# Heroku review (2026): is it worth $5 a month? > Platform for deploying apps in containers called dynos Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Heroku is a platform-as-a-service owned by Salesforce. Apps run in managed containers called dynos, deployed with Git or Docker, and the platform adds managed databases such as Postgres and a key-value store, an add-on marketplace and managed AI inference. Dynos are priced by tier per month, and databases are priced separately. - **Category:** Web Hosting - **Made by:** Salesforce - **Website:** https://www.heroku.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want a free plan, as the lowest tier is $5 a month. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Heroku is a paid product, starting at $5 per month for an Eco dyno plan. - **Pricing model:** Paid - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | Read from https://www.heroku.com/pricing/ on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Heroku before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Developers who want to deploy an app from Git without running servers - Small apps and prototypes on the $5 Eco or $7 Basic dyno - Teams already in the Salesforce ecosystem ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 1.8 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Heroku is a platform for running apps in managed containers, with Postgres and add-ons around them. It starts at $5 a month, but there's no free plan, the cheap Eco dynos sleep after 30 minutes, and you're working from the command line and Git. - **Value for money: C.** Eco 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: F.** No free plan and no trial are listed anywhere on the pages read. - **Features: B.** Dynos, managed Postgres and key-value, an add-ons marketplace, many languages, zero-downtime deploys and AI inference. - **Ease of use: D.** No 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: B.** A web platform with a Git and Docker workflow and a large add-on marketplace. No desktop or phone apps. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Heroku's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among web hosts - Heroku's GPA of 1.8 is higher than 9 of the 54 other web hosts we grade, and level with 10. - It stands best on features (B, above 29 of 54) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $5 a month, against a middle price of $9 for the category: 19 of the 52 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/web-hosting ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** Nothing Heroku does is plain enough to make in a weekend. The 4 things listed below take a company. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 35 of the 54 other web hosts grade higher. It costs $60 a year. - You could not: Databases with views, filters and links between them. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Salesforce, Git and Docker among them. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Salesforce, Git, Docker, Postgres, Apache Kafka **Tags:** Databases, AI features ## Alternatives - [Render](https://toolgpa.com/tools/render): Cloud hosting for web services, databases and workers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/heroku-vs-render) - [Railway](https://toolgpa.com/tools/railway): App and database hosting billed by the second for usage. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/heroku-vs-railway) - [Fly.io](https://toolgpa.com/tools/fly-io): Virtual machines and databases in 18 regions, billed per second. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fly-io-vs-heroku) - [DigitalOcean](https://toolgpa.com/tools/digitalocean): Cloud servers, app hosting and managed databases for developers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/digitalocean-vs-heroku) - [Vercel](https://toolgpa.com/tools/vercel): Git-based hosting for front-end and full-stack web apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/heroku-vs-vercel) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.heroku.com/pricing/ - https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/eco-dyno-hours - https://www.heroku.com/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/heroku Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).