What is Netlify in October 2026?
Netlify is a hosting and build platform that started the Jamstack idea and now runs static sites, server-rendered frameworks, functions and a few built-in services such as forms and identity-style add-ons. You connect a repository, Netlify builds it, and the output goes to its CDN. Its main pull is framework neutrality: Astro, Eleventy, Hugo, Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit and Remix all deploy through the same workflow.
The pricing model changed. Netlify now meters usage in credits, and plans include a fixed credit amount. That affects how you forecast cost, which we cover below.
What do we deploy there?
- Astro and other static-first sites with a headless CMS behind them. This is Netlify’s strongest use. Our Astro team uses it when the client wants simple hosting and portable output.
- Marketing sites for several brands or regions from one team account, each with its own domain and previews.
- Headless CMS frontends where editors publish and a build hook rebuilds the site. Form submissions, redirects and headers live in one config file next to the code.
- Next.js apps with moderate server rendering, when the team already has Netlify. For SSR-heavy Next.js we look at Vercel first.
How do builds and deploy previews work?
Every pull request produces a Deploy Preview with its own URL, and every branch can have a branch deploy. Production deploys are immutable, so any earlier deploy can be published again as a rollback. Netlify’s docs state that functions are built and deployed with the site and get previews and rollbacks the same way, and that each deployed function version is immutable.
We keep build settings in netlify.toml so the pipeline is readable in code review: build command, publish directory, environment per context (production, deploy preview, branch deploy), redirects and headers. Secrets go into environment variables with scopes, never into the repository. Tests run in GitHub Actions before merge, and Netlify only builds what passed.
Functions and edge: what is available?
Netlify Functions are files in your project. A web-request function receives a standard Request and returns a Response, and you set the route in a config export. They scale with traffic and need no server. There are also background and scheduled functions for work that does not fit a request, and event handlers that fire on platform events such as a finished deploy. Edge Functions run on Deno close to the visitor and suit rewrites, geo logic and small personalisation.
We use functions for form handling, webhook receivers from the CMS, small API proxies that hide keys, and scheduled revalidation jobs. We do not use them for heavy database work or long-running jobs. Those go to a dedicated service.
What does Netlify cost, and how does it grow?
As of October 2026, the Netlify pricing page lists Free at $0 with 300 credits, Personal at $9 per month with 1,000 credits, Pro at $20 per month with unlimited members and 3,000 credits, and Enterprise on custom terms. Credits are spent per action: 15 credits for a production deploy, 10 per GB-hour of compute, 20 per GB of bandwidth and 2 per 10,000 web requests. Auto-recharge packs exist for Personal and Pro.
Two things follow. First, the old “300 build minutes” framing no longer applies, so any budget written before the credit model should be redone. Second, cost grows with bandwidth, function compute and how often you deploy to production. A site that ships ten times a day to production spends credits on deploys alone. We reduce that by merging changes into fewer production releases, caching responses and keeping images on a lean CDN path.
When do we pick another host?
- Next.js with heavy SSR, ISR and middleware: Vercel tracks new framework features first. See our Vercel vs Netlify comparison.
- Traffic spikes with mostly cacheable pages: Cloudflare Pages or Workers remove bandwidth charges on the paid Workers plan.
- Backend-heavy products, queues, private networking: containers or a managed cluster, designed with our DevOps support team.
How do we migrate between hosts?
Moving to Netlify, we translate redirects into _redirects or netlify.toml, rewrite functions to the web-request format, recreate environment variables per context and check that trailing-slash and header behaviour match the old host. We cut over with a low DNS TTL after comparing every route on a preview domain.
Moving away is easy for static output, because the build folder is the artifact. It is harder when forms, identity or edge logic are in use. We inventory those first. If you want an engineer to own this work, hire a DevOps engineer, or start from the Cloud and DevOps overview.
