Heroku vs Upsun (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Upsun grades higher than Heroku: 2.2 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Upsun 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.
Upsun
Application cloud priced by provisioned resources
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 Upsun if
- Fits if your team wants a preview environment for every branch
- Works for developers who deploy across several clouds
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a simple site host, as projects are configured in files
- Watch out: the total is a project fee plus users plus CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth
- Watch out: Elasticsearch and MongoDB are premium services that need a minimum commitment and sales
- Watch out: the page opened in euros, and object storage is not available on trial projects
How we grade them
| 1.8GPAHerokuWeak | 2.2GPAUpsunFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CEUR 9 per project plus EUR 10 per user a month, plus CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth, so one person lands around the top of the category. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan and no trial are listed anywhere on the pages read. | CA 15-day trial with no card, covering 1 project fee and 1 user license. |
| Features | BDynos, managed Postgres and key-value, an add-ons marketplace, many languages, zero-downtime deploys and AI inference. | BPreview environments, multicloud deployment, backups and access management cover the whole job. |
| 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. | DNo store rating on record, and projects are set up with configuration files. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web platform with a Git and Docker workflow and a large add-on marketplace. No desktop or phone apps. | BWeb and API, with AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, IBM Cloud and OVHcloud as hosts and Okta for sign-in. |
| Best for | developers deploying apps without managing servers | an application cloud for developer teams |
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 Upsun. 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. Upsun starts at about $10.05 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Heroku starts $5.05 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 1 scores higher than Heroku for less, and 3 score higher than Upsun 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
- Upsun also covers workflow automation.
At a glance
| Heroku | Upsun | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free trial |
| Starts at | $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan | €9 per project / month plus €10 per user / month, plus resources |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 15-day free trial with no card; a monthly credit covers 1 project fee and 1 user license |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Salesforce | Upsun |
| Price read from | heroku.com | upsun.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.
Upsun
- The page opened in euros and offers GBP, USD, CAD and AUD; the figures here are the euro prices shown.
- Costs depend on what you provision: a project's total is the project fee plus users, CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth.
- Elasticsearch and MongoDB are premium managed services that need a minimum commitment and contact with sales.
- Object storage is not available on trial projects.
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.
Upsun
- Preview environments
- Every Git branch can get a full-stack environment, and on-demand preview environments are part of the project fee.
- Provisioned resources, billed per second
- Shared CPU is €0.033 an hour and 1 GB of application memory €0.013 an hour, billed per second on what is allocated.
- Multicloud deployment
- Projects can be placed on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, IBM Cloud or OVHcloud, with a 3% credit in six greener regions.
- Storage and backups
- Disk is €0.49 per GB a month per environment, backups €0.10 per GB, and object storage €0.0833 per GB with a 512 GB minimum.
- Access management
- Advanced user management adds teams, MFA enforcement and single sign-on through Google or OIDC providers such as Entra ID and Okta.
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.
Upsun
Project fee€9.00
per project / month, plus resources
Includes preview environments, 30 days of metrics, 10 GB egress and 500,000 ingress requests.
User license€10.00
per user / month
Custom project and environment permissions; Advanced user management adds €9 per user for teams, MFA and SSO.
Ways to pay less
Heroku
No public discounts listed.
Upsun
- Other savings
First project incentive
The pricing page says the first user license and first project fee, up to $19 a month, are saved automatically, with terms and conditions applying.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Heroku or Upsun?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Heroku is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against about $10.05 a month for Upsun. Heroku starts at $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan, and Upsun starts at €9 per project / month plus €10 per user / month, plus resources.
Which has a free plan, Heroku or Upsun?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Heroku nor Upsun has a free plan. Upsun 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.