Vercel

Three strengths

• Automatic publishing. Connect your code, and Vercel deploys each change automatically, with a preview link for every branch. 5
• Instant rollback. If something breaks, it can put production back to a previous version straight away. 6
• Next.js, zero setup. You can deploy Next.js with no setup, and Vercel supports more than 40 other frameworks too. 2

What it is

Building a website is one job. Getting it onto the internet, keeping it fast for visitors around the world, and updating it safely is another. Vercel handles the second job. You connect your code, and each time it changes Vercel builds the site, publishes it, and serves it from a CDN (a network of servers around the world that keep copies of your pages close to your visitors, so they load quickly). 2

It began as ZEIT in 2016, with what its founder Guillermo Rauch called "a simple goal: empowering solo developers to effortlessly deploy their apps", and it was renamed Vercel in April 2020. 1 The same team announced Next.js in October 2016, and Rauch was one of its three authors. 3 You can deploy Next.js "with zero configuration", and Vercel also supports more than 40 other frameworks. 2

The part that matters most for a team is how safely a change reaches your customers. Vercel gives each project three environments: Local, where developers build, Preview, a live copy for testing and collaboration that doesn't touch your live site, and Production, the site your users see. 5 Whenever someone pushes to a branch that isn't the production branch, or opens a pull request, Vercel creates a preview deployment with its own link by default, so people can look at a change before it goes live. 5

A production build can also wait for a manual check through its own address and then be promoted without rebuilding. 5 And if something breaks, Instant Rollback points your production domains back at an earlier version straight away. 6

It's a popular platform too: 10.6% of developers surveyed in 2025 said they use it. 4 We choose it because it takes the plumbing off our plate, so our time goes into your product and not into keeping a server alive.

How we use it

We deploy our Next.js applications on Vercel, including our own website. We build the app, push the code, and Vercel publishes it to the internet.

That's Software Development work, and it means your site or web app goes live reliably, and every change can be checked on its own preview link before your customers see it. The code itself lives on GitHub.

References

1. Guillermo Rauch, "ZEIT is now Vercel", Vercel Blog, 21 April 2020. https://vercel.com/blog/zeit-is-now-vercel (accessed 28 October 2026)
2. Vercel, "Vercel Documentation", vercel.com/docs. https://vercel.com/docs (accessed 28 October 2026)
3. Naoyuki Kanezawa, Guillermo Rauch and Tony Kovanen, "Next.js", Vercel Blog, 25 October 2016. https://vercel.com/blog/next (accessed 28 October 2026)
4. Stack Overflow, "2025 Developer Survey: Technology", survey.stackoverflow.co, 2025. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology (accessed 28 October 2026)
5. Vercel, "Environments", Vercel Documentation. https://vercel.com/docs/deployments/environments (accessed 29 October 2026)
6. Vercel, "Performing an Instant Rollback on a Deployment", Vercel Documentation. https://vercel.com/docs/instant-rollback (accessed 29 October 2026)