When was Scratch made?
Quick answer
Scratch launched publicly in 2007, built by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT Media Lab. It's been free since day one. The version kids use today, Scratch 3.0 — came out in January 2019 and is the one that runs in any browser without plugins.
Version history
2007 — Scratch 1.0 launched. Desktop-only, downloadable software. MIT made it free and open to anyone.
2013 — Scratch 2.0 moved the editor into the browser (Flash-based) and added the online community where kids could share and remix each other's projects.
2019 — Scratch 3.0 rebuilt everything in HTML5, dropping the Flash dependency. This is the current version — it works on tablets, Chromebooks, and any modern browser, and added an offline editor alongside it.
Why the version matters for your kid
If your kid is using Scratch today, they're on 3.0. Any tutorials or YouTube guides made before 2019 show an older interface — the logic is the same, but the buttons look different. Stick to guides from 2019 onward to avoid confusion.
