Automattic Adapts to the AI Era with Spacefast for Vibe-Coded Apps and Websites

WordPress has long stood as a foundational technology and content management system for a vast portion of the modern internet, powering essential web properties and heavy-traffic sites like TechCrunch. However, as the digital landscape undergoes rapid transformation driven by artificial intelligence and shifting user behaviors, the company behind WordPress.com is looking toward the future. Automattic is officially responding to the changing state of the web by debuting a new service called Spacefast, a platform built to allow users to seamlessly deploy vibe-coded websites and applications.

Spacefast is specifically designed to provide the underlying infrastructure required to bring vibe-coded applications to life. This includes managing complex backend elements such as databases, user authentication, file uploads, email handling, and analytics, effectively transforming raw AI-generated concepts into fully functional websites, apps, or digital services. The new product enters a competitive market, going up against established players like Lovable and Emergent, both of which offer similar combinations of user interfaces and deployment rails for vibe-coded applications, though Spacefast aims to position itself in a more open manner.

To get started on the platform, users have multiple avenues of integration. They can connect Spacefast directly with a wide array of popular AI agents and chatbots, including ChatGPT, Claude, Hermes, OpenClaw, Grokbot, Muse, Pi, Cursor, Op

encode, and Amp. Alternatively, developers and creators can bypass chatbots entirely and connect a traditional Git repository to Spacefast to initiate their deployment process.

The product is spearheaded by Batuhan Aygöz, who initially conceptualized and worked on the project during one of Automattic’s internal hackathon sprints earlier in the year. At the time, Aygöz was working on Beeper, the company’s cross-platform messaging application. While exploring the burgeoning world of vibe coding, he frequently encountered Vercel deployment links shared by his non-technical friends.

Reflecting on the experience during a call with TechCrunch, Aygöz noted that he saw a clear friction point in how everyday users brought digital ideas online. He thought there had to be a better, more streamlined way for everyone to set up and deploy their projects. Noting that Automattic already possessed robust enterprise infrastructure despite being traditionally pigeonholed as a pure WordPress company, he began questioning why creators had to rely on external edge networks like Cloudflare when Automattic maintained a content delivery network of equal capability. This realization led him to start developing an internal prototype initially dubbed Stattic, which has now evolved into Spacefast.

Aygöz eventually disseminated the early solution to his circle of friends, gathering feedback and steadily incorporating additional features to make the product increasingly dynamic. Following this iterative development phase, Automattic soft-launched the product back in September to test the waters and collect broader user feedback ahead of its wider public debut.

During this soft-launch period, the company observed a remarkably diverse range of use cases. Individuals and organizations utilized Spacefast for internal mockups, dynamic slideshows, and promotion-specific landing pages. Yet, the competitive landscape extends far beyond dedicated coding platforms like Lovable. Spacefast must also contend with mainstream productivity and design software suites such as Figma, Canva, and Notion, all of which have progressively launched features that sit squarely at the intersection of vibe coding, rapid mockups, and digital presentations.

When evaluating how Spacefast differentiates itself from competitors like Lovable, Aygöz believes the platform’s core advantage lies in giving users the freedom to choose their preferred AI agent and utilize the technology on their own terms. At the same time, he acknowledges a potential counter-argument: a distinct segment of mainstream users may prefer an entirely curated experience where they do not have to make choices, preferring instead to have every technical detail figured out for them automatically.

Furthermore, Spacefast benefits significantly from its position within the broader Automattic ecosystem. The service leverages the parent company’s existing capabilities to easily roll out solutions such as robust web analytics, native WordPress integration, and e-commerce functionalities powered by WooCommerce, allowing it to compete more effectively across a broader spectrum of digital needs.

Addressing enterprise concerns, Aygöz pointed out that corporate technology stacks frequently suffer from severe IT sprawl. Enterprise marketing teams often churn out landing pages across various fragmented services like Lovable, eventually seeking ways to consolidate their operations under a trusted partner that comprehensively understands enterprise-grade requirements. Because Automattic already boasts a long history of serving massive enterprise customers with its existing product suite, Spacefast is well-positioned to address these organizational pain points.

A persistent hurdle for newly minted products within the fast-moving artificial intelligence ecosystem is user retention following the initial launch hype. Users frequently experience a surge of excitement when testing a novel tool, only to abandon it for the next shiny technological trend within days or weeks. Aygöz remains fully cognizant of this reality, stating that he fully expects a certain degree of initial user churn, particularly from casual individuals who ultimately discover they are not genuinely interested in building apps.

To combat this phenomenon, Aygöz emphasizes that the product must deliver undeniable practical value. The primary objective for Spacefast is to ensure that whenever someone builds something using the platform, the process is remarkably frictionless and the final output is drastically superior to what they could achieve without it.

The debut of Spacefast also arrives at a time when traditional websites and digital publishers face severe headwinds, struggling with dwindling web traffic caused by the proliferation of AI-driven chatbots and search summaries. This shift has grown pronounced enough that even tech giants like Google have seen their core advertising revenue growth slow down as search patterns change. Aygöz acknowledged this shifting paradigm, noting that everyday users are increasingly constructing quick websites directly inside conversational interfaces like ChatGPT or Claude rather than deploying traditional content management systems like WordPress. As the web continues to expand, he noted that a subset of future sites may not require a traditional content management system at all.

Spacefast’s arrival follows a turbulent few months characterized by significant upheaval at Automattic’s corporate level. In a dramatic boardroom saga reminiscent of OpenAI and Sam Altman, the company’s board of directors attempted to force CEO Matt Mullenweg out of his position. However, the maneuver failed, and Mullenweg was back in control of the company within days. The rebel board members were subsequently replaced, and the company’s interim CFO departed just weeks after taking on the role following the boardroom shakeup. By October, reports confirmed that Automattic had initiated corporate layoffs across several of its properties, with further structural cuts anticipated as the organization recalibrates its business strategy.