I Replaced Vercel with Coolify for $30/Month. Here's the Real Math.

I started on Vercel like most Next.js developers. The free plan is genuinely good. Then I upgraded to Pro. Then the bill kept climbing.

By the time I had several active projects, I was paying around $50/month. Not because I was doing anything wrong. Build minutes, edge function invocations, bandwidth. Each project adds up independently.

So I moved everything to Coolify on a Hetzner server. Here''s what that actually looks like.

What I''m running#

My current setup is a single Hetzner CX42:

• 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 320 GB disk
• Location: Nuremberg, Germany
• Cost: $29.99/month

On it, I run Coolify as the self-hosted deployment platform. I currently have 8 sites deployed and I''m planning to run 10+ as more client projects come in.

What Vercel was costing me#

The Vercel pricing model starts simple and gets complicated fast.

Free tier is fine when you have one or two personal projects with low traffic. Once you upgrade to Pro ($20/month), usage costs layer on top:

• Build minutes: 6,000 free, then $0.05/minute
• Edge function invocations: 10M free, then $2/million
• Bandwidth: 100 GB free, then $0.15/GB

With 8 projects each getting updated regularly, I was consistently over the free thresholds. The bill settled around $50/month. That''s $600/year for hosting alone.

The switch to Coolify#

Coolify is an open-source platform that replicates a lot of what Vercel gives you: Git-connected deployments, environment variable management, SSL via Let''s Encrypt, domain routing. You run it on your own server.

The learning curve is real. On Vercel, you push code and it works. On Coolify, you configure Nixpacks build settings, manage Docker networks, debug your own nginx proxy, and handle SSL yourself. It took me a few weekends to get comfortable.

The hardest parts were SSH-related: setting up the initial server, configuring firewall rules, debugging Docker network issues. I worked through most of it by describing the exact error or process to Claude and following its guidance step by step. Not glamorous, but it works.

But once it clicked, deploying a new site takes minutes.

One thing I still use GitHub Actions for#

Coolify has a built-in builder, but I don''t use it for builds. The Hetzner CX42 has limited CPU for heavy Next.js compilation, and I don''t want builds competing with running apps for resources.

Instead, I build with GitHub Actions and push the Docker image to Coolify. GitHub gives 2,000 free minutes/month on private repos. That covers all my current projects with room to spare, and keeps server CPU free for serving traffic.

If I move to a larger Hetzner instance later, I''ll move builds back to Coolify directly.

The actual numbers#

	Vercel	Coolify on Hetzner
Monthly cost	~$50+	$29.99
Sites included	billed per usage	unlimited
Build minutes	6,000 free, then $0.05/min	GitHub Actions (2,000 free/mo)
Scaling cost	goes up with traffic	flat
Setup time	minutes	a few weekends

The difference isn''t just $20/month. Vercel''s cost scales with usage, so the more successful your projects get, the more you pay. Coolify''s cost stays flat.

Who should make the switch#

Coolify makes sense if you:

• Are managing 3+ projects and already on Vercel Pro
• Have some experience with Linux servers and Docker
• Are okay spending time on initial setup in exchange for a flat monthly cost
• Are running client sites where hosting cost comes out of your margin

It doesn''t make sense if you:

• Need zero-config deployment with no ops overhead
• Are running a high-traffic single product where Vercel''s edge network matters
• Don''t have time to learn Docker networking and reverse proxy config

The tradeoff in plain terms#

Vercel is a product. Coolify is infrastructure.

Vercel abstracts away the server. Coolify hands you the server and gives you a dashboard on top. If you have the time to learn it and you''re running multiple projects, the economics are hard to argue with: $30/month flat instead of a bill that grows with every new client and every deploy.