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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Vercel Has a Free Tier — Deploy Websites, Serverless Functions, and Edge APIs Without Paying

#javascript #webdev #beginners #api

Vercel's free Hobby plan gives you unlimited deployments, serverless functions, edge middleware, and a global CDN. Deploy from Git push. No server management. No credit card required.

Get Started

  1. Sign up at vercel.com with GitHub
  2. Import a repo or create from template
  3. Every push to main = automatic deployment

1. Deploy via API 

# Trigger a deployment
curl -X POST "https://api.vercel.com/v13/deployments" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-project",
    "gitSource": {
      "type": "github",
      "repo": "username/my-app",
      "ref": "main"
    }
  }'
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2. Serverless Functions (Zero Config)

Create api/hello.js in your project:

// api/hello.js — this becomes https://your-app.vercel.app/api/hello
export default function handler(req, res) {
  const { name } = req.query;
  res.status(200).json({ message: `Hello ${name || "World"}!` });
}
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That's it. Deploy and you have an API endpoint.

3. Edge Functions (Fastest Response) 

// api/geo.js
export const config = { runtime: "edge" };

export default function handler(req) {
  const country = req.headers.get("x-vercel-ip-country") || "Unknown";
  const city = req.headers.get("x-vercel-ip-city") || "Unknown";

  return new Response(
    JSON.stringify({ country, city, timestamp: Date.now() }),
    { headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" } }
  );
}
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Runs at the edge in ~50ms worldwide.

4. Python Serverless Function 

# api/data.py
from http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler
import json

class handler(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
    def do_GET(self):
        self.send_response(200)
        self.send_header("Content-Type", "application/json")
        self.end_headers()
        self.wfile.write(json.dumps({
            "status": "ok",
            "data": ["item1", "item2", "item3"]
        }).encode())
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5. Cron Jobs (Free)

Add to vercel.json:

{
  "crons": [
    {
      "path": "/api/daily-report",
      "schedule": "0 9 * * *"
    }
  ]
}
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Your serverless function runs daily at 9 AM UTC — free on Hobby plan.

Free Tier (Hobby Plan)

Resource Limit
Deployments Unlimited
Serverless Functions 100 GB-hours/month
Edge Functions 500K invocations/month
Bandwidth 100 GB/month
Builds 6,000 minutes/month
Cron Jobs 2 per project
Team members 1 (personal)

What You Can Build

  • API backend — serverless functions as REST endpoints
  • Portfolio site — deploy Next.js/React with custom domain
  • Webhook processor — receive and process webhooks from any service
  • Scheduled tasks — cron jobs for data collection, reports, alerts
  • Edge API — ultra-fast responses from 30+ global locations
  • Full-stack app — Next.js with API routes and database connections

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