Vercel Inc.

Most cloud platforms force developers to piece together hosting, domains, and deployment tools from different vendors. Vercel built something different — a Frontend Cloud that treats web development as an integrated experience, where you can build with Next.js, deploy globally, register domains, and scale AI applications all from one platform.

What started as a developer tools company has evolved into the infrastructure powering some of the web's fastest sites. Vercel's edge network automatically optimizes for speed across regions, while their AI Gateway lets developers integrate models from multiple providers without vendor lock-in. The platform handles everything from serverless functions to domain transfers, with the kind of zero-config experience that developers actually want to use.

The domain management piece fits naturally into Vercel's broader vision. When you're deploying a web application on their platform, you can register new domains or transfer existing ones directly through their dashboard. No jumping between registrars and hosting providers — the domain becomes part of your deployment workflow. Transfer fees depend on the TLD and renewal costs, but the platform alerts you to any charges before initiating transfers.

Vercel's marketplace shows how they think about the modern web stack. Instead of just offering basic hosting, they've created integrations with everything from MongoDB Atlas to AI tools like Browserbase and CodeRabbit. Developers can provision databases, set up authentication, add analytics, and deploy AI agents — all through one-click marketplace installations that configure themselves automatically.

The AI focus isn't just marketing speak. Vercel Agent helps with coding assistance, their AI Gateway provides model-agnostic access to LLMs with global performance optimization, and v0 (their AI-powered code generation tool) now runs natively inside ChatGPT. They're building infrastructure specifically designed for AI-first applications, where traditional CDNs and hosting setups fall short.

For DNS and domain professionals, Vercel represents something interesting — a company that's made domain management feel like a native part of the development experience rather than an afterthought. When your deployment platform can also handle your domain registration and DNS configuration, the barriers between development and operations start disappearing.