Vercel Alternatives in 2026

Vercel is great until the bill arrives. Here's every viable alternative — from other PaaS platforms to self-hosting on your own VPS.

Why Leave Vercel?

• Bandwidth costs — $40/100GB overage adds up fast
• Function limits — 10s execution on Pro, cold starts
• Vendor lock-in — Vercel-specific features
• Pricing complexity — Hard to predict costs
• Team costs — $20/member/month adds up

Quick Comparison

Platform	Free Tier	Paid From	Best For
Cloudflare Pages	Unlimited sites	Free	Static + Functions
Netlify	100GB/mo	$19/mo	JAMstack
Railway	$5 credit	$5/mo	Full-stack
Render	Static free	$7/mo	Simple apps
Self-hosted	VPS cost	$5/mo	Full control

Platform Alternatives

1. Cloudflare Pages (Best Free)

Cloudflare's deployment platform is surprisingly good:

Free Tier:

• Unlimited sites
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited requests
• 500 builds/month

Pricing:

• Free tier is actually free
• Pro: $20/mo for more builds

Pros:

• Truly unlimited bandwidth
• Edge network (fast everywhere)
• Workers for serverless
• Easy GitHub/GitLab integration

Cons:

• Workers have different API than Vercel Functions
• No native Next.js support (but adapters exist)

Migration:

# Install Wrangler
npm install -g wrangler

# Deploy
wrangler pages deploy ./dist

2. Netlify

The original JAMstack platform:

Free Tier:

• 100GB bandwidth
• 300 build minutes
• 1 concurrent build

Pricing:

• Free: Personal projects
• Pro: $19/mo (more bandwidth, builds)
• Business: $99/mo

Pros:

• Mature platform
• Great forms/identity features
• Netlify Functions
• Split testing built-in

Cons:

• Bandwidth limits on free tier
• Gets expensive with scale

Migration:

# Install Netlify CLI
npm install -g netlify-cli

# Deploy
netlify deploy --prod

3. Railway

Modern PaaS for any stack:

Free Tier:

• $5 credit/month
• Enough for small apps

Pricing:

• Usage-based after credit
• ~$5-15/mo for typical apps

Pros:

• Run anything (not just static)
• Databases included
• Great DX
• Private networking

Cons:

• No truly free tier
• Can be pricey at scale

4. Render

Simple cloud platform:

Free Tier:

• Static sites free
• No free compute

Pricing:

• Static: Free
• Services: From $7/mo

Pros:

• Clean interface
• Auto-scaling
• Built-in PostgreSQL

Cons:

• No free serverless
• Limited free tier

5. Fly.io

Edge deployment platform:

Free Tier:

• 3 shared VMs
• 160GB bandwidth

Pros:

• Global edge deployment
• Docker-based (run anything)
• Generous free tier

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve
• Complex pricing

Self-Hosted Alternatives

Option A: VPS + Docker

Full control, lowest cost:

# On any VPS
docker run -d -p 80:80 \
  -v ./app:/usr/share/nginx/html \
  nginx:alpine

Cost: $4.99-10/mo

Pros:

• Complete control
• No vendor lock-in
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Run anything

Cons:

• You manage everything
• No auto-scaling

Option B: Coolify

Self-hosted Vercel experience:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

Features:

• Git push deploys
• Automatic SSL
• Preview deployments
• Database management

Cost: VPS only (~$5/mo)

Option C: Dokploy

Another self-hosted PaaS:

curl -sSL https://dokploy.com/install.sh | sh

Similar to Coolify with cleaner UI.

Option D: CapRover

Docker-based PaaS:

docker run -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -p 3000:3000 \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  caprover/caprover

Next.js Specific Options

Next.js works beyond Vercel:

Next.js on Cloudflare

Using @cloudflare/next-on-pages:

npm install @cloudflare/next-on-pages

# next.config.js
module.exports = {
  output: 'export' // or use adapter
}

Next.js on Netlify

Netlify has native Next.js support:

# netlify.toml
[build]
  command = "npm run build"
  publish = ".next"

[[plugins]]
  package = "@netlify/plugin-nextjs"

Next.js Self-Hosted

# Build
npm run build

# Run with PM2
pm2 start npm --name "next" -- start

Or use Docker:

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN npm install && npm run build
CMD ["npm", "start"]

Cost Comparison

Running a Next.js app with 500GB bandwidth/month:

Platform	Monthly Cost
Vercel Pro	$20 + $160 bandwidth = $180
Cloudflare Pages	$0
Netlify Pro	$19 + overage
Railway	~$15
Hetzner VPS	€5.39

Self-hosting wins on cost at scale.

Migration Guide

From Vercel to Cloudflare Pages

1. Remove Vercel-specific features:

   • @vercel/analytics → Cloudflare Analytics
   • @vercel/og → Alternative OG generators
   • Edge functions → Cloudflare Workers

2. Update next.config.js:

module.exports = {
  output: 'standalone'
}

3. Deploy:

npm install @cloudflare/next-on-pages
npx @cloudflare/next-on-pages
wrangler pages deploy .vercel/output/static

From Vercel to Self-Hosted

1. Set up VPS with Docker:

apt update && apt install docker.io

2. Create Dockerfile:

FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:20-alpine AS runner
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /app/.next/standalone ./
COPY --from=builder /app/.next/static ./.next/static
COPY --from=builder /app/public ./public
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

3. Deploy:

docker build -t myapp .
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 myapp

4. Add Caddy for SSL:

yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

Feature Comparison

Feature	Vercel	Cloudflare	Self-Hosted
Auto SSL	✅	✅	✅ (Caddy)
Edge Functions	✅	✅	❌
Preview Deploys	✅	✅	✅ (Coolify)
Analytics	✅	✅	Self-hosted
Image Optimization	✅	✅	✅ (sharp)
ISR	✅	Partial	✅
Cron Jobs	✅	❌	✅

When to Stay on Vercel

✅ Team already knows Vercel well ✅ Need preview deployments per PR ✅ Using Vercel-specific features heavily ✅ Small scale (free tier covers you) ✅ Time is more valuable than hosting cost

When to Leave Vercel

✅ Bandwidth costs exceeding $50/mo ✅ Need more control over infrastructure ✅ Team costs adding up ($20/member) ✅ Want to avoid vendor lock-in ✅ Running non-Next.js workloads too

Best VPS for Self-Hosting

Provider	Plan	Price	Notes
Hetzner	CX21	€5.39/mo	Best value
Hostinger	KVM1	$4.99/mo	4GB RAM
Vultr	VC2	$12/mo	Many regions

FAQ

Does Next.js only work on Vercel?

No! Next.js is open source. It runs anywhere Node.js runs.

Will I lose features leaving Vercel?

Some Vercel-specific features need alternatives. Core Next.js works everywhere.

Is self-hosting harder?

Initial setup takes an hour. After that, it's mostly automated.

What about edge functions?

Cloudflare Workers replaces them. Or use traditional serverless.

Can I still use preview deployments?

Coolify and Dokploy support preview deploys from PRs.

Recommendation

For most projects: Cloudflare Pages.

Free, fast, and handles most Next.js features. When you need more control or have other workloads, move to Hetzner + Coolify for €5/month.

Need	Choose
Free + easy	Cloudflare Pages
JAMstack features	Netlify
Full control	VPS + Coolify
Best value	Hetzner CX21

Stop paying Vercel tax. A $5 VPS does more than $180/month in Vercel bills.