Alternatives to Heroku
The PaaS that defined git-push deploys
Heroku ranks #4 of 12 in Cloud PaaS, with an Alt Score of 91. It is proprietary, sold by subscription from $5/month and available on the web. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Developers and teams who want to deploy and run web apps and APIs without managing servers, from solo hobby projects to enterprise-scale production workloads.
A managed runtime (dynos) for 9 officially supported languages including Node.js, Ruby, Python, Java, and Go, with third-party buildpacks for others. Managed data services like Heroku Postgres, a Redis-compatible key-value store, and Kafka. An Elements marketplace with 150+ add-ons and 380+ buildpacks for logging, monitoring, caching, and more. Built-in CI/CD via Heroku Flow, review apps, and fast rollbacks.
You deploy by pushing code to a Heroku git remote (or connecting a GitHub repo); buildpacks detect the language, build the app, and package it into dynos that Heroku runs and scales on its infrastructure.
Where Heroku stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave Heroku
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.
Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Northflank is a managed application platform built on Kubernetes that deploys to your own AWS/GCP/Azure/Oracle account (BYOC) or its own cloud.
Clever Cloud is a Paris-based platform-as-a-service that auto-scales applications across multiple languages/runtimes and bundles managed databases (Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis) with add-ons and EU.
Upsun is the rebranded, evolved successor to Platform.sh: a managed cloud application platform offering git-push deploys, managed databases, autoscaling, and full-stack preview environments per branch.
Porter runs a managed Kubernetes control plane inside the customer's own cloud account, giving Heroku-style git-push deploys, autoscaling, managed add-ons, and infrastructure customization once teams.
Qovery provisions and manages Kubernetes clusters inside a customer's own cloud account and layers a simplified deploy workflow, preview environments, and managed databases on top, targeting teams tha.
Scalingo is a France-based PaaS founded in 2013 that offers Heroku-style git-push deployment, autoscaling, managed databases, and add-ons, targeting European teams that need GDPR-compliant, EU-hosted.
Koyeb lets developers deploy Git- or Docker-based services onto autoscaling microVMs with managed Postgres and multi-region placement.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Cloud PaaS checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Cloud PaaS checklist | Heroku | Northflank | Render | Clever Cloud | Upsun | DigitalOcean App Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Free tier | ||||||
| Autoscaling | ||||||
| Managed databases | ||||||
| Regions available | ||||||
| Zero-config deploys | ||||||
| Preview environments | ||||||
| Cron jobs | ||||||
| Private networking | ||||||
| Pricing predictability | ||||||
| CLI quality |
Every fact and feature listed for Heroku is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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License Proprietary verified 2026-07-08
Commercial platform owned by Salesforce.
© 2026 Salesforce, Inc. All rights reserved.
https://www.heroku.com/pricing -
Pricing model Subscription verified 2026-07-08
Fixed monthly per-dyno tiers.
Eco | $5 | 0.5 GB ... Basic | $7 | 0.5 GB ... Standard-1X | $25 | 0.5 GB
https://www.heroku.com/pricing -
Starts at $5/month verified 2026-07-08
The Eco dynos plan provides 1000 dyno hours for $5 per month.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/eco-dyno-hours -
Platforms Web verified 2026-07-08
Web dynos are containers where your application code runs. They handle incoming HTTP requests and serve responses.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/dynos -
Status active verified 2026-07-08
Dev Center actively maintained.
Last updated January 23, 2025
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/dynos -
Free tier No verified 2026-07-08
Free tier removed Nov 2022; lowest tier (Eco) is $5/month.
The Eco dynos plan provides 1000 dyno hours for $5 per month.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/eco-dyno-hours -
Autoscaling Yes verified 2026-07-08
Heroku's native Autoscaling feature lets you scale the number of web dynos automatically based on one or more application performance characteristics.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/autoscaling -
Managed databases Yes verified 2026-07-08
Fully managed database service with automatic health checks
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-postgres-plans -
Regions available Yes verified 2026-07-08
eu Europe Common Runtime us United States Common Runtime dublin Dublin, Ireland Private Spaces frankfurt Frankfurt, Germany Private Spaces london London, United Kingdom Private Spaces
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/regions -
Zero-config deploys Yes verified 2026-07-08
git push triggers auto build/deploy with buildpack auto-detection.
Heroku manages app deployments with Git … You don't need to be a Git expert to deploy code to Heroku
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/git -
Preview environments Yes verified 2026-07-08
Review apps run the code in any GitHub pull request in a complete, disposable Heroku app.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/github-integration-review-apps -
Cron jobs Yes verified 2026-07-08
Scheduler is a free add-on for running jobs on your app at scheduled time intervals, much like cron in a traditional server environment.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/scheduler -
Private networking Yes verified 2026-07-08
Private Spaces are dedicated environments for running dynos and certain types of add-ons within an isolated network.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/private-spaces -
Pricing predictability Yes verified 2026-07-08
Fixed monthly per-dyno tiers make costs predictable.
Eco | $5 | 0.5 GB ... Basic | $7 | 0.5 GB ... Standard-1X | $25
https://www.heroku.com/pricing -
CLI quality Yes verified 2026-07-08
The Heroku Command Line Interface (CLI) is an essential part of using Heroku. With it, you can create and manage Heroku apps directly from the terminal.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-cli
FAQ
Yes. Render and Koyeb have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Qovery — every license claim links its source.