Table of Contents

1. What exactly is Vercel?
2. Why choose Vercel?
3. Domain
   • 3.1. Purchasing a domain on Vercel
   • 3.2. Adding an existing domain to Vercel
4. Deployments
   • 4.1. What does GitHub integration offer us?
   • 4.2. Automatic URL generation
   • 4.3. Deployment preview
   • 4.4. How does commenting work?
   • 4.5. Indexing by search engines
5. What additional services does Vercel offer?
   • 5.1. Databases
   • 5.2. Analytics and tools
6. Summary
   • 6.1. Frequently Asked Questions

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If you have read our previous post on setting up a project with Next.js, you already know how to lay a solid foundation for your application. Now it's time to move on to the next key element of creating efficient web applications - choosing the right hosting platform. In this article, we will focus on Vercel, a platform specifically designed for modern JavaScript applications, and explain why it might be the ideal choice for your project.

What exactly is Vercel?

Vercel is a platform for deploying and scaling web applications, particularly those built using popular JavaScript frameworks like Next.js, React, Angular, or Vue.js. It is designed to enable developers to easily and quickly deploy applications without worrying about infrastructure. It's worth mentioning that Vercel is also the company that maintains the Next.js framework. One of Vercel's key aspects is its "serverless" deployment approach, which means the infrastructure is automatically scaled according to the application's needs, which is particularly useful for managing variable user traffic. This allows developers to focus on creating and refining their applications without worrying about server management. Vercel also offers a wide range of integrations with other tools and services, making it easy to incorporate them into the software development process. This is especially beneficial for teams using DevOps methodologies, where automation and continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD) play a crucial role. Furthermore, Vercel provides support for features such as automatic creation of preview environments, allowing development teams and other stakeholders to view application changes in real-time before deploying them to production. This, in turn, contributes to a faster and more efficient development process. As a result, Vercel has become a popular choice among developers creating modern web applications, offering them flexibility, performance, and ease of use.

Why choose Vercel?

Choosing Vercel as a platform for deploying web applications can bring many benefits, especially for development teams and companies focused on quickly and efficiently creating modern web applications. Here are some key reasons why Vercel is an attractive option:

1. Optimization for JavaScript frameworks: Vercel is specifically optimized to work with popular JavaScript frameworks like Next.js, React, Angular, and Vue.js. This ensures smooth deployment and high performance of applications based on these technologies.
2. Preview Environments: Vercel automatically creates preview environments for each pull request, allowing teams to quickly test and review changes in an isolated environment before deploying them to production.
3. Serverless scalability: With a "serverless" approach, Vercel automatically scales the infrastructure according to the application's needs. This allows for efficient resource management, especially with irregular or dynamic traffic.
4. Simple and fast deployment process: Vercel enables easy and fast application deployment. Just connect your code repository to Vercel, and the platform takes care of the rest, automating processes such as building and deploying the application.
5. Integrations and collaboration: Vercel offers integrations with popular tools and services, facilitating team collaboration and integration with existing workflows. This helps build efficient DevOps processes.
6. Performance optimization: The platform offers advanced performance optimization features, such as automatic image compression and CDN support, resulting in faster page loading and a better user experience.
7. Support for static and dynamic pages: Vercel allows for the deployment of both static websites and dynamic web applications, providing great flexibility in choosing the right architecture for the project.
8. Security and reliability: Vercel ensures a high level of security and reliability, which is crucial for maintaining the continuity of web applications.Choosing Vercel can therefore be beneficial for projects requiring fast deployment, high performance, scalability, and ease of team collaboration, especially when focusing on modern web technologies.

Domain

When choosing a domain name for your website, it's important to follow a few key principles that will help create an effective and memorable name. Here are some of them:

1. Short and concise: Try to keep the domain name short and easy to remember. Long and complicated names can be difficult to remember or easy to mistype.
2. Easy to pronounce and write: Choose a name that is easy to pronounce and write. This will make it easier for users to share it verbally and increase the chances of it being correctly typed in the browser.
3. Avoid confusing characters: Avoid using confusing characters, such as hyphens or numbers, which can be easily misunderstood or forgotten.
4. Relevant keywords: If possible, include keywords related to your business in the domain name. This can help users and search engines understand what your site is about.
5. Uniqueness: Ensure that your domain name is unique and not too similar to other popular websites. This will help avoid confusion and legal issues related to copyright.
6. Domain extension: Choose an appropriate domain extension (.com, .net, .org, etc.). The .com extension is the most universal, but other extensions may be more suitable for specific types of businesses or locations.
7. Future-proof and flexible: Choose a domain name that doesn't limit your business to one niche unless that is your intention. A flexible name will allow for potential business expansion in the future.
8. Check availability: Before finalizing your choice, make sure the domain name is available and not already in use by another site.Following these principles will help create an effective domain name that will play a key role in building the identity and image of your website.

Purchasing a domain on Vercel

1. Log in to your Vercel account: The first step is to log in to your account on the Vercel platform.
2. Search for an available domain: On the dashboard, you will find the “Domains” page, where you can search for a domain name. Enter the name you want, and the system will show you available options along with prices.
3. Choose and purchase: Once you find a suitable domain, you can proceed to purchase it. Vercel allows you to complete the transaction directly through the platform, simplifying the entire process.
4. Domain configuration: After purchase, you can configure the domain by assigning it to your project on Vercel. The process is intuitive and well-explained in the user panel.

Adding an existing domain to Vercel

1. Add the domain to the project: Go to your project page, then select Settings < Domains in the navigation. Enter your domain name and follow the instructions.
2. Update DNS Settings: To ensure the domain correctly points to your project, you need to update the DNS settings with your current domain provider. You will need to change the DNS records to those specified by Vercel.
3. Verification: After updating the DNS settings, Vercel will conduct a verification process. This may take a few hours. Once verification is successful, the domain will redirect to your project on Vercel.

Deployments

In today's software development world, flexibility and speed of project deployment are crucial. Thanks to Vercel's integration with GitHub, this process becomes easier and more intuitive. Vercel automatically deploys projects hosted on GitHub, offering not only URLs for demo versions but also automatic domain updates.

What does GitHub integration offer us?

Deployment automation: Every push to a GitHub repository can automatically trigger the deployment process on Vercel.

Preview deployments: Vercel allows creating preview environments for each branch, pull request, or even commit, which is great for testing and code review.

Automatic URL generation

Automatic URL generation on the Vercel platform occurs as part of the application or website deployment process. Vercel is a cloud service that enables quick hosting and scaling of web projects.

Automatic URL generation: During deployment, Vercel automatically generates a unique URL for each version of your application. This URL is usually associated with the project name and contains randomly generated character strings, ensuring uniqueness.

Access to pre-production versions: Automatically generated URLs allow quick testing and review of changes before their official deployment. This makes it easy to share pre-production versions with the team or clients.

Production versions: After approving the pre-production version, you can move it to production. Vercel allows you to assign your own domain to the production version, replacing the automatically generated URL.Automatic URL generation on Vercel is very convenient because every change in the code repository results in the creation of a new, immediately accessible version of the application. This facilitates the development process, testing, and project presentation.

Deployment preview

Live commenting on pages within "Preview Deployments" in Vercel is a feature that allows teams and people with whom you share preview versions to provide direct feedback on changes in the application. Here are detailed insights on this topic:

How does commenting work?

Vercel Toolbar: All "Preview Deployments" are equipped with the Vercel toolbar, which allows, among other things, adding comments in the production environment.

Comments: Enable teams and external participants to directly comment on preview deployments. Comments can be added directly over areas of the site that are relevant for feedback, and discussions can take place within the preview deployment itself or in an integrated Slack channel.

Git Integration: If you create a pull or merge request using Git, the generated preview URL will be available as a comment from the Vercel bot. This URL always reflects the latest deployment changes.

Sharing previews: All preview deployments have a "Share" button in the Vercel toolbar, which can be used to share access to private preview URLs with all team members.

Indexing by search engines

• Since "Preview Deployment" creates a new version of your site under a different domain, search engines may treat it as a new site.
• To prevent this, the HTTP header X-Robots-Tag is automatically set to noindex for all preview deployments so that search engines do not accidentally index preview URLs.

What additional services does Vercel offer?

Databases

Vercel offers several database options and tools that are useful for developers. Here are the details about these services:

1. KV is a durable Redis-like database, easy to use and very robust. Vercel KV allows creating Redis-compatible databases that can be read and written from Vercel's global network in selected regions. This is particularly useful for managing things like rate limiting, session management, or application state.
2. Postgres is a server-side SQL database designed to integrate with Vercel functions and frontend frameworks. Vercel Postgres is a fully managed, scalable, fault-tolerant database that provides high performance and low latency for web applications. It can be used to query, insert, update, or delete data directly in React server components, offering powerful server-side data mutation capabilities and less client-side JavaScript code.
3. Blob is a fast, simple, and efficient cloud file storage solution. Vercel Blob provides a simple yet powerful API for storage based on web standards, without the need to set up storage buckets or implement heavy SDKs. It can store files such as images, PDFs, CSVs, or other unstructured data.
4. Edge Config is a global, low-latency data store that provides near-instant data reads from all Vercel compute environments.

Analytics and tools

Vercel offers several advanced analytics features and development tools that can be very useful for developers and website administrators.

Vercel Analytics is a tool for collecting real-time information about site traffic, including data on the most visited pages, traffic sources, and user demographics. Vercel Analytics collects data without using cookies and does not store personal data, making it a privacy-friendly solution for users. This tool is available for all plans, and users of Pro and Enterprise plans additionally have access to custom event tracking.

Edge Functions are functions run at the network edge, allowing for fast and efficient request handling on a global scale. They are particularly useful for optimizing the performance and scalability of web applications, as they allow running code closer to end users. Vercel offers various functions related to cache management, A/B testing, rate limiting, and geolocation.

Cron Jobs are scheduled tasks that run at specified time intervals. They are often used to automate repetitive tasks, such as daily data backups, regular content updates, or automatic data processing.

Vercel CLI & API: Vercel also offers developer tools such as Vercel CLI (Command Line Interface) and REST API. They allow managing projects from the command line and interacting with the account via HTTP requests. This is particularly useful for advanced users who want to automate and integrate their processes with other tools and services.

Summary

Vercel stands out as a platform that enables fast and efficient deployment of web applications, especially those based on popular JavaScript frameworks. Designed with developers in mind, Vercel offers automatic scalability and integrations with many tools, which is particularly beneficial in the DevOps approach. With automatic URL creation, this platform allows for quick and effective verification of changes in applications. Additionally, Vercel offers comprehensive support for both static websites and more complex, dynamic web applications. The platform also excels in the availability of advanced features, including versatile database solutions and efficient analytical tools that support the development and management of applications. Now that you know Vercel's capabilities in the context of hosting Next.js applications, it's time to delve into the next essential element. In our next article, Routing in Next.js - A Beginner's Guide, we will explore how to effectively manage navigation in your application. This guide will help you understand how to use routing to build more interactive and dynamic user interfaces, which is crucial for any modern web application.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why is Vercel a good choice for modern web applications? Vercel offers fast deployment, automatic scalability, and is optimized for popular JavaScript frameworks. Its serverless approach and integrations with DevOps tools make it ideal for dynamic, modern web applications.
2. Is Vercel suitable for projects based on JavaScript frameworks like React or Angular? Yes, Vercel is specifically designed to work with JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, Vue.js, and Next.js, offering smooth deployment and high performance.
3. What are the main advantages of using Vercel in web projects? The main advantages are easy deployment, serverless scaling, support for preview environments, automatic URL generation, and extensive integration capabilities with other tools.
4. Does Vercel offer integration options with version control systems like GitHub? Yes, Vercel integrates with version control systems like GitHub, facilitating deployment automation and collaboration in development teams.
5. What database services and analytical tools does Vercel offer? Vercel offers various database options like KV, Postgres, and Blob, as well as analytical tools for monitoring performance and site traffic.
6. Is Vercel suitable for smaller projects and individual developers? Yes, Vercel is tailored to the needs of both large teams and individual developers, offering flexible plans and ease of use, making it suitable for projects of various scales.