Gatsby maintenance and migration

Maintain, upgrade or move offyour existing Gatsby site

Gatsby v5 still gets occasional releases, but the project is far quieter than it was, and we wouldn't start a new site on it today. If you already have one, it doesn't need an emergency rewrite. We help you keep it healthy and decide if and when to move.

Discuss your Gatsby siteSee Next.js development

Gatsby's real position, as of October 2026

We checked npm, GitHub and Gatsby's own documentation rather than repeating other people's opinions.

  • No end-of-life notice found

    Gatsby's support page still lists v5 as active long-term support, with no end date. We found no notice from Gatsby or Netlify ending it, so calling it dead overstates things.

  • But activity is low

    The latest release is 5.16.1 from 10 February 2026, after 5.16.0 in January and 5.15 in August 2025. Recent repository commits are small fixes, tests and docs. Version 5 dates from November 2022.

  • Gatsby Cloud has an end of service

    Netlify told Gatsby Cloud customers about an end of service, with dates based on their contracts, and offered migration to Netlify. It said the framework itself wasn't affected.

What we do for Gatsby sites

Four jobs, in the order we would normally consider them.

  • Getting the build working again

    Old Gatsby sites often fail on a new Node.js version or on an abandoned plugin. We restore a repeatable build before anything else.

  • Moving within Gatsby 5

    Taking older sites to 5.16 so they can run on supported Node.js and React versions, and replacing plugins that are no longer maintained.

  • Migrating to another framework

    Replacing GraphQL page queries and source plugins with direct data fetching, while keeping every URL and redirect as it is.

  • Leaving Gatsby Cloud behind

    Moving builds, previews and webhooks to another host, and testing that editors' content changes still trigger a rebuild.

Stay or move?

There is no single right answer, so here is how we would weigh it up.

  • Staying is reasonable when

    The site is mostly static, changes rarely, builds cleanly, and has few plugins. Its output is plain files, so the running site has little exposure. The risk sits in the build.

  • Moving makes sense when

    Plugins have been abandoned, builds keep breaking, new developers won't touch it, or you need features Gatsby's plugin ecosystem no longer supports.

  • Watch the Node.js limit

    Gatsby 5.16.1 declares support for Node.js 18 up to, but not including, 26. Your host's default Node.js version will eventually move past that, so test before it does.

  • Where to move to

    Next.js if the site needs server features or your team knows React. Astro for mostly content sites, where it stays close to Gatsby's static model. Your React components carry over more easily to Next.js.

How a move off Gatsby runs

Search visibility is the main thing at risk, so everything is built to protect it.

  1. Capture what exists

    We crawl every URL, title, canonical and redirect on the live site, and export its top pages from Search Console.

  2. Map data and plugins

    Each GraphQL query and plugin gets a planned replacement, including images, sitemaps and feeds.

  3. Rebuild and compare

    Pages are rebuilt on the new framework, and a script compares old and new URLs, titles and structured data before launch.

  4. Switch and monitor

    We switch hosting with redirects already in place, then watch Search Console and error logs for the following weeks.

How Gatsby work is priced

We quote after looking at the repository and its plugin list.

Making a build reliable again is a small, fixed job, and a migration can be priced per template once the audit is done. If you only need occasional help, work is charged from $20/h in USD, invoiced in USD, GBP, EUR or INR.

We are an engineering team in India with 3–5 hours of overlap with the UK and Europe; US calls by appointment. Your editors can check migrated pages against the live site as we go. The destination will probably be Next.js, but it depends on the site, and the application migrations page describes our general approach to moves.

Why this page lists no Gatsby sites

Most of our work is delivered under NDA, so many projects cannot be named.

We don't show a Gatsby portfolio for that reason, and we wouldn't use one to sell you a new Gatsby build anyway. Our honest advice for a new site is a different framework.

Questions about Gatsby

Almost all of them are about whether to keep it.

Is Gatsby dead?
Not officially. It still gets releases and small commits, and we found no end-of-life announcement. But development has slowed sharply, so plan on the basis that big new features are unlikely.
Should we start a new site on Gatsby?
We advise against it. Next.js and Astro both cover the same ground with more active development, and a new build shouldn't begin on a framework whose future is uncertain.
Do we have to migrate right now?
Usually not. If the site builds cleanly and rarely changes, you have time. Fix the build first, keep a list of what depends on what, and decide on a migration when it suits your budget.
Will migrating hurt our search rankings?
It can if URLs, titles or content change by accident. We keep the URLs the same and compare old and new pages before launch. Short-term movement can still happen, and we monitor for it.

Send us the repository, or just the URL

Tell us when it last built successfully and where it is hosted. We will say plainly whether it should stay or move.

Start a Gatsby conversationSee Next.js development

We reply within one business day (IST).