How does Vercel work?

Title How Does Vercel Work?

SEO Keywords Vercel, static site generation, SSG, JAMstack, serverless, edge computing, web performance

Intro As developers, we're always on the lookout for tools that can help us build faster, more scalable, and reliable applications. One such tool is Vercel, a platform that specializes in hosting and deploying static sites. But how does it work? In this post, we'll dive into the technical details of Vercel's architecture and explore what makes it so effective.

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Vercel is built around the concept of serverless computing, which means that your application code doesn't run on a dedicated server or virtual machine. Instead, Vercel uses edge computing to distribute workload across a network of distributed servers, called "edge nodes," located in over 100 cities worldwide.

Here's a high-level overview of how it works:

• Static Site Generation (SSG): You build your application using SSG tools like Gatsby, Next.js, or Hugo. This approach generates static HTML files at build time, which can be served directly by the server.
• Vercel Build: When you deploy your application to Vercel, it runs a custom-built compiler that converts your SSG output into a format optimized for edge computing.
• Edge Compute: Vercel's edge nodes are equipped with Intel CPUs and 16 GB of RAM. When a request is made to your site, the nearest edge node processes the request and returns the response.
• Caching: Each edge node maintains a cache of frequently accessed resources, like images and JavaScript files. This reduces latency and improves performance.

Here's an ASCII diagram illustrating Vercel's architecture:

          +---------------+
          |  Your Code    |
          +---------------+
                  |
                  | (SSG)
                  v
+-------------------------------+
|  Vercel Build     |        |
|  Compiler       |        |
+-------------------------------+
                  |
                  | (Edge Compute)
                  v
+-------------------------------+
|  Edge Node      |        |
|  Intel CPU,   |        |
|  16 GB RAM    |        |
+-------------------------------+
                  |
                  | (Caching)
                  v
          +---------------+
          |  Response     |
          +---------------+

TL;DR Vercel is a serverless platform that uses edge computing to host and deploy static sites. It leverages Static Site Generation, custom-built compilers, and distributed edge nodes to provide fast, scalable, and reliable applications. By caching frequently accessed resources, Vercel reduces latency and improves performance, making it an attractive choice for developers looking to build fast and reliable web applications.