The State of Tools for Frontend Deployment

In modern web development, frontend deployment has become a complex affair that goes beyond simply hosting static files on a server. Over the years, the growing demands of DevOps practices have significantly influenced the evolution of deployment platforms. These platforms are now engineered to be more than just hosting solutions. They're designed to cater to an expansive set of needs that include but are not limited to version control, automatic build processes, rollbacks, scaling, and geographic distribution. The change in expectations has given rise to platforms that offer everything you need for deploying your application, ensuring it's accessible worldwide, secure, and performs well.

While this advancement offers more features and flexibility than ever, it also presents a challenge: choosing the right deployment platform for your project. The decision is critical, as the platform you select will have a long-term impact on your project’s scalability, performance, and maintenance. Each platform comes with its own pros and cons, feature sets, pricing models, and learning curves. Making the wrong choice for your requirement can lead to increased costs, reduced efficiency, and limitations in terms of what you can accomplish down the line.

Moreover, changing your deployment platform later in the project lifecycle can be challenging and time-consuming. It often involves a learning curve and migration costs, both in terms of time and potential service interruptions.

For example, in Remix, we import different modules based on the server runtime environment. Therefore moving to another deployment option with a different runtime means we will have to make changes in almost all files wherever we are using platform-dependent modules. Thus, making an informed decision from the get-go is of utmost importance. It's not just about meeting your current needs but also about future-proofing your project.

This article aims to simplify this critical decision-making process by offering a detailed overview of some of the most commonly used frontend deployment platforms: Vercel, Cloudflare, Netlify, and more. Each section will provide insights into what makes each platform unique and discuss its key features, example usages, and pricing models.