Automattic Opens Spacefast, a Place for AI Apps to Go Live

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has opened Spacefast to everyone. It is a hosting service where AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor can publish the pages and small apps they build for you. There is a free plan, and a $5 monthly plan for heavier use.

What it does

If you have asked an AI to build a page or app, you have hit the next problem: where does it live, who can see it, and what does it cost to keep online? Spacefast gives each project a "Space," a hosted address with sharing controls and saved versions that can be rolled back.

Spacefast does not build anything itself. Its site says it is "not an AI builder." You keep using the assistant you already have. When you ask it to publish, it sends back a private link in the chat. Comments from your team on that page can be turned into fixes by the assistant.

What it costs

• Personal: $0, no card needed, 20 Spaces, 20 custom domains, commercial use allowed.
• Go: $5 a month, 100 Spaces, hourly database backups, email support.
• Pro: $15 a month, 500 Spaces, team roles, up to five members free.
• Enterprise: custom pricing, with single sign-on and a service-level agreement.

The pricing page does not say what happens once included usage runs out. Launch coverage also disagrees on details. Automattic's release describes Go as having unlimited Spaces, while the pricing page says 100. Check the live page before you pay.

What to watch

Tester Casey Burridge found a few rough edges. The setup link works like an admin credential, so treat it like a password. Scheduled jobs have a five-second limit. The documentation also contradicted its own project template.

Two other points matter. Unclaimed Spaces expire about 33 hours and 20 minutes after creation or their last file-changing publish, capped at 30 days. Claimed Spaces stay live until you unpublish them. Moving away is also uneven. Static sites can usually move to another host as-is, but apps built on Spacefast's own runtime need code changes, and their data is exported separately.

Background

Spacefast soft-launched in September, ahead of an Automattic board meeting. TechCrunch reported that the board tried to oust CEO Matt Mullenweg that month, that the attempt failed and the board was replaced, and that layoffs had begun by Oct. 21. Whether that turmoil affects the service is not addressed in the material.

For Claude users, the closest comparison is an artifact. Burridge found that an artifact is a single page on claude.ai that republishing replaces. A Space gets its own address or custom domain and can hold full apps with a database and logins.