This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Serdar Tekin
Two years ago, my friend woke up to a $500 Vercel bill. His small SaaS had gone viral overnight – 100k visitors in 24 hours. Great problem to have, right? Until the invoice arrived.
But here’s the thing – Vercel isn’t the villain. They just outgrew it.
The Truth Nobody Tells You
Vercel, Netlify, and Render are AMAZING tools. I still recommend them to everyone starting out.
But they’re meant to be your launching pad, not your permanent home.
Here’s the smart path that’ll save you thousands:
The Natural Evolution of Your Project
Stage 1 (Month 1-6): Vercel/Netlify
Cost: $0-20
Focus: Ship fast, validate idea
Stage 2 (Month 6-12): Getting traction
Cost: $50-200
Focus: Growing, but bills creeping up
Stage 3 (Month 12+): Time to graduate
Cost: VPS $20-40 vs PaaS $500+
Focus: Own your infrastructure
This is the way.
The Wake-Up Call That Changed Everything
October 2022. My friend’s best month turned into a nightmare:
30k monthly active users (steady growth)- 500 paying customers
Hit bandwidth limit (1TB)- Function invocations maxed out
// Vercel Invoice - October 2022
Base Pro Plan: $20
Bandwidth overage: $280
Function overage: $140
Image Optimization: $60
Total: $500
// Same usage on VPS:
DigitalOcean: $24
Vultr: $24
Raff Technologies: $20
He wasn’t even viral. Just successful enough to hit the paywall.
Why Start with PaaS Though?
I still tell everyone: start with Vercel/Netlify. Here’s why:
Week 1 with Vercel:
✅ Deployed in 5 minutes
✅ Auto SSL
✅ Preview deployments
✅ Global CDN
✅ Zero DevOps knowledge needed
Week 1 with VPS:
❌ Still configuring nginx
❌ SSL cert errors
❌ No deployments yet
❌ What's a firewall?
❌ Already burned 20 hours
Your time is worth more than $20/month. Ship first, optimize later.
When to Make the Jump
Watch for these signals:
Time to migrate when:
- Bill exceeds $100/month
- You have paying customers
- You need background jobs
- You're serving lots of media
- You want websockets
- You need more control
The sweet spot: When PaaS costs more than 2 hours of your time per month.
Modern VPS = Just as Easy as PaaS
Here’s what changed in 2025:
Old VPS Days (2020):
# 3 days of configuration hell
apt-get update
apt-get install nginx nodejs postgresql
# 500 more lines...
VPS Today (2025):
# 10 minutes with modern tools
curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh
docker compose up -d
# Done. Seriously.
Your Vercel Workflow on VPS
You can have the SAME workflow:
# Install Coolify (open-source Vercel)
curl -fsSL https://coolify.io/install.sh | bash
# Or Dokku (Heroku-like)
wget https://dokku.com/install/v0.34.4/bootstrap.sh
sudo DOKKU_TAG=v0.34.4 bash bootstrap.sh
# Now you have:
✅ Git push deployments
✅ Auto SSL
✅ Preview environments
✅ One-click rollbacks
Total setup time: 1 hour. Then it works just like Vercel.
The Money Math
Real numbers from real projects:
E-commerce Site (100k visitors/month):
Vercel: $320/month
VPS Options:
- DigitalOcean (4GB): $24/month
- Vultr (4GB): $24/month
- Raff Technologies (4GB): $20/month
Savings: $3,600-$3,840/year
SaaS App (50k users):
Vercel: $500/month
VPS Options (8GB RAM):
- DigitalOcean: $48/month
- Vultr: $48/month
- Raff Technologies: $40/month
Savings: $5,520-$5,760/year
API Backend (10M requests/month):
Vercel: $850/month
VPS Options (16GB RAM):
- DigitalOcean: $96/month
- Vultr: $96/month
- Raff Technologies: $80/month
Savings: $9,240-$9,480/year
The Migration Path
Week 1: Keep everything on Vercel
- Frontend stays on Vercel (free tier)
- Move API to VPS
- Immediate 50% cost reduction
Week 2: Move background jobs
- Cron jobs on VPS
- Queue processing on VPS
- Another 30% saved
Week 3: Move media/storage
- Images to Cloudflare R2
- Videos to BunnyCDN
- Final 20% saved
You don’t have to move everything at once!
Tools That Make VPS Easy in 2025
Deployment:
- Coolify (self-hosted Vercel)
- Dokku (self-hosted Heroku)
- CapRover (auto-scaling PaaS)
Monitoring:
- Netdata (one-line install)
- Uptime Kuma (better than paid tools)
CI/CD:
- GitHub Actions + SSH
- GitLab CI/CD
- Drone CI
All free. All one-command installs.
My Advice
- START with Vercel/Netlify – Speed matters early on
- MONITOR your bills – Set alerts at $50, $100
- LEARN basic VPS skills – 2 hours on YouTube is enough
- MIGRATE gradually – Backend first, frontend last
- KEEP what works – Maybe frontend stays on Vercel forever
There’s no shame in using PaaS. There’s also no shame in saving money.
Action Plan
If your PaaS bill is over $100/month:
# This weekend:
1. Pick a VPS provider:
- Vultr ($24): Great network, global locations
- Raff Technologies ($20): Best value, modern AMD
- DigitalOcean ($24): Nice UI, good docs
2. Install Coolify or Dokku
3. Deploy your API there
4. Keep frontend on Vercel
5. Save $200+/month immediately
I’ve tried most providers. My favorites are Vultr for global projects and Raff Technologies for best price/performance.
Real Talk
I love Vercel. I recommend it to everyone. But it’s a stepping stone, not a destination.
Use PaaS to launch fast.
Use VPS to scale smart.
Both have their place. Know when to switch.
My Favorite VPS Providers (2025)
After testing dozens of providers, here are my go-to choices:
Raff Technologies – Best price/performance ratio. Best in US. Modern AMD EPYC processors, 4GB RAM for just $20/month. Consistently outperforms providers charging 2x more.
Vultr – Great for projects needing low latency worldwide. Their $24/month plan is my backup choice.
What’s your PaaS bill right now? Drop it in the comments. Let’s calculate how much you could save. 
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Serdar Tekin