Vercel vs Self-hosted VPS

Side-by-side cost comparison — enter your workload and see which platform is cheaper for your traffic.

1. Pick a workload

Choose the preset closest to your project size.

2. Fine-tune (optional)

Override the preset values with your real numbers.

Self-hosted VPS is cheaper by $45.00/mo (75%) for this workload. Switch presets or adjust the numbers above to see how the gap changes at different scales.

VercelPro

$60.00/mo
Pro plan (3 seats)
$20/seat × 3 — includes $60 total usage credit
$60.00
Fast Data Transfer
214.6 GB / 1 TB included
incl.
Edge Requests
7.90 M / 10 M included
incl.
Fast Origin Transfer
7.63 GB × $0.06/GB
$0.46
Function Invocations
0.40 M × $0.60/M
$0.24
Active CPU
~8.9 CPU-hrs (40% of duration assumed)
$1.14
Provisioned Memory
22.2 GB-hrs
$0.24
Build Execution (Turbo)
160 min × $0.126/min
$20.16
Monthly usage credit
$22.23 of $60 total credit applied
$-22.23
Active CPU estimated at 40% of total duration — typical for I/O-bound Next.js routes. Estimate uses 3 deploying seats — each additional seat adds $20/month and $20 credit. Excludes ISR writes/reads, Image Optimization, Edge Config, and WAF — can add 10–30% on image/ISR-heavy apps.
Rates verified 2026-05 — Vercel pricing page

Self-hosted VPSVPS

Lower cost
$15.00/mo
VPS — medium (2 dedicated vCPU, 8 GB RAM)
App server + cache + background workers
$15.00
Cloudflare CDN + R2
Free tier handles most workloads
incl.
Database — add-on
Optional: managed DB ~$25/mo for managed Postgres, Auth, Storage (+$25/mo if needed)
incl.
Add a managed database (+$25/mo) for Postgres, Auth, Storage, and Realtime. Or run Postgres on the same VPS for free. You take on patching, monitoring, and backups — budget ~2–4 hours/month. Add ~$5–15/mo for managed monitoring (Better Stack, Sentry) and email (Resend) if you want them off your plate.
Rates verified 2026-05 — Self-hosted VPS pricing page

What Vercel excels at

  • Zero-configuration Next.js deployment — every new framework feature works on day one.
  • Preview deployments for every pull request, out of the box.
  • Fluid Compute: pay only for active CPU time, not wall-clock duration — I/O wait is free.
  • 1 TB bandwidth included on Pro before any overage kicks in.
  • Built-in Skew Protection prevents version mismatch errors on deploys (Pro+).

What Self-hosted VPS excels at

  • Lowest cost per unit of compute — a $15/mo VPS outperforms a $85/mo Render Pro instance on raw CPU.
  • No per-request, per-invocation, or egress charges — traffic spikes are free.
  • Full control: custom runtimes, native cron, WebSockets, long-running processes, any Node.js version.
  • Run your database, cache, and app on one server — no inter-service network latency or egress costs.
  • No vendor lock-in — switch providers with a single rsync + DNS change.
Compatible

MakerKit deploys to Vercel and Self-hosted VPS

Next.js 16 App Router with Dockerfile included — deploy to your preferred hosting platform without touching config.

Get MakerkitOne-time $349 — yours forever

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