# Vercel 139 Hacker News commenters recommended Vercel and 238 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1 years (5 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for dead-simple git-push deployments, branch previews and a free hobby tier, but critics warn of surprise bills, Next.js lock-in and a recent security breach. ## Why people recommend it - Easy git-based deployment (6 comments): "it's easier to just stick the thing in Vercel than having to deal with the complexity of Kubernetes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47549430)) "i was just refering to its dx and couldn't find any other better alternative for web deployments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46359559)) "Because you literally connect to a git repo and your site is deployed, and scales with load." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46968651)) - Free tier for hobby projects (5 comments): "Vercel has a big advantage, they are preferred partners from many SaaS vendors, and have hobby accounts without credit card requirements." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50100778)) "For a full Node.js runtime, Vercel's free tier is still a good option (if you don't need observability)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47552683)) "I appreciate them having these services to let us showcase our personal projects for free" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46647870)) - Strong developer experience and tooling (3 comments): "all others are worse than Vercel, in tooling, and supported languages for serverless on the backend" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47971212)) "i was just refering to its dx and couldn't find any other better alternative for web deployments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46359559)) "DX is simple, integrations between the two, and the stack is well understood by the LLM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48083898)) - Great for small companies (3 comments): "You can use vercel to get out from under this, but that only works for small companies' "I need a small website" needs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46055666)) "great for startups, orgs with minimal talent, and those with deep pockets for inevitable overruns" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46904514)) "For small companies things like vercel, supabase, firebase, ... wipe the floor with Amazon RDS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46337544)) ## What people warn about - Security breach and weak isolation (7 comments): "given their apparent lack of effective security boundaries in one area, why should we assume that they've got the deploy system adequately locked down?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47838992)) "Environment variables were stored on their end in plain text, unless they were specifically marked as sensitive, which was opt-in only." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47847734)) "Allowing untrusted code from your customers to be executed in a shared environment with no isolation is like, extremely amateurish." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322289)) - Opaque pricing and surprise bills (5 comments): "any PAYG product requires very explicit discipline to avoid getting smacked with a shady bill" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46545281)) "Vercel pricing is intentionally opaque and you are likely experience a massive bill, your site being taken offline, or both." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970812)) "They have all the minnows eating for free, and then once you pass a threshold, you're a whale with a whale–sized bill." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46969602)) - Next.js ecosystem lock-in (3 comments): "NextJS doesn't require Vercel, but it certainly does not work as well without them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47695933)) "Thanks to Vercel partnerships, many of those SaaS vendors only support Next.js as extension/integration technology on their SDKs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47333526)) "There is no serious reason to use Vercel, other than for those being locked into the NextJs ecosystem and demo projects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47824838)) - Eroding trust in company (4 comments): "Just makes it seem gross to use his stuff, which is a shame because it's a good product." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705937)) "But the Vercel brand has fallen so far that we're also moving away from any open source projects they have had any part in creating" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47706935)) "Vercel as a platform has been silently giving open source projects a "fuck you, pay me" when it comes to renewing benefits." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46961148)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [GitHub Pages](https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-pages.md): 86 recommend - [Cloudflare Pages](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-pages.md): 83 recommend - [Netlify](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netlify.md): 36 recommend - [Cloudflare Drop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-drop.md): 19 recommend - [Statichost.eu](https://hackerapproved.com/p/statichost-eu.md): 17 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://vercel.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Vercel", https://hackerapproved.com/p/vercel/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).