Neon Authorize just launched. Add row-level security to your codebase, with simplified syntax
Neon
    16.2kLog InSign Up
    Community

    Vercel Native Integration: Create a Neon Branch Per Preview

    Now available in the Vercel Marketplace

    Post image

    To Vercel users deploying Neon via the Vercel Marketplace: we have good news. You can now use Neon’s Native Vercel Integration to automatically create a database branch for each Vercel preview deployment. Check out our docs for a step-by-step guide.

    Why deploy Neon branches in your Vercel project

    Context

    Through the Vercel Marketplace, you can add a storage backend to your Vercel projects, with Neon being one of the options. If you’d like to add Neon to your Vercel projects, the first step is installing Neon’s Native Vercel Integration: you can do it here.

    You get isolated databases for every preview 

    In a typical workflow, every PR points to the same database—this causes conflicts, leftover test data, confusion around schema versions… With Neon’s integration, tests in one preview deployment won’t affect another. When the PR is closed or merged, you simply delete the Neon branch in question.

    Databases don’t need to be populated with seed data

    Neon branches work via copy-on-write: each Neon branch is ready instantly with a perfect “copy” of the data and schema of its parent. This eliminates the need to manually populate a preview database with seed data.

    You can test application and schema changes together 

    If your database schema is managed in code, you can integrate schema migrations directly into your Vercel deployment process. By adding migration commands to your build configuration, you ensure that schema changes in your commits are applied automatically to the database branch created for the preview deployment.

    Resetting environments takes one click

    If something goes wrong during testing or you need a fresh start, resetting an environment is as simple as recreating the branch. Since Neon branches are lightweight and quick to spin up, this process is instantaneous. You’re no longer stuck manually cleaning up data or resetting your testing database, which saves valuable development time.

    How to set it up 

    The first step is to connect your Vercel project to your Neon database in Vercel. If you don’t have a Neon database yet via Vercel, you can create one in the Storage tab of your Vercel dashboard.  

    Once you have your Neon database ready, navigate to it, and click “Connect”:

    Post image

    Next, 

    • Select the environments you want to make your database available to: Development, Preview, or Production.  This will add a set of database environment variables to the selected environments in your Vercel project.
    • Under “Advanced Options”, 
      • Enable the “Required” option under “Deployments Configuration”
      • Under “Create a database branch for deployment”, select “Preview”
    Post image

    Once you’re done, click “Connect”. That’s it: with each commit to a branch in your application’s GitHub repository, Vercel preview deployments will be created with their own Neon branch.

    Check out our documentation for more detailed instructions, and join us on Discord to ask questions.

    More from Neon