Vercel Alternatives for Full-Stack Apps

8 places for an app with a real backend and a database, priced with a password on staging

Vercel alternatives for a full-stack app: Light Cloud runs the frontend, a container API and Postgres for $5 a month with a free staging password, Railway comes to about $6 once its usage is counted, while Vercel Pro is $20 a seat and $20 per project for password protection, with Postgres from a second vendor: Vercel and Neon together come to $20 to $40.

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Part 6

tutorialsNovember 2, 2026

Rotate a Database Password With Only Seconds of Downtime

Rotate a Light Cloud PostgreSQL password safely: choose the new password, update DATABASE_URL first, rotate when the deploy finishes. 7 seconds of errors, not 2 minutes.

Julia

Part 5

tutorialsNovember 1, 2026

Import Data into Light Cloud: Upload a .sql Dump or Stream It with psql

Import a SQL dump into a Light Cloud PostgreSQL database: upload a .sql or .sql.gz with Import dump, or stream a large dump with psql in one transaction.

Julia

comparisonsOctober 31, 2026

Where to Deploy a SaaS Boilerplate

Where to deploy a SaaS boilerplate such as ShipFast, Makerkit, Supastarter or Open SaaS: Light Cloud runs the Next.js or Node app plus Postgres for $5 a month, Railway comes to about $7 once its usage is counted, and Vercel, which three of the four kits recommend, needs Pro at $20 once the app takes payments, plus a database from a second vendor.

Julia

Part 4

tutorialsOctober 31, 2026

Back Up a Database: Download a SQL Dump and Restore It

Back up a Light Cloud PostgreSQL database: download a .sql.gz dump from the Backup tab, restore it into a new database with psql, and script it with pg_dump.

Julia

Part 3

tutorialsOctober 30, 2026

Run SQL in the Browser: Queries, Joins and Quick Fixes on a Live Database

Run SQL on a Light Cloud PostgreSQL database from the browser: read-only queries, joins and totals, then a quick UPDATE with Allow writes and RETURNING.

Julia

comparisonsOctober 29, 2026

Free REST API Hosting

Free REST API hosting for a small Express or FastAPI app: Light Cloud is the only free plan that passes all five checks (no card, no rewrite, a few seconds to wake, never billed), up to about 4,800 requests a day. Cloudflare Workers is free for 100,000 requests a day if you write for its runtime.

Julia

Part 2

tutorialsOctober 29, 2026

Browse and Edit Your Data Without a SQL Client: the Data Explorer

Use the Light Cloud data explorer to browse PostgreSQL tables, edit and insert rows, add columns, create tables and delete rows, without installing a SQL client.

Julia

Part 1

tutorialsOctober 28, 2026

Create a PostgreSQL Database in One Minute and Connect From Your Laptop

Create a PostgreSQL database on Light Cloud in about ten seconds, connect from your laptop with psql, load sample data, and connect from Node.js and Python.

Julia

comparisonsOctober 27, 2026

Password Protect a Website for Free

Only three of eight platforms let you password protect a website for free: Light Cloud with one shared password in four clicks on every plan, Cloudflare Access with emailed sign-in codes for teams under 50, and Render through a do-it-yourself page encryption library. Netlify charges $20 a month, Vercel $20 per project on top of Pro.

Julia