Fly.io vs Heroku (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Fly.io grades higher than Heroku: 2.2 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Fly.io grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Fly.io
Virtual machines and databases in 18 regions, billed per second
Which one is for you
Pick Fly.io if
- Fits if you want machines near users in several regions and are fine on the command line
- Works for apps that stop when idle and pay by the second
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as the trial is $1 for 7 days
- Not for you if you don't like a command line
- Pricey if you add a database: Managed Postgres starts at $38 a month
- Watch out: the prices quoted are for Ashburn and Secaucus, the cheapest regions, and a dedicated IPv4 is $2 a month
- Watch out: data out costs $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe and $0.12 in Africa and India
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
| 2.2GPAFly.ioFair | 1.8GPAHerokuWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$2.19 a month buys a 256MB machine, but the vendor's own example of a small app with Managed Postgres is about $44 a month, and Postgres starts at $38. | 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 | CNew accounts get $1 of credit for 7 days with no card. That's a taste, not a plan. | FNo free plan and no trial are listed anywhere on the pages read. |
| Features | BMachines in 18 regions, launch from a repo, Managed Postgres, volumes, snapshots and free shared IPv4. The listing names no gap in the core job. | BDynos, managed Postgres and key-value, an add-ons marketplace, many languages, zero-downtime deploys and AI inference. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. The flow is built around its command line and a Dockerfile. | 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, with GitHub, Slack, Tigris and Upstash and a CLI. | BA web platform with a Git and Docker workflow and a large add-on marketplace. No desktop or phone apps. |
| Best for | small servers in many regions, billed by the second | 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: Fly.io and Heroku. How we grade
Price against what you get
Fly.io starts at $2.19 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 Fly.io starts $2.81 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 1 scores higher than Fly.io 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
- Fly.io also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| Fly.io | Heroku | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Paid |
| Starts at | $2.19 per month for the smallest Machine, pay as you go | $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | New accounts get $1 of credit for 7 days, no card required. | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Fly.io | Salesforce |
| Price read from | fly.io | heroku.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Fly.io
- There is no free plan; the trial is a $1 credit that lasts 7 days or until it is used up.
- Machine prices quoted are for Ashburn and Secaucus, the lowest-priced regions, and vary by region.
- Outbound data costs $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe and $0.12 per GB in Africa and India.
- A dedicated IPv4 address is $2 a month, and a small web app with Managed Postgres is about $44 a month by the vendor's own example.
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
Fly.io
- Fly Machines
- Fast-booting VMs for production apps, run in 18 regions, billed by the second while running and at a lower rate when stopped.
- Launch from GitHub or the CLI
- fly launch deploys an app from a repo or folder and generates a Dockerfile for many popular frameworks when none exists.
- Managed Postgres
- A managed database service, or you can run your own datastore on Machines with attached volumes.
- Sprites
- Hardware-isolated sandboxes that start quickly, stay on and scale to zero when idle, aimed at agents and untrusted code.
- Volumes and snapshots
- Persistent volumes cost $0.15 per GB a month and snapshots $0.08 per GB, with the first 10GB of snapshots free.
- Free shared IPv4 and certificates
- Apps get a shared IPv4 address and IPv6 addresses free, and the first 10 single-hostname SSL certificates are free.
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
Fly.io
Pay As You Go$2.19
per month for a 256MB Machine, billed by the second
No platform fee. 512MB is $3.69, 1GB is $6.70 and 2GB is $13.39 a month in Ashburn and Secaucus; other regions cost more.
Managed Postgres$38
per month for the Basic cluster, plus $0.28/GB storage
Managed database clusters run from $38 a month (Basic) to $1,922 a month (Performance).
Standard support$29
per month
Optional paid support. Premium is $199 a month and Enterprise starts at $2,500 a month; community support is free.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Fly.io or Heroku?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Fly.io is cheaper to start with: $2.19 a month, against $5 a month for Heroku. Fly.io starts at $2.19 per month for the smallest Machine, pay as you go, and Heroku starts at $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan.
Which has a free plan, Fly.io or Heroku?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Fly.io nor Heroku has a free plan. Fly.io has a free trial.
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.