Vercel introduced a new feature called Custom Environments. This is one of the things I really missed about the platform. They had only two (and a half) environments for us to work with. You could either deploy to a preview or production environment. They also support a staging environment on production, so that makes two and a half. Not three as you can't easily assign a custom domain to that staging production environment. Also, it will run on your production settings.
So yes, thank you Vercel for this new feature :).
What Are Custom Environments?
The Custom Environments feature allows teams to go beyond the default development, preview, and production environments. You can define up to 12 custom environments. This opens up possibilities, for example:
- A dedicated environment for automated testing
- A setup for quality assurance (QA)
- Isolated environments for feature testing or client reviews
It's up to you if you need it or not.
How to start
You can start defining Custom Environments today directly from your Vercel dashboard. Whether you’re deploying through the CLI or API, the process integrates seamlessly with your existing workflow. Set up your environments, configure branch rules, and start building with confidence.
More information can be found here:
- https://vercel.com/docs/deployments/custom-environments#creating-an-environment-through-the-vercel-dashboard
- https://vercel.com/guides/set-up-a-staging-environment-on-vercel