COD says Goodbye

UPDATE: There is a new little chance compress-or-die.com will be back. Keep your bookmarks. Thanks for the massive support!

After 10 years of compress-or-die.com, it’s time for me to say goodbye. It’s been a great time—I’ve learned a lot technically, but I’ve also met some wonderful people.

compress-or-die.com was created back then to get the most out of graphics for small banners. At the time, I was still working at an advertising agency. And over time, it just kept growing and growing.

But some of you may have noticed that over the past two years, there have been hardly any changes, and there hasn’t been much from me to read—which was quite different back in the day.

But a lot has changed in my personal life: children, new and different hobbies, and health issues have shifted my focus in other directions. And so, I had less and less time and motivation left for this project that was once so close to my heart.

For this reason, this chapter is now coming to an end. I’d like to thank all of you for using COD and for providing such great feedback, which helped COD grow so much.

I’d especially like to thank the Patrons who have covered the server costs over the past few years. Thank you so much!

On July 25, 2026, COD was sent into its well-deserved retirement.

After thinking it through, I have decided not to sell or transfer the domain. compress-or-die.com has built up trust over many years, and there are still old links, search results, bookmarks, and possibly automated requests pointing to it.

Because the domain was associated with file uploads, I want to avoid any risk that future visitors might be misled, redirected to unsafe content, or encouraged to upload files to a service they still associate with the original project. This also includes risks such as malware, fake downloads, aggressive advertising, or a later resale to a less trustworthy party.

This is not about you personally. It is simply a user-safety decision, and I would rather keep control of the domain than risk misuse of its history and reputation. If I do end up transferring the domain, it will only be to people I trust.

If you still want to say something, please do it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CompressOrDie/

All the best to you all,
Christoph