Can you use Vercel's Hobby plan for a commercial site?

Vercel's Hobby plan is free and, under Vercel's fair use guidelines, for non-commercial personal use only. A site meant to make money for anyone involved is outside it. Vercel's fair use guidelines, last updated September 14, 2026, say it in 2 sentences: “Hobby teams are restricted to non-commercial personal use only. All commercial usage of the platform requires either a Pro or Enterprise plan.” The FAQ on Vercel's pricing page puts it the same way: “Our Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use.”

This page covers what the fair use guidelines say about Hobby, what Vercel counts as commercial, what happens to a Hobby site that crosses the line, and where to put the site instead: Vercel Pro, or a free plan from a host without the rule. Vercel's guidelines, plan docs, pricing page, and Terms of Service, and the other hosts' docs, were read on October 23, 2026. The guidelines are still the version last updated September 14, 2026, and the Terms of Service were last updated October 19, 2026. Terms change, so check them before you launch.

What Vercel's fair use guidelines say about Hobby

The guidelines do 2 jobs on one page. Their first part applies “across plans and usage-based resources,” and Vercel calls it “a rule-of-thumb for determining which projects fall within our definition of ‘fair use’ and which do not.” It lists “Blogs, ecommerce, and marketing sites” among its “Examples of fair use,” next to static sites and single page applications. The “Commercial usage” section of the same page still says “Hobby teams are restricted to non-commercial personal use only.” This page's reading of the two together: an online store or a marketing site fits the fair use list and still needs Pro or Enterprise.

“Never fair use” on any plan: “Proxies and VPNs,” “Media hosting for hot-linking,” “Scrapers,” “Crypto Mining,” “Load Testing without authorization,” and “Penetration testing.”

Vercel's Terms of Service, last updated October 19, 2026, word the plan rule in section 4: “You shall only use the Services under a Hobby plan for your personal or non-commercial use.” The same section says Vercel may “disable or remove any Project or website deployment on the Hobby plan with or without notice at our sole discretion.” The fair use guidelines are where Vercel defines commercial use and gives its examples.

Hobby also has usage limits, separate from the commercial rule, such as 100 GB of Fast Data Transfer a month in the Hobby plan docs; Vercel Hobby plan limits lists them and what happens when a site passes one.

What Vercel counts as commercial

The guidelines define commercial usage as “any Deployment that is used for the purpose of financial gain of anyone involved in any part of the production of the project, including a paid employee or consultant writing the code.” They give 5 examples, and the list isn't complete:

• “Any method of requesting or processing payment from visitors of the site”
• “Advertising the sale of a product or service”
• “Receiving payment to create, update, or host the site”
• “Affiliate linking is the primary purpose of the site”
• “The inclusion of advertisements, including but not limited to online advertising platforms like Google AdSense”

The guidelines spell out 1 exception: “Asking for Donations does not fall under commercial usage.” For anything in between, Vercel's help article on paused accounts says “When you're unsure if your project counts as commercial, contact Vercel Support before deployment.”

The table below lists common sites and shows whether they are fine on Hobby. Where the guidelines do not name a kind of site, the last column is this page's reading, and Vercel Support has the final say.

What happens to a commercial page on Hobby

Vercel's help article on paused accounts, updated October 2, 2026, says “One frequent trigger is commercial use on a Hobby plan.” “When a deployment breaches the Terms of Service, the Acceptable Use Policy, or the Fair Use Guidelines, Vercel's team may pause the account or deployment directly.” A paused production page stops serving. Visitors see a 503 DEPLOYMENT_PAUSED error. Vercel emails you “with the specifics and the steps to resolve it,”. For commercial use, the article's answer is a Pro or Enterprise plan.

Hobby's usage limits are separate from this rule: a commercial site can be paused even within them.

Option 1: Upgrade to Vercel Pro

Vercel's pricing FAQ says Pro “is designed for professional developers, freelancers, and businesses.” Upgrading is the least work if your page already runs on Vercel: upgrade the team it is on to paid Pro, and keep the same project, deploys, and domain. Here are the costs from the Pro plan docs, updated September 15, 2026:

• A $20 monthly platform fee. It includes 1 seat that can deploy and $20 of usage credit a month. Usage past the credit is billed on demand.
• Extra deploy seats. Each extra seat that deploys costs $20 a month. Read-only viewer seats are free.
• A 14-day trial. You get 1 trial per user account. The trial starts on a new team, so projects on your Hobby team are not in it. It ends after 14 days or when the team goes over the trial's usage limits, whichever comes first. Without a payment method, the team goes back to Hobby.
• A free domain for the first year. A paid Pro team gets 1 free domain for the first year, not a premium name, on one of 16 endings: .agency, .app, .co, .company, .dev, .digital, .info, .live, .online, .pro, .site, .space, .store, .studio, .tech, or .website (Free Domain with Pro, updated September 2, 2026). Vercel says “Premium domains are not eligible for this offer,” and the offer runs “while the promotion is available.” After the first year, it renews at the regular price. The trial does not include it.

To upgrade, open Settings, then Billing, in the Vercel dashboard, and click Upgrade under Plan.

Option 2: Free plans without a non-commercial rule

For a landing page or another static site, these free plans do not limit you to personal use. Each has its own catch.

Netlify

Netlify's Free plan is the closest match to Hobby for a developer: deploys from Git, an API, or an AI tool, unlimited deploy previews, functions, and custom domains with SSL. Its Free plan announcement from November 12, 2024 says “you can deploy commercial projects” on it. That post predates the credit-based plans, and the credit-based plan docs add no limit on the kind of use. The limit is the budget: 300 credits a month, 15 per production deploy, and 20 per GB of bandwidth. Once they are used up, “all of your web projects (sites/apps) are paused”, per Netlify's credit docs. Forms are “free and unlimited for all credit-based plans.” Web Analytics keeps 1 day of data on Free. Netlify's Personal plan costs $9 a month for 1,000 credits. The page Is Netlify free? works through what the credits cover and what happens when they run out.

Cloudflare Pages

Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement, last updated September 12, 2025, does not limit free services to personal use. It rules out one thing a commercial site does: you may not “process or collect personal or business credit card information on any web property that is receiving Free Services.” Read that clause before putting a payment form on the page. Otherwise, static files cost nothing: Cloudflare's Workers static assets docs say “Requests to static assets are free and unlimited.” A Pages project takes up to 100 custom domains, the Free plan allows 500 builds a month, and Web Analytics is free. There is no form that stores entries; the Static Forms plugin hands each submission to code you write. Cloudflare's Pages docs now say “Start new projects with Workers.”

Convika

Convika hosts landing pages, 1 HTML page each, with a form that keeps entries and stats on who visited. Section 7 of its terms allows commercial use on every plan, Free included: a page that sells or advertises a product or service, a startup or waitlist page, a portfolio that offers your services for hire, or a client's page you build, host, and bill the client for. What it bars is reselling Convika itself without permission, for example selling access to Convika accounts, its API, or its MCP server as your own hosting product. You upload the page's HTML file, up to 2 MB, or paste its code in the dashboard; Claude, Claude Code, or Codex can also save it through Convika's MCP server. Free includes 1 published page, 10,000 pageviews a month, 50 form entries a month with CSV export and an email for each, 90 days of visit stats, and 1 custom subdomain such as www.yourbrand.com, with a small Convika bar at the bottom. Pro removes the bar and shows every form entry. Pro costs $12 a month.

Not a fit for: a Next.js or other framework app, server code, or a site with several routes. Convika hosts a single HTML document per page. The page's scripts can only fetch data from its own address, apart from analytics tools such as Google Analytics and the hosts you list for your own ad network, on Pro and above. There is no checkout built in; a Buy button can link to a checkout page you set up elsewhere. Custom domains must be subdomains such as www. To see the page on Convika before signing up, the free HTML publishing tool gives you a preview link with no account that works for 3 minutes.

GitHub Pages isn't an option

GitHub Pages is free, but GitHub's terms rule out running “your online business, e-commerce site,” or SaaS on it. The page Can you use GitHub Pages for a commercial or business site? goes through the rules case by case.

More free hosts, including Tiiny Host, Carrd, and Google Sites, are compared in free landing page hosting with a form and Netlify Drop alternatives.

Which one to pick

• A Next.js app, Vercel Functions, or a team deployment: Pick Vercel Pro at $20 a month for your first seat. Start with the 14-day trial.
• A static site you redeploy a few times a month, with a form: Pick Netlify Free. Count your deploys against your 300 monthly credits.
• A static site with heavy traffic, where you handle the form yourself: Pick Cloudflare. Read the card-data clause before you add a payment form.
• A single landing page that collects signups and tracks visitor sources: Pick Convika Free. The form shows 50 entries a month and saves the rest. They appear once you upgrade to Pro at $12 a month.
• A personal project that only asks for donations: Stay on Vercel Hobby.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use Vercel Hobby for commercial use?

No, you cannot use Vercel Hobby for commercial use. The fair use guidelines say “Hobby teams are restricted to non-commercial personal use only. All commercial usage of the platform requires either a Pro or Enterprise plan.” Commercial means any deployment used for the financial gain of anyone involved in making it. This includes code written by a paid employee or consultant.

What counts as commercial use on Vercel?

Commercial use on Vercel covers deployments used for financial gain, including taking payments and running ads. Vercel's examples are taking payment from visitors, advertising the sale of a product or service, being paid to create, update, or host the site, a site whose main purpose is affiliate links, and ads such as Google AdSense. The list is not complete. Asking for donations does not count.

Does Vercel's fair use policy allow ecommerce on the Hobby plan?

No, an ecommerce site still needs Pro or Enterprise. The fair use guidelines list “Blogs, ecommerce, and marketing sites” under “Examples of fair use,” a list Vercel calls a “rule-of-thumb” that applies “across plans.” The same page says “Hobby teams are restricted to non-commercial personal use only,” and taking payment from visitors is one of its examples of commercial usage.

Can I host a client's website on Vercel Hobby?

No, you cannot host a client's website on Vercel Hobby. “Receiving payment to create, update, or host the site” is one of Vercel's examples, and the definition includes “a paid employee or consultant writing the code.” That holds even if the client's site sells nothing, and even if it runs on the client's own Hobby account, so it needs Pro or Enterprise. Convika's terms allow it on every plan, Free included: you can build a client's landing page, host it on Convika, and bill the client. The exception is reselling Convika itself without permission, such as selling access to Convika accounts, its API, or its MCP server as your own hosting product. On Free, an account connects 1 custom subdomain and its pages show a small Convika bar at the bottom. Pro, at $12 a month, connects unlimited custom subdomains and shows no bar.

Can I put my portfolio on Vercel Hobby?

You may be able to put a portfolio on Vercel Hobby if it only displays your work. The guidelines do not mention portfolios directly. A portfolio that offers your services for hire likely counts as commercial, because that is close to “Advertising the sale of a product or service,” one of Vercel's examples. A portfolio that only shows your work matches none of the examples. If you are unsure, Vercel's help center says to contact Vercel Support before deploying.

Is a startup landing page or waitlist commercial use on Vercel?

A startup landing page or waitlist likely counts as commercial use if you plan to charge for the product. Vercel does not name either directly. The definition covers any deployment used “for the purpose of financial gain” of anyone involved, and advertising a product or service is one of the examples. Plan on Pro for a page about a product you will charge for, ask Vercel Support, or host it on a free plan without the rule.

What happens if I use Vercel Hobby commercially?

Vercel may pause your account or your deployment if you use Hobby commercially. Its help article names commercial use on a Hobby plan as a frequent reason for a policy pause. Visitors then see a 503 DEPLOYMENT_PAUSED error. Vercel emails you the details and the steps to resolve it, which for commercial use means a Pro or Enterprise plan.

How much does Vercel Pro cost?

Vercel Pro costs $20 a month for the platform fee. That platform fee includes 1 deploying seat and $20 of usage credit. Each extra deploying seat costs $20 a month, viewer seats are free, and usage past the credit is billed on demand. You can try Pro for 14 days, once per user account. A team without a payment method goes back to Hobby when the trial ends.

Which free hosting allows commercial use?

Convika, Netlify, and Cloudflare Pages allow commercial use on their free tiers. Section 7 of Convika's terms allows commercial use on every plan, Free included, covering client pages you build, host, and bill for. The exception is reselling Convika itself without permission. Convika's Free plan gives you 1 published page, 50 form entries a month shown, and a Convika bar. Netlify's announcement says commercial projects can go on its Free plan, which runs on 300 credits a month and pauses every project when they run out. Cloudflare's terms do not limit free services to personal use, but they forbid collecting credit card details on a site that uses them. GitHub Pages is not allowed for running an online business.

Can I use Netlify's free plan for commercial use?

Yes, you can use Netlify's free plan for commercial use. Netlify's Free plan announcement says “you can deploy commercial projects, personal sites, or other creative explorations” on it, and its credit-based plan docs add no limit on the kind of use. The limit is the budget: 300 credits a month, 15 per production deploy, and 20 per GB of bandwidth. When they run out, every project on the account pauses until the next billing cycle or until you upgrade, because the Free plan cannot buy more credits. Is Netlify free? works through what the credits cover. Convika's terms allow commercial use on Free too. Its Free pages keep taking form entries past the monthly limit, and they stop for the rest of the month 7 days after reaching 10,000 pageviews unless you upgrade: from sign-up for a workspace created on or after October 23, 2026 (Japan time), and from November 1, 2026 for an earlier one.

Is Cloudflare Pages free for commercial use?

Yes, Cloudflare Pages is free for commercial use. Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement does not limit free services to personal use, and requests to static files are free and unlimited. One clause matters for a site that sells: you may not “process or collect personal or business credit card information on any web property that is receiving Free Services.” Cloudflare Pages has no form that stores entries; the Static Forms plugin passes each submission to code you write. Convika's Free plan, which also allows commercial use, stores form entries with no code: it shows 50 a month and keeps the ones past that for Pro.