Updated September 22, 2026 · 12 min read
Vercel’s Hobby plan costs $0, but only for personal, non-commercial sites. Here is who qualifies, every limit, and free options for client work.
Short answer: Yes, Vercel is free on its Hobby plan, but only for non-commercial personal use. Hobby includes 100 GB of Fast Data Transfer and 1,000,000 Edge Requests per month (Vercel docs, checked September 2026). A portfolio or student project qualifies. A site you are paid to build, or one that shows ads or sells services, needs Vercel Pro at $20 per month.
In this guide
- Is Vercel free? What Vercel’s own docs say
- What Vercel counts as “commercial use” (exact wording)
- Is Vercel free for your project? A decision table
- Vercel Hobby plan limits in 2026 (full table)
- What happens when you exceed Vercel’s free limits
- How to host a site on Vercel’s free Hobby plan, step by step
- When to upgrade to Vercel Pro
- Free alternatives to Vercel that allow commercial use
- Where sofast fits
- Frequently asked questions
Is Vercel free? The honest answer is “yes, with one big condition.” Some YouTube tutorials call Vercel “100% free” hosting, and for a personal project that is accurate. But Vercel’s own rules say the free Hobby plan is for non-commercial personal use only. Imagine a freelance designer, Julien, who just built a landing page for a paying client and wants to put it online for free. On Vercel Hobby, that project breaks the rules, even if the page itself sells nothing. This guide shows exactly where the line sits, what the Hobby limits are, and what to use instead.
For every Vercel plan, seat price, and usage rate, read our full breakdown of Vercel pricing. This guide stays on the free tier: who can use it, how far it stretches, what happens at the limit, and which free hosts accept commercial sites. Every figure comes from official documentation, checked on September 22, 2026.
Is Vercel free? What Vercel’s own docs say
Vercel’s documentation states that “The Hobby plan is free and aimed at developers with personal projects, and small-scale applications” (vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby, checked September 2026). Hobby has no trial period and no end date. The same page says: “As the Hobby plan is a free tier there are no billing cycles.” Vercel does not bill Hobby users for extra usage; the feature pauses instead.
The catch sits in Vercel’s Fair Use Guidelines. Vercel writes: “Hobby teams are restricted to non-commercial personal use only. All commercial usage of the platform requires either a Pro or Enterprise plan” (vercel.com/docs/limits/fair-use-guidelines, checked September 2026). So the Vercel free tier is real, but it is a personal-use tier. It is not a free business hosting plan, whatever a tutorial title says.
In plain terms: Vercel Hobby is free for your own personal projects. The moment money is involved in making or running the site, Vercel expects you to pay for Pro.
What Vercel counts as “commercial use” (exact wording)
Vercel’s definition is broader than most people expect. Here is the exact text from the Fair Use Guidelines: “Commercial usage is defined as any Deployment that is used for the purpose of financial gain of anyone involved in any part of the production of the project, including a paid employee or consultant writing the code.”
Vercel then lists examples, “including but not limited to”:
- “Any method of requesting or processing payment from visitors of the site”
- “Advertising the sale of a product or service”
- “Receiving payment to create, update, or host the site”
- “Affiliate linking is the primary purpose of the site”
- “The inclusion of advertisements, including but not limited to online advertising platforms like Google AdSense”
Vercel also adds one exception in a note: “Asking for Donations does not fall under commercial usage.” If you are unsure, Vercel says to contact its Support team (vercel.com/docs/limits/fair-use-guidelines, checked September 2026).
Two words in that definition matter most: “anyone” and “any part.” The site does not need to sell anything. If the person who wrote the code was paid to write it, the deployment counts as commercial. That is the rule that catches freelancers like Julien. A client’s brochure site with no shop, no ads, and no payment button is still commercial on Vercel, because Julien received payment to create it.
Is Vercel free for your project? A decision table
The table below applies Vercel’s own wording to common situations. The “Why” column quotes or points to the rule that decides each case.
| Your situation | Free on Vercel Hobby? | Why (Vercel’s rule) |
|---|---|---|
| Personal portfolio, no services advertised | Yes | Non-commercial personal use |
| Student or class project | Yes | Personal, no financial gain |
| Personal site with a donations button | Yes | “Asking for Donations does not fall under commercial usage” |
| Open-source project docs you maintain for free | Yes, if no one is paid for it | No financial gain for anyone involved |
| Freelancer paid to build a client’s site | No | “Receiving payment to create, update, or host the site” |
| Small business site advertising its services | No | “Advertising the sale of a product or service” |
| Blog with Google AdSense ads | No | “The inclusion of advertisements” |
| Affiliate review site | No | “Affiliate linking is the primary purpose of the site” |
| Online shop or booking page that takes payments | No | “Any method of requesting or processing payment” |
A freelancer’s own portfolio is a gray zone worth flagging. If the portfolio exists to advertise paid design services, it can match “Advertising the sale of a product or service.” Vercel’s list says “including but not limited to,” so edge cases lean toward commercial. When in doubt, ask Vercel Support before launch, not after.
To decide quickly, answer these questions in order:
- Did anyone get paid to design, code, update, or host this site? If yes, it is commercial. Use Vercel Pro or a host that allows commercial use on its free plan.
- Does the site take payments, show ads, or exist mainly for affiliate links? If yes, it is commercial.
- Does the site advertise a product or service for sale? If yes, it is commercial.
- Is the only money a voluntary donation? Donations are allowed on Hobby.
- None of the above? Your personal project fits the Vercel free tier.
Vercel Hobby plan limits in 2026 (full table)
If your project passes the commercial-use test, the next question is how far the Vercel free plan stretches. The table below lists the Hobby limits that matter for a website. Sources are vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby and vercel.com/docs/limits (checked September 2026).
| Resource | Vercel Hobby limit |
|---|---|
| Price | $0, no billing cycle |
| Fast Data Transfer (bandwidth to visitors) | First 100 GB per month |
| Edge Requests | First 1,000,000 per month |
| Fast Origin Transfer | First 10 GB per month |
| Function invocations | First 1,000,000 per month |
| Active CPU | 4 CPU-hours per month |
| Image transformations | First 5,000 per month |
| Web Analytics events | 50,000 per month |
| Projects | 200 |
| Deployments per day | 100 |
| Concurrent builds | 1 |
| Maximum build time | 45 minutes |
| Seats (team members) | 1 |
| Custom domains | 50 per project |
| Runtime logs | 1 hour |
| Team collaboration, email support | Not included |
In plain terms: Fast Data Transfer is the data Vercel sends to your visitors. An Edge Request is one request that reaches Vercel’s network, such as loading a page, an image, or a stylesheet.
For a simple HTML and CSS site, these numbers are generous. A static page uses no functions, so your practical ceilings are the 100 GB of transfer and the 1,000,000 Edge Requests. One page view can trigger several requests, because each file (HTML, CSS, images, fonts) counts separately.
The custom-domain line is good news. Vercel’s domain docs and its Hobby plan page both list 50 domains per project on Hobby (vercel.com/docs/domains/working-with-domains/add-a-domain, checked September 23, 2026). You can connect a domain you already own, and Vercel issues a free SSL certificate through Let’s Encrypt. Vercel renews that certificate 14 to 30 days before it expires (vercel.com/docs/domains/working-with-ssl). You still pay your registrar for the domain itself.
In plain terms: SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the certificate that puts the padlock and “https” in front of your address. Let’s Encrypt is a free certificate authority that many hosts use.
What happens when you exceed Vercel’s free limits
Vercel does not send a surprise bill to Hobby users. Its docs say: “In most cases, if you exceed your usage limits on the Hobby plan, you will have to wait until 30 days have passed before you can use the feature again” (vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby, checked September 2026). Some limits pause for less time. Web Analytics collection, for example, “can resume after 7 days.” There is no Hobby spending option; to keep going sooner, you upgrade to Pro.
For a personal project, a 30-day pause is an annoyance. For a client site, it would be a real problem. Other free hosts handle overages differently.
| Platform (free plan) | Main free limit | What happens when you hit it | Source (checked September 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel Hobby | 100 GB transfer, 1M Edge Requests per month | Feature paused until 30 days pass; no bill | vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby |
| Netlify Free | 300 credits per month, hard limit | All sites paused with a “Site not available” page until the next billing cycle | docs.netlify.com (credit-based plans) |
| Cloudflare Pages Free | Unlimited bandwidth and requests; 500 builds per month | No bandwidth cap to hit; build and file limits apply | developers.cloudflare.com/pages/platform/limits/ |
Netlify’s Free plan works on credits. A production deploy costs 15 credits and each GB of bandwidth costs 20 credits. As an estimate, 20 production deploys use all 300 credits, leaving no bandwidth for the month. Our Netlify pricing guide walks through that credit math in detail. Cloudflare Pages takes the opposite approach: Cloudflare states that “All plans come with unlimited sites, seats, requests, and bandwidth.” Its free limits are about builds and files instead, such as 20,000 files per site and 25 MiB per file.
How to host a site on Vercel’s free Hobby plan, step by step
If your project is personal and non-commercial, here is how to put it online with Vercel Hobby. You have two main routes: import a Git repository, or drag your files onto Vercel Drop. Vercel Drop launched in June 2026 and needs no Git or command line. It does require a Vercel account (vercel.com/docs/drop, checked September 2026).
- Create a free Vercel account. Sign up on vercel.com and pick the Hobby plan. Hobby includes one seat, so the account is for you alone.
- Choose your deploy method. If your code lives on GitHub or another Git provider, import the repository from your dashboard. If you only have a folder of HTML and CSS files, go to vercel.com/drop.
- Drop your files. On Vercel Drop, drag a file, a folder, or a .zip onto the page.
- Name the project. Choose the team to deploy to and enter a project name.
- Deploy. Select Deploy. Vercel creates a new project, uploads your files, and publishes them to production with a live URL.
- Pick a homepage if asked. If your folder has no index.html at the top level, Vercel asks which page visitors see first.
- Add a custom domain (optional). In the project’s domain settings, add a domain you own and update its DNS records as Vercel instructs.
In plain terms: DNS (Domain Name System) is the internet’s address book. Updating DNS records tells the world that your domain now points to Vercel.
Vercel Drop has one limit that matters if you edit often. Vercel’s docs state: “Each drop creates a new project. Vercel Drop doesn’t redeploy into an existing project.” Fix a typo, drop again, and you get a second project with a new URL. To update the same site, connect a Git repository or use the Vercel CLI (command-line interface). Repeated drops also count toward the 200-project cap.
When to upgrade to Vercel Pro
Upgrade to Vercel Pro when your project becomes commercial, whatever its traffic. According to Vercel, Pro costs a “$20/month platform fee” that includes 1 deploying seat and $20 of monthly usage credit (vercel.com/docs/plans/pro-plan, checked September 2026). Extra deploying seats cost $20 per month each, and viewer seats are free. Unused credit expires at the end of each month.
Pro also raises the ceilings. It includes a Flat Rate CDN (content delivery network) with 1,000,000 CDN requests and 1 TB of transfer per month. Pro allows 6,000 deployments per day instead of 100, and it adds team collaboration and email support. Usage beyond the credit is billed on demand, such as $0.60 per 1,000,000 function invocations. Spend alerts default to $200. Every paid Pro team also gets one free first-year domain on selected TLDs (top-level domains), but not during the Pro trial.
Here is a simple rule for Julien’s case. If the client’s site must stay on Vercel, the cleanest setup is a Pro team the client owns and pays for, with Julien added as a deploying seat. That keeps the bill and the account with the business. If $20 per month or more feels heavy for a small brochure site, a commercial-friendly free host is the better fit. Our Vercel vs Netlify vs Cloudflare Pages comparison covers the paid tiers side by side.
Free alternatives to Vercel that allow commercial use
For a commercial site on a $0 plan, you need a host whose free tier has no personal-use-only rule. The table lists what each official page says, checked September 2026.
| Platform | Free plan | Commercial use on free plan | Free limit that matters | Custom domain on free plan | Deploy method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel Hobby | $0 | No, personal non-commercial only | 100 GB transfer, 1M Edge Requests | Yes, 50 per project | Git, CLI, Vercel Drop |
| Cloudflare Pages | $0 | No personal-only rule on the product page | Unlimited bandwidth; 500 builds per month; 20,000 files | Yes, 100 per project | Git, dashboard drag-and-drop, Wrangler CLI |
| Netlify Free | $0 | No personal-only rule on the pricing page | 300 credits per month, hard cap | Yes, with free SSL | Git, CLI, Netlify Drop |
| GitHub Pages | $0 with public repositories | Not for online businesses, e-commerce, or SaaS | 1 GB site; 100 GB per month soft bandwidth limit | Yes | Git |
| sofast Free | $0 | Yes | 1 site, 50 MB | No, from Starter ($5/month billed annually) | Drag and drop (folder or ZIP) |
Cloudflare Pages is the strongest free option for traffic. Cloudflare says all plans include unlimited bandwidth and requests. The dashboard “Direct Upload” lets you drag and drop up to 1,000 files, with 25 MiB per file. One caveat: Cloudflare’s docs now say “Start new projects with Workers.” Pages is still supported, but Cloudflare focuses new development on Workers. Our guide to what Cloudflare Pages is explains the shift.
Netlify Free includes custom domains, automatic SSL, and free unlimited Netlify Forms. Its pricing page shows no personal-only clause. The cap is the 300 monthly credits: frequent deploys or a traffic spike can pause every site on the account until the next cycle. Netlify Drop also works without an account, but unclaimed drops are temporary and expire unless you claim them.
GitHub Pages needs a closer reading. GitHub says Pages is “not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web-hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site, or any other website that is primarily directed at either facilitating commercial transactions or providing commercial software as a service (SaaS)” (docs.github.com, checked September 2026). A personal portfolio or project documentation fits. A shop or a site built to sell does not. A simple brochure site for a business sits closer to the “online business” wording, so treat it as risky. Our GitHub Pages hosting guide covers the setup and its limits.
For more options, including smaller drag-and-drop hosts, see our list of Vercel alternatives and our guide to free HTML hosting.
Where sofast fits
sofast hosts static HTML sites by drag-and-drop upload: no Git, no command line, automatic SSL, and a free plan with 50 MB and a sofast subdomain, not listed on Google. It is built on Cloudflare’s global network and aimed at people like Julien who have a finished HTML and CSS folder, often generated with an AI tool, and want it online without learning a developer workflow.
Unlike Vercel Hobby, sofast’s Free plan allows commercial use, so a paid client site can go live on a sofast subdomain at $0. Free sites are not listed on Google, so a client who needs search traffic needs Starter.
sofast is not a Vercel replacement for developers. It has no Git workflow, no build step, and no server-side functions. The free plan covers one site of up to 50 MB on a sofast subdomain only. A custom domain requires a paid plan, starting with Starter at $5 per month billed annually ($6 billed monthly). Pro is $10 and Large is $20 per month, billed annually. sofast is also a new, pre-launch service, while Vercel, Netlify, and Cloudflare have years of track record.
Choose Vercel Hobby for personal projects that use Next.js or Git. Choose Cloudflare Pages for heavy traffic on a free plan. Choose sofast if you want to drop a static folder and connect a client’s domain without Git; see the sofast pricing page for plan details.
Frequently asked questions
Vercel’s Hobby plan is free with no trial period and no end date. Vercel’s docs say that “as the Hobby plan is a free tier there are no billing cycles” (checked September 2026). The condition is usage, not time: Hobby is restricted to non-commercial personal use. As long as your project stays personal and within the monthly limits, such as 100 GB of Fast Data Transfer, you can keep using Vercel Hobby at no cost.
Vercel Hobby allows up to 200 projects per account, according to Vercel’s limits documentation (checked September 2026). Each project is usually one site. Keep in mind that every upload through Vercel Drop creates a new project, so repeated drops of the same site count separately. All projects share the same monthly usage allowance, including 100 GB of Fast Data Transfer and 1,000,000 Edge Requests, and the 100 deployments per day limit.
You can use Vercel Hobby for as long as you want. It is a permanent free tier, not a time-limited trial. Vercel’s separate Pro trial is different: it lets you test Pro features for a limited period before paying. If you exceed a Hobby usage limit, Vercel usually pauses that feature until 30 days have passed, rather than ending your free access or charging you.
No. Vercel’s Fair Use Guidelines state that Hobby teams “are restricted to non-commercial personal use only. All commercial usage of the platform requires either a Pro or Enterprise plan” (checked September 2026). Commercial includes taking payments, advertising products or services, showing ads such as AdSense, affiliate sites, and being paid to create or host the site. Vercel Pro costs $20 per month, including one deploying seat and $20 of usage credit.
We found no student-specific Vercel plan on Vercel’s official pages (checked September 2026). Students can use the regular Hobby plan, which is free for any personal, non-commercial project. A class project, a personal portfolio, or a side project with no payments or ads fits the rules. If a student is paid to build a site for someone else, that site counts as commercial and needs Vercel Pro.
Yes. Vercel’s domain documentation lists 50 custom domains per project on the Hobby plan, with a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt renewed automatically (checked September 23, 2026). You still pay your registrar for the domain name itself, and the site must remain non-commercial.
Vercel does not bill Hobby users for overages. Its docs say that in most cases, if you exceed a Hobby usage limit, “you will have to wait until 30 days have passed before you can use the feature again” (checked September 2026). Some limits pause for less time; Web Analytics collection can resume after 7 days. To avoid waiting, you can upgrade to Vercel Pro at $20 per month.
No. Vercel’s definition of commercial use includes “receiving payment to create, update, or host the site” and covers “a paid employee or consultant writing the code.” A freelancer paid by a client is exactly that case, even if the site sells nothing. Use a Vercel Pro team, ideally owned by the client, or a host whose free plan allows commercial sites, such as Cloudflare Pages.
Sources
- Vercel — Hobby plan (free, included usage, 30-day pause, Hobby vs Pro table, 50 domains per project) (updated 2026-09-14, checked September 23, 2026)
- Vercel — Fair Use Guidelines (commercial usage definition, examples, donations note) (updated 2026-09-14, checked September 22, 2026)
- Vercel — Limits (200 projects, 100 deployments/day, 1 concurrent build, 45-minute builds, 1 seat) (updated 2026-09-16)
- Vercel — Add a domain (50 custom domains per project) (checked September 23, 2026)
- Vercel — Working with SSL
- Vercel — Pro plan ($20/month, 1 deploying seat, $20 usage credit, Flat Rate CDN) (updated 2026-09-15)
- Vercel — Pricing page (checked September 23, 2026)
- Vercel — Vercel Drop (updated 2026-06-16) and https://vercel.com/changelog/vercel-drop
- Netlify — Credit-based pricing plans (updated 2026-09-01)
- Netlify — How credits work (sites paused when credits run out) (updated 2026-08-12)
- Netlify — Pricing page (checked September 22, 2026)
- Netlify — Drop quickstart
- Netlify — Forms usage and billing
- Cloudflare — Pages product page (checked September 22, 2026)
- Cloudflare — Pages limits (updated 2026-09-05)
- Cloudflare — Direct Upload (updated 2026-04-21)
- Cloudflare — Pages overview (“Start new projects with Workers”) (updated 2026-08-25)
- GitHub — GitHub Pages limits (prohibited uses, 1 GB, 100 GB soft bandwidth)
- GitHub — What is GitHub Pages
- sofast — pricing approved by the founder, 2026-09-22: /pricing/
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