Netlify Has a Free API You Should Know About

Netlify's API goes far beyond deployment — it gives you serverless functions, edge functions, forms, identity, and blobs.

The Deploy API

# Create a deploy
curl -X POST "https://api.netlify.com/api/v1/sites/SITE_ID/deploys" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NETLIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/zip" \
  --data-binary @deploy.zip

# List deploys
curl "https://api.netlify.com/api/v1/sites/SITE_ID/deploys" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NETLIFY_TOKEN"

# Rollback to previous deploy
curl -X POST "https://api.netlify.com/api/v1/sites/SITE_ID/rollback" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NETLIFY_TOKEN"

Netlify Functions (Serverless)

// netlify/functions/users.ts
import type { Handler } from '@netlify/functions'

export const handler: Handler = async (event) => {
  if (event.httpMethod === 'GET') {
    const users = await db.user.findMany()
    return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify(users) }
  }

  if (event.httpMethod === 'POST') {
    const data = JSON.parse(event.body!)
    const user = await db.user.create({ data })
    return { statusCode: 201, body: JSON.stringify(user) }
  }
}

Edge Functions

// netlify/edge-functions/geo.ts
export default async (request: Request, context: Context) => {
  const { country, city } = context.geo

  if (country === 'DE') {
    return new Response('Willkommen!', {
      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' }
    })
  }

  return context.next()
}

export const config = { path: '/welcome' }

Netlify Blobs — Key-Value + File Storage

import { getStore } from '@netlify/blobs'

const store = getStore('user-data')

// Store JSON
await store.setJSON('user:123', { name: 'John', preferences: { theme: 'dark' } })

// Read
const user = await store.get('user:123', { type: 'json' })

// Store files
await store.set('avatars/user-123', imageBuffer, {
  metadata: { contentType: 'image/png' }
})

Forms API — Zero-Backend Forms

<form name="contact" netlify>
  <input name="email" type="email" required>
  <textarea name="message"></textarea>
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

# Read submissions via API
curl "https://api.netlify.com/api/v1/forms/FORM_ID/submissions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NETLIFY_TOKEN"

Real-World Use Case

A freelancer was paying for 4 separate services: hosting (Vercel), forms (Typeform), auth (Auth0), file storage (S3). They moved everything to Netlify: hosting + functions + forms + blobs + identity. One platform, one bill, one dashboard. Monthly cost went from $85 to $0 (free tier).

Netlify quietly became a full backend platform.

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