Heroku Pricing Explained

This article will explain the Heroku pricing structure and cover the platform’s multiple services.

Heroku is among the leading platforms supporting the application development and hosting industry.

Previously we had to manage things manually and work with all the necessary resources from scratch, but things have changed now.

With this platform as a service, things get better for developers, and they don’t have to deal with problems like inefficient resource utilization or complexities of shared usage.

Now, the prices have become more effective for smaller platforms while making the performance and development experience better as well.

It is usually because of the PaaS provided by Heroku where developers can comfortably and conveniently develop and deploy their applications with everything they need.

It supports easy starting and critical aspects like scaling or security become easier as well.

With so many positive things, Heroku still confuses developers trying to start with it and that happens when you take a look at its pricing page.

So, in this article we will explain what services Heroku provides and how it manages prices for its services for you to easily get started.

Key Takeaways

• Heroku offers scalable pricing for varied application sizes, but lacks a free tier.
• Designed for simplicity and scalability, suitable for all project scales.
• Provides a cost-effective solution for both small and large-scale applications.

What is Heroku? A Quick Overview

Heroku is a cloud platform as a service (PaaS) that allows developers to create, run, and maintain applications entirely in the cloud.

Heroku was founded in 2007 and since then it has simplified the deployment process by allowing developers to send their code to the platform, which subsequently handles the application’s deployment, scalability, and maintenance.

 Heroku uses a container concept in which applications run in lightweight, isolated environments known as dynos.

Because these dynos can be readily scaled to manage rising loads, Heroku is appropriate for applications of all sizes, from small personal projects to large-scale enterprise apps.

Heroku is known for its ease of use, scalability, and huge ecosystem of add-ons and connectors.

It can, however, be more expensive than managing your own infrastructure, and the abstraction it provides can limit fine-grained control over the application environment as well.

Heroku Pricing Overview

Now that you know about Heroku, let’s begin with its pricing. Unlike past practices or other platforms where you get fixed resources within a plan, things are different with Heroku.

When you head to its pricing section you will see the following main sections:

• App Type
• Dynos
• Data
• Productivity and Support
• Salesforce

Since this pricing structure is divided into different sections, it gets somewhat easier for users to understand, select, and manage their application budgeting.

Here we will discuss what is covered under each of these sections and what price you have to pay for every service available at Heroku.

App Type

The pricing page starts with an app-type section where users can calculate the estimate for how much running their app would cost with Heroku. It provides different plans and prototypes to fit different user needs.

Dynos

Heroku runs your program in isolated, lightweight Linux containers “dynos.” Heroku offers a variety of dyno types to maximize performance for various app kinds.

The monthly pricing listed for each dyno type is the maximum fee, provided the dyno is operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the start of your billing cycle.

Unlike conventional dynos, Eco dynos are charged in one lump sum for up to 1,000 hours of usage across several apps, with no proration. T

his pricing structure is intended to provide flexibility and efficiency in managing the operational costs of your application.

Data

Building data-driven applications is a much easier experience with Heroku since it makes rapid building and managing security much easier.

Below are the prices if your database gets 24-hour provisioning for the whole week. The prices in this section will not exceed the maximum limit stated against every plan.

Postgres

Heroku Postgres offers managed SQL database services that work in collaboration with Heroku apps to store and manipulate data.

In all its options, this service features daily backups, SSL-secured access, and off-premises storage.

It also has automatic health monitoring, the ability to use Postgres extensions, dataclips for simple data sharing, and an easy-to-use web interface.

Data for Redis

Data for Redis from Heroku gives you a key value that is fully managed in memory and it helps store data that will require fast access and frequent changes. Below are the pricing details for all its plans:

Apache Kafka

Different applications have different sizes of event streams. Apache Kafka from Heroku helps handle event streams of all types according to your application’s real-time requirements.

Productivity and Support

Heroku PaaS is not only about the technicalities of app development, but it focuses on non-technical aspects as well, which come under its productivity and support section.

Add Ons

Heroku offers 3-rd party cloud services that can allow developers to develop, manage, and operate their applications. There are over 200 add-ons that can improve application functionality.

Eco and Basic

These add-ons are good for running small projects or testing your ideas. The add-ons include:

• Data stores
• Logging
• Monitoring

Production

This category includes add-ons for production apps like:

• Caching
• Searching
• Email/SMS

Advanced

Advanced add-ons are perfect for complex and critical applications, and these include:

• Dynos
• Machine Learning
• Image processing

Enterprise

Enterprise add-ons are for enterprise-grade apps and these add-ons include:

• Data store utilities
• Security and user management
• Connect with Salesforce

Team collaboration

Heroku understands the importance of collaboration and managing multiple resources. So, it has team collaboration plans for everyone from individuals to businesses having multiple teams operational under them.

CI/CD integrations

Ci/CD solutions from Heroku can make your application development faster by increasing team productivity at individual level.

It is because these integrations make continuous delivery efficient and easy while keeping it visual within the project.

Support Plans

Heroku provides customer support plans since it is committed to customer success and satisfaction.

These premium plans ensure that you get faster response times for your critical applications. Users may pick the support plan of their choice from the options below.

Salesforce

Heroku now provides its services in the domain of Salesforce which lets sync customer data from your app with Salesforce platform for higher efficiency.

Heroku Connect

Building Heroku applications for syncing data bi-directionally in your Salesforce deployment and Heroku Postgres is made simple by Heroku with Heroku Connect.

Conclusion

Heroku’s pricing strategy is famous for its adaptability and scalability, allowing it to meet a wide range of application requirements.

While there is no free tier available now to avoid misuse, the platform’s tiered pricing structure enables seamless scaling as application demands increase.

It allows developers to begin with a small investment and gradually increase it as their product grows, assuring cost-effectiveness.

However, for large-scale applications, expenses can quickly grow, necessitating users to carefully considering their resource use and selecting the right plan.

Finally, Heroku’s price provides a balance of simplicity and scalability, but it demands a deliberate strategy to efficiently manage costs.