Deploying Next.js Apps in Thailand: Vercel vs Hostinger vs Self-Hosted

What Are the Main Deployment Options for Next.js?

Choosing where to host a Next.js application affects performance, cost, operational overhead, and how much sleep you lose when something breaks at 11pm. For Bangkok businesses, three options cover the realistic range of needs: Vercel, a Hostinger VPS, and self-hosted on a cloud provider like AWS or DigitalOcean. We run production sites on more than one of these ourselves — a clinic booking system has very different infrastructure needs than a restaurant discovery site with heavier read traffic and less transactional data — so the right answer genuinely depends on what you're shipping.

What Does Vercel Offer?

Vercel is the company behind Next.js, and its hosting platform is purpose-built for the framework. Every Next.js feature — Server Components, Route Handlers, Edge Middleware, Image Optimization, Partial Prerendering — works correctly without configuration.

Strengths:

• Zero-configuration deployment. Connect a GitHub repository and every push deploys automatically.
• Preview deployments for every pull request — invaluable when a Bangkok client wants to review a booking flow change before it goes live, without you spinning up a separate staging server.
• Global Edge Network with nodes in Singapore, giving low latency for Thai users without any manual CDN setup.
• Automatic SSL, domain management, and analytics built in.
• Serverless functions scale to zero and back up automatically — relevant if a clinic runs a promotion and traffic spikes for a weekend, then drops back to normal.

Weaknesses:

• Cost scales with usage. Serverless function invocations, bandwidth, and image optimizations are metered. A high-traffic site can run $100–$500/month on the Pro plan once you're serving real volume.
• No persistent compute — background jobs, cron-style reminder sends, and WebSocket connections need an external service (Supabase Edge Functions, a queue, or a small always-on worker).
• Serverless functions cold-start. For a LINE webhook that must acknowledge within a few seconds, this is rarely a problem in practice, but it's worth testing under load before launch, not after.

Best for: startups, agencies, and any project where developer time is worth more than the hosting bill — which describes most of the client work we do.

What Does Hostinger Offer?

Hostinger's VPS plans start at roughly 200–400 baht per month and give you a virtual machine with a fixed CPU and RAM allocation. You install Node.js, set up PM2 as a process manager, configure Nginx as a reverse proxy, and manage SSL with Certbot yourself.

Strengths:

• Predictable, low monthly cost — attractive for a business watching every baht of overhead.
• Full server control — run background jobs, WebSockets, and cron tasks without third-party services.
• Servers available in Singapore, keeping latency reasonable for Thai users.

Weaknesses:

• Requires actual server administration knowledge. There's no auto-scaling — a traffic spike from a Facebook ad or a LINE broadcast can take the server down if you haven't sized it correctly.
• Image optimization must be configured manually (Next.js's built-in Image Optimization API needs a Node runtime, not just static file serving). Some Edge-only features aren't available at all.
• No preview deployments without additional tooling — you're either building your own CI pipeline or deploying by hand.

Best for: budget-conscious projects with a developer comfortable managing Linux servers, or applications with persistent background processes that don't fit a serverless model cleanly.

What About Self-Hosted on AWS or DigitalOcean?

For larger Bangkok businesses with dedicated DevOps resources, running Next.js in Docker containers behind a load balancer on AWS ECS or DigitalOcean App Platform gives the best balance of control and scalability. This adds real operational complexity, but it allows auto-scaling, custom networking, and integration with services like RDS, ElastiCache, and S3 when a project outgrows what a single VPS can handle.

What Actually Breaks When You Move From Vercel to a VPS?

The gap that catches people off guard isn't the deploy step — it's everything Vercel does silently that you now have to build yourself:

• Environment variables per environment. Vercel separates Production, Preview, and Development variables out of the box. On a VPS, you're managing .env files by hand across environments, which is exactly how a Stripe-equivalent test key ends up live in production.
• Database connection pooling. Serverless functions on Vercel open and close database connections constantly. If you're on Supabase, route through the connection pooler (port 6543, not 5432) or you'll exhaust your Postgres connection limit the first time traffic spikes — this bites people whether they're on Vercel or a VPS, but it's easy to miss when you're setting up the connection string by hand.
• Rollbacks. Vercel lets you roll back to any previous deployment with one click. On a VPS, that's a git checkout and a PM2 restart you need to script yourself, ideally before you need it under pressure.
• Custom domains, including .co.th. Both paths handle this fine, but a .co.th domain registered through a different Thai registrar sometimes needs manual nameserver changes rather than the one-click transfer Vercel's UI assumes — budget an extra day for DNS propagation.

Which Should You Choose?

| Scenario | Recommendation | |----------|---------------| | MVP / early-stage startup | Vercel Hobby or Pro | | Agency client site | Vercel Pro | | Budget-conscious production app | Hostinger VPS | | High-traffic, complex infrastructure | AWS / DigitalOcean |

At Bluewich, we deploy most Bangkok client projects on Vercel and reserve Hostinger VPS for cases where the client specifically wants predictable fixed costs or has background processing needs that don't fit a serverless model. The time saved on infrastructure management usually pays for the cost difference many times over — but for a simple site with a tight budget and no persistent jobs, a Hostinger VPS is a legitimate choice, not a compromise.

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