Heroku is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering simple deployment with built-in CI/CD and minimal configuration, while AWS is a comprehensive Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providing granular control, 200+ services, and significantly lower costs at scale. Heroku suits rapid prototyping and small teams; AWS dominates enterprise deployments and complex architectures.
Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS) — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Cloud Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) by Salesforce for deploying web applications with managed infrastructure.
Comprehensive cloud infrastructure platform with 200+ services for compute, storage, databases, and enterprise solutions.
Pricing Model. Deployment Complexity. Service Ecosystem. Scaling Capability. Cold Start Time. Learning Curve. Total Cost of Ownership (Year 1, Medium App)
Choose Heroku if you're a startup, small team, or building MVPs where time-to-market and developer velocity trump cost—you'll ship in days instead of weeks. Choose AWS if you need enterprise-grade scale, complex architectures, multi-region deployment, or long-term cost efficiency for mature applications serving millions of users.
Heroku: $50 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 10-30 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 99.99% | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Node, Python, Ruby, Java, PHP, Go, Scala, Clojure | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 60+ marketplace add-ons | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Git push, GitHub, Dropbox, API | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 60-120 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: No free trial (paid only) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $5 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $7 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $38 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Discontinued (2022) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Maintenance mode | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 15+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Yes (original) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Yes | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 3-5 seconds | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $0 (discontinued) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 15+ languages | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis (3 types) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: ~6 regions | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 280+ CloudFront locations
Heroku: 150+ add-ons | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Built-in at all tiers | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 1 minute (add-on) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $9 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: No (limited to buildpacks) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 30+ seconds | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 0.25-0.5 hours | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $500-2,000 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 100,000 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 0.5-1 week | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 180+ (official marketplace) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $2,000-5,000 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 0 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cost for Standard Production App (2 dynos + add-ons)
Heroku: $200-250 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $100-150 (EC2 Reserved + RDS)
Heroku: 2-5 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 60-480
Heroku: 50+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+
Heroku: 512 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 24,576
Heroku: Not native (dyno sleep = 30sec) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 100-3000
Heroku: Yes, automatic on git push | Amazon Web Services (AWS): No, requires CodePipeline ($0.02/active pipeline)
Heroku: 4 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 31
Heroku: $50/month | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $50 (minimum) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 1,500-3,000ms | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 6 regions | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 180+ add-ons | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Founded 2007 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: No (discontinued 2022) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 30-60 seconds | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 12+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 200+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 22 years | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: None (discontinued) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Database Provisioning Cost (PostgreSQL Starter)
Heroku: $9/month | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: $12/month | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0 (free tier + pay-per-use)
Cost for Production App (2 dynos/Droplets + DB)
Heroku: $250-350/month | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: <2 minutes | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 3-5 seconds (free dyno) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: 150+ integrated add-ons | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Limited (configuration over customization) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: Discontinued (was free, now hobby tier $50/month) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.023
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.004
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Multiple models via Bedrock
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS Outposts (limited)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Fargate (feature-rich)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32%
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 5/10
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8/10
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Moderate (Outposts)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 4/10
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Largest
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Strong (ECS/EKS)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Via Athena/Redshift
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS only
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Pay-per-use only
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33 regions
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 105+ zones
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 190+ native services
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 30-45 (via Console/CLI)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS CloudFormation requires manual GitHub setup
Monthly Cost (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, Standard Instance)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $9.50 (t3.micro on-demand)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0116
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32% of global cloud infrastructure (2024)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0416
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.02
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8-12 hours (SageMaker)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 15-30 seconds (Athena, 1TB scan)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $15,000
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 18-25 steps (EKS setup)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 12 months + always-free services
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 1 hour (Business Support)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): SageMaker, Bedrock, Forecast, Lookout, Kendra
Monthly Cost for 10TB Egress Data Transfer
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $116 (after 1GB free)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 120 minutes
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 125ms (Lambda standard)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 45-60 (configure VPC, IAM, EC2, security groups)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache, Neptune, DocumentDB, Keyspaces, Timestream)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 99.99% (us-east-1 region)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 50,000+ (t3.large EC2)
Estimated Learning Time for New Developer
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 80-100 hours
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A (not a single GitHub repo)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 3 languages (YAML, JSON, TypeScript/Python/Java via CDK)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ AWS-specific services (largest portfolio in cloud)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Free (1 year, then pay-as-you-go infrastructure costs)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33+ geographic regions with 105+ availability zones
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 1M+ AWS Certified professionals
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 108 availability zones in 33 regions
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ services
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0 (free tier), pay-as-you-go
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): No (Shield Advanced: $3,000/month)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 120+ minutes (full configuration)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 15+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, etc.)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~80ms (median global)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~700 Gbps (AWS Shield Advanced)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~75%
Compute Instance Starting Price (hourly)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0116/hour (t3.micro)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): up to 72%
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): RDS for SQL Server (third-party)
Heroku: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): SageMaker (launched 2017)
How to choose between Heroku and Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Compare Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS) — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS). Contains 135 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS) — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Heroku vs Amazon Web Services (AWS).
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.
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.
Is Heroku dead after Salesforce's $32B acquisition?
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.
Can I use AWS Lambda instead of Heroku dynos?
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.
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.
How to Choose Between Heroku and Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Pricing Model: Heroku has $7-50+/month per dyno with predictable costs, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has $0.0116-0.0464/hour (EC2) with pay-per-use complexity.
Deployment Complexity: Heroku has Git push to deploy in <2 minutes, no infrastructure setup, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has Requires VPC, security groups, IAM roles, load balancers configuration.
Service Ecosystem: Heroku has 50+ add-ons (PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, etc.) pre-integrated, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 200+ services requiring manual integration and configuration.
Scaling Capability: Heroku has Manual dyno scaling, limited to 512GB RAM per dyno, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has Auto-scaling groups, EC2 instances up to 24TB RAM, unlimited architecture.
Cold Start Time: Heroku has 2-5 seconds on free/eco dynos, minimal on Standard, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 0.1-2 seconds (EC2), varies by Lambda cold start (100-3000ms).
Learning Curve: Heroku has Beginner-friendly, documentation assumes minimal DevOps knowledge, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has Steep learning curve, 200+ services with overlapping functionality.
Consider: Total Cost of Ownership (Year 1, Medium App)
Total Cost of Ownership (Year 1, Medium App): Heroku has $2,400-4,800/year (Standard-2X dynos with add-ons), while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has $1,200-2,400/year (well-optimized, Reserved Instances).