Vercel, on a server you rent.
Push to GitHub, get a deploy. Open a pull request, get a preview URL. Run it on your own server, with Postgres and workers next to the app, and no per-seat fee, for the price of the box.
Same app, two bills.
A Next.js app on Vercel Pro costs $40 a month at 100 GB of traffic, $120 at 1 TB and $332 at 5 TB, with one seat and the default Flat Rate CDN. The same app on a rented server costs $16 at 100 GB and 1 TB, and $20 at 5 TB, including $9 for custom domains on Ployz Cloud. On Vercel, CDN requests decide the bill, and every JavaScript chunk, font and image counts. On a server, the bill doesn't track traffic. The full breakdown is in Vercel pricing, worked out.
- Data transfer
- 1.0 TB
- CDN requests
- 20.0M
- Vercel Pro, Flat Rate CDN$120/mo
$20 per seat, the CDN tier picked by requests, usage past the $20 credit. Past 150M requests Vercel bills on-demand. iad1 rates.
- Your own server + Ployz$16/mo
Hetzner CX23 ($6.49) or CX33 ($9.99) for heavy apps, about $0.60 IPv4, $9 for Ployz custom domains. Any number of seats. 20 TB of traffic included.
Server prices are Hetzner's in Europe. In the US, a DigitalOcean Droplet or Netcup's Manassas datacenter is the cheap option; see Hetzner vs DigitalOcean.
What replaces what.
Most of what you use on Vercel is Next.js itself, and it works under next start on any server. The rest maps to Ployz, or to something you add.
| What you need | Vercel | Ployz on your server |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy on push | GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket integration | Connect GitHub; every push builds on your server or in your own GitHub Actions. No Dockerfile needed, or bring your own |
| Preview deployments | A URL per branch or pull request; password protection is $20 a month per project | A preview environment for every pull request, with its own HTTPS address, on your servers. Unlimited and free |
| Functions and SSR | Billed on Active CPU, memory and invocations; up to 800 s on Pro | `next start` as a long-running service. No per-request billing, no timeout |
| ISR | Built in; caches update across regions on revalidation | Built into Next.js. One instance: nothing to do. Several replicas: a shared cache handler in Redis |
| Image optimization | $0.05 per 1,000 transformations on Pro | Built into `next start` with `sharp` |
| Middleware | Runs at the edge | `proxy.ts` (Middleware's new name in Next.js 16) runs on Node.js on your server |
| Cron jobs | `crons` in vercel.json | Not in Ployz. Your cron routes are ordinary GET endpoints; call them from a crontab or GitHub Actions |
| Global CDN | 126 points of presence, Flat Rate CDN from $0 to $300 | Served from your server's city. Put Cloudflare in front if you need an edge |
| Postgres, Redis, workers | Marketplace partners (Neon, Upstash) billed separately; no long-running workers | One-click Postgres and Redis and any worker on the same server. Plain services with a volume, not managed |
| Seats | $20 per deploying seat | No seat fees. Ployz is built for one person today, with no team invites yet |
| Price | Seats, CDN tier and usage | Your server, plus $9 a month for custom domains. Free on your own servers |
The checklist for every Vercel feature, including Blob, analytics and DNS, is in how to move a Next.js app off Vercel.
What you give up.
Vercel does real work for that bill. Off Vercel, these are yours:
- The global edge. Vercel serves from 126 points of presence. Your server serves from one city, so visitors far away get slower first loads. Cloudflare in front of the server caches static assets close to them.
- Vercel-specific features. Edge runtime routes, Blob, Web Analytics, Speed Insights and ISR caches that update across regions in 300 ms don't come with you. Next.js covers the rest.
- Scheduled jobs. Ployz has no built-in cron. A crontab that calls your routes with a secret header does the same job.
- Backups. Ployz doesn't back up the databases it runs. Keep Neon if you like it, or schedule your own
pg_dump; the Postgres hosting guide has the script. - Autoscaling and failover. A launch that brings 50x traffic hits the server's ceiling. Ployz runs up to 50 replicas across servers you add, but doesn't autoscale.
- OS updates. The server's operating system is yours to keep patched.
- Team roles and GitLab. Ployz is built for one operator today, and deploys from GitHub or any Docker image only.
If your traffic is global and mostly cached, or you never want to think about a server, Vercel is a fair price. The best Vercel alternatives prices the same app on six platforms, Cloudflare included.
Moving is a short checklist.
Deploy the app to a temporary address, copy your environment variables, switch DNS, and keep the Vercel project live for a week so going back is one DNS change. Move the database last, if at all: a hosted Postgres works fine from a server.
$ curl -fsSL https://ployz.sh | sh
Installs the ployz CLI on macOS or Linux.
$ ployz login
Signs in to Ployz Cloud in your browser.
$ ployz up --server root@your-server
Installs Ployz on the server, builds this directory and gives it an HTTPS address.
Then connect the GitHub repository and turn on preview environments, and pull production variables with vercel env pull. NEXT_PUBLIC_ variables are baked in at build time, so set them before the first build. The quick start shows the same first deploy from the dashboard.
Questions
Can I self-host Vercel?
Not Vercel itself; it isn't open source. What you can self-host is Next.js, which runs under next start with ISR, image optimization and Proxy, plus a tool that gives you push deploys and preview URLs. Ployz, Coolify and Dokploy all do that on your own server.
Is there an open source Vercel alternative?
Yes. The Ployz CLI and server software are Apache-2.0, and the dashboard is AGPL-3.0. Coolify and Dokploy are open source too. All three are free on your own servers.
Can I get Vercel preview deployments on my own server?
Yes. Ployz creates a preview environment for every pull request, with its own HTTPS address, on your servers. They're unlimited and free, and the preview's settings ship with the merge.
Is Vercel just AWS?
Partly. Vercel's 19 compute regions carry AWS region names (iad1 is us-east-1), and Vercel Blob is built on S3. On top it adds its own CDN with 126 points of presence, the build system and the framework work. You pay for that packaging.
Can you host on Vercel for free?
Only personal, non-commercial projects. Hobby includes 100 GB of transfer and 1M CDN requests a month, and pauses the feature when you go over. Once a project earns money, Pro is $20 a month per deploying seat.
How much does Vercel hosting cost?
For a Next.js app on Pro with one seat: about $40 a month at 100 GB of traffic, $120 at 1 TB and $332 at 5 TB. Each extra deploying seat adds $20.
What's the difference between a preview and a production deployment?
Production is your main branch on your real domain. A preview is a separate copy built from a branch or pull request, on its own URL, so you can check a change before it merges. Ployz works the same way.
Does it work with GitLab?
Not yet. Ployz deploys from GitHub, or from any Docker image.
Your servers. The whole platform. Free on your own servers.
Deploy your appFacts checked 2026-10-02.