Vercel hosting explained: why we choose it for every website we build

When you have a website built by Web Builders, it’s always hosted on Vercel. Not because it’s the cheapest option (it isn’t), and not because it’s the most famous name (AWS or Google Cloud are). But because for our specific approach — static Astro sites with maximum speed — it’s simply the best platform.

In this article I explain what Vercel is, how the edge network works, what it costs and why we like it so much.

What is Vercel?

Vercel is a cloud platform for frontend developers, founded by Guillermo Rauch (also the creator of Next.js). The platform is specifically built for hosting modern, static websites and JavaScript applications — not databases, mail servers or complex backend infrastructure.

What sets Vercel apart from traditional hosting:

1. Edge-first architecture. Vercel doesn’t host your files on a single server somewhere in a data centre. It distributes your website across a global network of edge locations — currently more than 100. A visitor in Amsterdam is served from Amsterdam. A visitor in Sydney is served from Sydney. Latency is minimal.

2. Git-based deployment. You connect your GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket repository to Vercel. Every push to the main branch automatically triggers a new build and publication of the site. No FTP, no manual uploads, no forgotten files.

3. Preview deployments. Every pull request or branch automatically gets its own preview URL. That’s the staging environment we use to let clients review the site before going live — same technology, separate URL.

The edge network: how it works

Traditional hosting works like this: your website lives on a single server in a data centre. A visitor sends an HTTP request, that request travels to the data centre, the server processes it and sends the response back. The further the visitor from the data centre, the slower this becomes.

With a CDN (Content Delivery Network), static files are copied to multiple global locations. Visitors are automatically routed to the nearest location. This is faster, but traditional CDNs have a limitation: dynamic content (generated by PHP or a database) can’t be distributed that way.

Vercel’s edge network solves this with Edge Functions — small serverless functions that can run at every edge location. For static Astro sites these Edge Functions are barely needed (the files are already at the edge), but they provide flexibility for API routes, redirects and authentication.

The practical result for an Astro site on Vercel: Time to First Byte (TTFB) under 50 milliseconds for most visitors. That’s the time until the browser receives the first byte of HTML — a critical factor for perceived load speed.

Zero-downtime deployments and rollbacks

One of Vercel’s most underrated features is how deployment works.

With traditional hosting you replace files on the server. During that replacement, visitors can see a broken or half-built version. On high-traffic sites you need overnight deploy windows or complex blue-green deployments.

Vercel works differently. Every deployment is atomic: the new version is fully built and published alongside the old version, and only when everything is ready does traffic switch over. For visitors this is invisible — they never see an intermediate state.

Added benefit: one-click rollback. Every previous version remains available in Vercel’s dashboard. If something goes wrong with a new release, you’re back on the previous version within seconds.

Automatic HTTPS and domain setup

Vercel automatically provisions an SSL/TLS certificate via Let’s Encrypt — including automatic renewal. You never have to manually request, download or install a certificate.

Connecting a custom domain takes five minutes: you add a CNAME record at your domain registrar, and Vercel handles the rest. HTTPS works immediately.

For subdomains (such as www. or staging.) the same applies: Vercel offers wildcard subdomains on all paid plans.

What does Vercel cost?

Vercel has three tiers:

Hobby (free) — Intended for personal projects and prototypes. Technically suitable for smaller static sites, but the terms of service prohibit commercial use.

Pro ($20/month) — For commercial projects. Includes more bandwidth, team collaboration, advanced analytics and commercial use. For most SME websites this is the right choice.

Enterprise — For large organisations with compliance requirements, SLAs and dedicated support.

Compared to traditional managed WordPress hosting (€30–60/month) or a VPS (€20–80/month excluding management), Vercel is affordable for what you get — especially when you factor in zero server maintenance, no plugin updates and no security patches.

Vercel vs traditional hosting

	Vercel	Managed WordPress	VPS
Deployment	Git push → automatic	FTP or control panel	SSH + manual
Speed	Edge network (100+ locations)	1 server	1 server
HTTPS	Automatic, free	Usually included	Manual setup
Rollback	One click	Restore from backup	Manual
Maintenance	None	Plugin updates, patches	Everything yourself
Cost (commercial)	€20/month	€30–60/month	€20–80/month + management

Why we don’t use alternatives

We’ve also worked with Netlify, Cloudflare Pages and AWS Amplify. They’re comparable, but Vercel has three advantages for our use case:

Deepest Astro integration. Vercel has officially adopted Astro as a framework and provides optimised build configurations out of the box. No manual tuning needed.

Preview deploys per branch. The staging workflow we use to let clients review the site works most seamlessly on Vercel. Every branch automatically gets a separate URL.

Cookie-free analytics. Vercel Web Analytics provides privacy-friendly page statistics without tracking cookies — a handy supplement to Google Search Console without GDPR complications.

Conclusion

Vercel is more than a hosting provider — it’s a deployment platform that fundamentally simplifies how websites go live. No manual uploads, no overnight deployments, no risk of downtime.

For static Astro sites it’s the perfect combination: Astro generates static HTML, Vercel serves that HTML blazing fast from a global edge network. Result: PageSpeed scores of 95–100 and hosting costs of €0–20 per month.

Want to know more about our technical approach? Read what Astro is and how it works, or check out our Astro development service page for pricing and planning.