Postgres Database on Heroku

Postgres Heroku is a product of Heroku that comes under its ‘Heroku Data Services’ category. It is a fully managed SQL Database as a Service (DBaaS) that has helped developers run and administer their Postgres databases in the cloud for over a decade.

Indeed, Postgres Heroku is offering this DBaaS service with free-tier right now. But things will change on 28th November 2022 because this PaaS platform is shutting down all of its freemium product plans, database services and dynos. Unfortunately, from this date, the monthly charges of Postgres Heroku will commence from $9, and there will be no free service.  

Therefore, this article will deeply overview this scenario and the benefits of using fully managed SQL databases. Also, we will analyze PostgreSQL and Heroku separately.  

Overview of SQL Databases Benefits

Structured Query Language or SQL is a programming language used to ally with databases. Similarly, the accumulation of structured tables in which every column outlines a particular information field and rows display data entities refers to SQL databases. 

IBM introduced SQL language in the 1970s, and since then, it has been used for relational databases. Hereof, these SQL databases are considered the best to modify or create a table, explain the schema of the database, retrieve and manipulate data, and much more. The popular SQL databases are MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB. 

Although SQL databases confer many advantages but here are the core benefits of these relational databases to assist major programming goals:

Highly Flexible 

SQL databases are highly flexible in dealing with. These databases allow the developers to smoothly amend the schema in the real-time Data Definition Language (DDL) nature. Programming teams can even relabel relations, conduct modifications and insert new columns and tables without performing typical database operations. 

Easy Maintenance

It is seamless to maintain SQL databases because of the availability of preinstalled automation toolsets. These tools help the developers to maintain, upgrade, repair and control relational databases zealously. The use of external tools is also convenient for dealing with SQL databases’ maintenance.

By the same token, this database system also doesn’t need ample scripting or large codes to perform management tasks. 

Exceptional Data Consistency

It is complicated for other kinds of database types to provide real-time data consistency, especially when it comes to dealing with substantial sizes of data. However, SQL databases have the ability to regulate data between server stances and applications adequately. 

In addition, purpose-oriented applications also use relational databases to handle crucial transactions. All in all, using SQL databases is beneficial for data consistency and dealing with significant data volumes. 

Performance & Speed Optimization

Whether you want to retrieve data quickly from extensive database records or optimize performance, you can depend on SQL databases. Hereof, relational databases minimize memory consumption and accelerate the processor’s speed. The existence of these features also leads to a reduction in storage and development costs.

Highly Secure and Portable

SQL database is famous among developers because it is very secure. Indeed, it is hard for any unauthorized entity or individual to approach these databases because of their particular customization properties. 

By the same token, relational databases are portable because users can deal with them on various devices, including smartphones, PCs, servers and laptops.  

Reduce Data Repetitions

If you are unhappy with the data redundancy of your current DBMS, then you must switch to SQL databases. In this regard, RDBMS confers organized data to oust irregularities associated with updates, deletions and modifications. 

Overview of Managed Database Market Size

The DBMS market has dramatically changed and gained much value in the past few years. According to a report by Gartner, the DBMS market has reached 80 billion USD with a 22.3% annual growth rate. This report also claims that managed cloud DBMS occupy a significant market share ratio. 

Similarly, another report by MarketsAndMarkets also anticipates that the global DBMS market will reach 122.9 billion USD by 2025 with a CAGR of 9.5%. If we talk about the regions, then North America and Europe hold the biggest share of DBMS hereof.

This report also noticed the growing interest of businesses towards cloud deployments. Yes, enterprises prefer switching to managed cloud services because of low cost and fewer maintenance properties.  

It concludes that managed database market has grown in all regions of the world because of its advantages. Moreover, these researches also confirm relational databases hold the biggest portion when it comes to market share by database type.  

What is Postgres?

Postgres that is also known as PostgreSQL, is an open-source, advanced and free database management system. This relational database system is actually scripted in the ‘C’ language and backs both JSON and SQL queries. Furthermore, this SQL database is popular among developers because of its properties, including disaster recovery, security, data integrity and optimized performance. 

Programming teams can use the Postgres database for Java, Python, Ruby, Perl, Go, C/C+, C#, Jode.js and many other languages. However, if you are looking for a fully managed service to back this database, then Heroku Postgres is an ideal option.

On the other hand, if you are already using Postgres Heroku, you would have to upgrade to paid plans. Yes, this PaaS platform will not support freemium DBaaS operations from November 28, 2022. Withal, using free-tier Heroku Postgres alternatives like Back4App, Supabase and Render could be a suitable decision in this regard. 

History of Postgres

Professor Michael Stonebraker of the University of California, Berkeley and his team commenced a project called Ingres in 1982. Later, Michael Stonebraker left UCB, but soon, he joined the university again and started a project with the name of post-Ingres in 1985. The core agenda of this project is to deal with the complications of modern-day database systems.

However, Michael Stonebraker began another new project called Postgres in 1986 to include advanced properties to back various data types. Finally, this database had the ability to comprehend relations and fetch data from databases uniformly. Undoubtedly, Postgres utilized several concepts of Ingres, but the script was different. 

In this regard, Michael Stonebraker and his team gradually released different but improved versions of Postgres. Hereof, the first version of this database was released in 1989, the second in 1990 and the third in 1991. Finally, this project ended after the release of the 4.2 version and got an MIT license. 

Although Postgres got SQL language support in 1994, but its name was actually reinvented to ‘PostgreSQL’ in 1996. Moreover, the official website of this open-source and free database PostgreSQL.org also initiated its online journey the same year.

Postgres Core Features

Here are the core and advanced features of Postgres:

Object-Oriented

Postgres is unique compared to other relational database systems because of its design properties. Indeed, Postgres is not only a relational database, but you can consider it an object-relational DBMS. This SQL database confers the following object-oriented functions because of this feature:

• Object-oriented nature allows Postgres to range and extend data types to enhance flexibility and build custom data types.

• Developers can smoothly utilize its support for table inheritance and soft deletion because of the object-oriented nature of Postgres.

• Furthermore, this database doesn’t only recognize data types, but it also owns the ability to provide built-in data types. This property gives Postgres a competitive edge over relational databases such as MySQL.

Compatibility with Different Data Types

Postgres has excellent compatibility with a variety of data types. Likewise, it permits the developers to gather numeric data up to 8 bytes through its monetary data type. To support monetary data type, you can simply use integer, bigint and numeric as values. 

By the same token, Postgres also grants backing for various other data types, including structured, geometry, document and primitives. You can also benefit from composite and custom data type values to store customized information. 

Assistance for NoSQL-like Functions

There is no doubt that Postgres couldn’t be used as an alternative to NoSQL databases, but it offers familiar properties. Surely, it allows developers to gather data in JSON. Although it could be a difficult task to deal with JSON data but the use of any modern editor is a good option in this regard.

Similarly, hstore data type also permits the programming teams to store major pairs in an exclusive value of Postgres. So, you can say Postgres definitely overcomes the gaps between NoSQL and relational databases. 

Adherence to SQL Standards

Another appealing feature of Postgres is its support for SQL standards and functions. If we talk about SQL standards, then Postgres claims that it satisfies most of them. Hereof, it complies with core SQL standards, including ISO/IEC 9075-1, 9, 2, 14 and 11. Correspondingly, it also fulfills 160 exigencies out of the 179 when it comes to complying with SQL:2016. 

On the other hand, this relational database also backs core SQL features, including table partitioning, sub-selects, just-in-time compilation and MVCC.

Benefits of Using a Postgres Database

Postgres database provides enormous benefits to its users, but we are only discussing the core advantages of this DBMS below:

Open-Source

The core benefit of using the Postgres database is its open-source nature. Yes, developers can freely utilize, edit and implement this SQL database without worries. In this regard, Postgres holds a copyright license from The PostgreSQL Global Development Group and recognition from Open Source Initiative. These licenses also give Postgres a competitive edge over other database management systems. 

Cost Effective

We have already discussed that PostgreSQL is an open-source database, so you don’t have to pay anything to use this database. Indeed, you don’t need to pay any fee or licensing cost hereof. This advantage of Postgres also influences the overall cost of your project positively. 

With this database, you would have to spend less money. Although it is free to deploy Postgres with many platforms, but some also ask for monthly fees. However, deployment charges could vary from platform to platform. 

Community-Driven

IT companies and development teams have been using Postgres for over three decades. Therefore, it owns big and robust community support. It has 11k+ repository stars on GitHub, and around 5989 companies claimed to use this database on StackShare. 

On the other hand, it is easy to find relevant resources for PostgreSQL online and several community forums to help developers. Database Journal, Stack Overflow, Spiceworks and PostgreSQL Fr are credible names in this regard. 

Secure

Postgres is considered one of the highly secure databases because of its safety features. Likewise, it confers you to a swift access control system to avoid data breaches and facilitates with row and column-level surveillance to prevent vulnerabilities. 

This SQL database also confirms smooth authentication for development teams. 

Scalability

Postgres is an extensible database management system capable of scaling vertically and horizontally. Howbeit, its vertical scalability provides more advantages. Yes, you can get stronger machines’ support to optimize performance when you raise projects vertically. Its horizontal growth is also good, but it usually improves read performance only. 

By the way, the other benefits you can get because of the high scalability of Postgres are support for procedural languages, JSON expressions and customized interface for storage. It can also seamlessly integrate the DBMS with SQL because of its compatibility with external data resources. 

What is Heroku?

Heroku is a powerful and commonly used Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider that was introduced in 2007. Initially, it was only launched to support Ruby projects, but now, it covers a wide range of programming languages like Python, Java, Node.js and much more. 

The primary purpose of this platform is to help businesses and developers to deploy, create, host and administer applications with great scalability. However, it is not only a leading service in PasS but also an easy-to-use Container as a Service (CaaS) platform. 

On the other hand, if we talk about its usage and suitability, then it is a reliable platform whether you are a small startup or an enterprise. Heroku claims the platform handles billion of requests on a daily basis and has helped in the creation & deployment of 13 million applications globally. 

Heroku Postgres, Redis and Kafka are its prominent data services in this regard. Similarly, Heroku is also popular among developers because of its lightweight containers that are known as ‘Dynos’. Even you can also call it the heart of this PaaS platform.

The leading companies that are using different services of Heroku for their tech stacks are Cambly, Product Hunt, StackShare and Accenture. 

Core Features Offered by Heroku Postgres

Here are the core features that Heroku Postgres offers to its users:

Automated Health Checks

Heroku has a team of Postgres experts that audit the health of your database 24/7. This team tries to recover the health of your database if it experiences any issues. In the presence of such experts, you no longer need to worry about database haleness.

Data Encryption

Heroku Postgres also grants complete access to businesses to deal with all kinds of data. With a particular key, companies can nullify data access for any teammate anytime. All in all, data encryption gives full-fledged control over the data of your application.

Rollbacks

Heroku Postgres Rollback is another exciting feature of this service. It basically provides businesses great relief in case of critical data loss. In this regard, you just need to construct a rollback database and proceed with deprovisioning. This Heroku Postgres feature will recover your database at the point where you start facing an error.

High Availability

Heroku Postgres is one of the highly available databases, but its monthly downtime duration varies from plan to plan. For example, if you choose the Shield tier of Heroku Postgres, you will just have around 15 minutes of downtime. However, it could be 4 hours if you select its free tier or Hobby plan.

Support

Heroku Postgres engineers are available 24/7 in a year to address the queries of users. You can simply ask them for help to improve database performance or debug errors anytime. Similarly, you can also take help from their product managers if you are deploying a complicated project. Hereof, you can visit the ‘Help Center’ page of Heroku.

Advantages of Using Heroku to Deploy a Postgres Database

Many advantages are associated when you deploy a Postgres database with Heroku, but here are the vital ones:

Scalability

Heroku Postgres is very flexible in scaling down and up the resources that a database needs. This service of Heroku provides a fully managed DBaaS solution to businesses to extend data instances anytime. Indeed, the PostgreSQL fleet proactively acts to deal with the traffic needs of a data-driven application. 

Security and Compliance

Heroku Postgres complies with HIPAA and SOC 1,2,3, which makes it a reliable container service in terms of protecting data. In addition, Heroku owns ISO certification for Personal Data Protection, Security Management Controls and Cloud Specific Controls. 

Similarly, if you want to deploy sensitive data on Heroku Postgres, it secures your information with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). On the other hand, DevOps experts of Heroku also ensure secure encryption, configuration and patching. In short, businesses don’t have to worry about security and compliance with Heroku.  

Operational Experience

Heroku is worth using to deploy a Postgres database because of its outstanding and user-friendly operational service. First, you don’t need to hire an admin to monitor the activities. Secondly, the continuous assistance of Heroku engineers and product managers makes the deployment of the database seamless for novices.

Heroku Postgres Pricing

Here are the different pricing models of Heroku Postgres:

Hobby Dev & Basic

Hobby Dev is a free plan of Heroku Postgres, which grants startups 10k rows and 20 connections. Unluckily, all free tier plans, whether they are free Heroku Postgres, free Redis, or free Dynos, will be no more after November 28, 2022. 

The Salesforce EVP and General Sales Manager Bob Wise discloses about revoking free tier services in a press release on August 25, 2022. Bob named this ‘Heroku’s New Chapter’ and shared with users that they are removing inactive accounts from October 26, 2022, and canceling all free services from November 28, 2022. 

In such a manner, there will be no free Heroku Postgres and Hobby Dev plan. You will have to pay $9/month to get minimum Postgres database deployment services with Heroku under its Hobby Basic plan. By the way, the Hobby Basic plan of Heroku Postgres only grants 20 connections and a row limit of 10 million.

Standard

Standard is another paid plan of Heroku Data for commercial applications. The RAM and storage limit starts from 4 and 64 GB, respectively, under this plan. Similarly, the monthly charges of the Standard plan commence from $50.   

Premium

If you are finding Heroku Data services to deal with heavy workloads and need maximum availability, then Premium is a perfect choice. Its maximum downtime is only 15 minutes a month, with high availability. Withal, it is an expensive program, and its monthly fee starts from $200.

Private Spaces & Shield

These are the other two plans that Heroku confers under its Data services. These kinds of plans are designed to fulfill the needs of big and complicated databases. You will have to contact the sales team to know quotes for such programs according to your data needs. 

Conclusion

Heroku Postgres is one of the most used data services nowadays, especially startups and novice developers usually deploy their SQL databases through it. However, the free tier of Heroku Postgres and Dynos will no longer be available after 28th November 2022, and it is hard to say everyone will be able to pay the monthly charges.

Therefore, if your budget allows you to go with paid services, then you should continue using Heroku Postgres. Otherwise, several Heroku alternatives like Back4App, Render, Firebase, and Supabase must be on your list to try. 

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