Feature request: Automatic cleanup policy for inactive Vercel projects and domains

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1

I would like to suggest a feature that could help improve domain availability and overall platform cleanliness on Vercel.

Problem

Currently, many free *.vercel.app domains are associated with projects that appear to be inactive or unused. In several cases, when visiting these domains, the page either returns an error, shows a blank page, or has no active deployment. However, the domain remains reserved and cannot be used by other developers.

This can become frustrating when a developer finds a domain that perfectly fits their project, but it is already taken by an inactive project.

Suggested Solution

Vercel could consider implementing an automatic cleanup policy for inactive projects/domains, such as:

  1. If a project has no deployments or activity for a defined period (e.g., 12 months), it could be marked as inactive.
  2. One week before deletion, Vercel should send a notification email and/or dashboard alert to the project owner.
  3. If the owner redeploys or marks the project as active during that period, the deletion process should be canceled.
  4. If no action is taken, the project and its associated *.vercel.app domain could be released back into the available pool.

Benefits

  • Frees up unused *.vercel.app domains for active developers.
  • Reduces clutter from abandoned projects.
  • Improves domain availability and developer experience.

This approach would maintain fairness while ensuring that users are properly notified before any automated action occurs.

It would be great to hear the Vercel team’s thoughts on whether something like this could be implemented.

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7

This is a great feature request! Thank you for taking the time to share it with the community. Let me pass this onto our team internally :slight_smile: I’ll let you know if we have any additional comments!

1 Like