Compare / Vercel
The Vercel alternative that runs a real process
Vercel has run Dockerfiles since June 2026, and each one is still a Vercel Function underneath: 300 seconds by default, a read-only filesystem, nothing kept between requests. Lizard runs the same image as a long-lived process in its own container, with first-party Postgres, Redis, and S3-compatible storage.
Why developers look for a Vercel alternative
Containers, not processes
A container on Vercel inherits Function limits — 300s by default, 800s on Pro, a read-only filesystem with a 500 MB /tmp, and a SIGTERM after 5 idle minutes. Good request handler, poor home for a daemon.
Databases come from the marketplace
Postgres, Redis, and vector stores on Vercel are Neon, Upstash, and Supabase products. One command installs them; you end up with a second vendor and a second bill.
No shell into a running app
You cannot open a shell in a live Vercel container, and there is no persistent disk. When a deploy behaves differently from local, you are guessing from logs.
Requests are billed, twice
$0.60 per million invocations, $2.00 per million edge requests past 10 million, and Fast Origin Transfer at $0.06 per GB from the first byte on top of Fast Data Transfer.
Lizard vs Vercel
Every figure read off Vercel’s published pricing and our own. Last verified: August 2026.
| Compared by | Lizard | Vercel |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of deployment | Long-lived process, app or worker, no time limit | Container or function — 300s default, 800s max on Pro |
| Filesystem | Full read-write root | Read-only, with a 500 MB /tmp |
| Idle behaviour | Process stays up | Scales to zero after 5 minutes, SIGTERM with a 30s grace period |
| CPU | $0.0278 per vCPU-hour on measured use | $0.128 per Active CPU-hour |
| Egress | $0.05 per GB | $0.15 per GB past the first 1 TB, plus $0.06 per GB origin transfer |
| Requests | Not billed | $0.60 per million invocations, $2.00 per million edge requests past 10M |
| Builds | Not billed | $0.0035 per CPU-minute — $0.014 a minute on 4 vCPU, $0.105 on Turbo |
| Databases | First-party Postgres, Redis, and S3-compatible storage in one command | Marketplace — Neon, Upstash, Supabase |
| Debugging a live app | lizard ssh into the container, plus logs and metrics | Logs and observability, no shell |
| Seats | Not billed | $20 per seat a month, with $20 of credit |
When Vercel is the better choice
A Next.js frontend with bursty traffic and no long-lived backend. Vercel’s edge network, image pipeline, and preview flow are excellent, its Functions genuinely cost nothing when nobody visits, and the framework integration is deeper than anyone else’s. If your app is a site rather than a system, stay.
Moving from Vercel
No Dockerfile required — lizardpack detects the stack and writes one on the build node. If your repo already has a Dockerfile, it is used as it stands.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, and that is the main reason people switch. Lizard runs long-lived processes, so APIs, workers, WebSocket servers, and scheduled jobs all deploy the same way, and Postgres, Redis, and object storage are first-party rather than marketplace products.
It depends what is in the image. If it serves HTTP and finishes inside 800 seconds, Vercel runs it fine. If it is a daemon, a poller, or a scheduler holding state in memory, Vercel will not: a container there runs under Function limits, keeps nothing between requests, and gets a SIGTERM after 5 idle minutes.
A vCPU-hour is $0.0278 on Lizard against $0.128 of Active CPU on Vercel, egress is $0.05 a GB against $0.15, and Lizard has no per-request, per-build, or per-seat charge. The exception is a genuinely idle project: Vercel Functions scale to zero, while a Lizard service bills every second it is up.
Yes. If your repo has a Dockerfile — including one written for Vercel Functions — Lizard uses it as it stands. Without one, lizardpack detects the stack and writes a real multi-stage Dockerfile on the build node.
All of them. lizardpack detects Go, Node, Python, Rust, Ruby, PHP, Java, and static sites, and writes the Dockerfile for you. There is no platform-specific config to add.
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