Vercel

KEEP IT

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

Deploys a frontend from a git push and serves it from an edge network. It builds the site, gives every branch a preview URL, runs serverless and edge functions, and handles the domains, certificates and caching underneath.

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is

Set me up to self-host a Node application on one VPS, with the deploy ergonomics I would miss.

STACK
- Caddy as the reverse proxy with automatic TLS
- systemd for process supervision, and a deploy script over SSH
- No Kubernetes, no container orchestration

THE PROCESS
- A systemd unit running the app as an unprivileged user, with restart-on-failure, resource limits and journald logging

THE PROXY
- A Caddyfile terminating TLS, forcing HTTPS and setting sensible security headers
- Static build directory served directly with long cache lifetimes, everything else proxied

DEPLOY
- Build a release into a timestamped directory, run migrations, flip a current symlink atomically, reload
- Keep the last five releases, so a rollback is one symlink flip and a restart
- A health endpoint the deploy waits on before flipping, rolling back automatically if it does not come up

HARDENING
- Unattended security upgrades, a firewall allowing only 22, 80 and 443, fail2ban on SSH

BACKUP
- A nightly cron using SQLite's VACUUM INTO, gzipped and uploaded off the server to S3-compatible storage
- A restore script, and the exact commands to verify a backup actually restores

Include a README documenting the first-boot sequence end to end.

What you lose

A global edge network you would otherwise have to rent and operate yourself
A preview deployment for every branch, with its own URL, which is a review workflow as much as a hosting feature
Instant rollback to any previous deployment, atomically, without a build
DDoS absorption and TLS certificate management at the edge
Somebody else's on-call rota — the actual thing a hosting platform sells

If you would rather not build

Render — paid, single-region services with managed databases

The escape hatch

open source · no votes, no paid placement

Coolify

Builds from git and deploys to a server you own.

coollabsio/coolifyfree · open source

Dokku

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

dokku/dokkufree · open source

Kamal

Deploys containers to servers you own, with zero-downtime rollovers.

basecamp/kamalfree · open source

Why this verdict

our own opinion · changed only by a person

15/100

Verdict no at 15 — the lowest in this set. You are not paying for software you could write; you are paying for an edge network, build infrastructure and an on-call team. The prompt therefore buys back the deployment ergonomics on one box rather than pretending to rebuild the platform.

History

tracked since 6 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten

Interest · last 30 days

Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.

Questions about Vercel

answered from the record above

Is Vercel free?

No — the plan we track is $20 a month. Pro, $20 per user per month, which includes $20 of usage credit; bandwidth, function invocations and build minutes are billed on top.

Can you replace Vercel by building your own?

KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 15 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.

How much does Vercel cost?

$20 a month on Pro — $240 a year. Recorded 6 Aug 2026.

What do you lose by replacing Vercel?

A global edge network you would otherwise have to rent and operate yourself; A preview deployment for every branch, with its own URL, which is a review workflow as much as a hosting feature; Instant rollback to any previous deployment, atomically, without a build; DDoS absorption and TLS certificate management at the edge; Somebody else's on-call rota — the actual thing a hosting platform sells. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Vercel?

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

Related entries

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All 18 in Hosting & databases

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