AZIN vs Vercel: Full-Stack Deployment vs Frontend Cloud

Vercel is widely regarded as the leading frontend deployment platform. AZIN deploys full-stack applications — frontends, APIs, workers, databases — to your own cloud. Different tools for different jobs. But if your app has a backend, the differences matter.

#Quick comparison

#Different platforms, different strengths

Vercel is a frontend cloud optimized for Next.js and edge functions. AZIN is a full-stack BYOC deployment platform that runs web apps, APIs, workers, cron jobs, and managed databases in your own GCP account. As of February 2026, Vercel does not support BYOC at any tier — all compute runs on Vercel's infrastructure.

Vercel and AZIN share one thing: they both let you deploy from a git push. Beyond that, they target fundamentally different architectures.

Vercel is a frontend cloud. It runs Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, and SvelteKit on a global edge network with near-instant cold starts. Serverless functions handle API routes. Static assets are cached on 30+ edge PoPs worldwide. For frontend-heavy applications, it's hard to beat.

AZIN is a full-stack deployment platform. It runs web apps, API servers, background workers, cron jobs, and managed databases — all deployed to your own GCP account. One console, full infrastructure ownership.

The overlap is small: both deploy frontends from git. The divergence is large: everything behind the frontend.

#Where Vercel excels

Vercel deserves its position. Here's what it does better than almost anyone.

Next.js optimization

Vercel created Next.js. Features like Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR), React Server Components, and the App Router work best — and sometimes only — on Vercel's infrastructure. If you're building a Next.js application and want zero-config deployment with every framework feature available, Vercel is the default choice.

Edge performance

Vercel's global edge network puts static assets and edge functions within milliseconds of end users. For marketing sites, e-commerce storefronts, and content-heavy applications, this edge proximity provides a meaningful performance advantage.

Preview deployments

Every pull request gets a live, shareable URL. Designers, PMs, and QA can click and review without setting up anything. Vercel's preview deployment experience is widely used and well-regarded across the developer community.

AI tooling

v0 generates UI components from text prompts. The AI SDK provides streaming support, tool calling, and multi-model orchestration. Vercel is investing heavily in making AI-powered development accessible, with AI SDK 6 adding agents, tool execution approval, and full MCP support.

Scale and ecosystem

Reported $9.3B valuation (per Forbes, as of February 2026). 35+ supported frameworks. One of the largest teams in the deployment platform space. This is a well-funded, mature platform with deep ecosystem integrations. The documentation is excellent. The community is massive.

#Where AZIN fills the gap

Vercel solves frontend deployment. AZIN solves everything behind it.

Full-stack in one platform

A typical production application needs more than a frontend: API servers that handle business logic, background workers that process queues, cron jobs that run reports, databases that store state. On Vercel, each of these requires a separate service or third-party integration. On AZIN, they deploy together from the same repo.

# azin.yaml — declarative config (CLI tooling planned)
services:
  web:
    type: web
    build: ./frontend
    framework: nextjs
 
  api:
    type: web
    build: ./api
    port: 8080
    env:
      DATABASE_URL: "${postgres.url}"
 
  worker:
    type: worker
    build: ./worker
    command: "node worker.js"
    env:
      REDIS_URL: "${redis.url}"
 
  scheduler:
    type: cron
    build: ./jobs
    schedule: "0 */6 * * *"
    command: "node reports.js"
 
databases:
  postgres:
    type: postgresql
    version: "16"
 
  redis:
    type: redis
    version: "7"

This entire stack deploys to your GCP account with a single git push. With Vercel, the frontend and API routes work well, but background workers, queue processing, and managed databases would need separate services or providers.

Long-running processes

Vercel's serverless functions have execution limits: 120 seconds by default, up to 800 seconds with Fluid Compute on Pro and Enterprise. For most API routes, that's fine. For video processing, data pipelines, ML inference, WebSocket servers, or any workload that runs longer than a few minutes, it's a hard wall.

AZIN runs persistent processes. Your API server stays running. Your worker processes queues continuously. No timeouts, no cold starts on critical paths.

WebSocket support

Vercel does not support WebSocket connections. Its serverless architecture is fundamentally stateless — there's no persistent process to maintain a socket. Server-Sent Events (SSE) work, but bidirectional real-time communication requires an external service.

AZIN runs your WebSocket server as a standard process. Chat applications, live dashboards, multiplayer features, collaborative editors — they deploy the same way as any other service.

Infrastructure ownership (BYOC)

On Vercel, your code runs on Vercel's infrastructure. Enterprise customers get VPC peering to their AWS account, but the compute still happens on Vercel's machines.

On AZIN, your code runs in your GCP account. You own the infrastructure, the data, and the cloud provider relationship. AZIN provisions and manages GKE Autopilot, Cloud SQL, Memorystore, and other GCP managed services directly in your account. You can inspect, audit, and control everything through your GCP console.

This matters for compliance (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR), data residency requirements, and teams that want to avoid platform lock-in.

#The database story

Vercel deprecated its first-party database offerings (Vercel Postgres and Vercel KV) in late 2024, migrating users to marketplace partners Neon and Upstash. As of February 2026, new Vercel Postgres stores cannot be created. In late 2024, Vercel began transitioning its first-party database offerings — Vercel Postgres and Vercel KV — to third-party providers. By early 2025, the transition was complete. New projects can no longer create Vercel Postgres stores. Instead, Vercel directs users to the Vercel Marketplace: Neon for PostgreSQL, Upstash for Redis/KV.

This isn't necessarily bad. Neon and Upstash are solid products. But it reveals something about Vercel's architecture: Vercel transitioned its database offerings to dedicated marketplace partners. The database layer is provided through marketplace partners rather than Vercel's own infrastructure.

AZIN provisions managed databases directly in your GCP account. PostgreSQL via Google Cloud SQL. Redis via Memorystore. The database runs in your VPC, on GCP's managed service, with your backups and your encryption keys. No third-party data processors to evaluate. No marketplace middlemen.

#Pricing reality

Vercel's pricing model combines per-seat fees with granular usage metering across multiple dimensions: edge requests, function invocations, function duration (CPU time), image optimizations, bandwidth, and more.

Vercel pricing breakdown (as of February 2026)

Overages on Pro (as of February 2026): $2.00 per million edge requests, $0.15/GB bandwidth, $0.128/hr CPU time, $0.60 per million function invocations. These numbers add up.

Where bills surprise you

A 10-person team pays $200/month in seat fees before any usage. For moderately trafficked applications, costs can increase significantly due to granular metering across function invocations, bandwidth, and image optimization.

Enterprise features like SSO, WAF, and custom TLS require the Enterprise plan, which starts around $20-25K/year as of February 2026. If you need just one enterprise feature, you pay for all of them.

AZIN pricing model

AZIN charges a flat platform fee. Your compute, database, and bandwidth costs go directly to your cloud provider at your cloud provider's standard rates. A 10-person team pays the same platform fee as a 2-person team. Usage costs scale with actual cloud consumption, not per-seat multiplication.

#When to choose Vercel

Vercel is the right choice when:

• Your application is frontend-heavy — marketing sites, content platforms, e-commerce storefronts
• You're building with Next.js and want every framework feature to work out of the box
• Your backend logic fits within serverless functions — short API calls, form handlers, webhooks
• You don't need long-running processes, WebSockets, or persistent workers
• Edge performance matters more than infrastructure ownership
• Your team is small and per-seat pricing isn't a concern

Vercel excels at what it was built for. If your entire application is a frontend with API routes, Vercel delivers an outstanding experience.

#When to choose AZIN

AZIN is the right choice when:

• Your application has a real backend — API servers, workers, cron jobs, database-heavy logic
• You need managed databases provisioned in your own cloud account
• You want BYOC — your data stays in your own GCP account, not on a third party's infrastructure (AWS and Azure on roadmap)
• You're running long-running processes — video encoding, data pipelines, ML training, WebSocket servers
• Compliance requirements (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR) make infrastructure ownership necessary
• Your team is growing and per-seat pricing creates cost pressure
• You want one platform for the entire stack instead of stitching together Vercel + database provider + queue service + cron service

#Vercel strengths and limitations

#AZIN strengths and limitations

#Can you use Vercel for backend?

Technically, yes. Practically, with constraints. Vercel supports serverless functions in Node.js, Python, Go, and Ruby. These functions handle API routes, webhooks, form submissions, and short-lived server logic.

What serverless functions can't do:

• Run continuously — functions execute per-request and terminate
• Maintain WebSocket connections — stateless architecture, no persistent sockets
• Process long jobs — 120s default timeout, 800s maximum
• Run workers or queue consumers — no background process support
• Host databases — Vercel transitioned its own to marketplace providers

If your backend fits within these constraints, Vercel works. If it doesn't, you need a separate platform for your backend — or a full-stack platform like AZIN that handles everything.

#Deploying full-stack on AZIN vs Vercel

Consider a typical SaaS application: a Next.js frontend, a Node.js API, a background worker for email processing, and a PostgreSQL database.

On Vercel

• Frontend deploys to Vercel (excellent)
• API routes run as serverless functions (120s default timeout, 800s max with Fluid Compute)
• Email worker needs a separate service (AWS Lambda, Railway, Render)
• Database provisioned through Neon ($19/mo Starter as of February 2026) or Supabase
• Queue needs a separate provider (Upstash QStash, AWS SQS)
• Four platforms to manage, four bills to track

On AZIN

# Everything deploys together
git push origin main
# → Frontend builds and deploys
# → API server starts
# → Worker connects to queue
# → PostgreSQL provisioned in your GCP account
# → Preview environments include the full stack

One platform. One bill (platform fee + cloud provider). One set of environment variables. Full-stack preview environments on every PR.

#Frequently asked questions

#Related comparisons

Looking at other platforms? These comparisons cover the full landscape:

• AZIN vs Railway — comparing AZIN with the best developer experience PaaS
• AZIN vs Render — AZIN compared to the modern Heroku replacement
• AZIN vs Fly.io — Global edge VMs vs managed BYOC deployment
• Deploy Next.js with AZIN — Next.js hosting with App Router and Server Components on your own cloud

Vercel and Next.js are trademarks of Vercel, Inc. All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. AZIN is not affiliated with or endorsed by the companies mentioned on this page.