Vercel

Limited
Unlike other Cloud Hosting platforms, Vercel is made for frontend-focused, serverless, and edge-first projects.
Vercel is a managed cloud hosting platform focused on

• Jamstack apps
• Serverless functions
• Static sites
• Edge functions
• SSR frameworks (Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, etc.)

Technical Pros & Cons (Hobby Plan)
Feature
Pros
Cons
Cost
100% Free forever for personal projects.
Commercial Use Prohibited.
You cannot host a site that makes money (ads, affiliate links, e-commerce).
Ease of Use
Zero Config.
Connect to GitHub, and it deploys automatically.
No Control.
You cannot tweak the underlying server settings or install custom software packages.
Speed (CDN)
Insanely Fast.
Your site is copied to servers worldwide (Edge Network) automatically.
Bandwidth Limit.
Capped at 100 GB/month.
Great for text/images, bad for video hosting.
Backend Code
Serverless Functions.
Run backend code (Node.js/Python) without managing a server.
Strict Timeouts.
Functions time out after 10–60 seconds.
Heavy tasks (like video processing) will fail.
Database
Easy integration with external databases (Supabase, MongoDB Atlas).
No Built-in Database.
You cannot host a database on Vercel; you must connect to an outside one.
Storage
Great for hosting static files (HTML, CSS, JS, Images).
No Persistent Storage.
You cannot save user uploads (like profile pics) directly to the server folder; they will vanish.
Real World Examples (Can I host this or that?)
Project Type
Fit?
Why?
Personal Portfolio / Resume
✔️ Perfect
Static content, fast loading, free SSL, zero maintenance.
Student Project / Hackathon
✔️ Perfect
Free, sets up in seconds, handles unpredictable traffic spikes well.
Small Business Website
❌ Bad Fit
Violates Terms.
Hosting a site for a business (even a flower shop) requires the Pro plan ($20/mo).
Minecraft / Game Server
❌ Impossible
Vercel does not support long-running processes or UDP ports needed for games.
Video Streaming Site
❌ Bad Fit
You will hit the 100 GB bandwidth limit immediately.
Vercel is not for heavy media.
Web Scraper / Bot
⚠️ Risky
If the scrape takes longer than 10-60 seconds, the server cuts it off.
E-commerce Store
⚠️ Complex
Technically works, but violates the "Commercial Use" rule if you are making profit.
Vercel offers a “Hobby” plan which is free forever for individual, personal or non-commercial use.
Under this plan, users get access to the platform’s core capabilities — including automatic CI/CD from a Git repo, global CDN, SSL, instant previews, and other fundamental deployment infrastructure.
The usage limits for the free Hobby plan are: up to 4 CPU-hours of active compute per month, 360 GB-hrs of provisioned memory per month, 1,000,000 function invocations per month, and other quotas.
It is important to note that while the Hobby plan is free, it is for personal/non-commercial use only.
The documentation states that exceeding usage limits may require waiting until the next month for reset.
Key Benefits

• Free forever for personal web projects.
• Automatic global CDN, SSL & deployment from Git.
• Edge functions, image optimisation, analytics included within limits.
• No credit card payment or billing required for the Hobby plan.
• Ideal for students/learners or individual developers building side projects.

• No credit card required
• Must be used for personal or non-commercial projects.
• Attach a Git-repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) for deployment.
• Use within the defined resource limits each month.

Terms & Conditions ↗ (vercel.com)

Provider terms: vercel.com