It is 9pm, the site is built, and the only thing between you and a live URL is the Netlify vs Vercel vs Cloudflare Pages decision sitting in three open browser tabs. Short answer first, then the detail. For most UK small business sites, Cloudflare Pages wins on price and reach, Netlify wins when you want forms working straight away, and Vercel wins if your build runs on Next.js.
All three host a static site free, read straight from your Git repo, and redeploy every time you push. So the real question is not which is cheapest, it is which one fits the site you have actually built.
The short answer for a UK small business
Free tier comparison, in plain terms. Reach for Cloudflare Pages by default: the free plan carries no bandwidth cap, that alone settles it for a lot of brochure sites, and it runs on Cloudflare's global edge so a customer in Leeds loads your site fast. The same network gives you free cover against traffic-flood attacks, and there is a fuller case for Cloudflare as a UK small business host if you want it. Netlify earns its place when you need a working contact form on day one. Vercel is built around Next.js, so host a Next.js project there and it all lines up. For the running costs, our breakdown of what UK hosting really costs in 2025 sets the numbers straight.
Get this done in one sitting
A sequence we run across UK plumber, dentist and accountant sites. Keep the order, adapt the names.
- Push the finished site to a GitHub or GitLab repo.
- Connect that repo to Cloudflare Pages and point your domain at it.
- Need forms handled for you? Deploy the same repo to Netlify as well and compare the two live.
- Only reach for Vercel if the build is Next.js.
- Running a shop rather than a brochure site? Read static versus WordPress for ecommerce before you commit, as the trade-offs shift.
The mistakes we see on most UK audits
Three patterns turn up again and again when a Netlify, Vercel and Cloudflare Pages setup goes wrong:
- Picking on hype, not on the build. Vercel gets talked about most, but a plumber's five-page site does not need it.
- Missing the free-tier small print. Vercel's free plan is meant for personal projects; run a business on it and a paid plan soon costs real money.
- Forgetting that UK speed feeds Google. Static hosting on a fast edge helps Core Web Vitals, and Google's own Search Central docs and Google Business Profile docs both tie page experience to how well a site shows up. Fast pages get seen; slow ones get skipped.
Pick your next step
Want the full context first? Start with our website hosting guide for the silo overview, or the WordPress versus static pillar for the depth. If you would rather not touch a repo at all, let us host and support the site for you, or simply get in touch and we will point you to the right free tier for your build.
Related cluster posts
From the same pillar — these dig into adjacent subtopics:
