{"slug":"heroku-vs-aws","title":"Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS)","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws","faqCount":5,"faqs":[{"question":"Which is cheaper: Heroku or AWS?","answer":"AWS is significantly cheaper at scale. A production app on Heroku costs $200-250/month (2 Standard-1X dynos + PostgreSQL + Redis), while the same workload on AWS with Reserved Instances costs $100-150/month. However, Heroku saves you $500-2000/month in DevOps labor costs due to minimal configuration overhead, making total cost-of-ownership comparable for small teams. AWS becomes increasingly cost-effective as you scale beyond 10M monthly requests."},{"question":"Can I migrate from Heroku to AWS?","answer":"Yes, but it requires effort. Export your Heroku PostgreSQL database using pg_dump, containerize your app with Docker, and deploy to AWS ECS, EKS, or EC2. The codebase doesn't change, but you'll need to replicate environment variables, add-ons (Redis becomes ElastiCache), and configure load balancing, security groups, and auto-scaling. Most teams budget 2-4 weeks for migration. AWS provides Database Migration Service (DMS) for complex legacy migrations."},{"question":"Is Heroku dead after Salesforce's $32B acquisition?","answer":"No, but Heroku lost momentum. Salesforce discontinued the free tier in October 2022 and killed Heroku CI/CD and Heroku Postgres managed backups in 2024. However, Heroku remains actively maintained for paid customers and is ideal for rapid prototyping. For long-term production workloads, many teams now choose AWS, DigitalOcean, or Railway as more stable alternatives."},{"question":"Can I use AWS Lambda instead of Heroku dynos?","answer":"AWS Lambda is cheaper ($0.0000002 per request) but introduces cold start latency (100-3000ms) and requires refactoring applications to stateless functions. Lambda excels for API endpoints, scheduled jobs, and event-driven workloads. Traditional web apps with persistent connections should use EC2 or Fargate. A hybrid approach (Lambda + RDS + API Gateway) is often optimal for AWS, replacing Heroku's all-in-one simplicity."},{"question":"Which has better database options?","answer":"Heroku offers 1-click PostgreSQL and MySQL provisioning via Heroku Postgres add-on ($9-4000+/month depending on plan). AWS offers RDS (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server), DynamoDB (NoSQL), Aurora (MySQL/PostgreSQL compatible, 3x faster), and Neptune (graph databases). AWS provides more options and lower costs (RDS Multi-AZ: $120-400/month vs Heroku's $50+ for equivalent specs), but requires manual scaling and backup configuration."}],"faqPageSchema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws#faq","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws","inLanguage":"en-US","name":"Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS) — FAQ","description":"Frequently asked questions about Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS)","dateModified":"2026-06-25T18:00:37.368Z","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"},"isPartOf":{"@type":"Article","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws#article"},"license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":["#faq",".faq-item"]},"mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Which is cheaper: Heroku or AWS?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"AWS is significantly cheaper at scale. A production app on Heroku costs $200-250/month (2 Standard-1X dynos + PostgreSQL + Redis), while the same workload on AWS with Reserved Instances costs $100-150/month. However, Heroku saves you $500-2000/month in DevOps labor costs due to minimal configuration overhead, making total cost-of-ownership comparable for small teams. AWS becomes increasingly cost-effective as you scale beyond 10M monthly requests.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws"}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I migrate from Heroku to AWS?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, but it requires effort. Export your Heroku PostgreSQL database using pg_dump, containerize your app with Docker, and deploy to AWS ECS, EKS, or EC2. The codebase doesn't change, but you'll need to replicate environment variables, add-ons (Redis becomes ElastiCache), and configure load balancing, security groups, and auto-scaling. Most teams budget 2-4 weeks for migration. AWS provides Database Migration Service (DMS) for complex legacy migrations.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws"}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is Heroku dead after Salesforce's $32B acquisition?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No, but Heroku lost momentum. Salesforce discontinued the free tier in October 2022 and killed Heroku CI/CD and Heroku Postgres managed backups in 2024. However, Heroku remains actively maintained for paid customers and is ideal for rapid prototyping. For long-term production workloads, many teams now choose AWS, DigitalOcean, or Railway as more stable alternatives.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws"}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I use AWS Lambda instead of Heroku dynos?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"AWS Lambda is cheaper ($0.0000002 per request) but introduces cold start latency (100-3000ms) and requires refactoring applications to stateless functions. Lambda excels for API endpoints, scheduled jobs, and event-driven workloads. Traditional web apps with persistent connections should use EC2 or Fargate. A hybrid approach (Lambda + RDS + API Gateway) is often optimal for AWS, replacing Heroku's all-in-one simplicity.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws"}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Which has better database options?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Heroku offers 1-click PostgreSQL and MySQL provisioning via Heroku Postgres add-on ($9-4000+/month depending on plan). AWS offers RDS (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server), DynamoDB (NoSQL), Aurora (MySQL/PostgreSQL compatible, 3x faster), and Neptune (graph databases). AWS provides more options and lower costs (RDS Multi-AZ: $120-400/month vs Heroku's $50+ for equivalent specs), but requires manual scaling and backup configuration.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-aws"}}]}}