Compare / Vercel vs Scaleway Instances
Vercel vs Scaleway Instances
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Vercel checked 2026-08-07, Scaleway checked 2026-08-06.
The short version
Vercel wins more of our comparison points, but Scaleway Instances still fits if eU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler describes you.
Price Vercel
Vercel is cheaper at every stage we model — about $40/mo even for a growing project.
Ease Vercel
Vercel is easier to get running: connect the Git repo; every push builds and deploys with a preview URL per branch.
Control Scaleway Instances
Scaleway Instances gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Free tier Vercel
Vercel has a free tier; Scaleway Instances doesn't.
Features Vercel
Vercel comes out ahead on 8 of the 15 features we track, versus 3.
What developers say about this matchup
We couldn't find a substantive first-person discussion comparing this exact pair. We leave the section empty instead of filling it with vendor marketing or generic SEO comparisons.
At a glance
| Vercel | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Next.js and frontend apps where you want deploys and previews to just work. | EU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler. |
| How deploys work | Connect the Git repo; every push builds and deploys with a preview URL per branch. | Spin up an instance from the console or the scw CLI, then manage it like any VPS; Terraform and cloud-init are first-class. |
| The tradeoff | Usage pricing past the credit can climb fast with real traffic, especially data transfer. | À la carte pricing makes the real cost higher than the sticker, and account verification can be painful. |
| Free tier | Hobby: free for personal, non-commercial projects — 100 GB data transfer, 1M function invocations, and 4 active CPU hours per month. | None |
What you'd realistically pay
Vercel Scaleway Instances
| Project stage | Vercel | Scaleway Instances | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | Free Hobby — Personal projects only; commercial use requires Pro at $20/month. | ≈€10.42/mo DEV1-S + IPv4 + 10 GB volume — ~€6.55 instance (2 shared vCPU, 2 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€0.95 block storage. Ex-VAT, ~730h/month. | Vercel |
| Steady traffic | ≈$20/mo Pro — Includes $20/month of usage credit, which covers modest traffic. | ≈€24.92/mo PLAY2-NANO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€20.10 instance (2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | Vercel |
| Growing | ≈$40/mo Pro + usage — The $20 fee plus typical usage overages; heavy traffic or extra seats push it higher. | ≈€45/mo PLAY2-MICRO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€40.20 instance (4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | Vercel |
Vercel pricing notes
- Hobby has no paid overage — features pause when an allowance runs out.
- Databases come from partners (Neon, Supabase, and others) and bill separately.
Scaleway Instances pricing notes
- Hourly billing (~730 h/month), ex-VAT, with no egress fees — bandwidth is an unmetered per-instance speed.
- Flexible IPv4 €0.004/h (~€2.92/month); IPv6 is free. Block Storage 5K is €0.000130/GB/h (~€0.095/GB/month).
- Savings Plans (12/36-month commitment) take up to 25% off compute.
- New Professional accounts with a payment method get €100 in credit.
Our ratings
Ease of use Vercel
Pricing clarity
Free tier Vercel
Scaling Vercel
Control Scaleway Instances
Feature by feature
Vercel wins 8, Scaleway Instances wins 3, with 4 even.
Deploy workflow
| Vercel | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes Connect GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket; every push deploys. | No Not on Instances — bring your own CI, or use Scaleway’s separate serverless products. |
| Preview deploys | Yes Automatic preview URL for every branch and pull request. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes The vercel CLI deploys, manages env vars, and streams logs. | Yes The scw CLI covers instances, volumes, IPs, and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks | Yes Instant rollback to any previous deployment from the dashboard. | Partial Snapshots and images restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| Vercel | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Unlimited domains with automatic TLS on all plans. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | Yes Global edge network serves static assets and caches responses. | Partial Edge Services adds a CDN in front of load balancers and object storage; nothing automatic on a bare instance. |
| Serverless functions | Yes Serverless and edge functions are the core compute model. | No Not on Instances — Scaleway sells separate Serverless Containers and Functions products. |
| Docker containers | No No container deploys — code must fit the serverless build. | Yes Docker-ready images or install it yourself. |
| SSH / shell access | No No shell; debugging happens through logs and tracing. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Function region is selectable, including EU locations. | Yes Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Milan — EU-only by design. |
Runtime & operations
| Vercel | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Yes Serverless scales per request with no configuration. | No Manual resizing on Instances; autoscaling lives in the serverless products. |
| Scale to zero | Yes Functions cost nothing while idle by design. | Partial A fully powered-off (archived) instance stops compute billing, but IPs and volumes keep billing. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Cron jobs trigger functions; Hobby is limited to 2 daily crons. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | Partial No own database — the marketplace resells Neon, Supabase, Upstash, and others. | Yes Managed PostgreSQL/MySQL from ~€11.40/month plus storage; Redis and MongoDB too. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Yes Runtime logs and Web Analytics built in; deeper observability is a paid add-on. | Partial Cockpit collects instance metrics and logs into managed Grafana; app-level instrumentation is yours. |
Watch out for
Vercel
- The free Hobby plan does not allow commercial projects.
- Pro usage beyond the included $20 monthly credit bills on demand: edge requests from $2 per million, fast data transfer from $0.15/GB after the first 1 TB.
- Every additional team member who deploys costs $20/month.
Scaleway
- List prices exclude storage and public IPv4: add ~€2.92/month for a flexible IPv4 and ~€0.095/GB/month for block storage.
- Scaleway raised prices across Stardust, PLAY2, PRO2, BASIC3, and storage on 1 June 2026.
- "Standby" bills as a running instance; only a full power-off (archive) stops compute billing — and IPs and volumes keep billing regardless.
- Automated KYC can freeze accounts (sometimes with servers running) until you re-verify with ID and selfie.
- The famous €0.43/month Stardust instances are chronically out of stock.
Read the full reviews: Vercel and Scaleway. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.