Typepad, a pioneering blogging service that launched alongside WordPress, has announced it will permanently shut down on September 30. The team stated they made the difficult decision to discontinue the platform. In its early years, Typepad was a major force, serving as the backend for several prominent publications and even launching a dedicated mobile app in 2008. Despite its strong start, it ultimately could not keep pace with the overwhelming popularity of WordPress.
The service had already stopped accepting new users in 2020 but continued to maintain support for its existing customer base. As recently as March of this year, a user who contacted the company was assured that Typepad was not going out of business and that support for current users would continue. This indicates that the final decision to close was a recent development.
After the September 30 shutdown date, users will permanently lose access to their account management settings, their blogs, and all associated content. The entire service will be deactivated. To prevent a total loss, users have until the deadline to export their content. Typepad provides a tool to download data in the Movable Type Import Format, which is compatible for uploading to a WordPress blog.
The company will stop charging subscription fees starting August 31. For any users who have made a recent payment, Typepad says it will attempt to issue a prorated refund to the original payment method. While its user base is now a small fraction of what it once was, the shutdown marks the end of an era for an early icon of the social web.
