Glaze by Raycast
Ranked 8 of 14 AI app builders by recommenders
Lets people turn prompts into working apps quickly and publish them to app stores; critics warn of lock-in and thin wrapping over other AI APIs.
Lets people turn prompts into working apps quickly and publish them to app stores; critics warn of lock-in and thin wrapping over other AI APIs.
45 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 29
- approval share
- 36%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fun and interesting to use
“The only real interesting thing I’ve seen so far was Glaze from a couple days ago”
Comment from 7 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Anyone else feel this community has changed recently?” “This looks super fun, actually.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “Honestly Glaze is brilliant.”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” Quick app store publishing
“that’s super convenient given the cumbersome (and maybe, horrific) process that is the app store submission”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “The quick publishing is kind of nice”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” Working, stable apps quickly
“You get a working app one-shotted pretty much all the time.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “the devs built something incredibly sleek and stable”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Security risks from generated code
“I don't see how this solves the issue, something bad can happen regardless of permission granularity, no?”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “irresponsible to allow laypeople to potentially inject dangerous code into literal black box programs”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “I can't imagine trusting these apps with access to my camera, file system or any other sensitive permissions.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” Proprietary lock-in risks
“There is zero possibility anyone i know will tolerate a locked ecosystems like this any longer than absolutely needed.”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “why would i ever use a proprietary solution that’s opinionated and likely eventually costs”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “I don't understand what benefit Glaze will bring outside of more lock-in?”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” Thin wrapper over other APIs
“is it literally just a pure play branding/packaging exercise over the openai/anthropic API to trick normies?”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “Using just claude code, one can do what glazeapp seems to aim for, no?”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” Built on JavaScript, not native
“It will be awesome if these were native apps instead of JavaScript apps.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast” “They are using react native and I am willing to bet that this does too.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast”
Other AI app builders people recommend
The four most recommended other AI app builders, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lovable | 73 | 77 | 49% | 11 | — | — |
| Replit | 51 | 39 | 57% | 11 | 9 mo3 owners | — |
| Squarespace | 23 | 23 | 50% | 11 | — | — |
| Bolt.new | 20 | 14 | 59% | 9 | — | — |
| Glaze by RaycastThis page | 16 | 29 | 36% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 47 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Take a look at gpgui and glaze leading on this.”
“I was under the impression that those have largely failed to achieve their goals”
“The only real interesting thing I’ve seen so far was Glaze from a couple days ago”
“There is zero possibility anyone i know will tolerate a locked ecosystems like this any longer than absolutely needed.”
“But I don't get this focus on "Making Apps"”
“I do like most of it, but the pace of upgrades is a bit too fast for me”
“Honestly Glaze is brilliant.”
“I don't know if Glaze truly hides the code, but I don't see any mention of it in the trailer video”
“presenting it as a different product altogether that dilutes the main offering”
“is it literally just a pure play branding/packaging exercise over the openai/anthropic API to trick normies?”
“I don't understand what benefit Glaze will bring outside of more lock-in?”
“why would i ever use a proprietary solution that’s opinionated and likely eventually costs”
“the devs built something incredibly sleek and stable”
“irresponsible to allow laypeople to potentially inject dangerous code into literal black box programs”
“No thanks. As an interesting counter-proposal to wasting time with this”
“You get a working app one-shotted pretty much all the time.”
“I don't see how this solves the issue, something bad can happen regardless of permission granularity, no?”
“Is this just shitting out electron crap?”
“I can't imagine trusting these apps with access to my camera, file system or any other sensitive permissions.”
“Tools like this close the gap, and that's awesome.”
“locked down and non web platform with horrific security”
“This is just a landing page. There's not even any decent product specs.”
“They are using react native and I am willing to bet that this does too.”
“that’s super convenient given the cumbersome (and maybe, horrific) process that is the app store submission”
“don’t really see a big advantage here”
“It will be awesome if these were native apps instead of JavaScript apps.”
“they'd be better off sticking to web apps instead”
“The quick publishing is kind of nice”
“they did it again, glad I am on Mac, congrats raycast”
“Using just claude code, one can do what glazeapp seems to aim for, no?”
“This looks super fun, actually.”
“This similar thing was posted a few weeks ago, and also apparently two years ago, glaze also from uchicago”
“Even if it doesn't work, it's important to try.”
“Are they still pushing the "security through obscurity"?”
“It's snake oil, and it'd be snake oil even if it worked.”
“it tends to introduce the kind of artifacts that can exist in AI-generated pics”
“that's why it's so ineffective to large, better trained model”
“questioning glaze gets you labelled as an enemy”
“Unfortunately, Glaze does not seem to work.”
“Snake oil. Even if it worked in a way that wouldn't be bypassed quickly, it was too late”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.