What's going on with Gatsby js

Origins and Initial Success

Created in 2015 by Kyle Mathews, Gatsby.js quickly gained popularity as a modern static site generator based on React. Its simplicity and performance attracted many developers.

Technical Advantages

Its pre-rendering of pages provided fast, SEO-optimized websites. GraphQL facilitated access to data from various sources, enhancing its efficiency.

A dynamic community developed various plugins, especially for connecting headless CMS, making Gatsby.js accessible and customizable.

It’s important to remember that before the rise of static site generators, React was primarily used for creating dynamic web applications. While powerful and flexible, it faced challenges in terms of SEO, as search engines struggled to index client-side generated content, impacting site visibility.

The Beginning of the End Technical Limitations Despite its strengths, Gatsby.js has often been criticized for its configuration complexity. The need to master GraphQL for data management proved to be a hurdle for many less-experienced developers. Gatsby also relies on numerous dependencies, making some projects challenging to maintain over the long term. These limitations have occasionally discouraged developers from opting for this solution.

Growing Competition The rise of Next.js and Astro diminished Gatsby’s appeal among many developers. Next.js, in particular, offers a mix of static generation and server-side rendering, making it ideal for modern web needs. Astro also stood out for its simplicity and focus on creating high-performance sites, with a lighter model.

Gatsby Cloud Designed to enhance developers’ experiences, Gatsby Cloud was a platform dedicated to optimizing deployments and hosting Gatsby sites.

The development of this platform likely incurred significant costs for Gatsby Inc., particularly related to research and infrastructure maintenance. Although the platform showed promise, its adoption probably fell short of compensating for its investments. At the same time, the waning interest in Gatsby.js as a framework reduced the number of projects utilizing Gatsby Cloud.

This dual financial and strategic pressure weakened the company, leading to its acquisition by Netlify in 2023 and the gradual discontinuation of Gatsby Cloud as a standalone product.

Loss of Popularity Gatsby.js has experienced a significant decline in popularity in recent years. Statistics show a decrease in npm downloads and reduced activity on its GitHub repository, with fewer updates and contributions.

Netlify’s acquisition of Gatsby Inc. in 2023 marked a turning point, as the integration of Gatsby into the Netlify ecosystem seemed to lessen the focus on its development, despite Netlify’s promises to continue developing Gatsby. Meanwhile, alternatives like Next.js continued to grow, attracting developers with more modern and flexible features.

Thank You, Gatsby Gatsby.js made its mark in JAMstack history by offering a performant and innovative static site generator. Its strengths lie in its speed, GraphQL integration, and ability to deliver a smooth user experience.

However, its configuration complexity and excessive dependencies limited its long-term adoption. Additionally, the rise of competitors better suited to modern needs, such as Next.js and Astro, hastened its decline.

Sources

• Ward Peeters sur X : “It’s dead. The whole staff is gone except one. It still works well but don’t expect major React 18 features to land.”
• Is Gatsby dead?
• Is Gatsby discontinued?
• Is GatsbyJS Officially Dead?
• Netlify Acquires Gatsby, Its Struggling Jamstack Competitor.

Updated in April 2025.