes Spacefast has the advantage of letting users choose the agent and use the solution in their own way. The counter-argument is that certain types of users may not want to choose, and would rather have everything worked out for them.
Spacefast said it also has the benefit of being within Automattic, allowing it to easily launch solutions like web analytics, WordPress integration, and e-commerce capabilities (via WooCommerce) to be more competitive with the whole thing.
“For enterprises, the current problem is IT sprawl, because marketing teams are creating a lot of landing pages for services like Lovable, and they want to integrate and work with companies that understand enterprise needs. With our existing products, we have experience serving enterprise customers,” İçöz said.
The challenge for newly developed products in the world of AI is to retain people after launch. Users get excited about trying a new product and are likely to move on to the new shiny product within days or weeks. İçöz recognizes that fact and said he expects people to leave because they may not be interested in building apps at all.
“I think what we need to do as a product is make sure that when we build something with SpaceFast, it’s very easy and the results are much better than without SpaceFast,” İçöz emphasized.
Many websites and publishers are currently suffering from declining traffic from AI chatbots and summaries, and Google itself is now seeing its ad revenue growth decline. İçöz acknowledged that people are building websites with ChatGPT and Claude rather than deploying things with WordPress, and said that as the web grows, some sites won’t need a content management system at all.
At Automattic, Spacefast comes in the midst of a turbulent few months. In an OpenAI-Sam Altman-style saga, the company’s board fired CEO Matt Mullenweg, but he regained control within days. Rebel’s board was eventually replaced, and the interim CFO resigned within weeks of being appointed. In October, TechCrunch reported that the company had begun cutting jobs at several facilities, with more layoffs expected.
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