Convox vs Heroku (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Convox grades higher than Heroku: 2.0 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Convox grades higher on the free plan and ease of use. Heroku grades higher on value for money and features. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Convox
Heroku-style deploy platform that runs in your own cloud account
Which one is for you
Pick Convox if
- Fits if you want Heroku-style deploys inside your own AWS or Google Cloud account
- Makes sense if you are one developer who can stay within the free plan
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are a small team, at $165 a month for 2 users and $99 for each extra
- Tight if you want more than 1 rack or 2 workflows, which the free plan caps
- Skip it if you need RBAC or email support, as those start at Pro at $415 a month
- Watch out: the self-hosted console for PCI or HIPAA is quoted through sales
Pick Heroku if
- Fits if you are a developer who wants to push code and not run servers
- Makes sense if you want managed Postgres next to your app
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as the lowest tier is $5 a month
- Tight if you need an app awake, because Eco dynos sleep after 30 minutes and are for personal accounts only
- Pricey as you scale, since prices are per dyno and the database is billed separately
- Watch out: Eco charges the $5 in full even if you subscribe mid-month
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAConvoxFair | 1.8GPAHerokuWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DBasic is $165 a month billed annually with 2 users, many times the $10.99 middle for web hosting, and each extra user is $99. Your cloud account is billed separately. | CEco is $5 a month and Basic $7, but always-on scaling and metrics start at $25 per dyno, and a Postgres database is billed separately from $5. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free plan with 1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows and 1 quick app, with API throttling. Those caps will be hit by any team. | FNo free plan and no trial are listed anywhere on the pages read. |
| Features | CAuto-scaling, CI/CD workflows, racks and quick apps, database and cache management and a local rack. RBAC and email support start at Pro, and WordPress and Magento quick apps are listed as coming soon. | BDynos, managed Postgres and key-value, an add-ons marketplace, many languages, zero-downtime deploys and AI inference. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You connect cloud accounts and set up racks and workflows. | DNo store rating on record. You deploy with Git or Docker and a command line, which puts it below 3.8 on our ladder. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but it connects to GitHub, GitLab, Slack, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and DigitalOcean. | BA web platform with a Git and Docker workflow and a large add-on marketplace. No desktop or phone apps. |
| Best for | Heroku-style deploys into your own cloud | developers deploying apps without managing servers |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Convox and Heroku. How we grade
Price against what you get
Convox starts at $165 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Heroku starts at $5 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Heroku starts $160 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 12 score higher than Convox for less, and 1 scores higher than Heroku for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Convox also covers workflow automation.
At a glance
| Convox | Heroku | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $165 per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly) | $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan |
| Free plan | 1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows and 1 quick app, with a limited monitoring dashboard. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Convox | Salesforce |
| Price read from | convox.com | heroku.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Convox
- Convox's fee covers the console only; infrastructure is billed by your cloud provider, though the FAQ says Convox adds no markup on instances or apps.
- Each user beyond those included costs $99 a month on every paid plan.
- RBAC and email support start on Pro, and the self-hosted console for PCI/HIPAA is quoted through sales.
- WordPress and Magento quick apps are listed as coming soon.
Heroku
- No free plan is listed on the pricing page; the lowest dyno price is $5 a month.
- Eco dynos are for personal accounts only and sleep after 30 minutes without traffic.
- Databases are priced separately from dynos: Postgres Essential-0 is $5 a month for 1 GB of storage.
- Dyno prices are per dyno, so running several dynos multiplies the monthly cost.
Key features
Convox
- Runs in your cloud account
- Convox deploys to your own AWS, Google Cloud, Azure or DigitalOcean account, so you keep direct access to the infrastructure.
- Auto-scaling
- The platform ships with pre-configured auto-scaling policies that can be tuned as needs change.
- CI/CD workflows
- Workflow integrations with GitHub and GitLab build and deploy code, with a limit on workflows and concurrent jobs set by plan.
- Racks and quick apps
- Racks are the infrastructure environments Convox manages, and quick apps launch prebuilt applications such as Drupal.
- Database and cache management
- The product pages cover managing databases and caches, plus monitoring and alerts through a dashboard and Slack notifications.
- Local development rack
- A local rack installs on Mac or Linux to mirror staging and production environments on a developer machine.
Heroku
- Dynos
- Apps run in managed containers deployed with Git or Docker. The Cedar generation is the full-integration option and Fir is the Kubernetes-based one.
- Managed data services
- Heroku Postgres, Key-Value Store and Apache Kafka run as managed services, with Postgres plans starting at $5 a month.
- Language support
- The site lists Python, .NET, Java, Node.js, Go, PHP, Ruby, Scala and Clojure.
- Add-ons marketplace
- Heroku Elements lists add-ons, integrations and buildpacks that extend an app.
- Zero-downtime deploys and scaling
- Standard dynos add preboot, horizontal scaling and metrics, and Performance dynos add dedicated compute and autoscaling.
- Heroku AI
- Managed inference and agents, with MCP support, for building AI features into apps.
Plans
Convox
Free$0
1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows, 1 quick app and 1 deploy key, with some API throttling.
Basic$165
per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly)
2 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 5 racks, 10 workflows, Slack notifications and 24-hour audit logs.
Pro$415
per month, billed annually ($499 billed monthly)
5 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 20 racks, 50 workflows, simple RBAC, email support and 30-day audit logs.
Plus$832
per month, billed annually ($999 billed monthly)
10 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 100 racks, 100 workflows, priority feature requests and 90-day audit logs.
Heroku
Eco$5
per month, a shared pool of 1,000 dyno hours
0.5 GB RAM, personal accounts only, two process types. Dynos sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity. The $5 is charged in full for the month even if you subscribe late.
Basic$7
per dyno / month
0.5 GB RAM, always on, free SSL and up to 10 process types.
Standard-1X$25
per dyno / month
0.5 GB RAM with horizontal scaling, app metrics and alerts, preboot and zero-downtime deploys.
Standard-2X$50
per dyno / month
1 GB RAM with the Standard-1X features.
Performance-M$250
per dyno / month
2.5 GB RAM on dedicated compute with autoscaling.
Performance-L$500
per dyno / month
14 GB RAM on dedicated compute with autoscaling. Performance-XL is $750 with 62 GB RAM.
Ways to pay less
Convox
- Annual discount
2 months free with annual billing
The pricing page marks annual billing as two months free; Basic is $165 a month billed annually against $199 billed monthly.
Heroku
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Convox or Heroku?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Heroku is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $165 a month for Convox. Convox starts at $165 per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly), and Heroku starts at $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan.
Which has a free plan, Convox or Heroku?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Convox has a free plan. Heroku does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.