It's not. Next.js works on any platform supporting Node, and Vercel supports more than just Next.js. They support dozens of other frameworks.[0] They do promote Next.js on Vercel, but they don't stop you from using other systems.
On the other hand, https://docs.ycombinator.lol/ has been running for years without me ever having to worry once, so there's that. Maybe it's time to give them another try.
Try it out: https://hi-there.vercel.app
▲ /tmp/ mkdir hi-there
▲ /tmp/ cd hi-there
▲ hi-there/ echo '<h1>hi sillysaurusx</h1>' > index.html
▲ hi-there/ vc
[…]
Inspect: https://vercel.com/rauchg/hi-there [690ms]
Production: https://hi-there.vercel.app [copied to clipboard] [9s]
Happy to hear more feedback on pricing. Please reach out to rauchg@vercel.com
I think it was in the transition between now and vercel. Back then, `now` had some sort of requirement where it only worked automatically if the folder had a package.json file. A plain index.html file required configuration. Delighted to see that this is no longer the case.
I'll give `vc` a shot.
The pricing issues stemmed from the fact that I use updown.io to monitor my domains. Since it pings them every 15 minutes or so, and since vercel spins up servers on demand, that means I was paying for essentially 24/7 service, which was an unwelcome bill over what I signed up for. Customer support gave a 50% refund, which I appreciated, and I've downgraded to a free account ever since.