Glide says its 100,000-business Classic base cannot migrate to GlideOS
Glide's pricing FAQ calls its new AI platform GlideOS "completely separate" from Glide Classic, so the 100,000-business base reaches the future by rebuilding every app or paying a second subscription. Rivals are courting the rebuilds, and the same math tests Bending Spoons' $1.28 billion Airtable bet.
Vincent Jiangtwo-minute read
A lot of small companies run this way: someone in ops turns the job tracker spreadsheet into an app in a weekend, and three years later it is how the business runs 1. Those apps live in Glide Classic, the seven-year-old no-code builder used by more than 100,000 businesses 23. Glide opened the beta of its AI-era successor, GlideOS, on July 14 and posted the launch recap on August 4 4. The road between the two products is closed.
The wall is in Glide's own FAQ
GlideOS is "a standalone product, completely separate from the original Glide platform (Glide Classic)", on its own subscription and unreachable from Classic, the pricing FAQ states. GlideOS apps live in a separate account, "will not be able to share data", and Glide has "no tool or technique for seamlessly migrating" Classic apps; a customer moving over is "essentially starting fresh" 2. Classic keeps working. Reaching Glide's future means rebuilding every app or paying twice: Classic Business runs from $199 a month, about $2,388 a year at minimum, alongside GlideOS at $25, $50 or $125 52.
Glide bills its two platforms separately: Classic plus GlideOS Pro is $324 a month
A Classic team that wants GlideOS pays $199 plus $25 to $125 more, on two subscriptions
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Glide Classic Business | $199/mo |
| GlideOS Pro | $125/mo |
| GlideOS Plus | $50/mo |
| GlideOS Basic | $25/mo |
One prompt for a rival's data, none for its own
Glide's blog pitches porting Airtable's$1.285B — Airtable, private, latest valuation $1.285B databases into GlideOS "in one prompt" 4. Its changelog, shipping weekly through the week of November 2, adds agent-written documents, data triggers and guest access, and nothing that moves a Classic app across 6. A German price-comparison page was already advising readers on October 6 to check whether they truly need both subscriptions 5. On November 11, Mythex, the maker of a rival AI app builder, published a guide for Classic teams that lands on the point the wall creates: moving to GlideOS means rebuilding, so the honest comparison is "rebuild on GlideOS vs rebuild on something else" 1.
Rebuilds are when customers shop
Bending Spoons+0.49% — Bending Spoons, up 0.49 percent today (Nasdaq: BSP) paid $1.28 billion in cash for Airtable on September 4, about 2.7 times trailing sales, betting an installed base keeps paying without the people who built it 7. Glide's wall is the other half of that trade. Bases reach AI platforms app by app, at the rebuild, which is exactly when a customer comparison-shops. Glide's bid to win those rebuilds is the agent access it gates at the $125 Pro plan 8.
Glide's promise: Classic apps will not be disrupted
Glide's commitment to the old product is explicit: existing apps "will not be disrupted" 2. No number yet says whether teams leave, stay or double-pay, on either side of the Airtable trade. The changelog, current through this month and published weekly, is where a migration tool would appear first 6.
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