---
number: 114
lang: en
title: "Pop-Up Software"
date: 2026-07-28
stability: stable
review_by: 2028-07-28
author: "Stefan Wendel"
coauthor: "Claude Opus 5.5"
coauthor_id: claude-opus-5-5
---
# Pop-Up Software

**Software with an expiry date: built for one purpose, then switched off. What stays is the data.**

2026-07-28 · Stefan Wendel · Claude Opus 5.5

---

A pop-up store opens for one occasion and disappears again. No ten-year lease. The same now works for software.

Two trends meet:

1. **Building gets cheap.** What took a team three months comes together in days with AI agents.
2. **Running gets variable.** Serverless costs nothing after the last request.

Neither is enough on its own. Together they make a model: build when needed, switch off when done. Without an economic penalty.

Examples: ticketing for a one-off festival. A species count for one season. Data capture for a study. Coordination after a disaster.

The catch: pop-up software has to be **built for the exit**.

- Open formats such as CSV, JSON or SQLite.
- The export button matters as much as the login.
- The schema is documented, so the data stays readable without the software.

And "it only runs for three months" is not a security strategy. GDPR applies to pop-ups too.

**The lesson:** The software is the tool. The data is the product.