Heroku vs Qovery (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Qovery 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
Heroku grades higher on value for money and features. Qovery grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Qovery
Self-service deployment onto your own cloud or Kubernetes
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 Qovery if
- Fits if you want a deploy layer over your own cloud account
- Works for engineering teams that manage Kubernetes
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are a small team, as Starter is $299 a month billed yearly
- Watch out: extra deployment minutes cost $0.16 each beyond the allowance
- Skip it if you want Qovery to host the workloads, as the cloud bill is separate
- Tight if you need SSO, a HIPAA add-on or more clusters, which cost extra
How we grade them
| 1.8GPAHerokuWeak | 2.0GPAQoveryFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | DStarter is $299 a month billed yearly, far above the $35 start of the dearest tenth, and your cloud bill is separate. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan and no trial are listed anywhere on the pages read. | BFree plan with 3 users, 1 cluster you run yourself and 1,000 deployment minutes a month, with no time limit. |
| Features | BDynos, managed Postgres and key-value, an add-ons marketplace, many languages, zero-downtime deploys and AI inference. | CDeploys to your own cloud, a service catalog, preview environments, CI/CD and Terraform. It hosts nothing itself, so the compute bill is separate. |
| 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. | DYou connect a Kubernetes cluster and cloud account, which is a lot of setup. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web platform with a Git and Docker workflow and a large add-on marketplace. No desktop or phone apps. | BWeb console with Terraform and agent tooling, plus several integrations. |
| Best for | developers deploying apps without managing servers | deploying onto your own cloud account |
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 Qovery. 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. Qovery starts at $299 a month and scores 2.0.
Heroku scores higher and starts $294 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 1 scores higher than Heroku for less, and 59 score higher than Qovery 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 | Qovery | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan | $299 per month on Starter, billed yearly |
| Free plan | None | 3 users plus unlimited AI agents, 1 Kubernetes cluster you run yourself, and 1,000 deployment minutes a month, with no time limit. |
| Free trial | None listed | 14-day free trial of Starter, Growth and Scale, no credit card required. |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Salesforce | Qovery |
| Price read from | heroku.com | qovery.com |
| 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.
Qovery
- Qovery does not host workloads itself in the way a shared host does: the cloud provider's compute bill is separate from the plan price.
- Deployment time beyond the included minutes costs $0.16 per minute on Starter, Growth and Scale.
- Paid plans are quoted as billed yearly; the page shows a 20% yearly saving but no monthly-billed prices.
- SSO is an add-on on Growth and Scale, a HIPAA add-on on Scale is listed at $5,880 per year, and each extra cluster on Scale is $399 a month.
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.
Qovery
- Deploy to your own cloud
- Applications deploy to your AWS, GCP, Azure or Scaleway account, or to an existing Kubernetes cluster such as EKS, GKE, AKS or k3s.
- Service catalog
- Applications, databases, Helm charts and Terraform modules are deployed together as one environment.
- Preview environments
- Temporary environments are created for pull requests, and environments can be cloned.
- Built-in CI/CD
- Builds and deployments run on Qovery-provided resources, with one-click rollbacks.
- AI and agent tooling
- A Copilot reads logs and events to explain failed deployments, and Claude Code, Cursor or Codex can deploy through MCP, CLI and skills.
- Terraform provider
- Qovery resources can be managed with a Terraform provider.
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.
Qovery
Free$0
3 users, 1 of your own Kubernetes clusters (1.31 or later), 1,000 deployment minutes a month, preview environments, and community support.
Starter$299
per month, billed yearly
3 users, 1 cluster (yours or managed by Qovery), 3,000 deployment minutes a month, 7-day log retention and standard support in Slack or Teams.
Growth$899
per month, billed yearly
10 users, 2 clusters, 8,000 deployment minutes a month, the Observe package on 1 cluster and 15-day log and audit retention.
Scale$2,999
per month, billed yearly
Up to 25 users, 3 clusters, 30,000 deployment minutes a month, a SOC 2 Type II report, a HIPAA add-on and priority support.
EnterpriseCustom
Self-hosted control plane, SSO, unlimited custom roles, compliance packages and premium support. Annual billing only.
Ways to pay less
Heroku
No public discounts listed.
Qovery
- Annual discount
Save 20% with yearly billing
The pricing page shows a yearly billing toggle labeled as a 20% saving; the plan prices shown are the yearly-billed ones.
- Startups
Extra discount on Scale for Y Combinator and Techstars startups
The pricing page says startups from Y Combinator and Techstars can contact Qovery for an additional discount on the Scale plan.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Heroku or Qovery?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Heroku is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $299 a month for Qovery. Heroku starts at $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan, and Qovery starts at $299 per month on Starter, billed yearly.
Which has a free plan, Heroku or Qovery?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Qovery 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.