What is our primary use case?
I mainly use Vercel for React and Next.js projects. We've done all our web hosting for these projects on Vercel. It's a wonderful platform for hosting web applications built with Next.js and React-based frameworks.
I'm also trying to implement Angular projects on Vercel, but I've been facing some issues. For Angular, we're currently using Firebase to host web applications.
What is most valuable?
One of the great things about Vercel is that we don't need any particular script to deploy our applications. We connect our GitHub repository directly to Vercel. Then, if any push happens in GitHub, we have a script that determines which branch should be deployed to which domain. We can map this according to our requirements.
I like several features of Vercel. First, it's serverless. We've used different services before, such as AWS EC2 instances, Compute Engines, App Engine, and Cloud Run, as serverless. However, their web performance only reached eighty to eighty-five percent. With Vercel, we reached more than ninety percent performance in website and lazy loading.
The Vercel platform performs better and looks better. I also like how it handles loading GIF files and YouTube videos, which we used in one of our websites. We can do all our file binding and code building within the Vercel platform. We don't need to use different tools like S3 bucket or Cloudinary. We use the Vercel platform for binding, lazy loading, and other features. Everything happens inside the platform, which is very convenient.
The tool is very easy to use. It was harder to manage when we used Firebase, App Engine, and Cloud Run. Someone had to be available to handle build and deployment issues. We sometimes needed to change scripts or add credentials in Secret Manager or .env files, and we had to check logs to see what was wrong. The build time was a major advantage with Vercel. For NextGen and ReactGen projects, the build time is minimal. I compared it with App Engine and Cloud Run, and while they took about 15 minutes, Vercel only took 15-20 seconds. The build and deployment happened a fraction of the time, which was a significant benefit.
The platform is very easy to understand, and it's essentially plug-and-play. As a senior DevOps engineer, I've handled GCP and AWS, which require platform-specific knowledge. We've also used Firebase to host Angular projects and static pages, which need scripting for deployment, targeting sites, and ignoring caches like node modules.
With Vercel, none of that extra work is necessary. React, or Next.js developers develop based on the framework requirements, and it's plug-and-play with GitHub. You need to connect the domain. I learned to use it in-house in about two to three hours and could deploy it.
Another advantage is that we can get SSL certificates directly through Vercel. We don't need to purchase separate SSL certificates for HTTPS redirecting.
What needs improvement?
Due to RBI guidelines, we're facing issues with billing in India. Credit card payments often get declined even when we try to pay from the backend. Another problem is paying 20 dollars for each new project, even under one account. This seems odd since we already pay for one project with multiple hosts.
The tool should improve its support. The time zone difference causes delays in communication, which can significantly impact production websites and servers.
I'd rate the platform itself higher, but they still need improvements. They need to work on their billing system and create more understandable plans that clearly show costs based on bandwidth usage.
A major challenge we faced was an unexpectedly high bill of 25 lakhs for one month when we usually pay only one or two lakhs (100,000-200,000 rupees). While they showed the bandwidth usage, we lacked support on optimising or implementing changes to reduce costs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In the year we've been using Vercel, we haven't had any issues with stability or bugs. We've hosted multiple websites and a WhatsApp platform without problems. We configured the required settings for our major company projects and a public website, which handles data loads in terabytes daily, especially for GIF files.
The only issue we've faced is billing, which is due to RBI guidelines and not under Vercel's or our control. For stability, I'd rate it nine points five to ten out of ten, specifically for NextJS and ReactJS projects. I haven't deployed any Angular projects on Vercel yet, though they're in our pipeline.
We're developing code and improving frameworks based on the Vercel platform. Once that's done, I might deploy Angular projects too. For React, I'd say this is the best platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For scalability, I'd rate the tool an eight out of ten based on my experience and deployments. It's a serverless platform, so we haven't had any scalability issues. We can choose the configuration we need and improve bandwidth usage by selecting the appropriate plan. If we need additional bandwidth, we can reach out to the business head or their team to choose the right plan.
I'm giving it an eight because it depends on our main company's public-facing needs. We've never experienced any lagging issues, even when uploading multiple large files like GIFs, panels, and images. Some banners are around ten megabytes, but loading them doesn't take much time. I'd say we've achieved 90 plus percent in performance. We've never felt any performance issues, even with large file uploads and high bandwidth usage.
Our entire development team, especially the front-end developers, uses Vercel. We have around eight to ten front-end developers working with React and Angular. Access to it is necessary for deployment. The CI/CD implementation with Vercel is very easy. We must connect our GitHub to Vercel; CI/CD happens by default. We don't need to schedule webhooks; Vercel handles them on the backend. So, we have eight to ten front-end developers utilizing Vercel in our organization.
How are customer service and support?
I've never contacted Vercel's technical support team, only contacting them about billing issues.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's deployment is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
As a DevOps person who has to consider the commercial aspects, I find it odd that we must pay $20 per user for each new project under a pro account. That's not what I expected. Additionally, there are charges based on bandwidth usage. We incur additional charges if we go beyond 1 TB or 2 TB. However, we can choose plans based on our specific requirements. So, while the per-project pricing and bandwidth-based charges can add up, we have some flexibility in selecting plans that fit our needs.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.