Snapshot vs the alternatives
Private prototype hosting with magic links — not a Netlify password screen
Netlify and Vercel offer password-protected preview deployments — as paid features. InVision and Figma share designs behind accounts. Snapshot is different: self-hosted wildcard-subdomain hosting with passwordless magic links, AES-256-GCM encrypted cookies, and revocable viewer identities.
The dimensions that matter
| Option | Pricing model | Scaling | Data residency | Customization | Lock-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snapshot Self-hosted | Flat per-container licence | Stateless HTTP + wildcard DNS | Your VPC | Viewer identities + deny rules | Low — ZIP in, HTML out |
| Netlify (password protection) SaaS | Per-seat + bandwidth | Managed | Netlify | Password only | Medium |
| Vercel (preview auth) SaaS | Per-team + bandwidth | Managed | Vercel | Vercel auth | Medium |
| InVision / Figma SaaS | Per-seat | Managed | InVision / Figma | Design reviews | High |
What each alternative is good at — and where it falls short
Every tool here is excellent. Read the strengths. Then read where it stops fitting your situation.
Netlify (password protection)
SaaSStrength
Best-in-class static hosting with global CDN, continuous deploys, forms, and functions.
Where it falls short
Password protection is a paid add-on. Each site has one password — no per-viewer identity, no magic-link flow. Build minutes and bandwidth metered.
Pricing model
Free tier + per-seat + bandwidth add-ons.
Vercel (preview auth)
SaaSStrength
Seamless preview deploys per Git branch, preview auth through Vercel login.
Where it falls short
Auth requires viewers to have a Vercel-recognised identity. Not a magic-link flow. Priced per team seat + bandwidth + compute.
Pricing model
Per-team seat + bandwidth + compute.
InVision / Figma
SaaSStrength
Design-native prototype review — comments, approvals, design reviews.
Where it falls short
For designs, not for general static sites. Viewer accounts required. Priced per editor + viewer.
Pricing model
Per-editor + sometimes per-viewer.
When sharing a prototype with a client needs to be passwordless, private, and on your domain, Snapshot is the agency-grade alternative.
The principles behind self-hosting
These apply across every comparison on this site — not just this one.
Flat-rate cost model
A self-hosted container costs the same whether it processes 100 jobs or 10 million. SaaS and cloud alternatives meter per request, minute, or connection — costs scale linearly with usage.
Your data stays in your VPC
No cross-border data transfer. No vendor data-processing agreements. Compliance, residency, and audit are simpler when data never leaves.
No vendor lock-in
Every service speaks open standards — MQTT 5, OpenAPI, OCI Distribution, Redis protocol, S3 API. Migrating away is a DNS change, not a rewrite.
One contract across your stack
One platform contract. Once your team learns one service, onboarding the next is an afternoon. Compare to mastering AWS IoT and Document Intelligence and MediaConvert separately.
Scale on the boxes you already have
Every service is stateless HTTP plus a worker pool. Helm charts ship with every image. If you have a Kubernetes cluster, you already have the platform.
Extend without asking permission
Need a custom task, a new notification driver, or a bespoke integration? The source is yours to modify. No vendor roadmap. No feature request backlog.
Try Snapshot. See the difference.
One Docker container. One live demo. Five minutes to see it running on your stack.