{"slug": "ask-hn-why-are-websites-and-apps-still-running-legacy-code", "title": "Ask HN: Why are websites and apps still running legacy code?", "summary": "A Hacker News user asks why businesses continue running legacy code despite AI making re-implementation easier, citing Fandango's 15+ year-old ticketing site as buggy and costly. The user argues that rebuilding would recoup costs in months, but acknowledges the complexity of software dependencies.", "body_md": "Now that apps can easily be re-implemented with AI, what is keeping businesses from rebuilding them ? I tried buying tickets with Fandango, and their site is 15+ years old. The ticketing and checkout experience is buggy & leaking tons of money .\n\nI understand Fandango the businesses has many software dependencies & surfaces: web app, mobile, some data feeds, APIs -- lots of custom spaghetti code. I'm not trivializing their business.\n\nStill, the cost to rebuild and deploy is much lower than what they are losing. The rebuild cost would recoup in a couple months.\n\nWhat's keeping businesses from rebuilding & fixing their apps?\n\nComments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248463](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248463)\n\nPoints: 1\n\n# Comments: 4", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-why-are-websites-and-apps-still-running-legacy-code", "canonical_source": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248463", "published_at": "2026-08-10 19:24:18+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-10 19:41:53.810561+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Fandango", "Hacker News"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-why-are-websites-and-apps-still-running-legacy-code", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-why-are-websites-and-apps-still-running-legacy-code.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-why-are-websites-and-apps-still-running-legacy-code.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-why-are-websites-and-apps-still-running-legacy-code.jsonld"}}