Netlify

netlify.comcontributed by Samuele Ongaro

KEEP IT

The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying.

Builds a site from a git push and serves it from an edge network, with a preview URL per branch, serverless functions, and domains and certificates handled for you.

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is
Do not build this — but check whether you need the paid tier at all, because most sites do not.

An edge network and a preview URL per branch is the product, and the free tier covers a great many sites entirely. What pushes people to pay is usually build minutes or bandwidth, and both are worth examining before anything else.

FIRST, THE BILL
- Bandwidth and build minutes are where the surprise lives. A large image nobody optimised, or a build running on every commit to every branch, is the usual cause
- Cache the build properly, skip builds for documentation-only changes, and resize your images. That often removes the reason to pay
- Serverless functions billed per invocation add up quietly; check whether a static file would do

WHEN TO KEEP PAYING
- Preview deployments per pull request, which are genuinely valuable and are the feature worth the money
- A team where somebody non-technical needs to see a branch

WHEN TO SELF-HOST
- One site, one deploy target. A VPS with Caddy serving static files costs a few euros, handles far more traffic than people expect, and has no build minutes at all

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
- Build in CI on every merge, copy the output to the server, switch a symlink, and reload. That is the whole deploy, and it is twenty lines
- Caddy for automatic TLS and the apex-to-www redirect, decided one way
- Cache headers: hashed assets immutable for a year, HTML short with stale-while-revalidate
- A preview per branch as a subdomain with a wildcard certificate, which is another twenty lines and covers the feature people miss most
- Put a delivery network in front if your audience is global. That is the one part you should rent

AND THE PART THAT IS NOT THE HOST
- A link checker in CI, so a dead link fails the build
- A size budget per page, so nobody quietly ships a four-megabyte hero image
- Both cost nothing and do more for a site than any hosting decision

THE ONE-LINE VERSION
Look at what pushed you past the free tier — usually images. Fix that first, and self-host only if you also want the previews.

What you lose

  • A global edge network with cache invalidation on every deploy
  • Deploy previews per pull request, each on its own URL
  • Atomic deploys and instant rollback to any previous build
  • Certificates, domains and DNS handled without a ticket
  • Build minutes on somebody else’s machines, including the queue when everyone deploys at once

If you would rather not build

  • Cloudflare Pages — free tier, closest edge alternative
  • Render — paid, similar ergonomics, single-region services

What it costs

read from their page 15 Aug 2026

PlanBilled monthlyBilled yearlyLast read
—$9/mo—15 Aug 2026

Their pricing page is where these came from. Seeing a different price? Tell us.

The escape hatch

open source · no votes, no paid placement

Coolify

$0

Builds from git and deploys to a server you own.

coollabsio/coolifyfree · open source

Dokku

$0

A small platform on one machine: push to deploy, with buildpacks.

dokku/dokkufree · open source

Why this verdict

our own opinion · changed only by a person

21/100

Verdict no at 21: the deploy mechanics are a weekend and the prompt makes them atomic, but a single VPS is not an edge network. Netlify is bought for the geography and the pull-request previews, and only the second of those is really portable.

History

tracked since 9 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten

Interest · last 30 dayspeak 2/day
views01230 Aug4 Sept9 Sept14 Sept19 Sept24 Sept28 Sept
— views— prompt copies none yet— votes none yet

Questions about Netlify

answered from the record above

Is Netlify free?

No — the plan we track is $9 a month. Personal at $9/month for one member; Pro is $20/month with unlimited members. Bandwidth, build minutes and function invocations are billed on top.

Can you replace Netlify by building your own?

KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 21 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.

How much does Netlify cost?

$9 a month on Pro — $108 a year. Recorded 14 Aug 2026.

What do you lose by replacing Netlify?

A global edge network with cache invalidation on every deploy; Deploy previews per pull request, each on its own URL; Atomic deploys and instant rollback to any previous build; Certificates, domains and DNS handled without a ticket; Build minutes on somebody else’s machines, including the queue when everyone deploys at once. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Netlify?

Yes: Coolify, Dokku. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.

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