Vercel SSO vs. display.dev: Which to Use for Internal HTML Sharing
This is the number that ends most conversations. Look at it first.
The cost comparison
This is the number that ends most conversations. Look at it first.
| Feature | Vercel | Display |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Pro is per seat. Password Protection is $20 per project | €49 flat |
| Company sign-in (Google, Microsoft) | Enterprise only (Passport) | ✅ Included on Pro |
| Upload a file (Vercel Drop) | ✅ Creates a new project each time | ✅ |
| Agent publishing (CLI and MCP) | ❌ | ✅ |
| MCP integration for Claude Desktop | ❌ | ✅ |
| Unlimited viewers | Vercel Authentication admits only people with a Vercel account | ✅ |
| Setup | A project, a deploy and protection settings | Ask your agent |
Vercel. Vercel Authentication is on every plan. Password Protection is $20 per month for each protected project on Pro. Sign-in through your own identity provider (Passport) is Enterprise only, at a custom price. We checked these facts on 14 October 2026 on vercel.com.
Display Pro: €49/month flat, unlimited viewers, Google and Microsoft sign-in included.
What Vercel is actually for
Vercel is a deployment platform for web applications.
It handles continuous deployment from git repositories, build pipelines for Next.js, Remix, SvelteKit, and other frameworks, edge functions, preview URLs for pull requests, a global CDN with edge caching, and framework-optimized builds.
This is Vercel's core value. If you're shipping a product (a web application with a build step, a git repo, and a deployment pipeline) Vercel is a strong choice.
What Vercel is not for
Publishing ad-hoc files.
Vercel Drop uploads files, but each drop creates a new project. Every artifact you want to host becomes its own project with its own protection settings. That overhead does not fit "I have an HTML file and need my company to see it."
The Vercel CLI deploys projects, not single documents. Setup takes longer and needs more steps than asking an agent to publish the file.
There's also no MCP integration for non-technical users; no "publish this to my team" in Claude Desktop.
What Vercel protection gives you
Vercel offers these methods (checked on 14 October 2026):
Vercel Authentication (every plan): Only people with a Vercel account and the right access can open the deployment. Your colleagues who are not on your Vercel team cannot.
Password Protection ($20/month for each protected project on Pro): A shared password. It is not identity-aware: anyone who knows the password can view, with no per-user audit trail and no domain restriction.
Passport (Enterprise only, custom price): Sign-in through your own identity provider. This is real authentication.
For a company that shares many small artifacts (an agent-authored research dossier, an architecture diagram, a competitive analysis, a sprint summary) the model breaks. You would need one Vercel project per artifact, each with its own protection settings. That is engineering overhead for a publishing problem.
Vercel protection suits a team that deploys one persistent web application that needs access control. That is a different problem from publishing documents.
When to use Vercel anyway
You're deploying a web application, not sharing a file. For a full Next.js app with a build pipeline, CI/CD, and an engineering team maintaining it, Vercel is the right tool.
You already have a git project structure and the HTML is a natural output of that project's build process. If your build produces a static site at /dist and that's already a git repo, a Vercel deployment of /dist is reasonable.
You have identity-provider sign-in as part of a Vercel Enterprise contract. Your company may already be on Vercel Enterprise, and the cost is sunk. Then using Passport for some internal content is pragmatic.
You need framework support, edge functions, or preview deployments as part of a real application, rather than for static HTML sharing.
When to use display.dev
You have an HTML file from Claude Code, Cursor, a CI pipeline, a data export, or any other source, and you need your company to see it.
You don't want to create a git project. The file exists and you want a URL.
You want your agent to publish. Ask it to publish the file. It returns a link, with no project setup and no deployment configuration.
You want Google and Microsoft sign-in at a flat rate. €49/month covers your entire company, all artifacts, and unlimited viewers. You pay no fee for each protected project.
You want MCP for non-technical users. PMs and analysts can publish from Claude Desktop without a terminal.
The workflow comparison
Vercel (with protection on a new project):
- Create a git repository
- Commit the HTML file
- Go to vercel.com
- Create a new project, connect the repository
- Configure build settings (or disable build step for static files)
- Choose a protection method (identity-provider sign-in needs Enterprise)
- Deploy
- Get URL
Setup takes longer and needs more steps.
Display: ask your agent to publish the file to Display. It returns a link. Cost: €49/month.
Try display.dev free – no git project required →
FAQ
Can I use Vercel for internal HTML sharing on the free tier?
Not for your whole company. Vercel's free (Hobby) plan has Vercel Authentication, which admits only people with a Vercel account. Password Protection is not available on Hobby.
What if I already have Vercel for our main product?
Keep using it. Use display.dev for artifact publishing alongside it. These aren't competing tools: Vercel deploys your application, display.dev publishes your internal documents and artifacts. Most teams use both.
Does display.dev do anything Vercel does for app deployment?
No. display.dev doesn't support build pipelines, edge functions, framework optimization, or continuous deployment from git. It does one thing: publishes HTML and Markdown files behind company auth. It isn't a substitute for Vercel in application deployment.
What about Vercel password protection – isn't that cheaper?
Password protection ($20/month for each protected project on Pro) uses a shared password, not identity-based auth. Anyone who knows the password can view the content. There's no per-user audit trail, and no domain restriction (a contractor with the password sees the same thing as an employee). For anything beyond "casual access restriction," shared passwords aren't sufficient.
Free tier. No credit card. One-time password auth for viewers on free, Google + Microsoft SSO on Pro (€49/month flat).