Building Flexible, Subscription-Friendly Apps

The recently launched Substation is one of many sites that exemplify how online subscription services will evolve in the next decade. #

*My partner Anthony and I started working on Substation late in 2019 as a way to play with new membership and subscription business models. Glitch was the perfect choice for starting a new open source project aimed at independent creators. We didn’t have to sacrifice any developer convenience because every project gets its own server container, we get command-line access, and everything can be pushed to or pulled from GitHub. At the same time, we could build something people could remix, customize, and own with the push of a button. Setting up payment accounts and mail services is complicated enough, we didn’t want the setup of our app to add new friction. So we decided Substation would be built in Glitch from the very start. *

*Building something new on Glitch took a little getting used to at first, but the borders of “on Glitch” and just working on the project sort of melted away. I worked exclusively in the Glitch editor. Its just-enough approach to editor functionality is how I’ve always liked to work, but everyone has their preferences. As friends started to lend a hand with Substation we saw people try the VSCode plugin or even local editing synced to a git repo like any other project. It’s a flexible way to build and doesn’t impose itself on workflow, so we all just worked how we work and the part where we’re working on Glitch faded into the background. *

*As our needs grew, Glitch’s flexibility kept pace. We set up a central repo on GitHub to hold code, releases, and issues. That combined with testing and production projects on the Glitch side gave us a robust infrastructure without sacrificing any of the one click remix user benefit. Before launching we boosted the projects and saw them hold up to higher traffic than we were expecting. Don’t let all the adorable comics fool you. Glitch is as powerful as it is friendly. *

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If you’re ready to bring your favorite project idea into a reality, or if you just want to learn more about what it’s like to code in a friendly, collaborative environment, head over to Glitch and get started bringing your ideas to the world.