Vercel vs Self-Hosted: The $200 vs $5 Reality
The math that changes everything. See exactly why developers are fleeing $200/mo Vercel bills for $5 VPS servers—and whether you should too.
The Verdict
Vercel wins on convenience. Self-hosting wins on cost—dramatically. If you're spending over $50/month on Vercel, a VPS pays for itself. The question is whether the time savings are worth the premium to you.
The Real Cost Breakdown
Vercel Pro
Managed PaaS
Hetzner VPS
Self-Hosted
Annual Savings
$2,335
That's a nice laptop every year
What You Actually Get
| Feature | Vercel Pro | $5 Hetzner VPS |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | ||
| Automatic SSL | ||
| Preview Deployments | ||
| Edge Network | ||
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Analytics | ||
| Bandwidth | 1TB then $40/100GB | 20TB included |
| Team Members | $20/seat | Unlimited |
The Honest Trade-offs
Why Self-Host Wins
- 97% cheaper—savings compound fast
- No limits on builds, bandwidth, or team size
- Full control over your infrastructure
- Learn real DevOps skills that transfer
- No vendor lock-in—move providers easily
The Costs of Self-Hosting
- Time investment—initial setup takes 2-4 hours
- You're responsible for updates and security
- No global CDN out of the box
- Debugging is harder—no managed logging
- Scaling requires planning—not automatic
When to Choose What
Choose Vercel If...
- ✓You're a solo developer or small team with simple needs
- ✓Your time is worth more than $100/hour (setup time vs savings)
- ✓You need edge functions and global CDN for performance
- ✓You don't want to think about infrastructure at all
Choose Self-Hosting If...
- ✓Your Vercel bill is over $50/month
- ✓You have multiple projects or a growing team
- ✓You want to learn DevOps and own your stack
- ✓You need to run non-Node.js services (databases, workers, etc.)
The Easy Middle Ground
Don't want to learn Nginx, PM2, and SSL configuration? Tools like ServerCompass give you Vercel-like deployment from a desktop app—no server setup required. One-time $19 purchase, deploy to any VPS in seconds.
Bottom Line
Vercel is excellent software with a pricing model that punishes success. If you're running a side project or small business, that $200/month could be a salary, marketing budget, or months of runway.
Self-hosting isn't free—it costs time. But for most developers, that time investment pays for itself in under a month. And with modern tools, the "time cost" is shrinking rapidly.
The real question: is Vercel's convenience worth $2,000+ per year to you?