[2025 Edition] Next.js Hosting: Vercel Free Plan vs Paid Plan Thorough Comparison | Summary of Features, Limitations and Fees

Vercel is widely used as a hosting platform for Next.js apps. While it's easy to get started with the free plan (Hobby), the paid plan (Pro) has features that are essential for large-scale development. In this article, we will thoroughly compare Vercel's free plans vs paid plans as part of the 2025 edition, and introduce how to choose the best option based on features, restrictions, and fees.

Vercel plans list

Hobby (free)

• Basic plans for personal projects and verification purposes
• Provides core functions such as automatic CI/CD, preview environment, HTTPS/SSL support, and global CDN for free Vercel

Pro (paid)

• For professional developers and small teams
• $20 per month/user (team sheet system) Vercel
• Added all Hobby features + increased build time and data transfer volume, team collaboration function, email support, and more

Enterprise

• Custom plans for large organizations
• Provides SSO, dedicated support, SLAs, and more

Vercel features (common to the plan)

• Powerful integration with Next.js, making it easy to create serverless APIs (Developer of Next.js)

Features of the free plan (Hobby)

• Cost : Completely free
• Project (number of apps): 200
• Build execution time : 100 hours/month
• Number of deployments : 100 deployments/day
• Number of domains : 50 domains per project Vercel
• Commercial use: not possible

Suitable cases

• Personal blogs and portfolios
• Verification environment/PoC
• Learning Uses to Start Using Next.js

Features of Paid Plans (Pro)

• Cost : $20/User/Month Vercel
• Project (number of apps): Unlimited
• Build execution time : 400 hours/month
• Number of deployments : 6,000 deployments/day
• Number of domains : Unlimited* (soft limit 25,000) Vercel
• Commercial use: possible
• Additional features：
  • Resources 10x
  • Fast Build (Cold Start Prevention)
  • Detailed Performance Traffic Analysis
  • Advanced WAF Rule Settings
  • Vercel AI Playground Access

Suitable cases

• Sites with high commercial services and traffic
• Joint development with teams
• Projects that require fast builds and detailed monitoring

Compare plans details

Vercel Limits has a list of all the restrictions and constraints that apply to Vercel, so check it out if you want to know more.

Also, regarding commercial use in Vercel, please be sure to check this as well as Fair use Guidelines.

In this article, we will focus on some of the most interesting points.

Commercial use

First of all, there is the difference in commercial use. Hobby is restricted to non-commercial personal use only.
It states that to use the platform for commercial use, you will need to subscribe to a Pro or Enterprise plan.

Commercial use refers to deployments that are used for the purpose of financial benefits of those involved in the production of a project (such as paid employees or consultants). This includes the following cases: Of course, this isn't the only thing.

• How to request or process payments from site visitors
• Advertise the sale of products and services
• Rewards for creating, updating and hosting a site
• Affiliate links are the main purpose of this site
• Advertising, including, but not limited to, online advertising platforms such as Google AdSense

item	explanation	Hobby (free)	Pro (paid)
Commercial use	--	impossible	Possible

General limitations

I don't think Hobby is a good deal, but if Projects exceeds 200, I think you'll need to upgrade to Pro.

There is a limit of 12 Serverless Functions per Deployment in Hobby, but when using API Router, it is said that it is unlikely that it will exceed 12, so you may not need to worry about it.
You need to be careful when using Vercel Functions directly.

There's nothing else that can't be done with Hobby, so if you get caught up in the restrictions, you might consider upgrading to Pro.

item	explanation	Hobby (free)	Pro ($20/month)
Projects	Number of projects that can be created per account	200	Unlimited
Deployments Created per Day	Number of deployments you can create per day	100	6,000
Serverless Functions per Deployment	Number of serverless functions that can be created at deployment time (framework dependent)	Framework dependent *12 limits	Unlimited
Proxied Request Timeout	Timeout limit for proxy requests to external servers (seconds)	30	30
Deployments from CLI per Week	Number of deployments (weeks) that can be created via the CLI	2,000	2,000
Projects Connected per Repo	Number of projects linked to one Git repository	10	60
Routes per Deployment	Number of routes (endpoints) that can be created per deployment	2,048	2,048
Build Time per Deployment	Build runtime per deployment (min)	45	45
Static File Uploads	Total size of static files that can be uploaded at deployment time	100 MB	1 GB
Concurrent Builds	Number of build machines that can be run simultaneously and CPU specs	1 unit (2 vCPUs)	12 units (4 vCPUs each)
Disk Size	Disk capacity (GB) in the build container	23	23
Cron Jobs	Cron Job Settings Number	2	40

resource

There is a 10 times difference in the number of requests and the amount of data, but I think Hobby is basically enough.
When using API Router, there is a limit to Function Execution, but with Pro, it can be up to 10 times the time, up to 1,000GB/hour.

If there are restrictions too, I think it would be fine to consider Pro.

item	explanation	Hobby (free)	Pro (paid)
Fast Data Transfer	Amount of data that can be distributed via CDN (GB/month)	100 GB	1 TB
Fast Origin Transfer	Amount of data that can be delivered directly from the origin server (GB/month)	10 GB	100 GB
Function Execution (GB‑Hours)	Serverless function execution time x total memory (GB‑hour/month)	100 GB‑hour	1,000 GB‑hour
Edge Function Execution Units	The total CPU execution time for edge functions measured in 50 ms increments	500,000 units	1,000,000 units
Edge Middleware Invocations	Number of calls to Edge Middleware (lightweight edge function)	1 M times	1 M times
Build Execution (Time)	Total time (hours/months) spent on the build process	100 hours	400 hours
Image Optimization Source Images	Number of original images that can be input using image optimization processing (Legacy frame)	1,000 sheets	5,000 sheets

domain

There is a limit to the number of domains per project, but it will be a custom domain, not a standard domain (*.vercel.app). If you use it normally, I think Hobby will be fine too.

item	explanation	Hobby (free)	Pro (paid)
Number of domains	Number of domains per project	50	Unlimited (soft limit: 25,000

Security

This is the difference between a free plan and a paid plan in terms of security.
Many people may not be so concerned about this at the individual development level, but if you want to enhance security, you might want to consider a paid plan.

item	explanation	Hobby (free)	Pro (paid)
Custom WAF Rules	Maximum number of WAF rules that can be set by itself	Up to 3 rules	Max 40 rules
Bot Filter	Automatically blocks malicious bot traffic	none	can be
IP Blocking	Number of rules that can block access from a specified IP	Up to 3 items	Max 100 items
IP Bypass Rules	Number of rules that allow a specific IP to be excluded from WAF rules	none	Up to 3 items
Rate Limiting	Rate limiting function when overrequests	none	Available from $0.50/1M request

Should I choose Hobby or Pro?

Basically, just start with the Hobby plan !
If you are considering commercial use or if Hobby is likely to be subject to resource constraints, consider the Pro plan!