---
title: Hoptoad is Now Airbrake
teaser: We've renamed Hoptoad, it's now called Airbrake.
tags: news,airbrake
author: Harold Giménez
published_on: 2011-07-15
---

We are changing the name of our “Hoptoad” product to be called “Airbrake”.
Another company has a trademark in the computer software realm over all things
related to frogs and toads and little animals of that ilk.  We talked to our
lawyers, and decided that it’s best to go along with the request and change the
name.

## Times of transition

Looking on the bright side, we’re excited about this transition. This is a great
opportunity to take a look at the product as a whole. First off, as you may have
already noticed, we’ve put together the new [Airbrake](http://airbrakeapp.com)
site. This is the new feel of Airbrake: simple, elegant, but rugged. This is
just the beginning though. We will be working to improve the overall look of the
app, as well as continue to focus on the performance, reliability and features
of the service.

If you are a user of the official `hoptoad_notifier`, nothing has changed yet.
You can continue to use that notifier, but soon that gem will be replaced by an
`airbrake_notifier` gem. The `hoptoad_notifier` gem will simply depend on the
new airbrake gem, and in order to get upgrades to the gem you should be changing
your references over by specifying the new gem on the Gemfile. We’ll post more
on that in a separate post, so stay tuned for the details.

If you are the author of any of our [third party addons and
extras](http://help.airbrakeapp.com/kb/api-2/alternate-plugins-widgets-addons-and-extras
"third party plugins"), this is the time to change references from
[http://hoptoadapp.com](http://hoptoadapp.com) over to
[http://airbrakeapp.com](http://airbrakeapp.com). You might as well change the
project name while you’re at it. By September, we won’t be able to use the
Hoptoad name any longer, so make sure you are all up to date before then.

We are making sure that the transition goes as smoothly as possible for all of
our users. You should have plenty of time to update your gems/plugins/libraries
in your projects. However, at some point in September we will also have to give
up the domain name. So the safest bet for you is to update your bookmarks now
and start POSTing errors to the new domain.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our users for your continued
support.  Airbrake has already caught over a billion exceptions, and we look
forward to helping developers everywhere catch and solve the next billion errors
in their apps.

## What’s an airbrake, anyways

Just like in the early days with trains, during an emergency, stopping it was a
huge deal. There would have to be one operator standing by on each cart that
would pull a lever when signaled by a directing engineer. As archaic as that
sounds, this is equivalent to tailing logs or flooding your inbox. There’s a
better way.  Trains and trucks today use a more efficient mechanism called
airbrakes so that they don’t have to rely solely on the hydraulic fluid which
may run out, usually when you need it most. Air is everywhere. With an airbrake,
air pressure is released which in turn forces the brakes into the applied
position, preventing havoc.

Happy debugging!

FYI: _Hoptoad/Airbrake was sold to RackSpace and is now called [Airbrake Bug Tracker](http://airbrake.io)_.