Vercel is built for Next.js apps. A static website needs a home.
Vercel’s developer experience is some of the best in the industry, and for a Next.js app with server rendering and API routes it is hard to beat. The friction starts when the project is a finished HTML site, when it belongs to a business, or when the person updating it has never opened a terminal.
The free plan isn’t for business sites
Vercel’s Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial projects. A shop’s landing page, a client site or anything that earns money belongs on Pro, billed at $20 per deploying seat each month plus metered usage beyond the included allowance. For a five-page brochure site, that is a developer-team pricing model applied to a website.
The speed features live inside Next.js
Image resizing, AVIF, font subsetting and LCP preloads come from next/image and next/font. A plain HTML site is served as uploaded: optimizing its images means an images config in vercel.json and rewriting every image URL, counted against a monthly transformation allowance. Minification is left to your build.
Every change is a deployment
New projects start from a git repository or the Vercel CLI, and every deployment is immutable. There is no file editor in the dashboard, so changing a phone number is a commit, a push and a build. On Hobby, reaching a usage limit pauses the project until the next cycle; on Pro, usage past the allowance is billed.
Vercel details as published on vercel.com/pricing and in Vercel’s docs and fair use guidelines (Hobby for personal, non-commercial use; 100 GB Fast Data Transfer a month on Hobby with the project paused rather than billed at the limit; Pro at $20 per deploying seat with 1 TB included and usage billed beyond it; immutable deployments). Checked September 2026; see vercel.com for the current figures.
Side by side, for a finished static site
Netlify and Cloudflare Pages are in the table because they are the other names on every “Vercel alternative” list. All four are good products; they are built for different people.
| What you need | Fylo.Host | Vercel | Netlify | Cloudflare Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business and client sites allowed on freePer each provider’s terms | ✓ | Personal, non-commercial | ✓ | ✓ |
| Upload a finished folder as a ZIPNo git, no CLI | ✓ | Git or CLI | Netlify Drop | Drag & drop, 1,000 files |
| Edit a file in the browser and go liveNo redeploy to wait for | ✓ | Commit, then rebuild | ✗ | Redeploy the folder |
| Paid plan pricingWhat grows the bill | Flat monthly | $20/seat + usage | Credit-based | Static free, Functions metered |
| Built-in blog: posts, pages, categories, RSS, sitemapWritten in the dashboard, no build | ✓ | Bring a CMS | Bring a CMS | Bring a CMS |
| Images converted to WebP / AVIF for youWithout changing your HTML | ✓ | next/image or URL rewrite | URL rewrite / adapter | Paid, on your zone |
| Font subsetting, minification, lazy loadingApplied by the host | ✓ | In your build, next/font | Build plugins | Auto Minify retired |
| Responsive srcset and LCP preload injectedOn plain HTML | ✓ | Next.js Image only | ✗ | ✗ |
| Contact form without a backend | Pro plans | Write a function | ✓ | Write a Function |
| Visitor analytics in the dashboard | ✓ | Web Analytics, event-capped | Paid add-on | Web Analytics |
| Custom domain with automatic SSL | Paid plans | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free-plan traffic allowance | 1,000 visits / mo | 100 GB, then paused | Credit-metered | Unmetered |
| Git-connected builds and deploy previews | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Server-side code (SSR, API routes, functions) | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Functions, Workers rates |
Keep Vercel for the Next.js app. Move the website to Fylo.
A switch that costs you something you rely on is a bad switch. Here is the honest split.
Vercel is still the right pick when
- The project is a Next.js app that uses server rendering, incremental regeneration, API routes or middleware.
- Your team works in git and a preview deployment on every pull request is part of how you review changes.
- You need serverless functions, streaming AI responses, cron jobs or storage close to the frontend.
- It is a personal, non-commercial project and a free custom domain matters. Hobby includes one; Fylo’s custom domains start on Starter.
- Traffic is very heavy. Vercel Pro includes 1 TB of transfer; Fylo’s plans are sized from 1,000 to 1,000,000 visits a month.
Fylo is the better fit when
- The site belongs to a business or a client and you want it on a free plan that allows that, or on a flat price that doesn’t grow with seats.
- The site is plain HTML, a template or a static export, and you want image, font and code optimization without rewriting it in a framework.
- The person who maintains the site is not a developer, and “change the opening hours” should take one minute in a browser.
- Your visitors are on phones and mobile data, and Core Web Vitals decide whether the page ranks.
- The site needs a blog, a contact form and analytics from one dashboard, in English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali or whatever your readers speak, without a CMS, a function or three third-party services.
Vercel to Fylo in four steps, no downtime
Around ten minutes for a static site. Keep the Vercel deployment live until your DNS change lands; nothing in the Vercel account needs deleting. If the site needs a blog, open the Blog tab afterwards.
Get the built site
Plain HTML: the project folder itself. Astro, Hugo or Vite: run the build and take dist or public. Next.js: set output: 'export', run next build and take out.
out/about.html
out/_next/static/…
out/img/hero.jpg ← 2.1 MB
Zip it and upload
Compress the folder so index.html sits at the top level of the ZIP, then drop it on the homepage. Live on a fylo.dev address in seconds. No account, no git, no build settings to fill in.
Switch on the optimizations
In the performance tab, turn on the toggles you want. Fylo rebuilds an optimized copy; your uploaded files stay exactly as they were.
Point your domain
On a paid plan, add the domain in the Fylo dashboard. Change the DNS record that points at Vercel to the Fylo address, then remove the domain from the Vercel project. Using Vercel’s nameservers? Edit it in Vercel’s DNS tab or move them back to your registrar first.
www CNAME cname.vercel-dns.com
www CNAME your-site.fylo.dev
; SSL issued automatically
The Next.js speed features, for sites that aren’t Next.js
Every item below is a toggle in the dashboard and works on the HTML you already have. Turn one on and Fylo rebuilds the optimized copy at the edge; turn it off and the original is back. No framework, no build plugin, no transformation meter to watch.
<Image> component to adopt.Nothing is applied silently. You choose what runs, and you can check the result on the speed checker before pointing a domain.
Add a blog to the site without a build pipeline
A Vercel blog is usually Next.js plus a headless CMS or MDX files in git, with a build and a deployment on every post. On Fylo every site gets a Blog tab: write a post, pick a category, add an image and publish. Fylo writes the static post page, the archive pages, the RSS feed and the sitemap, and serves them from the same edge as the rest of the site.
- Posts and pages in a rich-text editor, with a Code view when you want the HTML
- Categories, tags and a navigation menu; a media library for images
- Three themes, or “match my site” to inherit your own header and footer
- Draft preview link, RSS feed, sitemap with lastmod, SEO checklist on every post
- Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and a dozen more scripts, with the right fonts loaded
- Lives on your custom domain at
/blog/; 10 published posts on the free plan, more on paid plans
The rest of the shortlist, and who each one suits
If Fylo is not the fit, one of these probably is. The one-line verdicts are ours; the products are all solid.
The closest like-for-like: repository, build command, deploy previews, forms and functions in one place. A credit-metered free plan that pauses the site when credits run out. Fylo vs Netlify
Unmetered static bandwidth and a free custom domain, deployed with wrangler or git. Files are served as uploaded, and Cloudflare now points new projects at Workers. Fylo vs Cloudflare Pages
Free hosting straight from a public repository, with a free custom domain. Git push only, and GitHub’s terms rule out using it for a business site. Fylo vs GitHub Pages
Drag a ZIP or a single HTML file and get a link. Simple and friendly; no optimization pipeline, and the free plan is meant for one small site. Fylo vs Tiiny Host
Upload a folder, a PDF or a gallery and get a link, with an online editor. Served as uploaded; free sites need a login every 90 days. Fylo vs Static.run
Upload a ZIP, toggle the optimizations, add a blog, serve from Cloudflare’s 330+ cities. Built for business sites whose visitors are on phones and whose owners are not running a CLI.
Sites that leave Vercel for Fylo
output: 'export', zip out, upload, and keep the image optimization.Questions people ask before switching
output: 'export' in next.config.js, run next build and upload the out folder as a ZIP. Static export needs images.unoptimized or a custom loader, and Fylo’s image toggles take over the WebP, AVIF and srcset work from there. Pages that depend on server rendering, API routes, middleware or incremental regeneration cannot run on any static host, Fylo included.index.html in it. Zip it, drop it on the homepage and the site is live. Changes are made by uploading again or by opening the file in the dashboard’s code editor, editing it and saving.Your business site, on a free plan that allows it.
Faster, with no git and no CLI.
Drop your ZIP. We handle the milliseconds, and the blog.
Upload your site free No signup. No repository. Live in seconds.