Migrating from Vercel

Key Differences

Migration Steps

1. Export your data from Vercel

• Export your Vercel Postgres database using vc db pull or pg_dump
• Export Vercel KV data via the Redis CLI
• Download any Vercel Blob storage contents

2. Convert your project for container deployment

Vercel serverless functions need to be wrapped in a small server. For Next.js:

// Instead of Vercel's serverless runtime,
// use next start or a custom server

// package.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "next build",
    "start": "next start -p $PORT"
  }
}

// Dockerfile
FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN npm ci && npm run build
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["npm", "start"]

Grid's Nixpacks builder can auto-detect Next.js — in most cases no Dockerfile is needed.

3. Deploy to Grid

1. Push your code to GitHub
2. In Grid, click New Service and select your repository
3. Grid auto-detects the framework and builds
4. Your app is live with a *.grid.app URL

4. Migrate environment variables

Copy your environment variables from Vercel to Grid:

# In your project settings on Grid, add:
# All Vercel env vars (without VERCEL_ prefix)
DATABASE_URL=postgres://...
REDIS_URL=redis://...
# No need for VERCEL_URL, VERCEL_ENV, etc.

5. Set up custom domain

• Configure your DNS to point to your Grid server IP
• Grid (via Caddy) handles SSL automatically via Let's Encrypt
• No need for Vercel's DNS propagation — just an A record

What changes with Next.js

What you gain

• Zero cold starts — containers run 24/7
• Unlimited execution time — no 10s/60s timeout
• Persistent volumes — write to disk, not just blob
• No per-user seat pricing — invite your whole team
• Own your infrastructure — keep the AWS bill, not Vercel's markup