{"slug":"heroku-vs-vercel","title":"Heroku vs Vercel","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-vercel","faqCount":5,"faqs":[{"question":"Can I use a database with Vercel?","answer":"Vercel doesn't provide native database hosting, but you can integrate external services like PostgreSQL via Supabase, Prisma, MongoDB Atlas, or AWS RDS. Heroku offers managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis directly through its add-on marketplace, making database setup simpler for beginners."},{"question":"Is Vercel free to use?","answer":"Yes, Vercel offers a generous free tier with 100GB bandwidth/month, unlimited serverless function invocations, and support for unlimited projects. Heroku discontinued its free tier in November 2022; all deployments now require a paid plan starting at $7/month."},{"question":"Which platform is better for full-stack applications?","answer":"Heroku is traditionally better for full-stack apps because it supports diverse backend languages (Python, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP) and includes database management. Vercel excels at full-stack Next.js applications with serverless backends but requires external databases and is primarily Node.js-focused."},{"question":"How do cold starts affect my application?","answer":"Heroku dynos experience 3-5 second cold starts when idle, impacting user experience. Vercel's serverless Edge Functions have <100ms cold starts and scale automatically. For frequently-accessed apps, this difference is negligible; for infrequently-accessed services, Vercel's performance is superior."},{"question":"Can I migrate from Heroku to Vercel?","answer":"Migration depends on your stack. Vercel is ideal if you're using Next.js; you can migrate Node.js backends to Vercel Functions. For non-Node.js backends (Python, Ruby, etc.), you'd need to rewrite code or use an alternative like Railway or Render. Database migrations require exporting data and reconfiguring connections."}],"faqPageSchema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-vercel#faq","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-vercel","inLanguage":"en-US","name":"Heroku vs Vercel — FAQ","description":"Frequently asked questions about Heroku vs Vercel","dateModified":"2026-06-11T18:02:40.616Z","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-vercel#article"},"license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":["#faq",".faq-item"]},"mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I use a database with Vercel?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Vercel doesn't provide native database hosting, but you can integrate external services like PostgreSQL via Supabase, Prisma, MongoDB Atlas, or AWS RDS. Heroku offers managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis directly through its add-on marketplace, making database setup simpler for beginners.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-vercel"}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is Vercel free to use?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, Vercel offers a generous free tier with 100GB bandwidth/month, unlimited serverless function invocations, and support for unlimited projects. Heroku discontinued its free tier in November 2022; all deployments now require a paid plan starting at $7/month.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-vercel"}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Which platform is better for full-stack applications?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Heroku is traditionally better for full-stack apps because it supports diverse backend languages (Python, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP) and includes database management. 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For non-Node.js backends (Python, Ruby, etc.), you'd need to rewrite code or use an alternative like Railway or Render. Database migrations require exporting data and reconfiguring connections.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/heroku-vs-vercel"}}]}}