Deploying Apps with Vercel and Netlify

Deploying web applications has never been easier, thanks to platforms like Vercel and Netlify. Both services abstract away server management, give you instant global CDN distribution, and integrate smoothly with modern front‑end frameworks. In this guide we’ll walk through the end‑to‑end process of getting a React SPA onto Vercel and a static Hugo site onto Netlify, sprinkle in a few advanced tricks, and finish with pro‑tips that keep your deployments lightning‑fast and rock‑solid.

Why Choose Vercel and Netlify?

Both platforms champion a git‑first workflow: push your code, and the platform builds and publishes automatically. Vercel shines with its tight integration to Next.js, on‑demand serverless functions, and edge caching. Netlify, on the other hand, offers a generous free tier, built‑in form handling, and a powerful plugin ecosystem that can turn a static site into a full‑stack experience.

• Zero configuration builds – Detects your framework and runs the right build command.
• Instant rollbacks – One click restores a previous deployment.
• Built‑in CDN – Your assets are served from edge nodes worldwide.
• Serverless functions – Run backend logic without managing servers.

Choosing between them often boils down to the tech stack you’re using and the specific features you need. In practice, many teams end up using both: Vercel for dynamic React/Next.js apps and Netlify for content‑driven static sites.

Getting Started: Prerequisites

Before we dive into code, make sure you have the following installed on your workstation:

1. Node.js (v18 or later) – both platforms rely on npm/yarn for builds.
2. Git – the source of truth for your deployments.
3. Vercel CLI (npm i -g vercel) and Netlify CLI (npm i -g netlify-cli).
4. A GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket account – the platforms pull directly from these providers.

Having a local development server running (e.g., npm start) helps you catch bugs before they ever reach the cloud. Once you’ve verified the app works locally, you’re ready to push it to the wild.

Deploying a Simple React App to Vercel

Project Setup

Let’s start with a fresh Create‑React‑App project. Open a terminal and run:

npx create-react-app my-vercel-app
cd my-vercel-app

Vercel expects a vercel.json at the root if you need custom routing or environment variables. For a basic SPA, the default settings work fine, but adding a rewrite rule ensures that all routes fallback to index.html:

{
  "rewrites": [
    { "source": "/(.*)", "destination": "/index.html" }
  ]
}

Vercel CLI Workflow

Log in to Vercel from the terminal, then deploy:

vercel login
vercel

The CLI will ask a few questions – project name, link to existing Git repo, and the build command (defaults to npm run build). After the build finishes, Vercel provides a preview URL. Push the same commit to your remote repository, and Vercel will spin up a production deployment automatically.

Pro tip: Enable GitHub Pull Request Previews in Vercel’s dashboard. Every PR gets its own unique URL, letting reviewers see live changes without merging.

Deploying a Static Site to Netlify

Project Setup

For this example we’ll use Hugo, a fast static site generator written in Go. Install Hugo, then scaffold a new site:

brew install hugo
hugo new site my-netlify-site
cd my-netlify-site
git init

Pick a theme, add some content, and test locally with hugo server -D. Once satisfied, create a netlify.toml to tell Netlify how to build the site:

[build]
  publish = "public"
  command = "hugo --gc --minify"

Netlify CLI Workflow

Authenticate, then run a one‑off deploy:

netlify login
netlify deploy --prod

The CLI will prompt you to select the site folder (public) and confirm the build command. After the upload finishes, Netlify returns a live URL. As with Vercel, linking the site to a Git repository enables continuous deployments on every push.

Pro tip: Use Netlify’s Branch Deploys to keep staging versions of your site on separate branches. This isolates experimental changes from production.

Advanced Use Cases

Serverless Functions on Vercel

Vercel lets you write serverless functions in several languages, including Python. Create an api folder at the project root and add hello.py:

# api/hello.py
def handler(event, context):
    name = event.get('queryStringParameters', {}).get('name', 'World')
    return {
        "statusCode": 200,
        "headers": {"Content-Type": "application/json"},
        "body": f'{{"message": "Hello, {name}!"}}'
    }

Deploying the React app again will automatically expose the function at /api/hello. You can call it from the front‑end with fetch('/api/hello?name=Vercel') and enjoy zero‑ops backend logic.

Redirects and Rewrite Rules on Netlify

Netlify’s _redirects file gives you fine‑grained control over routing. Place it in the static folder (or root) with rules like:

# _redirects
# Permanent redirect from old blog path to new location
/old-blog/:slug   /blog/:slug   301!

# SPA fallback – send all unknown routes to index.html
/*    /index.html   200

When Netlify builds the site, it parses this file and configures the CDN accordingly. This is especially handy for migrating legacy URLs without losing SEO juice.

Pro tip: Combine Netlify’s On‑Demand Builders with redirects to lazily generate pages only when a user requests them, dramatically cutting build times for large content sites.

Performance Optimizations

Both platforms provide out‑of‑the‑box optimizations, but you can push performance even further with a few deliberate steps:

• Image Optimization – Use Vercel’s next/image component or Netlify’s netlify-plugin-image-optim to serve WebP/AVIF variants.
• Code Splitting – In React, lazy‑load heavy components with React.lazy and Suspense.
• Cache Control Headers – Add Cache-Control directives in vercel.json or netlify.toml to leverage browser caching.
• Compress Assets – Ensure CSS/JS are minified and gzipped; both platforms do this automatically, but double‑check the build logs.

Running Lighthouse on the deployed URL gives you a concrete performance score and actionable recommendations specific to your CDN edge.

CI/CD Integration

While Vercel and Netlify handle CI internally, you may still want a custom pipeline for tests, linting, or security scans. Here’s a minimal GitHub Actions workflow that works for both:

name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  build-and-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Set up Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run lint
      - run: npm test
      - name: Deploy to Vercel (if Vercel project)
        if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && env.VERCEL_TOKEN
        run: npx vercel --prod --token ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
      - name: Deploy to Netlify (if Netlify project)
        if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && env.NETLIFY_TOKEN
        run: npx netlify deploy --prod --auth ${{ secrets.NETLIFY_TOKEN }} --site ${{ secrets.NETLIFY_SITE_ID }}

This workflow runs linting and tests on every push, then conditionally deploys to Vercel or Netlify based on the presence of secret tokens. Keeping tests in the pipeline prevents broken builds from ever reaching production.

Common Pitfalls & How to Debug

Even with streamlined platforms, developers hit snags. Below are the most frequent issues and quick fixes:

• Build fails because of missing environment variables – Add them in the Vercel or Netlify dashboard under “Environment Variables”. Remember to mark them as “Protected” for production.
• 404 on client‑side routes – Ensure you have a fallback rewrite (as shown earlier) so the CDN serves index.html for unknown paths.
• Serverless function timeout – Vercel functions timeout after 10 seconds (or 60 seconds on Pro plans). Keep functions lightweight or move heavy work to a background queue.
• Stale caches after a content update – Trigger a cache purge via the platform’s UI or add Cache-Control: no-cache to the affected assets.

Both Vercel and Netlify expose detailed build logs. Look for the “Error” keyword, and use the “View logs” button to drill down. For serverless functions, you can also inspect the Function Logs tab to see runtime output.

Conclusion

Vercel and Netlify have democratized web deployment, turning what used to be a multi‑step, server‑heavy process into a few CLI commands or a push to Git. By mastering the basics—project setup, CLI workflows, and configuration files—you can ship React SPAs and static generators in minutes. The advanced sections on serverless functions, redirects, and CI/CD show that these platforms are not just for hobby projects; they scale to production‑grade workloads with zero‑ops infrastructure. Armed with the pro tips and troubleshooting tricks in this guide, you’ll spend more time building features and less time wrestling with servers. Happy deploying!