Nexos vs Netlify: when a CDN-first platform is not enough
Netlify was one of the first platforms to make git-driven deploys feel magical. Push a branch, get a deploy preview. For static sites and sites with light serverless functions, that is still a great experience.
The challenge comes when your app grows past the CDN-plus-functions shape. If you have a containerised backend, a queue worker, a Postgres database that needs to stay stateful across pushes, or anything that runs outside of the request/response cycle, Netlify was not designed for your workload.
What Netlify does well
- Instant global CDN for static assets
- Deploy Previews with their own URL per pull request
- Edge Functions for lightweight request handling
- Forms, Identity, and Blobs for simple full-stack needs
Where it runs out of room
The Netlify preview is a frontend bundle pointed at the same backend you use in production. Your database is shared. Your API is shared. If you need true isolation between pull requests — say, to test a destructive migration, or to let QA break a checkout flow — you are building something custom on top of Netlify, not using it.
Functions hit the same serverless constraints as every other provider: cold starts, timeouts, and a payment model that rewards short, cacheable requests and punishes anything else.
Nexos picks up where Netlify stops
Nexos runs your whole stack per branch. Your Dockerfile, your Postgres, your Redis, your queue worker. Each preview is a real environment with real state, accessible at a real URL. Reviewers can register users, upload files, fire webhooks, and trust that what they see is genuinely what will ship.
Cost shape
Netlify charges per build minute, per bandwidth GB, and per seat at higher tiers. Nexos charges per second for CPU and RAM, and per build minute for builds. If you pause an environment, billing stops immediately. That makes it economical to keep many preview environments open at once.
Rule of thumb
If your app is essentially a static site plus a few small functions, Netlify is still a fine choice. If it is a multi-service application with a database that needs to survive a push, put that stack on Nexos and link Netlify as the CDN in front if you want.