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For a static React single-page app, Cloudflare Pages is usually the lowest-cost choice at scale, Netlify is the easiest all-round workflow, and Vercel is the most natural home for Next.js. Firebase Hosting is sensible when your application already depends on Firebase services, while AWS Amplify fits teams committed to AWS. The important exceptions are commercial licensing and usage limits: Vercel’s free Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial projects, Netlify’s free plan pauses projects after 300 monthly credits, and Cloudflare Pages’ free plan has build and file-count ceilings even though its product page advertises unlimited bandwidth.
Best React hosting at a glance
| Best for | Recommended host | Why | Main caution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest delivery cost for a static React app | Cloudflare Pages | Cloudflare says all plans include unlimited sites, seats, requests and bandwidth. | The free tier allows one concurrent build, 500 builds per month and 20,000 files per site; the free plan is positioned for personal or hobby projects that are not business-critical. |
| Easiest general workflow | Netlify | Git-based deploys, deploy previews, forms and redirects are integrated into one workflow. | The free plan is capped at 300 credits per month and pauses projects when the balance is exhausted. |
| Next.js, server rendering or a likely Next.js migration | Vercel | It is designed around Next.js and supports server-side and edge features without assembling them yourself. | Hobby is personal, non-commercial only. Pro starts at $20 per developer seat monthly and usage can add overage charges. |
| Existing Firebase application | Firebase Hosting | Hosting can sit alongside Firebase Authentication, Firestore and other services. | The commonly quoted free limits in secondary sources were not verified against current official pricing. |
| Existing AWS platform | AWS Amplify | Deep integration with AWS identity, storage, APIs and deployment services. | Per-use billing, more configuration and AWS lock-in make it less convenient for a standalone brochure site. |
These recommendations assume a browser-delivered React build rather than a server that must execute Node.js on every request. If your application needs server rendering, background jobs or platform-specific APIs, choose the runtime first and the static-hosting price second.
What matters when choosing a React host
Commercial permission
A free plan can be technically sufficient yet legally unsuitable. Vercel’s Fair Use Guidelines state that Hobby is for personal, non-commercial use. A site operated by a business, paid employee or consultant therefore needs Pro or Enterprise, even if traffic is small.
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Netlify and Vercel stop serving or running affected projects when their free allowance is exhausted and resume them at the next billing cycle. Cloudflare Pages emphasizes build limits instead: the free tier has one concurrent build, 500 builds each month and a 20,000-file cap per site. “Unlimited bandwidth” does not remove those deployment constraints.
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How bandwidth is metered
Cloudflare’s product page presents bandwidth as unlimited on all plans. Netlify measures usage through credits, and its April 2026 changelog says bandwidth and compute rates doubled compared with earlier credit rates; the exact per-gigabyte credit calculation was not confirmed in the available documentation. Vercel includes a Fast Data Transfer allowance on Hobby and bills additional usage on Pro.
Framework and runtime fit
Vite, Create React App and similar tools normally produce static files that any of these hosts can serve. Next.js can also emit static output, but applications using server rendering, incremental regeneration or server actions need a compatible execution platform. Cloudflare Pages Functions run on Workers rather than Node.js by default, so Node-only packages may require adaptation; that limitation is reported by a secondary source and should be checked against the current runtime documentation before migration.
Cloudflare Pages: best value for static React delivery
Cloudflare Pages is the strongest default when your React application is a static bundle and transfer volume matters more than integrated application features. Its product page says every plan includes unlimited sites, seats, requests and bandwidth, which removes the per-gigabyte pricing anxiety found on credit-based plans. This is a product-page claim, not a promise that every other platform limit disappears.
Free-tier limits to plan around
- One concurrent build.
- Up to 500 builds per month.
- A maximum of 20,000 files per site.
- The free plan is described as suitable for personal or hobby projects that are not business-critical.
A normal React production build is usually far below 20,000 files, but the cap can matter for documentation sites, generated assets, image-heavy catalogs or repositories that copy large public directories into the output. Build concurrency also matters for teams merging frequently: queued builds are a workflow delay even when end-user bandwidth is effectively unlimited.
When Pages is the right choice
- Your output is static HTML, JavaScript, CSS and assets.
- You expect high traffic or large transfer volumes but modest build frequency.
- You are comfortable checking whether any Functions code and dependencies are compatible with the Workers runtime.
- You do not need built-in form processing or a large set of vendor-specific server features.
A practical Pages deployment
- Push the React project to your Git provider and confirm that a production build succeeds locally.
- In Pages, connect the repository and select the production branch.
- Set the framework preset or enter the same build command you use locally, such as
npm run build. - Set the output directory to the directory created by your React tool. Do not assume every tool uses the same name: verify whether your project produces
dist,buildor another folder. - Deploy a preview, test asset loading and refresh a nested application route before assigning a custom domain.
If you add Pages Functions, test every Node-dependent package in the Workers-compatible environment rather than assuming a Node server is available.
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Netlify: the easiest all-round React workflow
Netlify is the most approachable choice when the hosting workflow itself is the priority. Git-triggered builds, deploy previews, redirects and form handling are available in one product, so a small team can avoid assembling separate services for common website tasks.
Netlify plans and credit limits
| Plan | Price | Included credits | Important condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 300 per month | Hard limit; projects pause when credits run out until the next billing cycle. |
| Personal | $9 per month | 1,000 | One member; optional auto-recharge. |
| Pro | $20 per month | 3,000 | Unlimited team seats. |
| Pro tier | $33 per month | 5,000 | Rollover applies to tiers of 5,000 credits or more. |
| Pro tier | $63 per month | 10,000 | Rollover applies. |
| Pro tier | $95 per month | 15,000 | Rollover applies. |
| Pro tier | $126 per month | 20,000 | Rollover applies. |
The official pricing page lists the figures above; some secondary pages still quote Pro at $19, but the official 2026 figure is $20. Check Netlify’s pricing page before purchase because credit costs and allowances can change. The April 2026 changelog reports that bandwidth and compute rates doubled versus earlier credit rates, while an exact per-gigabyte credit conversion was not established here.
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- You need preview deployments for pull requests and simple rollback to a previous deploy.
- Your site uses forms, redirects or headers that you want managed alongside the build.
- Your traffic is moderate enough that a credit budget is easier to forecast than raw bandwidth.
- You want a conventional static React deployment without adapting code to a non-Node server runtime.
Deploying a React app on Netlify
- Connect the repository and choose the branch that represents production.
- Enter the project’s production build command, commonly
npm run build. - Enter the generated output directory used by your tool, such as
distorbuild. - Configure environment variables in the site settings rather than committing secrets to the repository.
- Use a deploy preview to test links, forms and redirects before promoting the change to production.
- Set a usage alert or auto-recharge policy appropriate to your budget; otherwise the 300-credit free cap can pause a live project.
Vercel: the natural choice for Next.js
Vercel is most compelling when “React hosting” really means Next.js hosting. It is built around the framework’s server-rendering, routing and deployment model, so an application that may add server-side rendering later can avoid a second migration.
Is Vercel free for commercial use?
No. Vercel’s Hobby tier is limited to personal, non-commercial use. Commercial use includes work performed by a paid employee or consultant and requires Pro or Enterprise. A business should not put its production marketing site or client project on Hobby simply because it remains under the technical limits.
Vercel allowances and billing
| Plan | Price | Included usage | What happens at the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | $0 | 100 GB Fast Data Transfer and 1 million function invocations per month | The project is paused until the next billing cycle; Hobby users cannot buy extra usage. |
| Pro | $20 per developer seat per month | A $20 usage credit | Additional usage is billed pay-as-you-go, so traffic spikes can create an unexpected bill. |
The $20 Pro amount is per developer seat, not a flat account price. Budget for overages if a campaign, uncached asset or sudden bot traffic can increase transfer or function execution.
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When Vercel is the right choice
- The application is Next.js and uses server rendering or framework-native server features.
- You want a clear path from a static prototype to dynamic rendering.
- Your team accepts usage-based billing and can monitor traffic.
- The project is personal and non-commercial, making Hobby’s license appropriate.
Deploying a React or Next.js project
- Import the repository and let the platform detect the framework.
- Review the detected build and output settings instead of overriding them with assumptions from another React tool.
- Add production and preview environment variables separately.
- Deploy a preview and test server-rendered paths, API calls and client-side navigation.
- For a commercial project, select Pro or Enterprise before launch, then set usage monitoring and spending controls.
Firebase Hosting: best when Firebase is already your backend
Firebase Hosting is not the strongest standalone answer for every React site, but it can be efficient when authentication, Firestore, storage or other Firebase services already power the application. Keeping hosting and backend configuration in one ecosystem can reduce integration work.
Secondary sources commonly report a free Spark allowance of 10 GB hosting storage and 360 MB of data transfer per day, with a Blaze pay-as-you-go plan beyond that. Those figures were not verified against current official Firebase pricing, so treat them as planning hints rather than guaranteed limits and confirm the current console terms before launch.
Choose Firebase when
- Your team already manages Firebase projects and security rules.
- The React frontend depends on Firebase Authentication or Firestore.
- You prefer one project configuration over combining unrelated hosting and backend accounts.
For a completely static site with no Firebase dependency, the additional ecosystem is usually a reason to choose a simpler static host instead.
AWS Amplify: suitable for AWS-centered teams
AWS Amplify provides deep integration with AWS identity, APIs, databases, storage and deployment services. That integration is valuable when the rest of the application already lives in AWS and the team understands IAM, regions and AWS billing.
Amplify uses per-use billing and generally involves more configuration than a basic static deployment. Pricing figures were not established in the available material, so obtain a current estimate from your AWS account and model build minutes, storage, data transfer and any connected services separately. AWS lock-in is also a practical trade-off: moving later may require replacing authentication, APIs and deployment configuration, not just copying static files.
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Vercel vs Netlify for React
| Question | Vercel | Netlify |
|---|---|---|
| Best framework fit | Next.js and applications using server rendering. | Static React sites and conventional Jamstack workflows. |
| Commercial free tier | Not allowed on Hobby. | Free plan is available but capped at 300 monthly credits. |
| Free-limit behavior | Project pauses; no Hobby overage purchase. | Projects pause until the next billing cycle. |
| Paid entry point | $20 per developer seat monthly, including a $20 usage credit. | $9 Personal or $20 Pro monthly; Pro includes 3,000 credits and unlimited team seats. |
| Cost risk | Pro overages are pay-as-you-go and can rise with traffic. | Credit consumption and changed bandwidth/compute rates require monitoring. |
| Built-in workflow strengths | Framework-native deployment and server features. | Forms, redirects and deploy previews in a general-purpose workflow. |
Pick Vercel when the framework runtime is the deciding factor. Pick Netlify when static delivery and team workflow features are more important and a credit budget is acceptable.
Cloudflare Pages vs Netlify
| Consideration | Cloudflare Pages | Netlify |
|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth model | Product page advertises unlimited bandwidth on all plans. | Usage is represented by credits; rates changed in April 2026. |
| Free deployment ceiling | One concurrent build, 500 builds per month and 20,000 files per site. | 300 credits per month with a hard pause at the limit. |
| Workflow features | Strong static delivery; assess Functions compatibility separately. | Forms, redirects and deploy previews are integrated. |
| Best fit | High-volume static assets with relatively predictable build activity. | Teams that value convenience and built-in site workflow tools. |
Cloudflare Pages is usually cheaper at scale when transfer is the dominant cost. Netlify can still be the better business choice if preventing custom form, redirect or preview tooling saves engineering time.
Free React hosting: what “free” really means
For a personal portfolio, tutorial, prototype or open-source demo, all five options can be viable in the right ecosystem. For a business site, inspect both permission and failure behavior before looking at the headline price.
- Commercial permission: Vercel Hobby is excluded for business use.
- Availability at the ceiling: Netlify and Vercel pause projects when their free allowance is consumed.
- Build capacity: Cloudflare Pages’ free limits are expressed as build concurrency, monthly builds and files.
- Backend dependence: Firebase and Amplify may look free at the frontend layer while connected services continue to incur usage charges.
- Operational risk: A free plan that pauses a production site is not an adequate production budget.
Use a free tier for development or low-risk personal work, then move to a paid plan before a launch whose interruption would cost more than the monthly fee.
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A React single-page app commonly handles routes in the browser. When a visitor opens /dashboard directly or refreshes that URL, the host first receives a request for a file at that path. Without a rewrite that sends unknown paths to index.html, the server returns a 404 even though in-app navigation works.
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- Identify whether the app uses browser history routing or hash routing.
- For browser history routing, add the host-specific rewrite rule that maps application paths to the root
index.html. - Deploy the rule with the site, not only in a local development server.
- Test the home page, one nested route, a hard refresh on that route, an unknown route and a real static asset path.
The exact rewrite file and syntax differ by platform, and the relevant per-platform documentation was not reviewed here. Use each host’s current routing instructions rather than copying a configuration intended for another service.
A deployment checklist that works on any host
- Confirm the runtime. Decide whether the app is static or needs server rendering, functions or background work.
- Build locally. Run the repository’s documented production command and serve the output directory as static files. Fix warnings that affect asset paths before connecting a host.
- Record the output directory. Vite projects commonly use
dist; other tools may usebuild. Use the directory your build actually creates. - Set the Node version deliberately. Pin the version required by your lockfile and dependencies so a hosted build does not silently use a different runtime.
- Separate secrets. Put API keys and environment values in the platform’s environment-variable settings. Never commit production secrets to Git.
- Configure SPA rewrites. Verify direct navigation and refreshes on nested routes.
- Test the preview. Check authentication redirects, forms, API calls, image paths, cache behavior and mobile layout.
- Attach the domain last. Confirm the preview is correct, then configure DNS, HTTPS and the canonical hostname.
- Monitor limits. Watch credits, transfer, function invocations, build counts and error logs from the first release.
Common failures and fixes
Build succeeds locally but fails in the host
Check the Node version, package-manager lockfile, case-sensitive import paths and required environment variables. A local machine may have undeclared global packages that the clean build environment does not.
CSS or JavaScript returns 404
Inspect the configured output directory and the application’s base path. A host pointing at the repository root instead of the generated directory will publish source files without the built asset structure.
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Add the platform’s SPA rewrite to index.html, then retest a direct request. Do not rewrite static asset paths to the HTML entry point.
Site pauses unexpectedly
On Netlify, inspect monthly credit consumption and the hard 300-credit free limit. On Vercel, check Hobby allowances or Pro overages and remember that Hobby cannot purchase extra usage. On Cloudflare Pages, inspect build count, concurrency and file count rather than bandwidth alone.
Functions fail after moving platforms
Review the runtime assumptions. Code written for Node.js may not run unchanged in a Workers-based Functions environment, and a static-only host cannot execute server code merely because the frontend is React.
Costs rise after a traffic spike
Review cache headers, large assets, image delivery and function invocation volume. Vercel Pro bills usage beyond its included credit, while Netlify usage is credit-based; set alerts before a marketing campaign or public launch.
How to make the final decision
- Choose Cloudflare Pages for a static React bundle where transfer cost is the primary concern and the free build ceilings fit.
- Choose Netlify when forms, redirects, previews and an approachable team workflow outweigh credit-based metering.
- Choose Vercel for Next.js or a React application that will rely on server rendering; use Pro or Enterprise for commercial work.
- Choose Firebase Hosting when Firebase already supplies the application backend, after confirming current quotas.
- Choose AWS Amplify when AWS integration is more valuable than a simpler, less coupled deployment.
For most static React projects, start by comparing Cloudflare Pages and Netlify. Make Vercel the default only when its Next.js runtime is useful, not merely because the frontend happens to be written in React.
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