Heroku pioneered the platform-as-a-service model when it launched in 2007, and its 'git push heroku main' deployment workflow became the gold standard for developer simplicity. Now owned by Salesforce, Heroku supports Node.js, Python, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP, Scala, and Clojure through its buildpack system. The platform abstracts away all infrastructure management — servers, networking, load balancing, and scaling are handled automatically. Heroku's add-on marketplace provides one-click integration with over 200 third-party services including databases (Heroku Postgres, Redis), monitoring (New Relic, Papertrail), email (SendGrid), and search (Elasticsearch). Review apps automatically create disposable environments for every pull request, making code review effortless. Heroku removed its free tier in late 2022, which was a significant blow to the developer community that had relied on it for hobby projects and prototyping. The entry-level Eco plan at $5/mo offers 1,000 dyno hours. While Heroku remains excellent for rapid prototyping and small-to-medium applications, its pricing becomes expensive at scale compared to cloud providers like DigitalOcean or Render. The platform's simplicity is both its greatest strength and limitation — power users may find themselves constrained by the managed environment.
Add a benchmark URL in admin and run the provider benchmark cron to display measured speed, security, and availability signals here.
Git-push deployment is the gold standard — deploy code in seconds without touching servers, Docker, or CI pipelines.
200+ one-click integrations for databases, monitoring, email, search, and more — build complex apps without managing each service.
Native support for Node.js, Python, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP, Scala, and Clojure via buildpacks.
Automatic disposable environments for every PR — excellent for team collaboration and code review workflows.
Best-in-class managed PostgreSQL with automated backups, rollback, fork, and follower databases.
Free tier was removed in 2022. The Eco plan at $5/mo has limited dyno hours — expensive for hobby projects.
Standard dynos at $25/mo each add up quickly. Production workloads can cost 5-10x more than equivalent cloud VPS.
No root access, limited filesystem (ephemeral), and restricted customization — managed simplicity has trade-offs.
Some developers worry about Heroku's future direction under Salesforce, especially after the free tier removal.