I mainly use Vercel for React and Next.js projects. We've done all our web hosting for these projects on Vercel. It's a wonderful platform for hosting web applications built with Next.js and React-based frameworks.
I'm also trying to implement Angular projects on Vercel, but I've been facing some issues. For Angular, we're currently using Firebase to host web applications.
One of the great things about Vercel is that we don't need any particular script to deploy our applications. We connect our GitHub repository directly to Vercel. Then, if any push happens in GitHub, we have a script that determines which branch should be deployed to which domain. We can map this according to our requirements.
I like several features of Vercel. First, it's serverless. We've used different services before, such as AWS EC2 instances, Compute Engines, App Engine, and Cloud Run, as serverless. However, their web performance only reached eighty to eighty-five percent. With Vercel, we reached more than ninety percent performance in website and lazy loading.
The Vercel platform performs better and looks better. I also like how it handles loading GIF files and YouTube videos, which we used in one of our websites. We can do all our file binding and code building within the Vercel platform. We don't need to use different tools like S3 bucket or Cloudinary. We use the Vercel platform for binding, lazy loading, and other features. Everything happens inside the platform, which is very convenient.
The tool is very easy to use. It was harder to manage when we used Firebase, App Engine, and Cloud Run. Someone had to be available to handle build and deployment issues. We sometimes needed to change scripts or add credentials in Secret Manager or .env files, and we had to check logs to see what was wrong. The build time was a major advantage with Vercel. For NextGen and ReactGen projects, the build time is minimal. I compared it with App Engine and Cloud Run, and while they took about 15 minutes, Vercel only took 15-20 seconds. The build and deployment happened a fraction of the time, which was a significant benefit.
The platform is very easy to understand, and it's essentially plug-and-play. As a senior DevOps engineer, I've handled GCP and AWS, which require platform-specific knowledge. We've also used Firebase to host Angular projects and static pages, which need scripting for deployment, targeting sites, and ignoring caches like node modules.
With Vercel, none of that extra work is necessary. React, or Next.js developers develop based on the framework requirements, and it's plug-and-play with GitHub. You need to connect the domain. I learned to use it in-house in about two to three hours and could deploy it.
Another advantage is that we can get SSL certificates directly through Vercel. We don't need to purchase separate SSL certificates for HTTPS redirecting.