Hosting React Apps on Vercel

🚀 Why Host React on Vercel?

Vercel is a cloud platform built for frontend developers. It offers one-click deployments, fast global CDN, Git integration, preview deployments, and zero-config support for popular frameworks like React, Next.js, Vue, and more.

Whether you're building a personal portfolio or a production-ready app, Vercel makes hosting your React project effortless and professional. ⚡🌍

🛠️ Preparing Your React App for Deployment

If you're using Create React App (CRA), the default build setup is already optimized for Vercel.

Steps:

1. Finish your React development locally
2. Run the build command

npm run build
  

This will create a build/ folder containing static HTML, CSS, JS files ready for deployment.

🔗 Connecting GitHub to Vercel

The easiest way to host your app is through Git integration. Here's how:

1. Push your React project to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket
2. Go to Vercel.com and log in
3. Click "New Project" and import your repo
4. Vercel automatically detects React and sets up defaults
5. Click "Deploy" and your app goes live 🚀

🌐 Custom Domain Setup

Want to use your own domain like myportfolio.dev?

1. Go to your deployed project on Vercel
2. Navigate to Settings → Domains
3. Add your custom domain
4. Update your domain’s DNS records to point to Vercel

Vercel provides SSL (HTTPS) out of the box using Let's Encrypt. 🔒

📂 Handling Routing with React Router

If your app uses React Router, you’ll need to prevent Vercel from showing a 404 on page refresh.

Create a file in the public/ directory named vercel.json:

{
  "rewrites": [
    { "source": "/(.*)", "destination": "/index.html" }
  ]
}
  

This ensures that all routes fallback to index.html for React Router to take over. 🛣️

🔒 Environment Variables

To securely store API keys or config values:

1. Go to Project → Settings → Environment Variables
2. Add variables like REACT_APP_API_KEY
3. Re-deploy your app to apply changes

// Access them in your React code
process.env.REACT_APP_API_KEY
  

📦 Vercel Features You’ll Love

• Automatic Deploys from every Git push
• Preview URLs for every pull request
• Global CDN for blazing-fast delivery
• Analytics to track traffic & performance
• Rollback to any previous deployment

💡 Troubleshooting Tips

• Getting a 404 on refresh? Add a vercel.json for SPA fallback
• App not reflecting new changes? Clear build cache or redeploy manually
• Broken images or fonts? Check public/ path and asset references

✅ Final Thoughts

Hosting React apps on Vercel is quick, scalable, and developer-friendly. You don’t need to manage servers, configure Nginx, or fight with FTP—just connect your repo and deploy in seconds. ⏱️

It’s one of the best choices for modern React projects and works great whether you're launching a side project or deploying an enterprise frontend.