Teploy
Guides··7 min read

Teploy vs Vercel: A Real Cost Comparison for Growing Apps

An honest breakdown of deployment costs between Vercel, Railway, Render, and Teploy + VPS. See how much you could save at different traffic levels.

T
Teploy Team

Choosing a deployment platform isn't just about features—it's about understanding what you'll pay as your app grows. We've done the math so you don't have to.

In this post, we'll compare the real costs of running a web application on Vercel, Railway, Render, and Teploy across different traffic levels. We'll use actual pricing data and realistic usage scenarios.

The Test Case

For a fair comparison, we'll use a standard Next.js application with:

  • Server-side rendering (not fully static)
  • A PostgreSQL database
  • Average response time of 200ms
  • Normal geographic distribution of users

We'll look at three traffic scenarios: 50,000, 200,000, and 500,000 pageviews per month.

Platform Pricing Overview

Before diving into scenarios, let's understand how each platform charges:

Vercel

  • Hobby: Free, but limited to non-commercial use
  • Pro: $20/month per team member
  • Additional charges for:
    • Function execution time ($0.18 per 1M ms)
    • Bandwidth ($0.40 per GB after 1TB)
    • Edge function invocations

Railway

  • Pay-as-you-go: $0.000231 per vCPU second + $0.000231 per GB RAM second
  • Pro: $20/month includes $20 in credits, then pay-as-you-go
  • Egress: $0.10 per GB

Render

  • Individual: $7-25/month per web service
  • Team: $19/month per seat + service costs
  • Database: $7/month minimum

Teploy + VPS

  • Teploy Platform: Free during beta (planned: $5/month)
  • VPS Cost: You pay your provider directly
    • Vultr: $5-20/month
    • Hetzner: $4-15/month
    • DigitalOcean: $6-24/month

Scenario 1: 50,000 Pageviews/Month

This is a typical small SaaS, portfolio site, or early-stage startup.

Traffic Characteristics

  • ~1,700 pageviews/day
  • ~100 concurrent users at peak
  • 10GB egress/month

Cost Breakdown

Platform Compute Database Bandwidth Total
Vercel Pro $20 $0 (Vercel KV free tier) Included $20
Railway ~$12 ~$5 ~$1 ~$18
Render $7 $7 Included $14
Teploy + Vultr $5 Included Included $5

Analysis

At 50k pageviews, all platforms are affordable. But Teploy already shows a 4x cost advantage. The difference: you're paying for actual compute, not platform markup.

Pro tip: At this scale, a $5 VPS with 1GB RAM handles everything comfortably—including the database.

Scenario 2: 200,000 Pageviews/Month

This is where things get interesting. Your app is gaining traction, and bills start to climb.

Traffic Characteristics

  • ~6,700 pageviews/day
  • ~500 concurrent users at peak
  • 50GB egress/month
  • More complex queries, longer function execution times

Cost Breakdown

Platform Compute Database Bandwidth Overages Total
Vercel Pro $20 $25 (Postgres) Included ~$40 functions ~$85
Railway ~$35 ~$15 ~$5 — ~$55
Render $25 $20 Included — $45
Teploy + Hetzner $10 Included Included — $10

Analysis

At 200k pageviews, Vercel's function execution costs start adding up. A moderately complex Next.js app with SSR can easily consume 50M+ function milliseconds per month.

The Teploy advantage is now 8.5x cheaper than Vercel. A $10/month Hetzner server (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM) handles this traffic with plenty of headroom.

Why The Difference Is So Large

Managed platforms charge per-request or per-millisecond. On a VPS:

  • You pay for the server, not the requests
  • Internal database queries are free
  • There are no egress fees (in most cases)
  • No serverless cold start overhead

Scenario 3: 500,000 Pageviews/Month

Your app is successful. This is where platform costs can become a serious business concern.

Traffic Characteristics

  • ~16,700 pageviews/day
  • ~2,000 concurrent users at peak
  • 150GB egress/month
  • Heavy database usage
  • Maybe some background jobs

Cost Breakdown

Platform Compute Database Bandwidth Overages Total
Vercel Pro $20 $45 $40+ ~$150 functions ~$255
Railway ~$80 ~$35 ~$15 — ~$130
Render $85 $45 Included — $130
Teploy + Hetzner $20 Included Included — $20

Analysis

At 500k pageviews, the difference is stark:

  • Vercel: $255/month
  • Teploy: $20/month

That's $235/month in savings, or $2,820/year. For a bootstrapped startup or indie developer, that's meaningful money.

And here's the thing: a $20/month Hetzner server (4 vCPU, 8GB RAM) still has plenty of headroom. You could likely handle 1M+ pageviews before needing to scale up.

The Hidden Costs

Let's be honest about what you're trading off with each approach:

Vercel's Advantages

  • Zero DevOps knowledge required
  • Automatic global edge deployment
  • Excellent DX and tooling
  • Native Next.js integration
  • Preview deployments out of the box

Teploy's Tradeoffs

  • You manage a single server (though Teploy automates most of it)
  • Single region by default (though you can add more servers)
  • Slightly longer cold deploys (though still fast)

What Teploy Handles For You

  • Server provisioning and setup
  • Docker and deployment pipeline
  • SSL certificates
  • Zero-downtime deployments
  • Logs and basic monitoring
  • Database deployment

You're not SSH'ing into a server and configuring Nginx. Teploy handles the DevOps; you just push code.

When Should You Use Each Platform?

Choose Vercel If:

  • You're funded and time is more valuable than money
  • You need global edge rendering
  • You're using cutting-edge Next.js features on day one
  • Your company is paying the bill

Choose Teploy If:

  • You're bootstrapped or cost-conscious
  • You want predictable, fixed monthly costs
  • You're building a SaaS, API, or standard web app
  • You want to own your infrastructure
  • You're comfortable with "good enough" DevOps, handled for you

Choose Both?

Some teams use Vercel for their marketing site (low traffic, needs edge) and Teploy for their app (higher traffic, more cost-sensitive). Hybrid approaches work great.

Real-World Examples

Here are anonymized examples from Teploy users:

SaaS Dashboard

  • Before: $180/month on Vercel (Pro + functions + database)
  • After: $15/month on Teploy (Hetzner CX21 + managed Postgres)
  • Savings: $1,980/year

E-commerce Store

  • Before: $95/month on Railway (compute + database + egress)
  • After: $20/month on Teploy (Vultr High Frequency + bundled database)
  • Savings: $900/year

Developer Portfolio + Blog

  • Before: $20/month on Vercel Pro (commercial use)
  • After: $5/month on Teploy (Vultr smallest tier)
  • Savings: $180/year

Calculating Your Savings

Here's a quick formula to estimate your potential savings:

Monthly Vercel Cost - $5-20 (VPS) - $5 (Teploy) = Monthly Savings

If you're paying more than $30/month on a managed platform, you'll almost certainly save money with Teploy.

The Bottom Line

Managed platforms like Vercel provide excellent developer experience, but that convenience comes at a price. As your app scales, that price grows faster than your traffic.

Teploy offers a middle ground: managed-platform simplicity with VPS-level pricing. You don't need to be a DevOps expert, and you don't need to pay enterprise prices for side-project traffic.

The math is simple:

  • Small apps: Save 70-80%
  • Medium apps: Save 80-90%
  • Large apps: Save 90%+

Ready to see the difference? Teploy is coming soon—sign up for early access at teploy.io.

Have questions about migrating from Vercel? Contact us—we're happy to help.

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