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Heroku

The original PaaS. Mature, capable, expensive — and still relevant in enterprise.

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Quick facts

  • CategoryPaaS
  • PricingPaid
  • LicenseProprietary
  • Created2007
  • GitHub starsclosed
  • Edge-readyNo
  • Free tierNo
  • Egress billingFair

Bundled services: Heroku Postgres Redis Add-on marketplace

What it is

Heroku is the original PaaS that defined the category in 2007. Salesforce-owned since 2011. Free tier removed in 2022, prices have risen. Still mature and capable — Heroku Postgres remains one of the best managed Postgres products. Most teams that did not have a Salesforce-driven reason to stay have migrated to Render, Railway, or Fly.io.

Best for

  • Existing Heroku deployments with no compelling reason to migrate
  • Salesforce-aligned organisations
  • Teams that need Heroku Postgres specifically

When not to pick it

For new projects in 2026, Render or Railway will be cheaper and more developer-friendly. Heroku is in soft decline for greenfield work.

My take

Heroku is mature but expensive and slow on feature velocity. New projects almost never pick it. Existing deployments are stable, but plan for an eventual migration when you replatform.

Links

Compare Heroku side-by-side

Heroku vs Render →

Similar tools you should also consider

Render

Modern Heroku alternative. Web services, background workers, Postgres, Redis, cron — all integrated.

Read the take →

Railway

Modern PaaS with the cleanest DX in the category. Per-second pricing, Heroku-style git deploys.

Read the take →

If Heroku is your pick — the next conversation is short

The 30-min call is where your hosting choice becomes a real architecture, a migration plan if you are switching, and a price range you can take to your stakeholders without surprise bills in month 4. Describe your stack, your traffic shape, your budget. I tell you whether Heroku is genuinely your fit.