What is Vercel?

You built something people can see in a browser. Cool... now how does anybody else actually see it? Vercel is a platform that makes putting your website on the internet SUPER easy, so the whole world can pull it up.

Who Built Vercel?#

Vercel was created by the same team that made Next.js, which is one of the most popular tools out there for building websites. That's why the two get along so well. It's kinda like buying a phone from the same company that made the operating system.

What Makes Vercel Special?#

Vercel is laser focused on getting your website online fast. Here's what it does really well.

Instant Deployments#

Push your code to GitHub and Vercel puts it online for you, automatically. You don't set up servers or wrestle with complicated configuration. It just works (which is a phrase I don't throw around lightly).

Global Speed#

Vercel puts copies of your website on servers all over the world. Somebody visiting from Japan gets your site from a server in Japan. Somebody in Germany gets it from a server in Germany. The result is a site that's fast for everybody, wherever they are.

Preview Links#

Every time you make changes, Vercel hands you a special link to preview them. Send that link to a teammate and get their feedback BEFORE anything goes live.

Vercel vs Railway#

You might be thinking "wait, didn't we just learn about Railway? Why do I need this one too?"

Fair question. They do different jobs.

Step 1. Vercel is for Frontend#

Vercel shines at hosting the stuff users actually see, like websites, web apps and the visual parts of your project. Think of it as your display window.

Step 2. Railway is for Backend#

Railway shines at hosting what happens behind the scenes, like databases, APIs and background jobs. Think of it as your back office.

Step 3. They Work Together#

Plenty of projects use both! Vercel hosts the website your users visit, and Railway hosts the database and server logic that website talks to.

Here's a simple comparison.

Feature	Vercel	Railway
Best for	Websites, web apps	Databases, APIs, servers
Main focus	Frontend	Backend
Deploys from	GitHub	GitHub
Free option	Hobby plan (personal projects)	Free trial, then a small free plan

What Can You Host on Vercel?#

Vercel works great for a whole bunch of stuff.

• Static websites - Simple HTML, CSS, and JavaScript sites
• React applications - Interactive web apps built with React
• Next.js projects - Full-featured websites with React
• Vue or Svelte apps - Other popular frameworks
• Documentation sites - Technical docs and guides

And you don't have to tell it which one you've got. Vercel figures out what kind of project it's looking at and sets everything up for you.

Real World Examples#

Some pretty big names show up on Vercel's own customer page.

• Notion
• Stripe
• Shopify

If Vercel can handle THEIR traffic, it can handle your lil project too.

Why Vercel for This Course?#

Here's why we picked it.

1. It's beginner-friendly - You can deploy in minutes, not hours
2. The free Hobby plan is generous - Perfect for learning and personal projects
3. It's industry standard - Many companies use Vercel
4. It works with GitHub - Which you already know from earlier modules

TL;DR#

• Vercel is a platform for hosting websites and web apps
• It was built by the same people who made Next.js
• Vercel handles the frontend and Railway handles the backend
• Deployments happen automatically when you push to GitHub
• Your site gets spread around the globe so it loads fast everywhere

What's Next?#

Now that you know what Vercel is, let's go make an account and poke around the dashboard...