# A Vercel alternative for apps that need an always on server

Vercel runs backend code as functions that scale with each request. That works well for an application that only needs to respond to requests. Tokay gives your workspace a dedicated virtual machine that stays on, which fits code that must keep running or data that should stay on local disk.

## Keep the app together

If your repo has a web app and a background worker that processes a queue, Tokay runs them in the same project. The worker stays a long running process after each web request returns, with access to the same database and secrets as the web app. A bot or WebSocket server follows the same model because its process stays up between events.

A nightly script becomes a scheduled job without being wrapped in a function, and Tokay records every run. If the app uses SQLite or saves uploads to disk, persistent storage keeps those files in place through deploys and restarts.

On Tokay, a Next.js app runs as a normal server rendered app on your virtual machine. When the same repo also contains a worker, Tokay runs that worker beside the web app instead of forcing it into a function. See [deploy a Next.js app](deploy-nextjs.md).

## Know what your app runs on

Your free virtual machine includes 2 vCPU and 2 GB of RAM, with 20 GB of storage on disk. KVM isolates it from every other customer using the same hardware virtualization boundary as major cloud providers.

Those reserved resources make the cost predictable. More traffic uses more of the same capacity, but it does not create a larger bill. Tokay does not spread your app across regions automatically, so Vercel is the better fit when elastic horizontal scale is the priority.

## Bring the source

Connect GitHub or push to a repository hosted by Tokay. We work out how the application starts and whether anything else in the repo needs to stay running. There is no Dockerfile or deployment config to write.

Once the source arrives, Tokay builds it and checks the new version before it receives traffic. If the change includes a database migration, we rehearse it against a copy first and snapshot the production database before applying it.

A coding agent like Claude Code or Codex can follow the same path through Tokay's GraphQL API. It can finish setup and verify the new Tokay URL before you move DNS. The protocol is at [app.tokay.io/llms.txt](https://app.tokay.io/llms.txt).

Tokay has a very generous free tier with no credit card. [Get started](/getting-started).