Glitch vs Heroku – Which is the best?

This article will compare Glitch vs Heroku regarding its features and pricing structure.

Mature software development teams often steer away from solitary development and focus on collaborative efforts for reducing errors and enhancing code quality.

Several cloud implementations offer ways to collaborate within the team, allowing multiple programmers to work on a single workstation at the same time. It is a way to improve resiliency and train developers faster, thereby saving time and money in the process.

Heroku and Glitch are two of the pioneering cloud implementations, allowing real-time collaboration for developers. Here, we take a brief look at the platforms in isolation and compare the features.

If you have been wondering about using one of the two for your upcoming projects, the following information should help you make an informed decision.

What is Glitch?

While being a cloud implementation specializing in project management tools, Glitch is often referred to as a community for developers to collaborate on their applications.

It is primarily based on the code editor’s ability to remix existing code, allowing developers to tweak already functional apps, websites, blogs, etc., however they see fit. The idea is to allow developers to collaborate and build off each other’s work.

Glitch primarily offers a Google Docs-like code editor on its website, where multiple users can build a project together. App projects on the free tier are public by default, and full-stack apps will go to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity.

Glitch features

  • Robust community: Arguably one of the strongest points in the favor of Glitch is the developer community working on it. You can easily post a question on the Help Center and developers with solutions can share the same on the platform easily.
  • On-site: Glitch apps remain on the website and are live from the minute you start writing your app. This is great for novice developers, who can focus on collaborating and building new apps without worrying about creating or managing backend infrastructure.
  • GitHub Import/ Export: Glitch only supports the Node.js JavaScript programming environment as of now, meaning any project you build with Glitch is a real working application that can be exported off the app to GitHub.

Glitch pricing

Glitch offers three pricing tiers depending on the number of users and features who can collaborate on the app. Here is a brief overview of the same:

  • Starter: This is the free tier that allows developers to use Glitch’s code editor for free. Developers and organizations can create full-stack apps that automatically sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, and you get support for Prettier code formatter and GitHub.
  • Pro: This tier starts at $8 per month, billed annually, and brings some additional features like private apps with more control for all your apps. You also get up to 5 always-on, boosted full-stack apps.
  • Teams: For larger organizations needing custom priority support and bulk licensing, Glitch offers a custom pricing tier. You will need to contact the Glitch team for more details on this tier.

What is Heroku?

Launched in 2007, Heroku is one of the first cloud computing platforms based on the managed container system model and offers a wide range of tools and services that can be used to build, run, deploy, and manage modern apps in the cloud.

Heroku is often referred to as a polyglot platform, meaning it can provide the same output irrespective of the programming language used to compile or interpret the app.

Heroku services are entirely hosted on the EC2 platform of AWS, while Heroku’s Git server handles app repository pushes. Apps run on containers called dynos, which are spread across a dyno grid consisting of multiple servers.

Heroku also allows permission-based collaboration and collaborators can perform any action that the owner can, except deleting, transferring, or renaming the app, adding or removing paid addons, or viewing invoices.

Heroku features

  • Heroku ecosystem: The platform offers a fully-capable ecosystem of add-ons that can be used to extend the overall functionality of the application. For instance, it provides three fully managed data service add-ons Redis, Postgres, and Kafka from Apache, providing developers trusted database options at the terabyte scale.
  • OpEx: The Heroku Operational Experience is a crucial part of the platform that focuses on improving the stability of the final deployments. For instance, Heroku provides several tools and services that can be used to monitor negative trends and the platform will notify the users when something goes wrong.
  • Collaboration on Heroku: Personal users can provide team members with “collaborator” permission, allowing them to perform certain tasks. Heroku offers granular control in their Enterprise pricing tier discussed below.

Heroku pricing

Heroku is great for side projects, which are essentially free. The platform offers a more comprehensive pricing tier list for users to select one that best matches their requirements Here is a brief overview of the same.

  • Free: The free tier can be used for side projects and non-commercial applications and APIs. Developers get up to 1000 dyno hours per month for running their projects.
  • Standard: This tier starts at $25 per dyno per month and is best suited for SMEs building business-focused apps and APIs. Heroku offers several features including built-in app metrics, horizontal scalability, etc.
  • Professional: For low-latency, high-traffic software deployments, the Professional tier starts at $250 per month and offers predictable performance, autoscaling, etc.
  • Private: For larger organizations needing dedicated resources, Heroku offers a private tier that can be used to create apps that meet compliance and collaboration needs. Custom pricing is available for features like full-network isolation, etc.

Heroku vs Glitch Comparison

Glitch Heroku
OverviewPlatform to build blogs, websites, databases, etc. Platform as a service to build applications.
Parent Company FastlySalesforce
Year of Foundation20002007
Core FeaturesBasic Website
SQLite
Static React builder
Container platform
Databases
Collaboration tools
Free TierYesYes
PricingStarts at $8/monthStarts at $7/month

Conclusion

Both Heroku and Glitch bring unique features to app collaboration that are suited for different project environments.

If you are confused about which one to use for the projects in your pipeline, consider getting in touch with one of the experts at a leading app hosting company.

The professionals there should be able to help you decide on ideal software solutions for your upcoming projects.

FAQ

What is Heroku?

Platform as a service to build applications.

What is Glitch?

Platform to build blogs, websites, databases, etc.


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