AI & TechnologyBuilder.ai Shut Down: What to Do With the App It Built for You

Builder.ai said in May 2025 that it was entering insolvency proceedings. If it built your app, don't count on anyone there to help you keep it running. The parts you can save are the ones you hold yourself: the code, the store listings, the domain and the cloud accounts. Secure those first, then decide whether a developer should take over the existing code or rebuild the parts you need.

If you landed here from an old builder.ai link or news story, this is a practical checklist. Dates and facts come from TechCrunch, The Register and Mealey's, as listed in the sources. I checked the Builder.ai addresses myself on October 18, 2026. This isn't legal advice: for questions about your contract or money owed, talk to the administrator or trustee and a lawyer.

Disclosure: App369 is my studio. I take over and rebuild apps for a living, so the last section mentions what I sell. I have no connection to Builder.ai, its administrator or any company named here.

What happened to Builder.ai, and when

Before the collapse, Builder.ai had raised more than $450 million, with Microsoft among its backers, according to TechCrunch. In the US, Chapter 7 is generally liquidation: a trustee sells what the company owns to pay its creditors, rather than reorganizing it to keep going. The administrator and the US trustee are separate processes, and this page doesn't say which one holds your project.

What the old addresses do today

Checked on October 18, 2026:

• builder.ai redirects to www.builder.ai, which did not load in my test: the connection timed out.
• studio.builder.ai, the customer dashboard, returned a 502 error.

So if you are reading an old article that tells you to log in to Builder Studio to download your code or manage your app, that route is gone.

What to do if Builder.ai built your app

Work through these in order. The first four protect what you have; the rest decide what comes next.

1. Find every copy of the code. Check your email for exports, zip files or repository invitations from Builder.ai, and ask anyone who worked on the project whether they kept a copy. If you were given access to a GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket repository, clone it now, even if you don't plan to use it.
2. Check who holds the store listings. In App Store Connect and the Google Play Console, find which developer account your app is listed under. If it is your own account, you are in a good position. If it is someone else's, ask that account holder to transfer it to you: Apple and Google both have a transfer process that the current holder starts.
3. Take control of the domain and the hosting. Look up who the domain is registered to and where its DNS points. Then find where the app's backend and database actually run. If it all ran on Builder.ai's own cloud accounts, it can be switched off at any time, so a copy of the data matters more than anything else on this list.
4. Lock down the accounts you do hold. Change the passwords, review who has access, and turn on two-factor sign-in for the store accounts, the domain registrar, the cloud provider, payment processors such as Stripe, and email or SMS services. Remove anyone who no longer works on the app, replace any API key that Builder.ai staff could see, and rotate any secrets stored in the old backend.
5. Read your contract. Look for the clauses on intellectual property, source code delivery and termination. They are the starting point for what you can claim as yours, and a lawyer can tell you how they apply.
6. Write to the administrator or trustee. Ask, in writing, what code, data and accounts relating to your project they hold, and how to get them. If you paid for work that was never delivered, ask how to file a claim as a creditor. For anything that matters financially, get advice from a lawyer.
7. Decide: take over or rebuild. See below.

Take over the code, or rebuild?

Whichever way you go, set it up so the next shutdown can't do this to you again: the code in a repository you own, the store listings in your developer accounts, the domain registered to you, the hosting billed to your card, and a written handover of how it all fits together.

For more on choosing between building approaches, see No-code vs low-code vs custom development.

Need a hand?

If you have the code and one part has stopped working, such as a login, a payment flow or a build that fails, the App Fix Ticket is a fixed-price way to find and fix it. If there's nothing to take over, the Web App MVP Sprint rebuilds a first working version in about four weeks, deployed to your own accounts. Either way, everything ends up in accounts you own. If you're not sure which fits, send me a short description of what you have, and I'll say which I'd start with.