Vercel

Hosting · Deployment

A low-friction deployment platform I still use for Next.js products where framework integration matters more than consolidating everything on Cloudflare.

Why it earns a place

Why I use it

Vercel is still the path of least resistance for many Next.js apps: Git previews, environment variables, functions and framework defaults are tightly integrated. I use the host that reduces operational work for the product rather than forcing one provider everywhere.

Use cases

Best for

Next.js products
Preview deployments per branch
Serverless API routes with minimal configuration
Projects already designed around Vercel primitives

Start small

Quick start

01
Import from GitHub
Connect the repository, verify the detected framework/build settings, and deploy a preview before attaching production domains.
02
Add environment variables
Keep secrets in project settings and separate preview/production values when testing against different databases or APIs.
03
Attach the domain
Add the custom domain in Vercel, then create the required record in Cloudflare DNS. You can keep Cloudflare as DNS provider while Vercel hosts the app.

Repeatable workflows

Things I come back for

Cloudflare + Vercel together

This is normal: Porkbun can own the domain, Cloudflare can host DNS, and Vercel can serve a Next.js application.

1
Keep the registration at Porkbun and the authoritative DNS at Cloudflare.
2
Add the custom domain to the Vercel project.
3
Create the DNS record Vercel requests in Cloudflare, then verify the domain in Vercel.

Move a tool away later

Keep routing, secrets and data access portable so a small project can migrate to Cloudflare Pages/Workers when consolidation becomes more valuable than framework convenience.

1
List the Vercel-specific primitives the app currently depends on.
2
Replace or isolate those dependencies behind portable interfaces.
3
Deploy a preview on the new host, then switch DNS only after parity is verified.

Reference

Links