Vercel migration deep dive

Vercel Migration Deep Dive

Overview

Migrate applications to Vercel from Netlify, AWS (Lambda/CloudFront/S3), Cloudflare Workers, or traditional hosting. Covers configuration mapping, DNS cutover, feature parity validation, and incremental migration with the strangler fig pattern.

Current State

!vercel --version 2>/dev/null || echo 'Vercel CLI not installed' !cat package.json 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.name // "no package.json"' 2>/dev/null || echo 'N/A'

Prerequisites

• Access to current hosting platform
• Git repository with application source
• DNS management access for domain cutover
• Vercel account (Pro recommended for production)

Instructions

Step 1: Configuration Mapping

From Netlify:

Netlify	Vercel Equivalent
netlify.toml	vercel.json
_redirects / _headers	vercel.json redirects/headers
Netlify Functions (netlify/functions/)	API routes (api/)
Netlify Edge Functions	Edge Middleware or Edge Functions
NETLIFY_ENV	VERCEL_ENV
Deploy previews	Preview deployments (automatic)
Branch deploys	Branch preview URLs

// Netlify _redirects → vercel.json
// FROM: /old-page /new-page 301
// TO:
{
  "redirects": [
    { "source": "/old-page", "destination": "/new-page", "permanent": true }
  ]
}

// Netlify _headers → vercel.json
// FROM: /* X-Frame-Options: DENY
// TO:
{
  "headers": [
    {
      "source": "/(.*)",
      "headers": [
        { "key": "X-Frame-Options", "value": "DENY" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

From AWS (Lambda + CloudFront + S3):

AWS	Vercel Equivalent
Lambda functions	Serverless Functions (api/)
Lambda@Edge	Edge Functions / Middleware
CloudFront distributions	Automatic CDN
S3 static hosting	public/ directory
API Gateway	Automatic routing
CloudFront behaviors	vercel.json rewrites
AWS SAM/CDK	vercel.json
Secrets Manager	Environment Variables

// AWS Lambda handler → Vercel Function
// FROM:
export const handler = async (event) => {
  return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify({ hello: 'world' }) };
};

// TO:
import type { VercelRequest, VercelResponse } from '@vercel/node';
export default function handler(req: VercelRequest, res: VercelResponse) {
  res.status(200).json({ hello: 'world' });
}

From Cloudflare Workers/Pages:

Cloudflare	Vercel Equivalent
Workers	Edge Functions
Pages Functions	API routes
KV	Vercel KV or Edge Config
R2	Vercel Blob
D1	Vercel Postgres
wrangler.toml	vercel.json

Step 2: Migrate Functions

# Create Vercel project
vercel link

# Move function files to api/ directory
mkdir -p api
# Convert each function to Vercel format

# Install Vercel types
npm install --save-dev @vercel/node

Step 3: Migrate Environment Variables

# Export from current platform, add to Vercel
# Netlify:
netlify env:list --json | jq -r '.[] | "\(.key)=\(.values[0].value)"' > .env.migration

# Add each to Vercel with proper scoping
while IFS='=' read -r key value; do
  echo "$value" | vercel env add "$key" production preview development
done < .env.migration

# Verify
vercel env ls

Step 4: Incremental Migration (Strangler Fig)

Route traffic incrementally from old platform to Vercel:

// Phase 1: Route /api/* to Vercel, keep everything else on old platform
// On old platform, add a rewrite/proxy:
// /api/* → https://my-app.vercel.app/api/*

// Phase 2: Move static pages to Vercel
// Update DNS for staging subdomain first:
// staging.example.com → cname.vercel-dns.com

// Phase 3: Move production
// Update DNS A record: example.com → 76.76.21.21

Step 5: DNS Cutover

# Add domain to Vercel
vercel domains add example.com

# Verify domain ownership
vercel domains inspect example.com

# DNS records to set:
# Apex domain (example.com):
#   A → 76.76.21.21
#
# Subdomain (www.example.com):
#   CNAME → cname.vercel-dns.com
#
# Or transfer nameservers to Vercel:
#   NS → ns1.vercel-dns.com
#   NS → ns2.vercel-dns.com

# Wait for DNS propagation (check with dig)
dig example.com A +short
# Should return 76.76.21.21

# SSL certificate auto-provisions after DNS verification

Step 6: Validate Feature Parity

# Compare old and new deployments
# Test all routes
for path in "/" "/about" "/api/health" "/api/users"; do
  echo "=== $path ==="
  echo "Old:"
  curl -sI "https://old.example.com${path}" | head -3
  echo "New:"
  curl -sI "https://my-app.vercel.app${path}" | head -3
done

# Compare headers
diff <(curl -sI https://old.example.com/ | sort) \
     <(curl -sI https://my-app.vercel.app/ | sort)

# Check redirects still work
curl -sI https://my-app.vercel.app/old-page | grep Location

Migration Checklist

Step	Validated
All functions converted to Vercel format	Required
Environment variables migrated with correct scoping	Required
Redirects and headers ported to vercel.json	Required
DNS configured and SSL provisioned	Required
Preview deployment tested end-to-end	Required
Performance baseline compared (old vs new)	Recommended
Monitoring and alerting configured	Required
Rollback plan documented (DNS revert)	Required
Old platform kept running during validation period	Recommended

Output

• Configuration mapped from source platform to Vercel
• Functions converted to Vercel serverless/edge format
• Environment variables migrated with proper scoping
• DNS cutover completed with SSL auto-provisioning
• Feature parity validated

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Function format mismatch	AWS/Netlify handler signature	Convert to (req, res) or Web API format
Missing env var after migration	Not added to correct environment	Re-add with vercel env add
DNS not resolving	Propagation delay	Wait 24-48 hours, check with dig
SSL not provisioning	DNS records incorrect	Verify A/CNAME records match Vercel's requirements
404 on migrated routes	Different path conventions	Add rewrites in vercel.json

Resources

• Migrate to Vercel from Netlify
• Migrate to Vercel from Cloudflare
• Working with Domains
• Strangler Fig Pattern

Next Steps

For advanced troubleshooting, see vercel-advanced-troubleshooting.