Vercel vs Netlify: who has to sign in to see your preview

Vercel and Netlify are the two platforms people actually choose between, and on the question that matters for sharing work — who has to sign in to look at it — the answer stopped being obvious in 2026. Both now default new projects to private. What differs is what "private" costs the person on the other end of the link.

Every claim on this page is quoted from the vendor's own documentation, with the date that page was last updated. Where the two vendors changed something recently, the date is the point.

Both are private by default now. That is new.

This used to be the whole comparison, and it no longer is.

Vercel turned protection on by default. From Vercel's changelog (November 2, 2023):

"Deployment Protection with Vercel Authentication is now enabled by default."

It applies to new projects only — existing ones need manual configuration — and Vercel Authentication itself is "available on all plans."

Netlify moved later, and drew a line by team age. From Netlify's project visibility documentation (last updated August 19, 2026):

"Teams created on or after July 28, 2026 start with this default setting: Private for new projects. Teams created before then keep this default setting: Public."

So on Netlify the default is a property of when your team was created, not of the product. Two teams on the same plan can behave in opposite ways. The setting is also plan-scoped:

"This feature is available on Credit-based Free, Personal, and Pro plans only."

If you are comparing the two on "is my preview public", the honest answer for a new project on either platform is no, it is private — and you should check your Netlify team's creation date before assuming.

Where they differ: what private costs your reviewer

Both enforce privacy by making the viewer authenticate. That is the shared design, and it is the thing to understand before picking either.

Vercel gates on a Vercel account. Its protection method "[restricts] access to only Vercel users with suitable access rights" (Deployment Protection, last updated August 28, 2026). For someone outside your team, Vercel's sharing guide (August 28, 2026) is explicit about the split:

"The collaborator does not need to have a Vercel account, but will need to create one if they wish to view a deployment that is protected, use the toolbar, or leave comments."

Read together with the default above: on a new project, protection is on, so the collaborator needs the account.

Netlify gates on a Netlify login, and says so in one sentence:

"Private projects are enforced with Netlify login: only your team and people you invite can view a private project."

It also carries through to previews rather than being per-deploy:

"Previews stay private unless you change the preview visibility setting."

And on Netlify the login gate excludes one role outright. From Netlify's password protection documentation (last updated July 28, 2026):

"Team login protection applies to Developers, Team Owners, and Billing Admins only. Git Contributors will not be able to log in to your site deploys that are protected with team login protection."

The escape hatches, and what they cost

Neither platform leaves you stuck — but the ways out are priced and capped differently, and this is where a small team notices.

Vercel: shareable links, one of them on Hobby

A shareable link bypasses deployment protection. The cap is the detail people miss. From Vercel's shareable links documentation (August 28, 2026):

"Developers on the hobby plan can only create one shareable link in total per account."

Not one per project. One per account. Individual invites are capped the same way — "Hobby users are limited to one collaborator at any one time."

Vercel: the password gate is a paid add-on

Password Protection is "Available on the Enterprise plan, or as a paid add-on for Pro plans," and the add-on has a number attached:

"Advanced Deployment Protection features are available to Enterprise customers by default. Pro plan customers can access these features for an additional $150 per month"

Netlify: password protection is on Pro, and it is a shared secret

Netlify puts the shared password much further down the ladder:

"Basic password protection for your entire site is available on all Pro plans."

Two things to know about it. It is one secret for everyone — "Anyone can use your basic password to access a site deploy" — and it is an alternative to private, not a layer on top:

"If your project is set to private, it already requires users to sign in with their Netlify credentials, so you do not need to configure a password."

Seats: this changed in 2026 and most comparisons are stale

If you are reading an older comparison, check this one yourself.

Netlify removed seat pricing from its credit-based plans on April 14, 2026. Pro is now $20/month with unlimited members — the announcement is titled The end of seats. Only the Legacy Pro plan still bills $19 per team member per month, so which one you are on decides what adding a reviewer costs.

Vercel still prices Pro per member.

So "does adding a reviewer cost money" now depends on the platform and, on Netlify, on which pricing generation your team is on.

Deploying without a git repository

Both support it, which is worth stating plainly because it is often assumed to be a differentiator and is not.

Netlify documents a browser path. From Netlify's create deploys documentation (last updated July 28, 2026):

"You can create a new site by dragging a project folder containing your site files (like .html files) to Netlify Drop."

Vercel has an equivalent browser upload. Neither requires a repository to get a URL.

Where VibeHost sits

One axis separates all three, and it is the one this page is organised around: can the person you send a private preview to open it without creating an account on the platform?

• Vercel — no, unless you spend one of your shareable links. On Hobby you have exactly one, for the whole account.
• Netlify — no. Private is enforced with a Netlify login.
• VibeHost — yes. The share link is the credential. No account, no seat, as many links as you need, each separately labelled, each with its own expiry, each revocable on its own.

That is the difference, and it is the only one worth choosing us for on this page. On framework support, build features, edge network and ecosystem, Vercel and Netlify are ahead of us and it is not close — if your project is a Next.js app with a build pipeline and your reviewers are engineers who already have accounts, their tooling is more mature than ours and you should use it.

Where we are the right answer is narrower: the reviewer is a client, a designer, or a stakeholder who should not have to create an account on a developer platform to look at a page, and you do not want the preview publicly reachable in the meantime.

Plan numbers

Over the storage cap, deploys return 402 — free up space or upgrade. Usage-based overage billing is not live yet, so going over is never a charge today. Bandwidth is metered and shown on the usage card, but nothing is blocked when you go over it.

Business is priced per workspace, not per account: one subscription licences one workspace, so a second Business workspace is a second $20/month subscription rather than an add-on to the first. The Free plan allows 1 free workspace you own; creating another free one returns 402 PLAN_LIMIT_EXCEEDED. Creating a Business workspace is never refused — it starts its own subscription. Downgrading is not retroactive — workspaces you already own are kept, only the next create is refused.

Related

• VibeHost vs Vercel — the same question against Vercel alone, in more detail
• VibeHost vs Netlify — and against Netlify alone
• All platforms compared — six platforms on one page
• Share links — how the no-account link works, and what it does not bypass
• Grants and visibility — the four access mechanisms and how they compose