Vercel is an American cloud application company. The company created and maintains the Next.js web development framework. Vercel provides developer tools, frameworks, and cloud infrastructure to build and maintain websites. It is the maker of v0 and AI SDK. The company maintains a free open-source library for building AI-generated products.

History

Vercel was founded by Guillermo Rauch in 2015 as ZEIT. Rauch had previously created the realtime event-driven communication library Socket.IO and Next.js, the

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

framework that Vercel optimized for their platform. ZEIT was rebranded to Vercel in April 2020, although it retained the company's triangular logo. In June 2021, Vercel raised $102 million in a Series C funding round. In 2023, Vercel released an AI web development tool called v0 that creates web applications with natural language prompts; it won a 2025

Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

for developer tools. In 2023, Vercel released a software development kit called AI SDK designed to allow developers to build conversational streaming interfaces in JavaScript and TypeScript. In May 2024, Vercel raised $250 million in a funding round which valued the company at $3.25 billion.

Acquisitions

On December 9, 2021, Vercel acquired Turborepo. On October 25, 2022, Vercel acquired Splitbee. On January 22, 2025, Vercel acquired Tremor.

Architecture

Vercel's architecture is built around composable architecture, and deployments are handled through

Git Git () is a distributed version control system that tracks versions of files. It is often used to control source code by programmers who are developing software collaboratively. Design goals of Git include speed, data integrity, and suppor ...

repositories, the Vercel

CLI CLI may refer to: Computing * Call Level Interface, an SQL database management API * Command-line interface, of a computer program * Command-line interpreter or command language interpreter; see List of command-line interpreters * CLI (x86 instruc ...

, or the Vercel

REST REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style that was created to describe the design and guide the development of the architecture for the World Wide Web. REST defines a set of constraints for how the architecture of ...

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

. Vercel is a member of the MACH Alliance. Deployments through Vercel are handled through

repositories, with support for

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

GitLab GitLab is a software forge primarily developed by GitLab Inc. It is available as a community edition and a commercial edition. History GitLab was created in 2011 by Ukrainian programmer Dmitriy Zaporozhets as a side project written in Rub ...

, and

Bitbucket Bitbucket is a Git-based source code repository hosting service owned by Atlassian. Bitbucket offers both commercial plans and free accounts with an unlimited number of private repositories. Services Bitbucket Cloud Bitbucket Cloud (pre ...

repositories. Deployments are automatically given a subdomain under the vercel.app domain, although Vercel offers support for custom domains for deployments. Vercel's infrastructure uses

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

and

Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...

. In 2025, Vercel introduced a web application infrastructure model called Fluid that enables an instance in a local region to handle multiple requests concurrently, similar to a traditional server, while also maintaining the elasticity of serverless systems.

Reception

Vercel's clientele includes

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( , an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast") is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays, experiences and services in various countries and regions. It acts as a ...

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

, Nike,

Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Entertainment, LLC is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Ente ...

, Carhartt,

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, and

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

References

Bibliography

Citations

{{Cloud computing American companies established in 2015 Companies based in San Francisco Blog hosting services Cloud computing providers Cloud infrastructure Cloud platforms Content delivery networks Free web hosting services Git (software) Internet technology companies of the United States Web service providers Project hosting websites Software companies established in 2015