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Why are you still using Vercel?
tldr: The only reason was DX. Agents just killed that moat.
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tldr: The only reason was DX. Agents just killed that moat.
Nice dashboard. Easy deploys. Seamless Next.js. Worth paying 4x more? Maybe — if you valued your time learning infra.
When AI writes your infrastructure code, DX stops mattering. What's left? Cost. Performance. Limits. Cloudflare wins on all three.
Cloudflare wins on almost every metric that matters. The numbers don't lie.
Every metric developers actually care about
| Feature | Cloudflare | Vercel |
|---|---|---|
|
Cold Starts
Time to first byte on fresh invocation
|
0ms | 250-500ms |
|
Bandwidth
Data transfer costs
|
Free (unlimited) | $0.15/GB after 1TB |
|
Function Duration
Max execution time
|
30s CPU (unbilled wait) | 10s (Pro), 60s (Enterprise) |
|
Edge Locations
Global distribution
|
330+ cities | ~20 regions |
|
Free Tier Requests
Monthly included requests
|
100K/day | 100K/month |
|
Database
Native database solution
|
D1 (SQLite at edge, 5GB free) | Postgres via Neon (256MB free) |
|
KV Storage
Key-value at the edge
|
1GB free, $0.50/GB | 256MB free, $1/GB |
|
Object Storage
S3-compatible storage
|
R2: 10GB free, no egress | Blob: 1GB, $0.05/GB egress |
|
AI Inference
Built-in AI models
|
Workers AI (100+ models) | None built-in |
|
Streaming
SSE / streaming responses
|
Native, no extra cost | Supported, billed by duration |
|
WebSockets
Real-time connections
|
Durable Objects (native) | Not natively supported |
|
Vendor Lock-in
Framework dependency
|
Framework agnostic | Optimized for Next.js |
|
Pro Plan
Monthly cost
|
$5/mo (Workers Paid) | $20/mo/member |
Everything that made Vercel worth the premium — the things you didn't want to learn or configure yourself — your coding agent handles instantly.
"How does wrangler.toml work?" "What's the Workers runtime?" "How do I set up D1?" You'll never ask. The agent knows.
Vercel's magic was hiding configuration. Now Claude writes your entire infra config in seconds. The "easy" button is everywhere.
"Rewrite my Next.js API routes for Cloudflare Workers." Done. The agent handles the translation. You review and ship.
When something breaks, paste the error. Agent fixes it. You don't need to understand Cloudflare's quirks — the agent does.
With DX commoditized, you're left choosing on fundamentals. Here's how they compare.
Cloudflare is 4-10x cheaper. Free bandwidth. $5/mo vs $20/seat. No egress fees on R2.
0ms cold starts. 330+ edge locations. True global by default, not regional.
30s CPU time. 100K requests/day free. No duration billing for I/O wait.
Workers AI built-in. 100+ models. Vectorize for embeddings. AI Gateway for caching.
See how much you'd save by switching to Cloudflare
Benchmark your stack
We're compiling data across hundreds of teams to expose the real cost of staying on Vercel. Add your stack to the dataset.
In return, you'll get: