Free alternative
Free alternative to Vercel Pro
Vercel Pro costs €18 a month. Dokploy does the same job for free, in open source: you install it on your machine or a small server, and you stop paying.
Public entry price, taken from Vercel Pro’s website (vercel.com). Over a year, that is €216 that stays in your pocket.
How much does Vercel cost in 2026?
Vercel’s public plans, checked on 12 October 2026 on vercel.com. Prices rounded up to the next euro.
Hobby
€0
Personal, non-commercial use only. 100 GB of transfer and 1 million requests a month, with no way to buy more.
Pro
about €18 a month (20 dollars)
Price per developer, with about €18 (20 dollars) of usage credit a month for the team; usage beyond is billed. Viewers are free.
Enterprise
Custom quote
Security, performance and support under contract, with uptime commitments.
Prices in dollars and before tax, converted to euros here. Any commercial use requires Pro or Enterprise. See the official pricing page ↗
What replaces Vercel Pro
The main alternative
Dokploy
Dokploy turns any Linux server into a personal Vercel, Netlify, Heroku or Railway. You connect GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket: on every push it builds your app, deploys it and gives it a domain over HTTPS. It uses Railway's build engines (Railpack, Nixpacks), Buildpacks or your Dockerfile, so a Railway project builds the same way on your server. It also handles Docker Compose and creates Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB or Redis databases in one click, backed up to S3. Its catalogue of ready-to-deploy templates includes quite a few tools from this library. The install fits in one line on a fresh VPS, and the core is Apache 2.0 licensed. Good to know: you run the server yourself. If you would rather not run the master server, the team sells a cloud version.
Loucash’s verdict on Dokploy
8/10
If you build apps with Claude or Cursor, you always end up with the same question: where do I put this online? Vercel opens its arms, and as soon as it is commercial or grows, the Pro plan kicks in, €18 per person, plus overages. Dokploy gives you that freedom back: a €5 VPS, one command, and you deploy as many apps, databases and tools as you want, with domains and HTTPS handled. What I like: it really is the Vercel experience, the push that deploys, the live logs, but at your place. Native Docker Compose and the template catalogue also make it the best way to host the rest of this library. What to know: you become responsible for the server. Updates, backups, access security: Dokploy helps, but does not do it for you. And for a free static site with no commercial use, Vercel's Hobby plan remains unbeatable. Dokploy makes full sense from the second app, or the first one that earns money.
Who it is for: You regularly put apps online, you have several or they make money, and you accept to maintain a VPS.
Dokploy versus Vercel Pro: the match
Price
Dokploy
€0, plus a VPS from €5 a month for all your apps
Vercel Pro
€18 a month per person, as soon as it is commercial
Number of apps
Dokploy
As many as your server can carry
Vercel Pro
Unlimited, but every usage is billed
Databases
Dokploy
Postgres, MySQL, Mongo, Redis included, with backups
Vercel Pro
Separate services, billed separately
| VS | Dokploy | Vercel Pro ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | €0, plus a VPS from €5 a month for all your apps | €18 a month per person, as soon as it is commercial |
| Number of apps | As many as your server can carry | Unlimited, but every usage is billed |
| Databases | Postgres, MySQL, Mongo, Redis included, with backups | Separate services, billed separately |
| Bandwidth | The VPS's, often unmetered | 1 TB included, then €0.13 per GB |
| Multi-service apps | Native Docker Compose | Not built for it, you need other services |
| Maintenance | Yours: server updates | Handled by them |
The prompt that installs Dokploy
Paste this prompt into Claude: it checks the repository, asks you its questions and installs the tool step by step.
Installe Dokploy sur mon serveur (la plateforme de déploiement open source, alternative à Vercel, Netlify et Heroku, repo GitHub Dokploy/dokploy) en suivant la doc officielle docs.dokploy.com. Pars de zéro : il me faut un VPS neuf sous Ubuntu avec au moins 2 Go de RAM, connecté en SSH, sans autre service qui occupe les ports 80, 443 et 3000. Lance le script d'installation officiel curl -sSL https://dokploy.com/install.sh | sh, puis ouvre l'interface sur le port 3000 et crée mon compte administrateur. Dans les réglages, associe un sous-domaine à Dokploy lui-même pour y accéder en HTTPS et ferme ensuite l'accès direct au port 3000. Connecte mon compte GitHub, crée un projet, déploie ma première application depuis son dépôt (détecte toi-même s'il faut Nixpacks ou un Dockerfile), donne-lui un nom de domaine avec certificat HTTPS automatique, et vérifie qu'elle répond. Si elle a besoin d'une base de données, crée-la dans Dokploy et branche la variable de connexion. Explique chaque étape simplement, je débute. Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Vercel cost?
- Hobby: €0; Pro: about €18 a month (20 dollars); Enterprise: Custom quote. Prices checked on 12 October 2026 on vercel.com.
- Is Vercel free?
- Partly, with limits. Personal, non-commercial use only. 100 GB of transfer and 1 million requests a month, with no way to buy more. Beyond that, the Pro plan costs about €18 a month (20 dollars). Dokploy does the same thing for free, in open source.
- Is Dokploy really free?
- Yes. Dokploy is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. Vercel Pro, on the other hand, costs €18 a month.
- Do I need to code to install Dokploy?
- No. The level is intermediate and the install takes about 20 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.
- How is it different from Vercel Pro?
- Dokploy does most of what Vercel Pro does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.
- Do I own my data?
- Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.
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