Automattic launches Spacefast for AI app deployment as web tools competition intensifies

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Automattic launches Spacefast for AI app deployment

Highlights

Automattic launches Spacefast, an infrastructure solution for deploying AI-powered apps, competing with Lovable, Emergent, Figma, Canva and Notion.
Spacefast leverages Automattic assets for easier integration with WordPress, WooCommerce and analytics, targeting enterprise customers seeking to streamline web service creation.
The debut follows Automattic's board upheaval and layoffs, as AI chatbots shift web traffic dynamics and retention challenges persist for new AI tools.

Launch positions Automattic in AI web infrastructure

As first reported by TechCrunch, Spacefast provides infrastructure for vibe-coded apps, including databases, authentication, file uploads, emails and analytics, so they can run as websites, apps or online services. Users can connect the product to agents and chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Hermes, OpenClaw, Grokbot, Muse, Pi, Cursor, Opencode and Amp, or start by linking a Git repository.

The product is led by Batuhan Icoz, who says the idea emerged during one of Automattic’s hackathon sprints earlier this year while he was working on the company’s Beeper messaging app. He says he saw non-technical friends sharing Vercel links while experimenting with vibe coding and believed Automattic’s existing infrastructure could support a broader deployment tool beyond its traditional association with WordPress.

Automattic soft-launches Spacefast in September to gather feedback before the public debut. The company says early uses include internal mockups, slideshows and offer-related websites, placing the service in competition not only with AI-focused builders such as Lovable and Emergent, but also with tools from Figma, Canva and Notion that increasingly overlap with coding, prototyping and presentation workflows.

Enterprise pitch and market pressures shape rollout

Icoz says Spacefast’s position inside Automattic could help it add web analytics, WordPress integration and e-commerce features through WooCommerce more easily. He argues this gives the company a route into enterprise customers that want to reduce IT sprawl as marketing teams create landing pages across multiple external services.

At the same time, Spacefast enters a market where retention remains a challenge for new AI products, with users often trying tools briefly before moving on. Icoz says some churn is expected, especially among users who may not stay interested in building apps, making ease of use and stronger results central to the product’s value proposition.

The launch also comes as websites and publishers face weaker traffic from the rise of AI chatbots and summaries, a shift that is changing how online content is created and distributed. For Automattic, the debut arrives after turbulent months that included a board struggle that briefly forced out CEO Matt Mullenweg before he returned to control, followed by board changes, the departure of an interim CFO and layoffs across several properties reported in October.

Our earlier article on a KPMG survey of U.S. CEOs found that AI agents are already delivering efficiency and growth gains for many large companies, even though only a small share view them as truly transformational so far. It also highlighted that executives expect AI to drive continued hiring and retraining, alongside sustained capital spending on AI infrastructure to avoid falling behind.

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