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AWS Amplify vs Vercel

Two sides of the hosting decision: your own cloud account and frontend cloud. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.

AWS AmplifyYour own cloud accountCLI
VercelFrontend cloudllms.txtMCPCLIIn v0
Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

Which fits you

Choose AWS Amplify if
  • Git-connected hosting for static and SSR frontends inside your AWS account, with an optional AWS-backed backend.

Use it whenYou are on AWS already or have AWS credits, and want Vercel-style deploys without leaving it.

Trade-offFramework support and build settings lag the frontend clouds, and debugging leads into CloudWatch and IAM.

Choose Vercel if
  • You built a Next.js or other frontend-heavy app and want preview URLs on every pull request

Use it whenYour app is Next.js, or you want a preview URL on every pull request with no setup.

Trade-offThe Hobby plan is non-commercial; costs grow with usage.

At a glance

AWS AmplifyVercel
Used by9 makers' products · 3 open-source projects1821 makers' products · 105 open-source projects
Cost at default usagerequests 5 million requests, data transfer out 100 GB, serverless function compute 100 GB-hours—$40/mo Pro + Flat Rate CDN 10M
Downloads133.9k/wk−51% vs npm5.7M/wk+94% vs npm
PricingPay-as-you-go for build minutes, storage and data transfer; covered by the AWS Free Tier for new accounts. · paid from Pay as you goFree Hobby plan (non-commercial); Pro per seat plus usage. · paid from $20/mo
Free tierNoYes
Open sourceNoNo
Incidents, 90 daysfrom its status pageno public status feed27 (10 major)

What makers say

Makers on using it for hosting, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On AWS Amplify
Thanks to AWS for providing the robust and scalable infrastructure that powers Teache. They also provided us with a grant during our development process.
Teache, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Amplify let us build our application quickly with the confidence that it was backed by cloud scale services like Dynamo and Lambda.
Vectorize, the makerSep 2026 ↗
AWS Amplify seamlessly powers up your app development, turning complex processes into simple, intuitive tasks.
TestSprite, the makerSep 2026 ↗
2 more on the AWS Amplify page →
On Vercel
Instant deployment for Tomosu's landing page, privacy policy, and terms of service. Push to main, it's live. Zero config, zero devops headaches. Exactly what a solo developer needs.
Tomosu, the makerMar 2026 ↗
Vercel made it straightforward to build, deploy, and continuously improve VocalVia. We rely on it to ship our Next.js product quickly and keep the experience responsive for users.
VocalVia, the makerJul 2026 ↗
Vercel is literally zero-config. I push to Git, and it's live. Cloudflare Pages is great, but Vercel's DX (Developer Experience) allowed me to iterate on the landing page 10x faster.
GHOSTYPE, the makerSep 2026 ↗
486 more on the Vercel page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

AWS AmplifyOn Product Hunt: 5.0★, 11 reviews · mentioned most: cloud integration, scalable infrastructure
Vercel
Most loved
  • Pushing to Git deploys automatically with zero configuration. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
  • Every commit or pull request gets a preview URL, so changes are reviewed live before release. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
  • Small teams ship without managing infrastructure or CI/CD themselves. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
Watch-outs
  • Heavy bot traffic, such as Meta's crawler, can multiply the bill with little protection. HNHN 2HN 3
  • Execution limits and middleware quirks need workarounds. PH
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 1,077 reviews · mentioned most: fast deployment, Next.js integration, developer experience · complaints: pricing, UI dependencies

Who uses each

AWS Amplify9 makers' products
AI Test Engineer by BlinqIOAlchemyzeTeacheTestSpriteVectorizeGhost JobsLZeroPresentonSketch It!
Vercel1821 makers' products
24CallDeskAccordio AIActx0Agent 37 CloudAgent-SinAgentcardAgenticCalling AIAgentQLAgentRailAgentSeaAgentXAgreeGuard+1809 more
Used by both — often one replacing the other, or each for a different part of the product
TestSpriteVectorize

What makers pair each with

With AWS Amplify
Frontend Framework
LLM API
Database
Transactional Email
With Vercel
Frontend Framework
Transactional Email
Database
Payments

Neither quite right?

See the whole hosting decision →
NetlifyFrontend cloudStatic sites and JAMstack apps on any framework.vs Vercel →
CloudflareEdge platformCheap global hosting with Workers, plus database (D1) and storage (R2) on the same platform.vs Vercel →
RailwayPaaSServers, workers and databases deployed together, with almost no configuration.vs Vercel →
RenderPaaSA Heroku-style platform for web services, cron jobs and Postgres.vs Vercel →
Fly.ioContainer platformDocker apps that should run close to users in many regions.vs Vercel →
Amazon Web ServicesHyperscaler cloudThe widest catalog of building blocks — Lambda, containers, managed databases, queues — to assemble your own infrastructure.vs Vercel →
Hetzner CloudYour own serverA lot of CPU and RAM per euro, in European, US and Singapore regions.
CoolifyYour own serverA Heroku- or Vercel-style dashboard on your own server, with many one-click services.vs Vercel →