Backlit vs Vercel: hosting a finished single-page app
Vercel is built for developers shipping framework projects. Backlit is built for sharing a finished single-page app with sign-in and data. Here's a clear comparison for choosing between them.
Vercel is one of the best places to deploy a web project, if you’re a developer with a framework, a repo, and a build. For sharing a finished single-page app you built with AI, it and Backlit are solving different problems. Here’s the honest comparison so you can pick the right one.
The short answer
Use Vercel if you’re building a front-end project with a framework (Next.js, etc.), you work in Git, and you want fast deploys, previews, and edge functions. Use Backlit if you’ve got a finished single-page app and you just want to share it, with sign-in and saved data, without a repo, a build, or wiring up a backend. Vercel deploys your project; Backlit hosts your app plus the login and storage it needs.
Side by side
| Vercel | Backlit | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Developers deploying framework projects | Anyone sharing a single-page app built with AI |
| Starting point | A Git repo with a build | A finished HTML file |
| Build step | Yes, runs your framework build | None |
| Sign-in / auth | Bring your own (provider + code) | Built in, magic link, Google, Microsoft, allowlist |
| Per-user data | Bring your own database | Built in, per-user silos + shared store |
| Deploy from Claude/ChatGPT | No | Yes, via MCP, in the chat |
| Mental model | A deployment platform for engineers | A place to share finished apps |
| Sweet spot | Custom web apps and sites | Forms, trackers, tools, dashboards |
Where Vercel is the right call
Vercel is superb at what it’s for. If you have a Next.js app, a design system, a team of engineers, and a CI pipeline, Vercel gives you instant preview deployments, edge rendering, serverless functions, and granular control. That’s a developer’s dream and Backlit doesn’t try to compete with it.
The friction only appears when your needs are smaller than what Vercel assumes. Vercel expects a project and a build; if all you have is one HTML file from a chat, you’re setting up a repo and a pipeline for something that doesn’t need either. And the moment your app needs people to sign in or wants to remember data, Vercel hands you back the same homework as any host: bring an auth provider, bring a database, write the glue (serverless functions) to connect them. For an engineer, fine. For someone who just built a booking form with AI, that’s the wall.
Where Backlit is the right call
Backlit starts from the opposite assumption: the app is done, and the person sharing it isn’t trying to run a project. So:
- No build, no repo. Hand Backlit the finished single-page app and your assistant can publish it straight from the chat. There’s nothing to compile.
- Sign-in is included. Every private app gets managed sign-in and an allowlist. You don’t choose or integrate a provider.
- Data is included. Per-user silos and shared storage come with the app, reachable from your HTML via
window.backlit.*. No database to provision. - Your assistant deploys it. Because Backlit connects over MCP, “publish this” happens in the same conversation where you built it.
The trade-off is scope: Backlit is for single-page apps, not framework projects with build steps and custom server functions. That focus is the whole point: it’s what lets it skip everything Vercel makes you set up.
A word on serverless functions
The usual Vercel answer to “I need a backend” is serverless functions, small pieces of server code you write and deploy alongside the front end. They’re powerful and completely appropriate for a real app. But notice what they are: code you write and maintain to do auth and data, which also puts the security of that login and access control on you, and that’s where apps built with AI most often get hacked (how to keep an app you built with AI from getting hacked). Backlit’s bet is that for single-page apps, you shouldn’t be writing that code at all. Sign-in and storage should just be there. If you find yourself wanting a couple of functions only to handle login and save form data, that’s the signal Backlit was built for.
How to choose
One question: am I shipping a project, or sharing a finished app?
- Framework project, build pipeline, team of engineers → Vercel.
- Finished single-page app you want people to use, with a login and saved data, minimal fuss → Backlit.
If you’re in the second camp, you can be live in the same chat where you built it. See how it works →
Built an app with Claude or ChatGPT? Get early access to Backlit and share it in seconds.