Can I use a vercel.json file?

Hodifly reads the vercel.json at the root of your repository and applies it at deploy time. For most static projects, migrating from Vercel means changing nothing at all: push the same repository and your redirects, headers, clean URLs and cron jobs carry over. Serverless functions in api/ run too: see the dedicated article "How to create serverless functions?".

What is converted

vercel.json key	What happens on Hodifly
`redirects`	Converted to Apache rules. `permanent: true` (or omitted) gives a 308, `permanent: false` a 307, `statusCode` is honored (301, 302, ...). Path patterns like `/blog/:slug`, `/files/:path` and regex sources like `/(.)` work, and named parameters can be reused in the destination. External URLs are allowed.
`rewrites`	Converted to internal rules: the URL stays as typed while another page is served (the classic SPA fallback `{ "source": "/(.*)", "destination": "/index.html" }` works as-is). Real files always win over a rewrite, exactly like on Vercel.
`headers`	Each `source` pattern becomes a header rule (security headers, `Cache-Control`, ...).
`cleanUrls`	`/about` serves `about.html`, and `/about.html` answers a 308 redirect to `/about`.
`trailingSlash`	`true` adds the slash with a 308, `false` removes it.
`images`	Translated into image optimization with PageSpeed: recompression at configured quality and WebP conversion. `sizes`, `domains`, and `remotePatterns` have no equivalent (no on-demand resizing API). If you are already using PageSpeed for this site, yours wins; nothing is overwritten.
`crons`	Each entry becomes a real cron job on your account, visible and editable in cPanel, Cron Jobs. If your project has a `CRON_SECRET` environment variable, invocations carry `Authorization: Bearer <secret>`, same convention as Vercel.
`buildCommand`, `outputDirectory`, `installCommand`	Read from the file at every deploy: they pin the install and the build. For a static site they also pin the published folder: the project is detected as framework "Vercel" and those fields become read-only in the cPanel form. For an application (Next.js, Nuxt, TanStack Start, Astro or SvelteKit in server mode, Remix, and also PHP and Ruby apps), the framework decides the shape of the deployment: `buildCommand` and `installCommand` are applied, but `outputDirectory` is ignored, with a note in the deploy log. It has to be: for an application the published folder is the app root Passenger serves (`.output`, `build`, `.next/standalone`), not a folder of static files. Editing `vercel.json` and pushing is how you change them.
`api/` functions	Run for real, with or without a vercel.json. See the functions article.

The deploy log lists exactly what was converted (rule counts) and warns about anything that was not, so you never have to guess.

Precedence

If your repository also contains Netlify-style _redirects or _headers files, they are ignored as soon as a vercel.json exists: one configuration source, no silent merging. The deploy log says so explicitly.

What is not converted, and why

rewrites pointing at an external URL (proxying): serving another site through yours needs a proxy layer that shared hosting does not expose. The rule is skipped, with a warning in the deploy log. Redirects to external URLs work fine.
has / missing conditions on redirects, rewrites or headers: condition matching on cookies, query or headers is not translatable to per-directory Apache rules. Rules carrying them are skipped, with a warning naming each one.
routes (the legacy syntax): migrate those entries to redirects / rewrites / headers; Vercel itself deprecated the key.
regions, fluid: platform-specific to Vercel, no equivalent here. Images are served as-is (no optimization pipeline).

Good to know

The vercel.json file itself is never served: it is removed from the published output.
cleanUrls and trailingSlash redirects are safe with SPA rewrites and custom 404 pages: internal rewrites never re-trigger them.
Everything is re-applied on every deploy. Editing vercel.json and pushing is all it takes.

Updated on: 10/09/2026

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