Deta Cloud goes to Space
February 14, 2023
After more than 2 years and over 40,000 developers, it is time for us to give our platform a well-deserved upgrade. Deta Cloud (deta.sh) was created to give developers a free and easy way to get their ideas live on the internet. It was an excellent platform for side projects and small-scale tools. But as developers’ ambitions grew, we knew we needed to rethink “the free cloud”, without forgetting where we came from or why we’re building Deta.
Deta was started by developers, for developers. For developers everywhere, regardless if they have extensive knowledge of dev ops, the right friends to ask, or a credit card. We thought that an idea — a dream to build something — and the will to code it, should be enough. And we believe that our next act stays true to that while packing more power for developers worldwide who want to create.
Deta Space and the personal cloud
Deta Space is a new personal computer that lives in the cloud — a ‘personal cloud’. We think of it like an operating system. An operating system that gives developers unprecedented powers, while unlocking a new world of possibilities for software.
Build it for yourself
As a developer, Space gives you your own environment to build, just like in Deta Cloud. Your Space is for you: to build, deploy, and use your ideas. But it packs a lot of new power.
Deta Collections: a home for your data
We’ve brought some of the same friendly infrastructure to Space like Deta Base and Deta Drive. But now they’re a part of Deta Collections, a home for your data.
As a part of the merge, we’ve created a tool to easily migrate your Bases and Drives from Deta Cloud to Collections in Space.
Deta Micros: completely recharged
We’ve also upgraded the core experience around Deta Micros. We’ve completely refreshed them to support many more runtimes and frameworks. This includes frontend libraries like React and Svelte, alongside their full-stack complements Next.js and Nuxt. Space also supports new backend languages like Go, with Rust coming soon. The community has also created templates for running a number of other languages like Deno, Crystal, Nim and Dart using our “custom” runtime feature.
For Deta Cloud users looking to move to Space, we’ve created a guide for migrating Micros from Deta Cloud to Deta Space.
Say hello to Horizon and Teletype
As part of the upgrade, we’ve also completely redesigned and re-engineered our user interface from scratch. This includes a complete frontend rewrite in Svelte and a brand new Base UI.
But we’re most excited about two core new interaction components in the frontend, Horizon, and Teletype.
Horizon is your personal cloud’s homepage, where you can rearrange all your apps and projects. Soon you’ll be able to pin just about anything to Horizon – like a Collection, Base, or Drive – to personalize your experience even further.
Teletype is like a start menu for Deta Space. Teletype follows you around Space at the bottom of the screen, offering a changing set of helpful actions, depending on where you are. Navigate straight to a page, open an app, or search the docs using Teletype. We plan to offer even more functionality to Teletype in the coming months, like direct app integrations – stay tuned.
See it run anywhere
Once you have an app that you’re happy with in your Space, you can click a button or send a command. From this point, Deta can run it anywhere, around the world, for anyone with an internet connection, in their own Space. Your app will keep running forever (as long as Space exists), with no work from you needed.
Dozens of people have already done this with their creations on the personal cloud. Developers using Space have released bookmark managers, search engines, and even releasing live-streaming platforms or porting databases. Some of these developers have already reached thousands more around the world - real people with these apps in their own personal clouds. You can try them out too - check out Deta Discovery today.
Explore what’s next
Lastly, we’d like to touch on what’s next. With the personal cloud, you’re given unprecedented power as a developer. This is because almost everything on Deta Space is programmable. Every app, every Base, and every Drive. Soon you’ll even be able to interact with our own UI components - Horizon and Teletype - using code. So as we build out Space, and as developers release an expanding universe of apps, you’re free to create in ways no one else imagined. Integrate everything to extend your own apps. Or use it all as input to explore what’s next.
Q&A Live stream (WE ARE LIVE NOW!)
Join our merge live stream where the CEO will answer all your questions.
A note on migrating
As part of the upgrade, we’ve compiled information about the Deta Cloud sunset plan while offering migration tools and guides for those who want to move to Space. Read more here.