Heroku vs Nhost (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Heroku and Nhost share a 1.8 GPA, and only Nhost has a free plan.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Heroku grades higher on value for money, features and platforms. Nhost grades higher on the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Nhost
Managed Postgres backend with GraphQL, auth, storage and functions
Which one is for you
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
Pick Nhost if
- Fits if you want Postgres with GraphQL and auth without running servers
- Makes sense if a free project that pauses is fine for prototypes
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you leave a project idle, as the free Starter pauses after a week
- Pricey if you grow, since usage is billed on top of $25 a month and Team is $599
- Watch out: compute is $15 a shared or $50 a dedicated vCPU a month
- Watch out: custom domains are $10 per project a month and point-in-time recovery starts at $100
How we grade them
| 1.8GPAHerokuWeak | 1.8GPANhostWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | DPro is $25 a month plus usage, above the $20.83 dearer-quarter line for web hosting, with compute at $15 per vCPU and custom domains $10 per project. The free tier pauses, so real use sits on Pro. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan and no trial are listed anywhere on the pages read. | CA free Starter with 1 project, 1 GB database, 1 GB storage and 5 GB egress. It pauses after a week of inactivity and has one workspace member. |
| Features | BDynos, managed Postgres and key-value, an add-ons marketplace, many languages, zero-downtime deploys and AI inference. | CPostgres, Hasura GraphQL, auth, storage, functions and containers with a CLI. Point-in-time recovery starts at $100 and custom domains cost extra. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. You deploy with Git or Docker and a command line, which puts it below 3.8 on our ladder. | CNo store rating on record. You design the data model and wire up the client yourself. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web platform with a Git and Docker workflow and a large add-on marketplace. No desktop or phone apps. | CWeb only, with a short list: Hasura, Postgres, Grafana and GraphQL. |
| Best for | developers deploying apps without managing servers | a managed Postgres backend with GraphQL, auth and storage |
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: Heroku and Nhost. How we grade
Price against what you get
Heroku starts at $5 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Nhost starts at $25 a month and scores 2.0.
Heroku scores higher and starts $20 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 1 scores higher than Heroku for less, and 48 score higher than Nhost 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
At a glance
| Heroku | Nhost | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan | $25 per month and up (Pro), with $15 of compute credits included |
| Free plan | None | Starter: 1 active project that pauses after a week of inactivity, with a 1 GB database, 1 GB storage and 5 GB egress. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Salesforce | Nhost |
| Price read from | heroku.com | nhost.io |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Nhost
- The free Starter project is paused after a week of inactivity, and it is limited to one project and one workspace member.
- Usage beyond included amounts is charged: $0.20 per GB of database, $0.05 per GB of storage and $0.10 per GB of egress.
- Compute is billed separately at $15 per shared or $50 per dedicated vCPU core a month.
- Custom domains cost $10 per project per month, and point-in-time recovery starts at $100.
Key features
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.
Nhost
- Postgres database
- Every project has a dedicated Postgres instance, with 7 days of daily backups on paid plans and point-in-time recovery as an add-on.
- Hasura GraphQL API
- A GraphQL engine gives instant real-time APIs over the data, with event triggers, subscriptions and role-based authorization.
- Authentication
- Email and password, magic links, social OAuth providers, WebAuthn and 2FA, with unlimited users on every plan.
- Storage and functions
- File storage with a global CDN and image transformation, plus serverless JavaScript and TypeScript functions with per-plan execution limits.
- Nhost Run containers
- A managed container runtime for your own services in any language, billed per vCPU and memory allocated.
- CLI and git deploys
- A CLI runs the whole stack locally, and pushing to git deploys the backend; infrastructure can be managed as code.
Plans
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.
Nhost
Starter$0
1 project and 1 workspace member, unlimited users, functions, realtime APIs and community support.
Pro$25
per month and up, plus usage
10 GB database, 50 GB storage, 50 GB egress, daily backups, email support and $15 of compute credits; unlimited projects.
Team$599
per month and up, plus usage
Everything in Pro plus SOC 2 Type II, email support SLA, a dedicated Discord channel and external database connections.
EnterpriseCustom
SLAs, a dedicated technical account manager and optional dedicated clusters. Sold through sales.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Heroku or Nhost?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Heroku is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $25 a month for Nhost. Heroku starts at $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan, and Nhost starts at $25 per month and up (Pro), with $15 of compute credits included.
Which has a free plan, Heroku or Nhost?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Nhost 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.