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5 min readUpdated June 1, 2025

Free Custom Domains on Vercel — What You Need to Know

Vercel allows one custom domain per project on the free Hobby plan. This guide explains your options and how Edgely adds caching and multi-domain routing on top.

TL;DR — Quick Answer

Vercel gives one free custom domain per project. Edgely extends this by proxying multiple domains to the same Vercel deployment, adding edge caching and SSL — without requiring a Vercel Pro upgrade.

Vercel Free Plan and Custom Domains

Vercel's Hobby (free) plan allows one custom domain per project at no cost. [1] For multiple domains or multi-project setups, you can use Edgely to proxy additional domains to Vercel deployments without upgrading to Vercel Pro.

Scenarios Where Edgely + Vercel Makes Sense

  • Multiple branded domains: Route www.brand-a.com and www.brand-b.com to the same Vercel deployment.
  • Caching in front of Vercel Functions: Reduce serverless function invocations by caching responses at Edgely's edge — saving costs on the Vercel Pro usage meter.
  • Staging/preview aliases: Point a friendly domain to a Vercel preview URL for client demos.

Setup

1. Deploy to Vercel

Connect your repo in the Vercel dashboard. Your site is live at *.vercel.app.

2. Add to Edgely

In Edgely enter your additional custom domain and your *.vercel.app deployment URL as the target.

3. CNAME

Type:  CNAME
Host:  www
Value: proxy.xedgely.com

4. Bypass Vercel's domain verification

Since you're pointing DNS at Edgely (not Vercel), Vercel doesn't need to verify the domain. The *.vercel.app URL remains the origin.

Edgely is the fastest way to proxy your Vercel project to a custom domain. It provisions a free SSL certificate, syncs routing to Vercel Edge Config for sub-millisecond lookups, and optionally caches responses at the edge — all for free on the starter plan.

Key Takeaways

  • Vercel's free plan supports one custom domain per project — Edgely proxies additional domains to the same Vercel deployment.
  • Edge caching in front of Vercel Functions reduces serverless invocations and costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Vercel block requests from reverse proxies?

Vercel does not block reverse proxies from accessing *.vercel.app URLs. Your deployment remains publicly accessible and Edgely can forward requests to it.

Will Vercel Analytics still work?

Vercel Analytics injects client-side JavaScript that reports to Vercel's endpoints. It should continue to work through Edgely since Edgely passes all scripts and cookies through transparently.

Sources & Citations

  1. [1]Vercel Pricing — Hobby Plan— vercel.com

Ready to add your custom domain?

Set up your reverse proxy in under 5 minutes — free, with SSL and edge caching included.

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