Hosting & Deployment · decision tool
Vercel vs a $5 VPS — convenience priced against ops hours
A Hetzner CX22 runs ~$5 for 4GB RAM and 20TB traffic; Vercel Pro starts at $20/seat plus overages. The gap buys you ops responsibility — priced honestly here.
Prices verified 2026-07-15 against official pricing pages · fit weights are our estimates (see methodology) · share the URL to share your configuration
As of Jul 2026, with 50GB bandwidth/month, 2 millions requests / month, 1 GB server ram needed, a $30 budget for this slot, Hetzner Cloud (VPS + Coolify) ranks first for these inputs at 78% fit and a StackSays-estimated $4.99/month. Fit weights are our estimates; prices trace to official pages. Change any input below and the verdict recomputes.
Your situation
The verdict updates as you move these.
Clear pick for your inputs
The price floor: 4GB RAM + 20TB traffic for ~$5 — you are the ops team
Comparing 2 tools head-to-head. Open the full field (7 options) →
The decision, in plain words
For a solo builder at 50GB bandwidth/month and a $30.00/mo budget for the hosting platform slot, Hetzner Cloud (VPS + Coolify) leads at 78% fit and $4.99/mo. The two rules doing the work: budget fit (~$4.99/mo is 17% of your $30/mo budget); ecosystem maturity (established — our estimate from ecosystem age, docs and hiring pool).
Ruled out entirely: Vercel (serverless-only platform — no long-running processes, and you said you need them) — hard requirements, not scoring.
Honest weak spot of the pick: no free tier — paying from day one.
Generated from the calculation above — every number traces to the sourced data; nothing here is written by an AI making things up.
Why Hetzner Cloud (VPS + Coolify) scores 78%
How the $4.99/mo estimate is calculated
What could change this verdict
Cost risk
Official prices verified 2026-07-15; calculation is deterministic code over those prices.
At a glance
| Tool | Free tier | Paid entry | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel | 100GB fast data transfer, 1M invocations, 1 seat | Pro $20/mo | 2026-07-15 |
| Hetzner Cloud (VPS + Coolify) | No free tier | CX22 VPS $4.99/mo | 2026-07-15 |
Data sources
| Tool | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Vercel pricing page | 2026-07-15 |
| Hetzner Cloud (VPS + Coolify) | Hetzner Cloud (pricing via 2026 trackers; EUR list price) | 2026-07-15 |
A monitor re-checks these pages for changes; when a vendor moves a price, the date updates and every verdict recomputes.
People also ask
Is Render free?
There's a free tier (512MB / 0.1 CPU, 100GB bandwidth) but services spin down after 15 minutes idle and take about a minute to wake — fine for demos, unusable for real traffic. Always-on starts at $7/month (Starter, 512MB).