The record
Etch and Etch Studio: a documented timeline (2024–2026)
Last reviewed:
Dated events only. Analysis lives in the article cluster. Entries marked community-sourced are B-grade and attributed as such. See methodology for the sourcing standard.
Chronology
Every inflection point, in order
25 dated entries. No commentary — the timeline's authority comes from what was said in public and when.
ACSS development begins (context for the Digital Gravy ecosystem).
Waiting list opens. Email: "The mission of Etch is intertwined with a larger mission of dramatically improving the WP ecosystem." "We do it together, or we don't do it at all."
Pre-sale livestream. No working product shown. Public development begins after the reveal.
Public r/WordPress thread: commenters predict ecosystem lock-in and that the architecture may not need WordPress.
community-sourced
Public r/WordPress commenter notes a "last chance" investment round was followed by Round 2 within six months.
"The WordPress Architecture Crisis" published: "All of this can be fixed without abandoning WordPress."
Cart reopens. Flex Pay LTD last call; pre-pay LTDs continue past v1 launch.
Year one: 2,657 commits, 40+ releases. "Pre-sale money … as an investment in our vision." v1 plan announced.
EtchWP still on 1.0.0-beta-10 — three weeks before the v1.0 release post.
v1.0 official release. "Welcome to Era 4." "What's Next" includes WooCommerce and "A Top Secret Exploratory Mission" that will "change the model again."
List poll on AI and web design. January still "traditional workflows"; Jan–Apr "AI everything" and "uncertainty levels are off the charts."
Founder tests vibe-coded side product alone; "Nobody on the Digital Gravy team can help me" — team stays on Etch.
Public API v1 teased. "Any model, any IDE" demo. "Etch static" (later renamed) teased as WordPress-light. LTD sunset teased on stream.
"Etch LTDs are disappearing in July."
Official: all LTD options removed from Etch + ACSS on July 15, 2026, 9pm ET. Same day: EtchWP 1.6.0 ships the Asset Manager.
EtchWP 1.6.2 — last substantial feature release (loop editing, taxonomy editing, nested asset collections).
LTDs end, 9pm ET.
EtchWP 1.6.3 — two fixes plus one feature flag.
EtchWP 1.6.4 — one new field type, one improvement, four fixes.
EtchWP 1.6.5 — three fixes, zero new features.
EtchWP 1.6.6 — three fixes. One day before the Studio reveal.
Studio revealed (alpha). Same UI. "Etch static" renamed. LTD does not include Studio. WordPress called "a dead platform."
EtchWP 1.6.7 — one API property, one improvement, three fixes. Still the latest release as of Sep 17.
community-sourced
Relationships demo: "Yes, it's coming to Etch Studio first … Etch Studio is a true relational database."
community-sourced
Community discussion of ≈$45–50/month for Etch + ACSS; member confirms LTD covers etchWP and ACSS as WordPress plugins only.
Go deeper