Netlify vs Vercel vs Cloudflare Pages (2026): Which Free Tier Actually Lasts?
Netlify, Vercel and Cloudflare Pages all let you deploy for free, with HTTPS and preview links. The difference is how they cap you — and 2026 was the year the caps moved. Here is where things stand, checked against official pricing pages in October 2026.
The free tiers at a glance
| Cloudflare Pages | Vercel Hobby | Netlify Free | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Unlimited static bandwidth | Fixed monthly quotas | 300 credits/month |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | 100 GB data transfer | 20 credits per GB (roughly 15 GB) |
| Deploys | 500 builds/month, one at a time | 100 deployments/day | 15 credits per production deploy (~20/month) |
| Previews | Yes, per PR | Yes, per PR | Yes, free (0 credits) |
| Commercial use | Yes | No — personal only | Yes |
| When you hit the cap | Static site keeps serving | Projects pause | All sites on the account pause until reset |
Netlify switched to credits in September 2025 and retuned them in April 2026 (bandwidth now costs double what it did); Vercel's Hobby plan still requires non-commercial use. Free tiers shift often — check current pricing before you build a business on one.
What each one is genuinely best at
- Cloudflare Pages: blogs, docs, portfolios, anything static with real traffic — unlimited bandwidth means a viral day costs nothing. Direct CLI upload works without a Git repo.
- Vercel: Next.js and React apps — the framework and the platform are built together, so builds are fast and config is zero. Hobby is for learning and personal projects; selling on it needs Pro ($20/user/month, plus usage credit).
- Netlify: the polished workflow: forms, functions and edge handlers in one dashboard, generous free previews. Watch the credits — 15 per production deploy means a deploy-heavy month burns them, and hitting zero pauses everything on the account.
Pick with one question
"Will this site earn money?"
- No (learning, portfolio, experiment): any of the three — start where your framework feels native
- Yes, static content: Cloudflare Pages — no commercial restrictions, no bandwidth meter
- Yes, with a Next.js app: Vercel Pro from day one, or Cloudflare's Next.js support on Workers
The honest summary: Vercel wins on developer experience, Netlify on built-in features, Cloudflare on limits that never surprise you. For a static blog like this one, the unlimited-bandwidth answer is why this site runs on Cloudflare Pages — and GitHub Pages remains the other zero-cost mirror option.
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