Vercel shareable link or a room: which should you send a client?

A Vercel shareable link opens a protected deployment for anyone who has it. A room gives each person a link, a tour and a record. When to use which.

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By Kaz Kato · Published 12 October 2026 · Updated 12 October 2026

A Vercel shareable link lets anyone who has it open a protected deployment, through a query string in its address. Shareable links are on every plan. A room gives each person their own link, a guided tour and a record of what they did. Use Vercel to host the app, and a room to show it to clients.

This guide compares the two, line by line, and says when to use each. You can use both: Vercel runs the app, and a room carries a demo build of it to each client. Hosting compared sets Roomi beside the hosting platforms, and sharing a private link covers every link option.

Vercel shareable link A room on Roomi
What it is for Letting people outside your team open a protected deployment Showing a demo to named clients and prospects, and following up
Links One link, for whoever has it; one per account on Hobby A link for each person, named for them
Expiry Not described on Vercel’s page A date you choose, from one day to a year, or never
Switching it off Switch sharing back to “Only people with access” Revoke one person’s link at once; the others keep working
When it is forwarded It opens for whoever has it The next person is asked who they are, and is listed under the link
Who opened it Web Analytics: anonymised visitors, with no names Each person’s visits, time on each screen, tour progress, comments and answers
Comments With a Vercel login Pinned to the screen, with no account
A guided tour and a next step Not described A tour, then a next step such as booking a meeting
Data Your app, as deployed Mock data, on a demo domain kept apart from yours
Price Shareable links on every plan; Pro for commercial work Free to start; private links on Pro, at £4 a month

It lets someone outside your team open a deployment you have protected. You revoke a Vercel shareable link by switching the deployment’s sharing back to “Only people with access”. Vercel’s page on shareable links says nothing about an expiry date, or a record of who opened one. It is one link for everyone who holds it.

On Vercel’s Hobby plan you can create one shareable link to a protected deployment, in total, per account. Whoever the link is forwarded to gets in as well, so it suits a reviewer you trust more than a prospect you are still winning.

Can you share with one person on Vercel?

Yes. Vercel recommends inviting outside viewers to a deployment by email, and you can revoke each person’s access. On Hobby you can have one collaborator at a time. Vercel’s Hobby plan is free, and Vercel says it is for personal, non-commercial use. For client work, that points to Pro.

Vercel’s Pro plan is $20 a month, billed monthly, with $20 of usage included. Someone you invite to a Vercel deployment must log in to Vercel to leave a comment, or to open it at all if it is protected. That is good access control for a reviewer. It is not a record of what they did, and it asks a prospect to make an account with your host.

What does Vercel tell you about who looked?

Vercel’s Web Analytics tells visitors apart by a hash that resets every day, without cookies. It reports pages, referrers, countries, operating systems and browsers across all visitors. That counts visitors without naming them. So you can see that a page was visited, but not by whom.

For a launch, that is the right measure. For a sale, the question is narrower: did the one person you sent it to open it, and what held them?

What does a room add?

A link for each person, named for them, which can expire and be switched off on its own. A guided tour, so the demo explains itself when you are not there. A next step, from booking a meeting to saying yes. And a record of every visit, click and minute, person by person.

  • Forwarded links, named. When a link is passed on, the next person is asked who they are, and appears under the same link. The room cannot verify a name; it records what it is told.
  • Who to call first. At the top of the app, one sentence names the person to call, with the evidence: “Call Sarah today. Seen today, back on Pricing, shared it with someone new.”
  • The follow-up. Roomi emails you when someone comes back for another look. Ask your own Claude to draft the follow-up from what they did, and send it yourself.
  • Mock data, kept apart. Every demo runs on mock data, on getroomi.app, a domain kept apart from yours, and every room tells its viewers so. Security explains why.
  • Preview deploys. Send a new build as a preview that only you and your team see. Make it live for every client when it is ready.

When should you use which?

Use Vercel for the app itself: your team reviewing a branch, and the production app everyone uses. Use a room when a demo goes to named clients or prospects and you want to know what each one did. You can use both: host on Vercel, and send a demo build of the same app to a room.

Situation Send
Your team reviewing a change Vercel’s own sharing, with comments
A production app for everyone Vercel
A demo for a named client, with a follow-up A room
A prospect who should not see real data A room, on mock data

Moving a Next.js app from Vercel to a room

A Next.js app that builds as a static export (output: 'export') deploys to a room as it is, and roomi init recognises it. One that needs a server at request time runs as a container demo, on Pro and above. Static demos and container demos have the steps. Sharing a v0 project and showing a Cursor project walk through the move for apps those tools built.

Either way, swap anything that talks to a live database for sample data first. Then make a link for your first client, and send it. Hosting an app built with Claude Code sets Vercel’s free plan beside three other hosts.

When you send it, tell your client who you are and how to reach you. Say that Roomi records what they do in the room, and shows it to you. The terms ask every publisher to say so.

Questions people ask

A Vercel shareable link lets anyone who has it open a protected deployment, through a query string in its address. Shareable links are on every plan. So it stays private only as long as nobody passes it on.

Can I see who opened my Vercel deployment?

Vercel’s Web Analytics tells visitors apart by a hash that resets every day, without cookies. It reports pages, referrers, countries, operating systems and browsers across all visitors. It does not name the people who visited.

Can I deploy a Next.js app from Vercel to Roomi?

Yes. A static export deploys as it is. An app that needs a server runs as a container demo, on Pro and above. Either way, it runs on sample data, not your live database.

Does Roomi replace Vercel?

No. Vercel runs production apps for everyone. Roomi hosts demos on mock data for the people you are selling to, and tells you what each of them did.

What does each cost?

Vercel’s Pro plan is $20 a month, billed monthly, with $20 of usage included. On Vercel, password protection is an add-on to Pro at $20 a project a month, billed monthly. The Hobby plan does not offer it. Roomi starts free; private links come with Pro, at £4 a month before VAT.

Sources

About the author

Kaz Kato, Co-founder & CTO, Roomi. Kaz co-founded Roomi with Tesh, whom he has built with since 2017: two startups that failed, one venture studio that didn’t, and an exit.

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