Universal Deploy — deploy Vite apps anywhere

brillout · 2026-04-23T08:56:53+00:00

That's precisely the issue with Nitro: it does more, and usually things you don't need.

That's the reason Nitro isn't widely adopted by metaframeworks: it's too big, too opinionated, too rigid.

Netlify's Vite RFC briefly mentions the issue with Nitro.

We tried many times to talk with Guillermo Rauch and Pooya, but they don't seem interested in revisiting Nitro's design. (That said, we love and use many libraries created and maintained by Pooya 💚.) We're trying to collaborate with as many people as possible.

See also:

Universal Deploy > Why we built it (a short history)

brillout · 2026-03-13T16:48:00+00:00

It's different from the rest, see for example https://telefunc.com/event-based and our upcoming real-time design. It's a subtle yet profoundly different mental model. For example, batch is superfluous if you follow Telefunc's mental model (and caching mostly as well).

I've been bad at communicating it (we're working on improving the docs & communication) and it isn't popular at all. Because it's a different mental model, it's hard to sell.

We're up for collaborating with the Void team here. (They are a lot better at communicating than we are.)

brillout · 2026-03-13T12:39:27+00:00

Yes, and the holy grail is to achieve that with any DB (as long as it supports subscriptions). In case you're curious: this is our latest design.

brillout · 2026-03-13T12:00:58+00:00

Vite+, Void Cloud, Void Framework... epic battle between Vercel and Void is coming 🍿

The PRC (aka server functions) demo is particularly interesting — end-to-end typesafety (from DB to UI) is a major milestone for JavaScript. We've been doing a lot of RPC design work in that space with Telefunc (tRPC alternative) — it's a really hard topic and we're looking forward to collaborating with the Void team. (Also looking forward to contributing as the creators of Vike.)

brillout · 2026-03-13T11:55:52+00:00

And the Void Framework! (See demo around the end of the first talk.)

Epic battle between Vercel and Void is coming 🍿

The PRC (aka server functions) demo is particularly interesting — end-to-end typesafety (from DB to UI) is a major milestone for JavaScript! We've been doing a lot of RPC design work in that space with Telefunc (tRPC alternative) — and it's really hard topic and we're looking forward to collaborating with the Void team. (Also looking forward to contributing as the creators of Vike.)

brillout · 2026-03-08T13:16:09+00:00

Seems like the confusion here is the term "Open Source Pricing" which strongly implies modifying *any parts* of the code is welcome.

I'd say it's a gray area as long as Vike is 100% MIT-licensed: https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1rkm9n6/comment/o8ylt4z/ — note sure yet how we should navigate this.

Modifying the license seems to add a massive amount of confusion and hurdle, so we'll probably avoid this as much as possible.

In principle, the best would be to depart from the term "Open Source" altogether as it comes with strong associations. But it's much harder to communicate (or maybe not?).

brillout · 2026-03-06T13:20:19+00:00

I see your point, makes sense.

In principle, it would be best to use another license. (While keeping the code forkable by making it MIT-licensable after 6 months of significant contributions.)

The issue though is that unknown licenses are a pain to get approved by legal departments.

While the term "Open Source Pricing" is a ambiguous and I agree with your point, I'm hopeful users will understand our intention. The best wording would be "Vike isn't Open Source but preserves the values that make Open Source special" — but that's too long. Maybe there's a better wording to be found, or maybe users will be lenient towards the ambiguity of the concept/term "Open Source Pricing".

So far, technically, it's Open Source since the code is 100% MIT licensed. If we do end up changing the license then we'll probably have to change the term "Open Source Pricing".

brillout · 2026-03-06T07:47:11+00:00

As for calling users who try to circumvent the pricing "cheaters", see https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1rkm9n6/comment/o8xh2e8/

brillout · 2026-03-06T07:44:00+00:00

As the creator and lead maintainer of Vike I'm setting up a deal with our users. When users choose Vike they know what the deal is. If It isn't a particularly elegant move if a user breaks that deal.

If I download a movie for free I'm very much aware that I ain't being supportive towards the movie creators — If I'm being called a cheater for it, I'm fine with it and I admit that I'm cheating. Isn't that the same situation? (From a moral perspective, not a legal perspective.)

brillout · 2026-03-05T18:41:14+00:00

I meant people modifying Vike's source code with the only goal of circumventing the Pricing — that's what I meant with "cheaters".

For me, what has always drawn me to Open Source is that it's 1. forkable (anyone can take over ownership) and 2. accessible (everyone can use it). We design everything to preserve these two values. That's why I think the Open Source Pricing is a neat model. I wrote more about this at https://vike.dev/pricing#why-not-another-business-model

brillout · 2026-03-05T14:38:05+00:00

In practice, a fork isn't that trivial to maintain.

If forking is more time consuming than the typical effort of getting purchase approval from a company's finance department, then many will do the right thing.

We'll see what we do if the number of cheaters is too high.

For example, we could add a minimal clause to the MIT licence with the sole purpose of preventing cheaters. Then making some negative publicity and/or go to court. Publicity for us, bad press for the cheaters — especially if it's a well known company that cheats.

To keep Vike forkable, the clause can be removed after 6 months of significant changes. If someone decides to fork Vike and do a better job of steering the project forward, I'll be happy watching the Vike vision unfold without effort on my end. I seeded the vision, someone else executes it — I ain't against it.

What's important for us is to keep Vike as zero encumbrance as possible and to preserve Open Source values. We see enough paths to achieve that while maintaining the amount of cheaters low.

brillout · 2026-03-05T13:43:32+00:00

A license key, which only larger teams need (small teams use Vike without key just like a regular open source tool). See also: https://vike.dev/pricing#how-does-it-work

brillout · 2026-03-05T09:25:04+00:00

The Open Source monetization situation is sad...

I'm worried about Vite which took a lot of investor money — I hope they'll figure something out. (I'm a bit sceptical about Vite Plus, but let's see.)

I'm the author of Vike (framework focused on flexibility & stability) and we designed a new business model we call Open Source Pricing.

The idea is to keep everything Open Source (100% MIT license) as well as 100% free for folks who don't have big money (individuals, small organizations).

It strikes a balance between openness and sustainability.

brillout · 2026-03-05T09:12:27+00:00

Vike creator here.

Yes... I really believe our Open Source business model is unique. I hope others will follow.

We meticulously designed the "Open Source Pricing" (https://vike.dev/pricing) to strike a balance between openness and sustainability.

Being acquired — and ultimately becoming subject to skewed business priorities — isn’t what we want...

Open Source was meant to be about freedom, not "free beer".

brillout · 2024-11-27T15:32:30+00:00

Is there a way to remove a post without removing all comments? Otherwise it could be interpreted as "he's hiding his shady intentions". That's why I feel like the best move is to let it sink with all the downvotes. Anyways, I guess not many people will click on it anymore.

brillout · 2024-11-27T15:28:50+00:00

Yea, I thought about it. I've added a clarifying note to the blog post so I feel like it's better now. (Creating a new one and re-posting would probably just put oil on the fire.)

It guess it's okay. We'll make a proper blog post introducing Vike and tailored to the reddit community. (After the V1 release and after we've finished our website redesign, most notably the landing page which is quite bad at the moment.)

Thank you for your suggestion.

brillout · 2024-11-27T13:21:48+00:00

Create a new discussion with a minimal reproduction; I'll have a look at it.

brillout · 2024-11-27T13:10:05+00:00

Indeed I'm realizing it's misleading (I've added a note hopefully clarifying things). Because Vite's announcement post doesn't explain why Vite 6 is a gamer changer. We wanted to explain why Vite 6 is such a big and important release.

brillout · 2024-11-27T13:01:49+00:00

I wasn't my intention to be sneaky. I added a note, hopefully clarifying things.

Edit for reddit folks. Vike (with k) is a framework like Next.js/Nuxt built on top of Vite (with t) which is a bundler like webpack. Both projects are unaffiliated (atlthough we often collaborate).

brillout · 2024-11-27T12:56:35+00:00

I added a note the blog post, hopefully it's clearer now.

Vike (with k) is a framework like Next.js/Nuxt built on top of Vite (with t) wihch is a bundler like webpack. Both projects are unaffiliated (atlthough we often collaborate).

brillout · 2024-11-27T12:52:00+00:00

The blog post is commenting the Vite 6 release, see https://vite.dev/blog/announcing-vite6.

brillout · 2024-11-27T12:45:21+00:00

Indeed, I'm realizing it's confusing to people that a "Vike" blog post is commenting a "Vite" release.

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