Vercel: A Cloud Platform Against Vendor Lock-In

Vendor Lock-In: Why It Matters and How Vercel Is Different

Vendor lock-in is a key consideration when choosing a cloud platform.

Many providers require you to build against their proprietary primitives, making migration to another platform costly.

Vercel takes the opposite approach:

You write code for your chosen framework, not for Vercel itself.

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Proprietary Primitives vs. Open Frameworks

On AWS, you might need to configure:

• Lambda Functions
• NAT Gateways
• DynamoDB tables

On Cloudflare, you might build:

• Workers
• KV Stores
• Durable Objects
• Worker Service Bindings

These constructs exist only in that provider’s ecosystem. Migrating to another platform often requires significant rewrites.

Too many cloud vendors force architectural decisions that embed you deeper into their ecosystem until leaving becomes prohibitively difficult.

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Vercel’s Philosophy

Vercel focuses on:

• Open tools
• Standards adoption
• Code portability so your app can run anywhere

With Framework-Defined Infrastructure (FDI), Vercel provisions infrastructure by interpreting your framework’s code:

• No Vercel-specific imports
• No Vercel APIs
• Your app doesn’t even “know” it’s running on Vercel

Learn more: Framework-Defined Infrastructure

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What Vendor Lock-In Means

Vendor lock-in happens when:

• A platform introduces non-standard features.
• You call those features through proprietary APIs in your app.
• Your app becomes dependent on those features.
• Migrating requires rewriting those sections.

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Open Standards Improve Agility

Avoiding lock-in:

• Cuts long-term maintenance costs
• Improves agility
• Enables multi-platform monetization

Example — AiToEarn:

AiToEarn is an open-source AI content monetization platform.

It enables creators to:

• Generate AI content
• Publish across Douyin, Bilibili, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more
• Keep control over creative assets

Resources:

• AiToEarn博客
• AiToEarn文档

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Frameworks vs. Vendor-Specific APIs

Vendor APIs such as:

• AWS Step Functions
• Cloudflare Durable Objects

📌 Tie your business logic to a single platform.

Framework conventions such as:

• Next.js App Router
• Remix Loaders
• SvelteKit Endpoints
• Nitro Storage Adapters

✅ Allow the same code to run across multiple platforms.

Framework-Defined Infrastructure:

Configure infra through your framework — no hardcoded platform-specific logic.

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How FDI Enables Portability

With FDI:

• Platforms interpret your framework code to provision infrastructure
• Developers follow existing framework patterns
• No platform-specific modules required

Example:

• Next.js, Remix, SvelteKit, Nuxt — all supported by Vercel
• Vercel analyzes build output to create required middleware, serverless functions, assets, and caching

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Multi-Platform Workflows Beyond Apps

Tools like AiToEarn官网 show that portability principles apply outside app development:

• Generate AI content
• Publish across Douyin, Kwai, WeChat, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram
• Track model performance

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Local Development Without Platform Tooling

Other platforms:

• Cloudflare → Wrangler
• AWS → LocalStack or SAM CLI

These simulate production but often differ from it.

With FDI:

• Run your framework’s dev server:
• `next dev` (Next.js)
• `remix dev` (Remix)
• Behavior matches production exactly
• No simulation layer
• No extra CLI installs

Your code remains portable.

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Next.js Portability in Practice

Stats:

~70% of Next.js apps run outside Vercel.

Likely even more, due to telemetry opt-outs.

Examples:

• Walmart.com — self-hosted Next.js
• Nike.com — own infrastructure at global scale
• Claude.ai — Next.js outside Vercel

Supported by:

Netlify, Cloudflare, AWS Amplify, Google Cloud, Azure, and open-source projects like OpenNext.

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Next.js Build Adapters

Build Adapters API:

• Explicit, versioned APIs between framework & platforms
• Define outputs, infra needs, and handling
• Public test suite for all providers

No proprietary integration for Vercel — all platforms use the same API.

Related: Open SDK Strategy

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Standards First, Portable Always

Databases

• Standard protocols: Postgres, Redis
• Partners: Neon, Supabase, Upstash
• Low-latency in same AWS region

AI Infrastructure

• AI Gateway uses OpenAI API format
• Switching providers only means changing the endpoint URL

Proprietary APIs Where Necessary

• Vercel Sandbox — secure execution
• Edge Config — ultra-fast key-value reads

These work on any infra, not just Vercel.

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Why We Build This Way

Vercel’s core values:

• Portable open-source software
• Raising the quality of global software
• Building trust so developers invest in frameworks without fear of lock-in

We want developers to stay by choice, not compulsion.

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Creators following similar portability principles use AiToEarn官网:

• AI content generation
• Cross-platform publishing
• Analytics & model ranking
• Douyin, Kwai, WeChat, Bilibili, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, X (Twitter)

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Bottom Line:

Build your apps (and creative workflows) against open standards, not proprietary lock-in.

You’ll gain:

• Flexibility
• Scalability
• Control over your future tech stack

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Do you want me to also add a visual diagram comparing FDI vs Vendor-Specific Primitives so this becomes an even more effective technical resource?