What do I need to set up Vercel on a VPS?

You need a VPS (starting at $4-6/month), SSH access, and the app code in a GitHub repo. For Vercel and VPS, you also need environment variables, a domain, and SSL configured before going live.

How long does it take to move to a VPS?

A straightforward Vercel deployment takes 2-4 hours for someone familiar with servers. RepoAssistant does it in 24h with a ship-or-refund guarantee.

How much does it cost to host Vercel on a VPS?

A VPS for Vercel or VPS starts at $4-6/month for a 1-2 GB instance from providers like Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or Hostinger. RepoAssistant's deploy service is a fixed $39-149 one-time fee.

What if something breaks after deployment?

Every deployment includes a smoke test (login, forms, database writes, API calls) and a handover doc with restart, rollback, and deploy commands. If the app is blocked pre-launch, we fix and ship within 24h or refund.

Platform cost guide

Move a small app from Vercel to a production VPS

Vercel is strong for previews and frontend workflow. A VPS starts making sense when you want predictable cost, longer-running services, multiple small apps, or one place for app, database, logs, backups, and recovery.

Vercel VPS

What is probably broken

The app is small, but hosting has turned into usage anxiety: seats, logs, bandwidth, functions, database, analytics, and separate dashboards.

What production should look like

The same app running from the same repo on your VPS, with equivalent env vars, domain routing, database connection, logs, backups, and rollback notes.

STEP 01

Audit the Vercel project before moving

Most bad migrations miss something Vercel was doing automatically. Capture those settings before touching DNS.

Copy build command, install command, output/start behavior, framework preset, and Node version.
Export all production environment variables and note which ones are public.
List rewrites, redirects, cron jobs, image domains, API routes, and external services.

STEP 02

Create the VPS replacement

Deploy the app on the VPS before changing the production domain. Dokploy is one option for managing deploys; Docker Compose, systemd, or another panel can also work.

Deploy from the same GitHub repo and branch to a temporary domain first.
Move env vars carefully and rotate secrets if there is any chance they were exposed.
Check server logs until build and runtime errors are gone.

STEP 03

Cut over only after smoke tests pass

The final DNS switch should be boring. Test the VPS version first, then move the domain.

Test login, forms, database writes, file uploads, payment webhooks, and admin actions.
Add the final domain in Dokploy and point DNS to the VPS.
Keep the Vercel deployment alive for rollback until the VPS version is stable.

Quick check

Is your app production-ready?

If you cannot tick all five, we can fix it. Send us the repo and we handle the rest.

?Custom domain with HTTPS
?Environment variables configured
?Database wired and backed up
?Auto-deploy on push
?Smoke tested and live

Free checklist

Deploying this yourself?

Get the exact 5-step checklist we run before every deploy. No fluff, just the things that actually break.

Done-for-you deploy

RepoAssistant moves small Vercel apps to VPS when predictable cost and ownership matter more than platform convenience.

Fixed price per repo. 24h delivery or full refund. No hourly billing.

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