Show IH: Why I am building a Vercel alternative

Hello IndieHackers!

I am a full-stack developer with nearly 20 years of coding experience.

My journey with Thunder started when I was working on a large project with a team of developers. We were deploying our Node.js applications on AWS manually, which was time-consuming and error-prone. We had to set up the infrastructure with CloudFormation and CDK code, install dependencies, configure the environments using the AWS console, and test the workflows repeatedly, which slowed us down and frustrated us.

That's when I realized the need for a deployment platform that would automate the process and make it easier for web developers to deploy their applications. So I started working on www.thunder.so

Thunder is designed specifically for Node.js developers and web application teams. It is a lightning-fast deployment platform that automates the deployment process and makes it easier for developers to deploy their Node.js applications on their AWS.

While I love Vercel and use it for several of my personal projects, for mission-critical work I would prefer to have the option of full control and visibility over my infrastructure - something that Vercel abstracts away. We want the abstraction (DX) of Vercel but under the hood, we want our own infra. Thus, Thunder was born.

Thunder integrates with Github and AWS, so you can easily deploy your Node.js application from an existing repository with just a few clicks. Here are some of the features that Thunder offers:

• Lightning-fast deployment: Thunder deploys your application in seconds, so you don't have to wait for hours or days to see your changes live. Under the hood, Thunder configures and streamlines your VPC network, ECS Cluster, SSL, Load Balancer, CloudBuild, ECR, CloudDeploy, CloudWatch, and other internal AWS tools.

• Automatic scaling: Thunder scales your application automatically based on your traffic, so you don't have to worry about infrastructure management.

• Customizable environments: Thunder allows you to create multiple environments (e.g., staging, production, etc.) and customize them to meet your specific needs.

  • Preview environments that automagically refresh when you push code.
  • Approval process for production environment - so that nobody in the team has an oopsie.

Thunder is designed to be developer-friendly, so you don't have to be a DevOps expert to use it. If you are intimidated by the AWS Console and just want your apps to work without the hassle of configuration, check out www.thunder.so

It supports various Node.js frameworks, including React.js, Next.js, Vue 2, Vue 3, Nuxt 3, SvelteKit, Nest.js, Astro, Remix, SolidJS, RedwoodJS and many more to come. So you can use the one that works best for your app. Thunder takes care of all the configuration and the learning curve of AWS, so you can focus on building great apps.

Thunder is currently pre-launch, and we're looking for feedback from developers to help us improve the product. We have a small group of early adopters who are using Thunder to deploy their applications and provide us with feedback. We're planning to launch Thunder publicly soon, and we're excited to see how developers will benefit from our platform.

In summary, if you're a Node.js developer or part of a web application team struggling with deploying your applications on AWS, Thunder is the solution you need.

Thank you for reading, and we hope you'll join us on our journey to make open source software easy to deploy on the public cloud.

Best,
Saddam Azad
https://twitter.com/saddamazad_