Next.js 15 offers new core support and documentation for self-hosting; plus a new cache API is coming, the team said.

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Vercel has made significant updates to Next.js to simplify self-hosting. This includes new documentation and video resources explaining self-hosting steps, improvements to the cache API with the introduction of 'use cache', and replacing the WebAssembly-based image optimization library with Sharp. These changes aim to make Next.js more efficient and easier to configure, ultimately enhancing developers' ability to self-host applications.

Vercel Makes Changes to Next.js To Simplify Self-Hosting

I had a hard time with self-hosting at first, but once I figured out the setup, it’s actually pretty easy to repeat.
The problem is the lack of clear documentation from Vercel—it really doesn’t make things simple.
Makes you wonder, though… is this on purpose to nudge businesses toward their platform?

the “need” to host on vercel has always been the biggest hurdle for me over just using react.

We have been self hosting multiple NextJS apps on the same domain for years, with a monorepo, azure pipeline, Akamai cdn and kubernetes. Not everything was straightforward but it works. It’s only recently that I’m starting to doubt Vercel’s efforts to fix all annoyances.