Top 10 Heroku Alternatives for Cloud Deployment

Note: Pricing and product information are correct as of July 12, 2024, and subject to change

Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model that simplifies application development by providing developers with a complete development and deployment environment in the cloud. This means developers can build, run, and manage applications without dealing with the underlying infrastructure, such as servers, storage, and networking. For example, imagine a small software development company needing to create a new web application.

Instead of setting up and maintaining physical servers, they can use a PaaS from cloud providers like DigitalOcean’s App Platform. This platform allows them to write their code, deploy it, and scale the application as needed, all through a user-friendly interface. The PaaS handles infrastructure management, load balancing, and automated deployments, enabling the team to focus on delivering features and improving the application. This accelerates development and helps reduce costs and operational complexities, increasing cloud ROI and making it an ideal choice for developers looking for efficient, scalable solutions.

In this article, we will explore 10 alternatives to Heroku, each offering unique features and advantages to address various development needs and preferences.

6 key factors to consider when choosing a cloud services provider

When choosing a cloud service provider, select a provider who can meet your immediate needs and support your long-term goals, scalability, and innovation potential. Here are six factors to consider:

1. Performance and reliability

Choose a cloud services provider with a strong track record of performance and uptime. Ensure they offer realistic service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee minimal downtime and fast response times. Look for customer reviews on sites like TrustRadius and third-party performance benchmarks, such as VPS benchmarks, to validate their reliability.

2. Scalability and services

Evaluate the breadth of services provided, including compute, storage, networking, databases, and advanced services like machine learning and analytics. A comprehensive suite of services can help you build, deploy, and manage applications more efficiently. Choose a provider that continually innovates and expands its service offerings to stay ahead of industry trends. Look for a complete suite that includes Kubernetes orchestration, managed databases, serverless computing, and integrated development environments (IDEs) to cover all aspects of your application lifecycle.

3. Vendor lock-in and portability

Evaluate the risk of vendor lock-in and ensure the provider supports easy migration. Choose a provider that uses open standards and offers tools for exporting data and applications to other platforms. Verify their interoperability with other cloud services and the ease of transferring workloads in case you decide to switch providers in the future. This flexibility can prevent long-term dependency on a single vendor and reduce potential risks and costs associated with it.

4. Security and compliance

Prioritize providers that offer comprehensive security measures to protect your data and applications. Look for features like data encryption, regular security audits, and compliance with industry standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA). Verify their security certifications and ensure they have a strong incident response plan.

5. Support and customer service

Opt for a provider known for excellent customer support. Ensure they offer multiple support channels, such as phone, email, and live chat, with 24/7 availability. Evaluate their response times and the quality of support based on customer feedback and case studies.

6. Cost and pricing structure

Consider the total cost of ownership, including both upfront and ongoing expenses, as this impacts cloud ROI. Review their pricing models to understand how charges are applied for different services and usage levels. Look for transparent pricing with no hidden fees, and compare costs across multiple providers to find the best value for your budget.

10 Heroku alternatives for cloud deployment

While Heroku is widely used as a PaaS solution, it has some limited customization options, higher costs for scaling, and constraints on control over infrastructure. Here are a few Heroku alternatives to consider:

1. DigitalOcean App Platform

DigitalOcean App Platform is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering designed to simplify app deployment and management. It provides a developer-friendly interface with a focus on ease of use, making it an excellent choice for developers. The platform supports various programming languages and frameworks and deploys web applications, APIs, and static sites. DigitalOcean’s App Platform also integrates with GitHub and GitLabs, enabling automated deployments directly from your repositories.

Key features:

• Supports popular languages and frameworks such as Node.js, Python, Django, Go, PHP, and static sites.

• Allows for easy scaling with smart autoscaling that can be configured to fit your budget, supporting both horizontal and vertical scaling.

• Secure connections to third-party databases, APIs, and SaaS programs can be established using dedicated IPs for IP whitelisting and traffic control.

Pricing information:

• DigitalOcean App Platform offers a variety of pricing plans based on resource usage. The free starter plan supports up to three static sites with 1GiB data transfer per app, Global CDN, and DDoS mitigation.

• The paid plan starts at $5 per month with high-end options like deployment from container registries, horizontal and vertical scaling, CPU-based Autoscaling, and many other advanced features.

Hyperscaler alternatives

Major cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP, often called hyperscalers, offer PaaS solutions. While they provide scaling, automatic provisioning and management of resources, integrated monitoring and logging, and the ability to use other cloud-native services within the same ecosystem, organizations should be mindful of potential vendor lock-in and the need to align their application architecture and deployment practices with the specific requirements of the hyperscaler PaaS platform they choose to adopt, which might be costly.

2. AWS Elastic Beanstalk

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a cloud orchestration platform from Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides an easy-to-use platform for deploying and managing applications. Elastic Beanstalk supports a wide range of programming languages and frameworks. It automates infrastructure management tasks such as provisioning, load balancing, scaling, and monitoring, allowing developers to focus on writing code. Although AWS Elastic Beanstalk simplifies the process of deploying applications within the AWS ecosystem, users who are unfamiliar with the extensive range of AWS services may find it challenging to navigate the broader complexity of the AWS platform and might look for AWS alternatives.

Key features:

• Automatically handles the provisioning, load balancing, and scaling of application resources based on demand to scale applications up or down as needed.

• Provides built-in monitoring and logging capabilities, integrating with Amazon CloudWatch to give visibility into the health and performance of cloud applications.

• Integrates with various developer tools, such as Git, Jenkins, and Docker, for an efficient development and deployment workflow.

Pricing information

• There are no extra fees for using AWS Elastic Beanstalk. Users are billed only for the AWS resources their applications require, such as EC2 instances, storage, and data transfer.

• Pricing varies based on the underlying AWS services, regions where the resources are deployed, and specific usage patterns.

Although AWS provides a pricing calculator to estimate costs based on the needs, the overall costs of using AWS services may be expensive due to egress costs and the complex pricing structure across the various AWS offerings.

3. Google App Engine

Google App Engine is a platform from Google Cloud that is designed to simplify the deployment and scaling of applications. It supports multiple programming languages and automatically handles infrastructure tasks such as server provisioning, load balancing, and scaling. Google App Engine is known for its high performance and integration with other Google Cloud services.

While its deep integration with Google Cloud provides many benefits, it also increases the risk of vendor lock-in, making it more challenging to migrate applications to other platforms in the future.

Key features:

• Supports multiple runtime environments, including Node.js, Java, Ruby, C#, Go, Python, or PHP.

• Integrates with Google Cloud’s ecosystem and monitors the health and performance of cloud applications. Google’s Error Reporting service diagnoses and resolves any issues or bugs.

• Simplifies hosting different application versions, enabling easy creation and management of distinctive development, testing, staging, and production environments.

Pricing information:

• Google App Engine’s pricing varies between its standard and flexible environments, with the standard environment offering a free tier for limited usage and charging based on instance classes beyond that.

• The flexible environment does not offer a free tier, and costs are incurred for virtual machine resources, including vCPU, memory, and persistent disk usage. Network resources are also charged separately, with outgoing traffic incurring costs while incoming traffic is free.

• App Engine applications might incur charges from other Google Cloud products they use, contributing to a complex pricing structure.

4. Microsoft Azure App Service

Microsoft Azure App Service is a fully managed PaaS offering from Azure to build, deploy, and scale web apps and APIs. It supports various programming languages, such as ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, Java, Node.js, PHP, and Python. Azure App Service offers DevOps capabilities, including continuous integration and deployment, making it a good choice for enterprise-grade applications. Azure App Service’s integration with containers running on both Windows and Linux further improves its flexibility, allowing developers to implement containerization techniques for their application deployments. The platform also provides DevOps capabilities, including continuous integration and deployment, providing a scalable infrastructure for enterprise-grade applications.

While Azure App Service offers a range of pricing options to accommodate various application needs, it is essential to note that the broader Azure platform is known for its complex pricing structure. Users should carefully evaluate the pricing models and potential hidden costs associated with Azure App Service to ensure they select the most suitable and cost-effective plan for their specific requirements. Additionally, considering Azure alternatives can provide more straightforward and predictable pricing, better aligning with specific budget constraints and project needs.

Key features:

• Reduces time and effort, saves costs, and enables reliable and efficient operation with automated deployment and scaling

• Offers enterprise-grade security features, including VNet integration, SSL certificates, , managed identity, and role-based access control (RBAC)…

• Ensures that apps remain available during unexpected outages with a 99.95% uptime service-level agreement (SLA)

Pricing information

• Microsoft Azure App Service deploys a pay-as-you (PAYG) pricing model. The basic plan, known as the free tier, offers limited resources and features that allow developers to test and develop small-scale applications.

• The basic plan starts at $0.018/hour for a single core, 10GB storage, and 1.75 GB RAM, and the price escalates as the configuration grows. Additionally, Microsoft offers the Azure Savings Plan for compute and reserved instances.

Other alternatives

While hyperscaler PaaS platforms present appealing choices, alternative PaaS solutions offer unique features and capabilities. These alternatives can provide you with additional choices that may better suit your specific requirements and deployment scenarios. When evaluating these options, consider factors such as pricing, feature sets, ease of use, and the level of community support and documentation available.

5. OVHCloud PaaS Solutions

OVHcloud’s PaaS, powered by Platform.sh, provides a comprehensive, automated solution for web developers to deploy source code using Git without requiring server management expertise. This platform supports a wide range of languages and frameworks, including PHP, NodeJS, Python, and .NET, and integrates databases such as MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and MySQL through ready-to-use environment templates. Despite its capabilities, OVHcloud’s PaaS has some potential limitations. Users may find the pricing structure complex and challenging to navigate, and there may be a learning curve associated with its comprehensive feature set.

Key features:

• Built-in continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) with cloning production environments and databases to staging with snapshots available in 2 to 5 minutes.

• Managed full-stack platform for developers to deploy code in any programming language or framework using Git through Platform.sh

• Data sovereignty and GDPR compliance are ensured as part of the Gaia-X initiative, providing secure data handling.

When comparing OVHcloud with cloud providers like DigitalOcean, it may lack the same level of simplicity and developer-centric focus in user experience and feature accessibility, particularly in terms of ease of use and integration with modern developer tools.

Pricing information:

OVHCloud offers three pricing plans for Web Pass through Platform.Sh to meet diverse needs: Start, Develop, and Expand.

• Start plan — Priced at £22.88/month, includes features like 1 user license, support for PHP, node.js, Python containers, 5 GB of initial storage, and 1 weekly automated backup.

• Develop plan — Priced at £63.17/month, 3 to 5 user licenses, unlimited support along with 60 open source languages and frameworks, 10 GB of storage, Git integrations, and more frequent automated backups.

• Expand plan — Priced at £127.26/month, scales further with user licenses exceeding 10, unlimited support along with 60 open source languages and frameworks, 10 GB of storage, Git integrations, and more frequent automated backups than the Develop plan.

When budgeting for OVHCloud’s PaaS offerings, consider potential additional expenses such as usage-based charges, add-on services, data transfer fees, backup and storage costs, and support tiers in addition to the above subscription costs.

6. Render

Render is a cloud service platform that simplifies and automates the deployment and scaling of web applications and services. It provides project management capabilities where developers can logically group services and easily set up production, staging, and other environment configurations to streamline deployment processes. Render facilitates collaboration with its preview environments feature, allowing teams to test pull requests in isolated instances or replicate entire production environments temporarily for thorough testing.

While Render’s platform-specific optimizations and integrations offer advantages in terms of ease of use and streamlined workflows, it may limit flexibility for users who require a more generalized cloud infrastructure approach, such as those provided by other cloud service providers. For example, DigitalOcean’s infrastructure is designed to offer a broader range of services and configurations that cater to diverse use cases beyond web applications, which might not be supported within Render’s platform.

Key features:

• Provides cron jobs, automated scaling, seamless integration with popular Git repositories for continuous deployment, Docker containers, and built-in support for modern frameworks and languages like Node.js, Python, Ruby, and more.

• Improves team communication and awareness through platform notifications that integrate with Slack, keeping teams informed about deployment activities and service status updates in real-time.

• Helps ensure data security and compliance with full GDPR and SOC 2 Type II certifications, prioritizing privacy measures for both internal data management and customer data protection.

Pricing information:

Render offers several pricing plans for different needs:

• Individual — Ideal for hobbyists, students, and small projects. This plan is free per month, with separate costs for computing resources.

• Team — Designed for small teams and early-stage startups. It costs $19 per user per month, plus compute costs.

• Organization — Suited for larger teams with complex needs which costs $29 per user per month, plus compute costs.

Enterprise — Customized pricing plans for businesses seeking advanced features and dedicated support.

7. Fly.io

Fly.io is a scalable public cloud infrastructure platform with which developers can deploy and run app servers close to their users globally, improving speed and reducing latency. Built around the concept of micro-VMs, Fly.io offers strong isolation and security with a straightforward setup. The platform supports rapid deployment across multiple regions with automatic scaling, making it an attractive option for developers looking to optimize performance and responsiveness.

While Fly.io provides a strong and secure deployment environment, potential users should consider the platform’s relatively complex pricing structure. Users on lower-tier plans might find the included resources insufficient for more demanding applications, necessitating additional costs for scaling.

Key features:

• Fly Machines enable servers to boot as quickly as serverless functions while allowing users to move to a full-stack cloud environment, providing greater control over their stack and hosting costs. The platform is SOC2 compliant and supports memory-safe programming environments and custom VM configurations, making it suitable for enterprise-level applications.

• Offers automatic scaling and zero-configuration secure networking with global Anycast support, helping to ensure that applications are responsive and secure.

• Fly.io includes features like globally distributed databases, persistent storage with automated backups, and Postgres cluster management, providing a comprehensive data service suite for developers.

Pricing information:

Fly.io provides several pricing tiers:

• Pay as You Go — Free plan is designed for side projects, test environments, small team projects, to run full-stack apps.

• Launch — Priced at $29 per month plus usage fees for more serious deployments and includes high availability and additional support features.

• Scale — Costs $199 per month plus usage fees. It is tailored for extensive, high-availability applications and provides priority support and compliance options.

• Enterprise — Custom pricing is available for maximum resource and support needs, for large-scale deployments and specific compliance requirements.

Open-source alternatives

Open-source PaaS solutions provide a flexible and cost-effective alternative to licensed cloud offerings. These solutions allow organizations to deploy and manage applications on their own infrastructure, offering greater control and customization. However, this self-hosting approach also comes with the responsibility of maintaining the underlying server resources and scaling the platform as needed. When exploring open-source PaaS options, consider factors such as the complexity of deployment and management, the availability of a plugin ecosystem, and the level of community support.

8. Coolify

Coolify is an open-source platform that is a self-hostable alternative to services like Heroku. It supports a wide range of programming languages and frameworks, allowing the deployment of applications ranging from static websites to APIs and databases. Users can deploy resources to their own servers, VPS, or cloud providers such as DigitalOcean via SSH. Coolify integrates with Git platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and others for seamless push-to-deploy functionality. It emphasizes security with automated Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate setup and storage of all settings on users’ servers, ensuring data control and minimizing vendor lock-in.

Additional features include automatic database backups, CI/CD webhook support, an API for automation, collaborative project sharing, and monitoring capabilities with customizable notifications.

Key features:

• Flexible deployment options that deploy resources to a single server, multiple servers, or Docker Swarm clusters as needed.

• Supports push-to-deploy with integration for hosted and self-hosted Git platforms like GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Gitea.

• Automatically backs up data to any S3-compatible solution, enabling easy restoration if needed.

Pricing information:

• Coolify operates on an open-source model, which means it is generally free to use. Users can deploy and manage their applications without incurring direct costs for the platform itself. However, users are responsible for the infrastructure costs associated with their chosen deployment environment, such as server hosting fees or cloud provider charges.

9. Dokku

Dokku is a lightweight, self-hosted PaaS solution built out of plugins, which provides a simple way to deploy and manage applications. Often referred to as a “mini-Heroku,” Dokku allows developers to take advantage of the Heroku-like experience on their own servers, offering a cost-effective and customizable alternative for application deployment and scaling. Dokku supports a wide range of programming languages, including Node.js, Ruby, Python, Go, Java, and more, and uses Docker to containerize applications, making it easy to run multiple applications on the same server with isolation and resource management. Dokku Pro offers advanced capabilities and professional assistance to streamline application deployment and management at a cost.

While Dokku offers significant control and customization, it requires users to manage and maintain their own server infrastructure, which might be complex and time-consuming compared to fully managed PaaS solutions.

Key features:

• An extensive plugin ecosystem allows users to extend the platform’s functionality, adding support for custom build packs, databases, SSL/TLS certificates, and other features.

• Scales applications horizontally by using Docker containers and the underlying server’s resources.

• Allows developers to deploy their applications to Dokku using Git, with the platform automatically building, deploying, and scaling the applications as needed.

Pricing information:

• Dokku is open-source and free to use. However, users need to provide their own server infrastructure.

Dokku Pro offers a lifetime cost of $849, which includes free upgrades, support for one production server, and two pre-production servers. Users will have full access to the web-based user interface for managing deployments and a JSON-API Rest API for integration and automation. The platform supports HTTP(s) Git push capabilities, simplifying deployments, and includes team management features and email support for troubleshooting and assistance.

10. CapRover

CapRover (previously known as CaptainDuckDuck) is an open-source, self-hosted, and scalable platform designed to use app/database deployment & web server management for NodeJS, Python, PHP, ASP.NET, Ruby, MySQL, MongoDB, Postgres, WordPress, and other applications. CapRover uses Docker to containerize applications, enabling developers to run multiple applications on the same server efficiently. It uses nginx for web server functionality and NetData for real-time monitoring. It’s known for its simplicity and ease of use.

The platform also supports a plugin system, allowing users to add custom features and integrations as needed. While CapRover provides control and flexibility, it does not come with built-in continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. Users must set up and manage their own CI/CD processes, which might add complexity to the deployment workflow.

Key features:

• Includes a one-click app deployment feature, enabling rapid setup and application management.

• Offers built-in SSL support, automatic HTTPS, and free SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt.

• Supports multiple deployment methods, like including uploading source code from the dashboard, using the command line, using webhooks, and building upon Git commands.

Pricing information:

• CapRover is open-source and freely available. However, users are responsible for provisioning their own server infrastructure with cloud providers such as DigitalOcean or OpenStack, which could involve costs depending on the selected hosting provider and server requirements.

• Additional expenses may arise from integrating external services and tools with CapRover, such as databases and monitoring solutions.

Simplify your app deployment with the DigitalOcean app platform

DigitalOcean App Platform simplifies and streamlines the process of deploying and managing your applications. Using the power of containerization and serverless computing, we offer a range of features to improve your development and deployment experience. Many customers like Speech Blubs have transitioned to DigitalOcean and experienced increased developer productivity.

• Hassle-free deployments — Automates the entire deployment process, allowing you to focus on building your application rather than worrying about infrastructure management.

• Scalability and performance — The platform dynamically scales your application resources based on demand with automatic load-balancing techniques, ensuring optimal performance and availability for your users without downtime.

• Flexible runtimes — Supports various popular programming languages and runtimes, including Node.js, Python, Go, PHP, and Ruby, allowing you to choose the best-fit technology for your application.

• Frictionless rollbacks and deployment tracking — Roll back to previous deployments of your app with clear indicators that track the progress of each deployment. DigitalOcean App Platform empowers you to quickly revert to a stable version, ensuring your application remains reliable and responsive, even in the face of unexpected issues.

• Effortless integration — Easily integrate your application with DigitalOcean’s extensive ecosystem of services, including databases, object storage, and networking tools, for a comprehensive solution.

• Comprehensive monitoring and insights—Set up alerts and monitor key events, such as successful deployments and domain configuration changes. Gain valuable insights into your app’s resource utilization, helping to enable better optimization and troubleshooting. Forward logs to external log providers such as Papertrail and Datadog for better analysis and troubleshooting.

• Streamlined collaboration — Empower more effective collaboration among your development team using the platform’s built-in version control and deployment management features.

• Robust security — The DigitalOcean App Platform prioritizes security, providing secure networking, SSL/TLS encryption, and compliance features to protect your applications and data.

• Cost-effective pricing — Enjoy a transparent and predictable pricing model with no upfront costs or long-term commitments, making it a cost-effective choice for businesses of all sizes.

Simplify your workflow and focus on building innovative solutions that drive your business forward!