# Vercel

Source: https://www.fortrabbit.com/hosting-guide/providers/serverless/vercel
Created: 2026-07-12
Reviewed: 2026-07-12


## About Vercel

Vercel is a serverless platform for frontend frameworks and JavaScript functions. PHP is not officially supported. It runs through `vercel-php`, a community runtime that executes PHP inside Vercel's Node-based functions, Composer and all. One myth worth killing: that runtime is not dead. It is actively maintained and tracks PHP up to 8.5. But it rests on one community maintainer, not a platform promise.

Vercel is a fine home for a Next.js or SvelteKit frontend. For a PHP backend it is a workaround. The serverless function limits apply, and the PHP support lives or dies by one person's free time, not a roadmap.

## Why fortrabbit

Running PHP on Vercel means leaning on a community shim to bridge a platform that was never built for it. A fun experiment. A shaky base for something in production.

fortrabbit treats PHP as the first-class citizen it is not on Vercel. Native Composer builds, MySQL, persistent storage, PHP version switching, Git-push deploys. The tidy setup pairs them: a JavaScript frontend on Vercel, a PHP API on fortrabbit, each doing what it was actually built for.