For a Next.js SaaS that's starting out, Vercel removes almost all infra: you push, it's live, globally. Here's what it saves you concretely — and the exact moment to consider leaving.
Vercel makes Next.js: the framework and the platform are designed together. For a starting SaaS, that means zero servers to manage, and all your time going to the product instead of infra.
git push and it’s deployed. No server, no OS, no reverse proxy to configure.
Every pull request gets its own isolated preview URL. Review becomes concrete, testable, shareable.
Your app is served close to the user, everywhere, without you managing any CDN.
A traffic spike is absorbed with no action: serverless functions scale on their own.
The flip side of that simplicity: you pay for the convenience, and you live in a serverless model. Two things to keep in mind before building on it.
The serverless model has execution-time limits: a long task (massive export, batch) must go elsewhere — a queue, a worker, a dedicated Lambda.
Stay on Vercel while it serves the product, migrate when it becomes a brake — not before. The signals: a bill exceeding what your own EC2 would cost, a need for workloads serverless can’t handle, or compliance constraints requiring your own infra.
When the time comes, the migration paths are in hosting your SaaS on AWS — often you keep the front on Vercel and move only the heavy parts.
Vercel is the best starting point for a Next.js SaaS: you trade control for speed, and early on speed always wins. Build on it guilt-free, watch the bill, and keep an exit open for the day scale changes the math.
Vercel — Pricing ↗