Firebase Studio is closing: what to replace it with, and what a closing tool owes you

Google closed Firebase Studio signups in June and will delete workspaces in March 2027. GitHub deprecated Spark in August. Two application-building workshops ended in one summer, with the same lesson for those building elsewhere.

Firebase Studio is closing: Google stopped signups and workspace creation on June 22, 2026, and will delete remaining data on March 22, 2027 with no recovery possible (Firebase migration documentation). Google directs users to AI Studio or Antigravity as replacements. GitHub announced Spark's deprecation on August 4, 2026 (GitHub changelog).

Twenty-three months

Firebase Studio launched in April 2025 as a browser development workshop. Between opening and signup closure, it will have lived twenty-three months. Underlying Firebase services continue, including databases, authentication and hosting: the closure concerns the creation workshop. Those with an existing workspace can export code to an external host or use the Firebase command-line tool to retain their hosting addresses. An exit exists, with a deadline, and that deadline falls in six months.

Spark was aimed at your position

GitHub Spark promised that you could describe an application clearly and see it appear without writing code or handling technical vocabulary. Of all the tools we follow, it targeted this journal's readers most closely: people with a business need and no technical team. The August 4 changelog announces deprecation; according to secondary reports, new application creation stopped that day and a code-retrieval window remained open until the end of August. That window is closed. What remains at GitHub assumes you can handle a repository, branch, issue and pull request, four words that alone determine whether a tool is made for you.

What a closing tool owes you

Three things, checked before starting rather than on announcement day. Enough notice to rebuild elsewhere: Google gives nine months between signup closure and data deletion; GitHub left a few weeks. An exit returning the product rather than a screenshot: complete source code in an open format without commercial support or an upgraded plan. A place where your project already lives outside the platform, making closure a move. We asked the reverse question in August: what happens to your application if the tool that created it disappears.

When it is the person, not the platform

The same preparation helps when the person holding the keys stops responding, a subject covered in when the provider disappears. In both cases, the question concerns what is in your name: code, data, domain and hosting access. A tool or provider retaining even one of these four pieces makes you dependent on its health, commercial in one case, personal in the other. All four can transfer in a day when planned, and all can be lost when not.

The alternatives, without indulgence

Google AI Studio and Antigravity carry on the promise at the same vendor with the same model: your work lives in a hosted space whose lifespan you do not set. Lovable, Bolt and Replit build quickly, host on their side and offer code-export exits depending on plans; for a prototype to show next week, they remain the shortest route. An agent team directed from your machine, as Maestro does, places the emphasis elsewhere: code, approved requirements and product versions remain on your drive, online backup is optional and goes to your own account. In exchange, you must install a desktop application, have an assistant subscription and direct the work, which a browser workshop avoided.

The test to perform this week

Open the tool where your application lives and find how to leave without anyone's permission: download the complete code, export the data and record where the domain is registered. If any of these three operations requires a support ticket or a plan change, you already know your exposure on announcement day. Repeat this test quarterly and store the downloaded code with your other backups, dated today.