Vercel vs Kapsule
Vercel's Pro tier starts at USD$20/mo. Your real bill depends on function invocations, build minutes, GB of egress, and edge requests. Bills jumping from USD$20 to USD$3,000 in a month are common stories. Orbit caps your spend at the plan tier — no per-call pricing.
Dev platform
Vercel
Pro
Entry price
USD$20/mo base
Renewal: Variable: invocations + builds + egress
3-year cost: ~$1,200 base; real bills vary 2-50x
Kapsule Cloud
Orbit Liftoff
Match for Vercel
Entry price
NZ$12/mo
Renewal: NZ$12/mo (locked, clause 7.5)
3-year cost: ~NZ$432
Read the breakdown
The cost math
What you actually pay, year by year.
All bars normalised to NZD so length reflects real spend. USD prices show the NZD-equivalent in brackets.
Year 1
Vercel
USD$20/mo
Kapsule
Year 2
Vercel
USD$20/mo base
Kapsule
Year 3
Vercel
USD$20/mo base
Kapsule
Vercel bills above base for usage
The bars above show the published base price for Vercel. Your real bill stacks function invocations, build minutes, GB egress and edge requests on top of that base. ~$1,200 base; real bills vary 2-50x. Kapsule’s plan price is the only line item on your invoice.
Vercel 3-year cost
~NZ$1,188
~$1,200 base; real bills vary 2-50x
Kapsule 3-year cost
~NZ$432
Locked at signup, never increases
NZD totals calculated at 1 USD ≈ 1.65 NZD. Vercel pricing snapshot 2026-06-07; check their current rate before signup. Kapsule renewal price guaranteed at signup price in Terms of Service clause 7.5.
Scorecard
Where Kapsule wins vs Vercel.
Flat pricing, no per-invocation
Orbit pricing is what the plan card says. No per-function-call, per-build-minute, or per-GB-egress meter running underneath. If you exceed a limit, we tell you before billing changes.
Hard caps, no surprise bills
Set a spend cap in KPanel. If your project hits it, we throttle or alert you. We do not silently bill you US$3,000 for a viral weekend.
Git-deploy DX, fewer footguns
Push to main, we build and deploy. Branch previews, edge functions, env vars, all in. Without the variable-pricing footgun.
NZD-billed, GST included
Invoiced in NZD with GST broken out. No USD-to-NZD surprise, no separate tax line.
Free white-glove migration
Our team migrates your site, database, email, and DNS for you. Zero downtime, scheduled with you. Free.
Spec sheet
Feature by feature.
Honest note
Where Vercel legitimately wins.
Vercel's Next.js integration is best-in-class
Vercel ships Next.js features fastest. If you're on the bleeding edge of Next.js (server actions, partial prerendering, the latest Vercel-only primitives), they're ahead.
Larger edge network with more PoPs
Vercel's edge has more PoPs globally. For ultra-low-latency global apps it matters. For most NZ + AU + APAC apps, our edge is comparable.
Mature Vercel-specific integrations (KV, Blob, Postgres)
Their first-party integrated KV, Postgres, and Blob services are convenient if you want everything in one Vercel-billed bundle. Different shape from our model.
When to pick Vercel
If you're building on the absolute bleeding edge of Next.js (Vercel-only primitives), or your team is committed to the Vercel platform ecosystem (KV, Blob, integrations), Vercel's tighter integration wins. For most production sites that just need predictable Git-deploy, Orbit is cheaper and safer.
Moving over
Free migration from Vercel.
Free help moving from Vercel to Orbit. We point Orbit at your Git repo, configure env vars and edge functions, run a verify deploy, then cut DNS outside business hours. For Vercel-only primitives we identify the deltas before cutover.
Q + A
What buyers ask us about Vercel.
What's the real Vercel bill on a popular site?
It depends massively on traffic + invocations + build frequency. Public horror stories of bills going from USD$20 to USD$3,000 in a month are common. Orbit at NZ$12/mo is NZ$12/mo, full stop.
Do I lose Next.js features moving to Orbit?
For the standard Next.js app (App Router, server components, edge runtime, ISR), Orbit ships the same. For Vercel-only primitives (Vercel-flavoured server actions, certain edge config), there may be small gaps. We document the deltas.
What about Vercel's preview environments?
Orbit branch previews are first-class. Push a branch, get a unique preview URL with its own database (if you use ours). Same DX, no per-build pricing.
Can I use my own Postgres / database?
Yes. Orbit doesn't lock you into our managed DB. Connect to your own, or use Kapsule's managed Postgres separately. We don't make money on egress so we don't care where your data lives.
Migration story from Vercel?
Connect your Git repo to Orbit, set env vars, deploy. Most Next.js apps deploy unchanged. We help test, configure edge functions, and cut your DNS over outside business hours.
Ready?
Start on Orbit Liftoff.
NZ$12/mo, locked at signup. Free migration from Vercel. Cancel any time.