Vercel vs Netlify free plans in 2026: limits, commercial use, and cost

Vercel's Hobby plan is free but “restricted to non-commercial personal use only,” per Vercel's fair use guidelines, last updated September 14, 2026, while Netlify's Free plan is “$0 forever” and comes with 300 credits a month on accounts created since September 4, 2025. Netlify's Free plan announcement of November 12, 2024 says “you can deploy commercial projects” on it. That is the deciding difference for most sites: a business site can't stay on Vercel Hobby, and a site on Netlify Free goes offline when the month's credits run out, because then “all of your web projects (sites/apps) are paused,” per Netlify's How credits work, last updated August 12, 2026.

Vercel's and Netlify's pricing pages, plan docs, and terms were read on November 3, 2026, and each quote below carries its document's own date. Vercel's fair use guidelines and Hobby docs are still the versions of September 14, 2026; Netlify's credit-based plan docs were last updated October 30, 2026. Prices are in US dollars. Netlify's are the prices its pricing page showed a signed-out visitor on November 3, 2026, Personal at $9 and Pro at $20 a month, and the page's code can show signed-in teams other prices: $12 or $15 for Personal, and $25 for Pro. Plans change, so check them before you launch.

Netlify accounts created before September 4, 2025 stay on Netlify's Legacy plans unless they switch; every account created since then is on the credit-based plans this page describes. Legacy Free has no credits: it includes “100 GB/month” of bandwidth and 300 build minutes a month, each “(If Free plan, hard limit)” (Legacy plan docs, last updated January 10, 2026). Is Netlify free? covers both.

This page puts the two free plans side by side. Each one has pages of its own with every number: Vercel Hobby plan limits, Can you use Vercel's Hobby plan for a commercial site?, Is Netlify free?, and What happens when Netlify credits run out.

The short answer

• A business site: Netlify Free allows it. Vercel Hobby doesn't, so on Vercel it needs Pro, at $20 a month.
• How the free allowance is counted: Vercel Hobby gives each resource its own monthly allowance, such as 100 GB of data transfer and 1,000,000 function invocations. Netlify Free, on accounts created since September 4, 2025, gives one pool of 300 credits that deploys, bandwidth, web requests, and functions all draw on.
• Past the limit: On Vercel Hobby, “in most cases” you wait 30 days to use the feature again, and sustained use can pause the site. On Netlify Free, every project on the account pauses until the next billing cycle, and Free can't buy more credits.
• Teammates: Neither free plan adds teammates who deploy. Vercel's Hobby docs list team collaboration for Pro only, and Netlify says Free and Personal “cannot add any additional team member seats.”
• The first paid step: Netlify Personal costs $9 a month for 1,000 credits. Vercel's first paid plan is Pro, at $20 a month.

Vercel Hobby and Netlify Free side by side

Each row comes from the vendor's own page, read on November 3, 2026, and links it.

The two plans count differently. On Vercel, using up one allowance, such as data transfer, leaves the others as they were. On Netlify, every metered action draws on the same 300 credits: 20 production deploys use all of them (20 × 15 = 300) before anyone visits. Is Netlify free? works through how long 300 credits last for a one-page site.

Commercial use: Vercel's terms and Netlify's

Vercel. The fair use 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.” Their examples include taking payment from visitors, advertising a product or service, being paid to build or host the site, and running ads, and they add that “Asking for Donations does not fall under commercial usage.” Vercel's Terms of Service, last updated October 19, 2026, say it in section 4: “You shall only use the Services under a Hobby plan for your personal or non-commercial use.” The FAQ on Vercel's pricing page puts it the same way: “Our Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use.” Can you use Vercel's Hobby plan for a commercial site? applies the rule to portfolios, client sites, stores, and waitlists one by one.

Netlify. The Free plan announcement says “On the Free plan, you can deploy commercial projects, personal sites, or other creative explorations you want to share on the web.” The post predates Netlify's credit-based plans, and the credit-based plan docs and the pricing page add no limit on the kind of use. The pricing FAQ says “The free plan is always free, with hard monthly limits that cannot be exceeded or incur any costs.” For a site that sells or advertises, the limit on Netlify Free is the budget, not the kind of site.

Client work is the case Netlify doesn't settle. It doesn't name a client's site you're paid to build and host, and its Acceptable Use Policy, last updated March 8, 2023, which “applies to all uses of Netlify Services and website,” says “Users must not modify, create derivative works based on or in any manner commercially exploit the Netlify Services or website, in whole or in part.” Which free hosting lets me run a business site? reads that case as “Netlify doesn't say,” and quotes GitHub Pages' and Cloudflare Pages' rules as well.

What happens at the limit on each

Vercel Hobby. The Hobby docs say “As the Hobby plan is a free tier there are no billing cycles. In most cases, if you exceed your usage limits on the Hobby plan, you will have to wait until 30 days have passed before you can use the feature again.” Web Analytics is the exception they name: collection “can resume after 7 days.” Vercel's help article on paused accounts says “sustained usage past these limits can lead to a paused deployment,” and then “your production site stops serving and visitors see a 503 DEPLOYMENT_PAUSED error.” Hobby sends no bill: you wait, or you move the team to Pro. Vercel Hobby plan limits lists every limit and what happens past it.

Netlify Free. How credits work says “Once your credit balance is completely used up, all of your web projects (sites/apps) are paused and visitors to your web projects will find a Site not available page at each of your web project’s URLs.” One busy project takes the rest down with it: the pricing FAQ says “if one project exceeds its limits, all projects on your account will be paused.” Netlify warns first, by email and in-app, at “50%, 75%, 90%, and 100% of your monthly credit allotment,” per its billing FAQ; the pricing page's FAQ lists 50%, 75%, and 100%. The projects come back at the start of the next billing cycle, and “The free plan does not allow you to purchase more credits,” so the way back before then is upgrading. What happens when Netlify credits run out goes through the warnings and each way back.

What the first paid plan costs

• Vercel Pro, $20 a month. The Pro docs, last updated September 15, 2026, list a “$20/month Pro platform fee” with “1 deploying team seat included” and “$20/month in usage credit.” Usage past the credit is billed on demand. Each extra deploying seat costs $20 a month, and viewer seats are free. Pro “includes the lowest capacity tier at no extra cost, with a capacity of 1 million CDN requests and 1 TB of data transfer each month.” You can try Pro for 14 days, once per user account (trial docs, September 14, 2026). Pro allows commercial use.
• Netlify Personal, $9 a month. It has 1,000 credits a month, and unlike Free, you can buy more: 500 credits for $5. You still can't add team member seats.
• Netlify Pro, $20 a month. It starts at 3,000 credits a month, and the pricing page lists it at $20 a month “with unlimited members.” Netlify's billing FAQ says “We do not have a free trial but you can test out Netlify on the free plan.”

Cloudflare Pages, the third free option

Cloudflare Pages is the other free plan people weigh against these two. Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement, last updated September 12, 2025, sets no personal-use limit, but you may not “process or collect personal or business credit card information on any web property that is receiving Free Services.” “On both free and paid plans, requests to static assets are free and unlimited,” per Cloudflare's Pages Functions pricing doc (September 8, 2026); the free plan allows 500 builds a month, 1 at a time (Pages limits, September 5, 2026); and the Pages overview (August 25, 2026) says “Start new projects with Workers.” Cloudflare Pages limits and Is Cloudflare Pages free for commercial use? go through both sides.

Which one to pick

• A personal project: Vercel Hobby, for its larger fixed allowances, such as 100 GB of data transfer a month, as long as the site earns nothing.
• A portfolio that only shows your work: Vercel doesn't name it, and its guidelines say “If you are unsure whether or not your site would be defined as commercial usage, please contact the Vercel Support team.” A portfolio that offers your services for hire is close to Vercel's example “Advertising the sale of a product or service.”
• A site that sells or advertises: Netlify Free, if 300 credits a month cover its deploys and traffic. On Vercel, it needs Pro.
• A client's site you're paid to build and host: On Vercel, Pro. Netlify doesn't name client work, so ask Netlify before you bill a client for hosting on its Free plan.
• A startup's app built by a team: Neither free plan. Vercel Pro costs $20 a month for the first deploying seat and $20 for each more; Netlify Pro costs $20 a month with unlimited members.
• A static site that might get a traffic spike: Cloudflare Pages, where requests to static files are free and unlimited.
• One HTML page, such as a landing page or a waitlist: Convika Free, below.

If your site is one HTML page: Convika

Convika hosts landing pages, one HTML page each, with a form that keeps entries and stats on who visited. There are no credits, builds, or gigabytes to track: you upload the page's HTML file, up to 2 MB, or paste its code, and Convika counts page views. Claude, Claude Code, or Codex can also save the page through Convika's MCP server. Free allows up to 30 publishes a day.

Section 7 of Convika's terms allows commercial use on every plan, Free included: a page that sells or advertises a product or service, a startup or waitlist page, or a client's page you build, host, and bill the client for. It bars reselling Convika itself without permission.

Free includes 1 published page, 10,000 page views a month, 50 form entries shown 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 10,000 page views in a month, editing and analytics pause, and 7 days later the pages stop until the month ends or you upgrade. Pro monthly costs $12 a month and includes 100,000 page views; it doesn't stop for traffic unless you set a monthly overage limit, and each 10,000 views past the included ones cost $1.30. Pricing lists each plan.

Convika's page-view limit counts from sign-up for workspaces created on or after October 23, 2026 (Japan time), and from November 1, 2026 (UTC) for earlier ones.

Not a fit for: a Next.js app, a site built from a folder of files, a build step, or server code. Convika hosts a single HTML document per page.

Drop the .html file right below or paste its code to see your page on Convika before signing up. You get a private preview link that works for 3 minutes, with the page's scripts and forms off until you keep it with a free account. The same box is on the free HTML publishing tool.

Frequently asked questions

Is Vercel or Netlify better for a free site?

Netlify Free, if the site sells or advertises; Vercel Hobby, if it's personal and gets more traffic. Vercel Hobby is for “non-commercial personal use only,” so a business site or a page with ads belongs on Netlify Free or a paid plan. For a personal project, Hobby's fixed allowances, such as 100 GB of data transfer a month, go further than the 300 credits Netlify Free gives accounts created since September 4, 2025, where bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB.

Is Netlify free forever?

Yes. Netlify's pricing page lists the Free plan at “$0 forever,” and its FAQ says “The free plan is always free, with hard monthly limits that cannot be exceeded or incur any costs.” The limit is 300 credits a month on accounts created since September 4, 2025. When they run out, every project on the account pauses until the next billing cycle, and Netlify charges nothing.

Is Vercel's Hobby plan free forever?

Yes, it costs $0 a month, but Vercel's Terms of Service say it offers Hobby “at our sole discretion” and “may change the features, limitations, or other conditions applicable to the Hobby plan or discontinue offering the Hobby plan at any time.” Hobby has no billing cycles: past a usage limit, in most cases you wait 30 days to use the feature again, rather than pay.

Can I use Vercel's free plan for a business?

No. Vercel's 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.” That covers a site you're paid to build, a page that advertises a product or service, and a site with ads. Vercel's help article names commercial use on Hobby as “One frequent trigger” of a paused account.

Can I use Netlify's free plan for a business?

Yes, for a site that sells or advertises. 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. Netlify doesn't name a client's site you're paid to build and host, so ask Netlify about that case. The limit is the 300 credits a month on accounts created since September 4, 2025: 15 per production deploy and 20 per GB of bandwidth, with every project paused when they run out.

Which has more free bandwidth, Vercel or Netlify?

Vercel Hobby, against any Netlify account created since September 4, 2025; against an older one, they tie at 100 GB. Vercel Hobby includes the “First 100 GB” of Fast Data Transfer a month. On the newer accounts, Netlify Free has no bandwidth allowance of its own: bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB from the 300 monthly credits, so it buys at most 15 GB, and less once deploys and web requests use some. Older accounts on Netlify's Legacy Free plan keep “100 GB/month” of bandwidth as a hard limit. Is Netlify free? explains both.

What happens if I go over the free limits on Vercel or Netlify?

On both, the site can stop. On Vercel Hobby, in most cases you wait 30 days to use the feature again, and sustained use can pause the deployment with a 503 DEPLOYMENT_PAUSED error. On Netlify Free, every project on the account shows “Site not available” until the next billing cycle, unless you upgrade. Neither free plan charges you for going over.

Can I add teammates on Vercel's or Netlify's free plan?

No. Vercel's Hobby docs list team collaboration features for Pro, not Hobby. Netlify's billing FAQ says “If you have a Personal or Free plan, you cannot add any additional team member seats,” though any plan can add unlimited free Reviewer roles, who can review your projects and share feedback.

How much do Vercel and Netlify cost after the free plan?

Vercel Pro costs $20 a month, with 1 deploying seat and $20 of usage credit, and each extra deploying seat costs $20 a month. Netlify Personal costs $9 a month for 1,000 credits, and Netlify Pro costs $20 a month with unlimited members and from 3,000 credits. Vercel offers a 14-day Pro trial; Netlify has no trial.

Is Cloudflare Pages better than Vercel or Netlify for a free static site?

Yes, for traffic: Cloudflare says “On both free and paid plans, requests to static assets are free and unlimited,” and its terms set no personal-use limit. It has limits of its own: 500 builds a month, no card details collected on a site that uses free services, and Cloudflare now says “Start new projects with Workers.” Cloudflare Pages limits lists them.

Sources

Each source was read on November 3, 2026 (JST). Dates in parentheses are the document's own.

• Vercel fair use guidelines (last updated September 14, 2026)
• Vercel Hobby plan (last updated September 14, 2026)
• Vercel limits (last updated September 16, 2026)
• Vercel Pro plan (last updated September 15, 2026) and Pro plan trial (last updated September 14, 2026)
• Vercel pricing (no date on the page)
• Vercel Terms of Service (last updated October 19, 2026)
• Why has my account or deployment been paused? (Vercel) (last updated October 2, 2026)
• Netlify pricing (no date on the page)
• Netlify Legacy pricing plans (last updated January 10, 2026)
• Netlify Acceptable Use Policy (last updated March 8, 2023)
• Netlify credit-based pricing plans (last updated October 30, 2026)
• How credits work (Netlify) (last updated August 12, 2026)
• Billing FAQ for credit-based plans (Netlify) (last updated October 7, 2026)
• Resume paused projects (Netlify) (last updated September 3, 2026)
• Introducing Netlify's Free plan (November 12, 2024)
• Cloudflare Self-Serve Subscription Agreement (last updated September 12, 2025)
• Cloudflare Pages Functions pricing (last updated September 8, 2026), Pages limits (last updated September 5, 2026), and Pages overview (last updated August 25, 2026)