Heroku
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About Heroku
Heroku is a cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) founded in 2007 by James Lindenbaum, Adam Wiggins, and Orion Henry, headquartered in San Francisco. It was acquired by Salesforce in 2010 for $212 million and pioneered the modern PaaS concept — developers push code via Git and Heroku handles the infrastructure. For over a decade, Heroku was the default deployment platform for startups and web developers, popularizing 'git push heroku main' as the simplest deployment workflow. Heroku supports Node.js, Ruby, Python, Java, PHP, Go, and more via Buildpacks. Dyno (container) pricing ranges from free (discontinued 2022) to Standard ($25–50/month), Performance ($250–500/month), and Private spaces for enterprise. The platform includes Postgres, Redis, and Kafka as managed add-ons, plus 400+ third-party add-ons in the Heroku Elements marketplace. In 2022, Heroku discontinued its free tier — a significant decision that drove many developers to alternatives like Render, Railway, and Fly.io. Despite this, Heroku retains a large base of production applications and remains a well-understood, reliable platform. Salesforce has been investing in Heroku's future roadmap, positioning it as the application deployment layer for Salesforce ecosystem builders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Heroku still worth using in 2026?
Heroku is still worth considering for teams already on the platform, Salesforce-integrated apps, and teams that value stability and the extensive add-on ecosystem over cost optimization. For new projects, however, competitors like Render (free tier, simpler pricing), Railway (usage-based), or Fly.io offer better value since Heroku's free tier was removed in 2022. Heroku's private spaces are genuinely good for enterprise teams needing SOC 2 compliance and dedicated infrastructure within the Salesforce ecosystem.
How much does Heroku cost?
Heroku Eco dynos are $5/month for 1,000 dyno hours (shared across all apps). Basic dynos are $7/month per dyno (no sleep). Standard-1X is $25/month, Standard-2X is $50/month per dyno. Performance-M is $250/month, Performance-L is $500/month. Managed Postgres starts at $9/month (Essential-0, 25GB). Redis starts at $3/month. Private Spaces start at $1,000/month. All prices are per dyno/add-on, so production apps with web + worker dynos and databases add up quickly.
Why did Heroku remove its free tier?
Heroku discontinued free dynos and free Postgres/Redis add-ons in November 2022, citing resource abuse, low engagement from free users, and the cost of maintaining free infrastructure. The free tier had become heavily used for hobby projects, student assignments, and bots that were rarely converted to paid plans. The decision drove significant developer migration to Render, Railway, and Fly.io which stepped in with their own free tiers. Heroku refocused on paid customers and the Salesforce enterprise ecosystem.
Top Alternatives to Heroku
Render
Modern Heroku alternative with free tier and simpler pricing
Railway
Usage-based pricing with instant deployments and free tier
Fly.io
Better for global edge deployments at lower cost
DigitalOcean
More control with App Platform at competitive pricing
Vercel
Better for frontend/Next.js with superior DX
AWS
More control and lower cost at scale with Elastic Beanstalk
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