Hosting Multiple Web Tools as a Solo Developer: Why I Moved From Vercel and Netlify to Cloudflare Pages
Introduction
If you're a solo developer running multiple web tools, choosing the right hosting service is something you'll eventually have to confront. I assumed any popular platform would work fine, but after going through several failures, I ended up with a setup that actually fits my needs. Here's the story of my move from Vercel to Netlify to Cloudflare Pages, and what I learned along the way.
Vercel: A Great Start, But No Ads Allowed
I started with Vercel. It works beautifully with Next.js, and deploying was effortless — a great entry point for solo development. The free Hobby plan is generous on paper, with 100GB of bandwidth per month, but its terms of service restrict it to personal, non-commercial use. The moment you start running ads to monetize a site, that counts as commercial use. I had built tools I wanted to monetize with ads, only to hit a wall right at the starting line. Looking back, I should have read the Hobby plan's terms of service much more carefully before committing.
Netlify: Hitting the Credit Limit
Next, I moved to Netlify, where I could manage multiple tools under one platform without much trouble deploying. In late 2025, though, Netlify switched its free tier to a credit-based system, capping free accounts at 300 credits per month. Every deploy consumes credits, and so does every byte of traffic served to visitors. As the number of tools I was running grew, so did my deploy frequency — and I burned through that monthly allowance fast. The result: my entire site went offline temporarily. That's when it really sank in how risky it is to consolidate multiple services on a single platform's free tier.
Comparing the Free Tiers, Side by Side
After going through all this, I put together a quick comparison of what I actually experienced with each platform's free tier:
| Hosting Service | Commercial Use / AdSense | Bandwidth | What Tripped Me Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel (Hobby/Free) | Not allowed under the ToS | 100GB/month | Positioned strictly for personal, non-commercial projects |
| Netlify (Free) | Allowed | Credit-based (300 credits/month) | Switched to credits in late 2025 — every deploy and every byte served consumes them |
| Cloudflare Pages (Free) | Allowed (officially) | Unlimited | 25MB max file size per asset |
Same "free plan" label, completely different rules underneath.
Cloudflare Pages: Unlimited Bandwidth, Commercial Use Allowed
Eventually, I landed on Cloudflare. I had originally registered my domain there, but discovered that Cloudflare Pages also offers hosting. I tried uploading one tool as a test. As the table above shows, unlike Vercel and Netlify, Cloudflare Pages offers unlimited bandwidth on the free plan and officially allows commercial use — including running AdSense. With up to 500 deployments per month, there was plenty of room to grow as I added more tools, so I migrated most of my projects there.
You Don't Have to Use Just One Service
That said, not everything went smoothly. My video conversion tool relies on a library called ffmpeg, which exceeds Cloudflare Pages' 25MB-per-file limit — so it couldn't be migrated. I ended up keeping just that one tool on Netlify, working around the free-tier reset schedule. I initially wanted everything on a single service, but I learned that understanding each platform's strengths and weaknesses — and assigning the right tool to the right job — actually works better in practice.
Closing Thoughts
As I started running multiple tools, I realized that trying to fit everything into a single hosting service was the wrong approach from the start. Understanding what each platform is good at — and isn't — and assigning the right tool to the right job has been key to keeping this project sustainable.
Summary
When choosing a hosting service, check the free plan's restrictions in advance — ad placement, commercial use, bandwidth, and file size limits all matter. Vercel is great for getting started but doesn't allow commercial use, Netlify's 2025 shift to credit-based pricing means you need to watch your deploy frequency, and Cloudflare Pages' unlimited bandwidth and official commercial-use policy make it a strong fit for solo projects. If you're planning to run multiple web tools, it's worth designing your setup around using different hosting services for different tools from the start, rather than locking everything into one platform.
If you'd like to see the other tools I've built, check out the chizmotools.com homepage.