Top 10+ Alternatives to Heroku in 2023

Are you looking for alternatives to Heroku in 2023? Here is an in-depth analysis of the best Heroku alternatives. The list includes Back4App, Elastic Beanstalk, Firebase, Engine Yard, etc.

Heroku is Salesforce’s app development platform. It will help users to build, run, and scale applications in the cloud.

It delivers a powerful feature set that focuses on three main pillars:

• Container platform
• Managed databases
• Add-ons marketplace

The platform supports multiple languages and frameworks, performs nicely for web and mobile applications, and Heroku conceived it to increase the productivity of making digital products. 

The core features of Heroku include a fully managed container platform, data services for Postgres, Redis, and Kafka, multiple third-party add-ons, and team collaboration tools. 

The main problems Heroku solves are letting users create applications faster, turning the focus from infrastructure to developing more powerful user experiences, and scaling without hassles.

Want to discover the best Heroku like services in 2023? Continue reading and check these amazing cloud services.

Why are Developers Searching for Heroku Alternatives?

Well, there are lots of reasons why developers are now looking for Heroku alternatives, and some of them are as follows:

Heroku will no longer offer a free tier

Starting November 28, 2022, Heroku will stop providing a free tier to its users. The company announced this information on August 25, 2022, in this blog post. 

Heroku Price

One of the most important things developers look for in Heroku’s alternatives is the price. This platform has become quite expensive, and a percentage of the general developer population cannot afford its services.

In this case, they only become able to get some limited services that reach upper limits entirely before completing the project. It is why developers are looking for alternatives to get better services at a low cost that they can also afford.

Please read the article Heroku Pricing Explained to learn more about Heroku’s pricing structure.

Heroku Sleeping Apps

Another reason developers are looking for a Heroku alternative is the sleeping apps.

Undoubtedly, this platform offers many unique features for developers to utilize that can help them improve the performance and reliability of their projects.

When an application on Heroku has only one web Dyno, and that Dyno doesn’t get any transactions in 1 hour, the Dyno goes to sleep. The dyno administrator will automatically wake up the web dyno to run the web process type when someone accesses the application.

This first request causes a short delay, but subsequent requests will typically perform. In this case, developers face many problems, so they search for alternatives to Heroku.

Latency 

Heroku uses AWS as an infrastructure provider but runs its services only in two regions. These regions are the USA and Europe.

So, if your app needs a global scale or has end-users from Asia, Australia, and South America, latency may be an issue using Heroku.

If you need to deploy your app in other regions, it’s required to upgrade to a Private Space. This offering is available in the Dublin, Frankfurt, Oregon, Sydney, Tokyo, and Virginia regions. 

Unfortunately, the price is unavailable on the website, and the user needs to contact sales for further information.

Lack of control and flexibility

Compared to IaaS providers like AWS or other PaaS implementations, Heroku offers less control/flexibility and is less transparent.

The solution is not open-source; users rely entirely on their technology stack and infrastructure design decisions. For example, Heroku has a limited quantity of Dyno types available, does not offer multi-cloud deployment for non-enterprise customers, and does not allow server-level access.

Vendor lock-in

Heroku is a Salesforce-backed closed-source platform with many unique features permitting customers to create an MVP fast. However, vendor lock-in is one of its most significant concerns among users and drawbacks of Heroku.

Lack of new features

Nowadays, technology changes as fast as ever. So, it forces cloud providers to innovate quickly and adopt the latest technologies.

Some developers say that Heroku is not innovating as fast as possible and lacks product offerings like serverless implementations, edge functions, global and multi-cloud deployment, etc.

On the other hand, some good alternatives offer state-of-the-art PaaS implementations. Let’s check below Heroku similar services.

Top 10+ Alternatives of Heroku

You can utilize multiple platforms as an alternative to Heroku, while some of the best ones among all are as follows. These are the best Heroku alternatives:

Back4app

Back4app is one of the best open-source platforms that you can utilize to replace Heroku. It is one of Heroku’s best alternatives because it offers many unique features that you will not find in Heroku.

The platform works with web apps and mobile applications. It offers simple web hosting for web applications and APIs and SDKs for mobile apps.

Additionally, it’s cheaper and has a generous free tier to start. That is why you will be pleased to begin using the service offering Back4app. Please read the complete list of features at Back4app Features to know more.

Pricing

• Free Tier available 
• Paid plans at $5/mo for shared environments
• Dedicated containers starting $50/mo

Core Features

• Container platform
• Scalable backend
• Notifications
• REST and GraphQL APIs
• Storage

Want to know more about Back4app, please schedule a call using this calendar.

Railway

The platform works for small and large projects and support multiple programming languages. It offers automatic builds, team collaboration, and multiple environments.

Pricing

• Free trial (up to $5)
• Paid plans charge $10/GB/month for RAM
• Paid plans charge $20/vCPU/month for vCPU

Core features

• Develop
• Deploy
• Diagnose
• Databases

Keep reading to discover some more apps like Heroku.

Fly.io

The platform allow its customers to deploy application servers close to end users. It supports full stack applications and databases.

Pricing

• Free plan
• Paid plans start at $1.94/month

Core features

• Deploy
• Builders
• Databases
• Metrics

Platform.sh

It’s a solution to develop, deploy, and host website and web applications. The platform supports frameworks like Drupal, WordPress, Magento, and many others.

Pricing

• 30 days free trial
• Paid plans start at $10/month

Core features

• DevTools
• Databases
• Hosting
• Security
• CI/CD
• DevTools
• Databases
• Hosting
• Security
• CI/CD

Render

It’s a platform to host web apps, APIs, static sites, CRON jobs, and containers. It offers autoscaling, managed services, preview environments, APIs, etc.

Pricing

• Free tier
• Paid plans start at $7/month for general services and databases
• Cron Jobs are available starting at $1/month

Core features

• DDoS
• Custom domains
• Deploys
• Infrastructure as a code
• Integrations

Elastic Beanstalk

Elastic Beanstalk is another of the best alternatives you can use against Heroku. It is also known as AWS, and many general populations are already using it. It offers many unique features that you will not find in Heroku.

All of such issues you were facing while using Heroku will not appear because this platform is designed after considering all the developers’ essential requirements and needs.

Pricing

• Free of charge
• You only pay for AWS resources like EC2 and S3

Core Features

• Support multiple programming languages
• Multiple deployment options
• Application health, monitoring, and logging
• Scaling

Please read the article Heroku vs. Elastic Beanstalk to understand the differences between Beanstalk and Heroku better.

Google App Engine

Google App Engine is another of the best platforms you can use as an alternative to Heroku.

This platform allows the developers to develop and launch a scalable application that you can expand in the future as per your need. It facilitates the developers by offering them all the essential services in this modern era.

Pricing

• Free quota
• Consumption based pricing

Core Features

• Open and flexible
• Popular programming languages
• Fully managed service

To better understand the differences between Beanstalk and Heroku, please  read the article App Engine vs Heroku.

Dokku

Dokku is another of the best online platforms you can use as an alternative to Heroku. It is a self-hosted Platform as a Service PaaS.

It is quite a straightforward platform and offers many simple techniques to develop applications, which are not easy to make in Heroku.

Additionally, all of those restrictions imposed by the Heroku on a particular developer are not imposed by the Dokku. That’s why it is quite an effective and efficient platform compared to Heroku.

Pricing

• Starting at $5/mo Digital Ocean

Core Features

• Powered by Docker
• Multi cloud
• Easy Git Deploys
• Multiple plugins

Please read the article Dokku vs. Heroku for more information about both platforms. 

Firebase

Firebase is another one of the best platforms to be used as an alternative to Heroku.

It offers many incredible advantages and features to the developers so that they don’t feel any inconvenience while using this whole platform. A significant number of developers have started using Firebase instead of Heroku.

Pricing

• Free tier
• Paid plans under the Pay as you go model

Core Features

• Realtime database
• Scalable hosting 
• Analytics 
• Storage
• Messaging

Please read the article Firebase vs. Heroku for more information about both platforms. 

 Engine Yard

Engine Yard is a PaaS – Platform as a Service leader in Ruby DevOps. The features include horizontal and vertical scaling, constant security updates, and copying the environment for testing purposes.

The support runs 24/07, and pricing starts at $25 per month. Engine Yard is similar to Heroku in many aspects, and it’s an excellent choice for Ruby on Rails deployment.

Pricing

Here is the pricing of this PaaS like Heroku:

• Free tier
• Paid plans under the Pay as you go model

Core Features

• Code deployment
• Autoscaling
• Automated backups
• App monitoring
• Multi AWS zone deployment 

 Open Shift

It is a Kubernetes-based Paas platform run by Red Hat. It’s a quick way for Enterprises and developers to make, deploy, and scale containerized applications in the public cloud.

Pricing

• Free tier
• Paid plans starting at $50/region/month

Core Features

• Docker containers
• Runtime packing
• Code and Push
• Continuous integration

Netlify

Netlify is a fit-to-purpose solution to deploy and run websites. It’s a fully managed solution, and it allows to run apps without managing the infrastructure, DevOps engineers and under a scalable environment.

Pricing

• Free tier
• Paid plans starting at $19/user/month

Core Features

• Build
• Functions
• Workflow
• Edge

Please read the article Heroku vs Netlify for more information about both platforms. 

CapRover

It is an open-source framework that lets you build your PaaS service in a couple of minutes. The solution works for several programming languages like Ruby, NodeJS, PHP, etc.

Pricing

• Free to download

Core Features

• CLI
• Web GUI
• Docker

Vercel

It’s a great option to deploy web projects using Next.JS, React, Vue, Angular, etc. The platform is frontend and developer-focused, and it’s the company behind Next.JS.

Pricing

• Free tier
• $20/member

Core Features

• Build
• Serverless Functions
• Edge Network

Cyclic

It’s a serverless platform to build, deploy and run Node.js applications in the cloud. It offers integrated database/storage, structure logs, and instant environment updates.

Pricing

• Free tier
• Solo plan for $9/month
• Grow plan for $299/month

Core Features

• Compute
• Storage
• GitHub integration

Deta

It is a free cloud cloud platform that allows users to deploy in seconds, supports Python/Node.js programming languages, NoSQL database, and is highly scalable.

Pricing

• Free

Core Features

• Python and Node.JS programming languages
• NoSQL databases
• Out-of-the-box API key authentication

Digital Ocean App Platform

It is a fully managed PaaS platform offered by Digital Ocean. It integrates seamlessly with other Digital Ocean products and gives developers a simple way to build, deploy, and scale digital products. 

Pricing

• Free tier
• Basic plan at $5/month
• Professional plan at $12/month

Core Features

• Supports multiple programming languages
• Built-in security
• Scalability
• Alerts and monitoring
• GitHub/GitLab integrations

Azure App Service

This is Microsoft’s platform to build, deploy, and scale APIs and web applications. It supports several programming languages such as Node.js, .NET, Python, Java, etc. It is a fully managed service and removes the infrastructure hassles from end-users.

Pricing

• Free tier
• Pay as you go
• Savings plan and reservations

Core Features

• Fully managed
• Continuous integration
• Scalability
• Security and compliance
• High availability with 99.95% uptime

Microtica

The platform provides a simple way to deploy applications directly on Amazon Web Services. It’s a DevOps-free platform, and it significantly reduces the tasks required to build and deploy an app.

Pricing

• Free tier
• Starter plan at $29/month
• Advanced plan at $99/month

Features

• Git-push deployments
• Realtime monitoring
• Deployment history

PythonAnywhere

It provides a fully managed environment to deploy, run, and scale Python-related applications. It supports multiple Python frameworks like Django, Flask, web2py, etc.

Pricing

• Free tier
• Hacker Plan – $5/month
• Web Dev Plan – $12/month
• Startup Plan – $99/month
• Custom Plans – $5 – $500/month

Core Features

• Development and hosting
• Security
• Managed infrastructure and support

Heroku Alternatives Comparison Table

Here is a summary of websites like Heroku:

Conclusion

Heroku is a powerful application development platform from Salesforce. It supports multiple programming languages and helps users develop an application quickly and improve it during the whole development and production life cycle.

Although it offers incredible benefits, its drawbacks include vendor lock-in, a closed-source platform, and the lack of a free tier for development after Nov 28, 2022.

This article explored many Heroku alternatives, delivered an overview of each platform, and emphasized the core features, pricing structure, and benefits over Heroku.

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