Most people looking for Heroku alternatives in 2026 are reacting to one announcement. On February 6, 2026, Heroku said it is moving to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security and support rather than new features, and that it will no longer offer Enterprise contracts to new customers. Card-paying customers can keep using it with no pricing changes, so nothing forces a move today. But a platform that has stopped adding features is a reasonable moment to look around.
Heroku still does the basics well: git-based deploys, a mature add-on marketplace, Procfile process types and a polished Postgres. What it lacks is a free tier, and memory is expensive: 1 GB starts at $50 a month on a Standard-2X dyno.
Below are five Heroku alternatives that a real switcher would shortlist, what each one is best at, what it costs for a small always-on app, and how much of your Heroku setup carries over.
Last checked
Every competitor detail was checked against that vendor's official pages on 2026-10-23. Plans and prices change, so confirm on their site before you decide. EthioDeploy is our product, and it's listed first.
| Platform | Best for | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| EthioDeploy | A cheap always-on app with a database included, and an AI coding agent | Free; Pro $10/month |
| Render | The widest set of Heroku-style service types, including cron jobs | Free; $7/month per service |
| Railway | Pure usage-based billing and multi-service projects on one canvas | Free ($1 credit); Hobby $5/month |
| Fly.io | Running close to users in many regions | Pay as you go, no free tier |
| DigitalOcean App Platform | Heroku buildpack compatibility from a large, established cloud | $5/month per container |
Heroku is a platform-as-a-service owned by Salesforce. You push code, Heroku builds it with buildpacks, and runs it on dynos: containers sized from Eco ($5 a month for a shared pool of 1,000 dyno hours, sleeps after 30 minutes without traffic) through Basic ($7 per dyno) and Standard-1X ($25) up to Performance dynos. A Procfile declares process types such as web and worker, Heroku Scheduler runs cron-style jobs, and Postgres and Key-Value Store are billed as separate add-ons starting at $5 a month for 1 GB of Postgres.
| Heroku | EthioDeploy | Render | Railway | Fly.io | DigitalOcean App Platform | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier for a web app | None. Eco is $5/month | 1 project, 256 MB, sleeps after 30 min | Sleeps after 15 min, 750 hours/month | $1 credit/month, 0.5 GB cap | None, 2-hour or 7-day trial | Static sites only |
| Always-on, about 1 GB RAM | $50/month (Standard-2X) | $10/month (Pro) | $25/month for 2 GB; no 1 GB tier | About $10 plus CPU | $6.70/month | $10 to $12/month |
| Smallest paid Postgres | $5/month add-on (1 GB) | Included in plan (5 GB on Pro) | $6/month | Usage-based template | $38/month | $7/month dev database |
| Redis | Key-Value Store add-on | Included addon | Key Value, free 25 MB | Template | Upstash, from $10/month | Valkey, from $15/month |
| Background workers | Worker dynos | Background Worker project | Yes | Yes | Yes, as a process group | Yes |
| Cron jobs | Heroku Scheduler | No, run a scheduler in a worker | Yes | Yes | No direct equivalent | Yes |
| Procfile | Native | web line used as the start command | Mapped by hand | Yes, single process | Mapped by hand | Mapped by hand |
| Built-in AI coding agent | No (Managed Inference API for apps) | Yes, from $5/month | No (MCP server) | No (MCP server) | No (MCP server, experimental) | No |
Best for: A cheap always-on app with a database included, and an AI coding agent
EthioDeploy builds your GitHub repo into a container on every push, with no Dockerfile. It detects Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, PHP and static sites, and reads the web line of a Procfile as the start command. Every plan includes a managed Postgres, MySQL or Redis addon, and each project has an AI coding agent that edits and runs your code in a sandbox, then opens a pull request.
Free runs 1 project (256 MB, sleeps after 30 minutes idle) with a 512 MB database. Pro is $10/month: always on, 1 GB per container, a 5 GB database and custom domains. Business is $30/month: 2 GB per container, a 20 GB database and 5 team seats. Both paid plans meter usage against a monthly quota.
Best for: The widest set of Heroku-style service types, including cron jobs
Render is the closest match to Heroku's feature set: web services, background workers, cron jobs and private services are all first-class, and it publishes a step-by-step Heroku migration guide.
Free web services spin down after 15 minutes without traffic. Starter is $7/month for 512 MB; the next size is $25/month for 2 GB. Postgres starts at $6/month; free Postgres expires after 30 days. Key Value is free at 25 MB, paid from $10/month.
Best for: Pure usage-based billing and multi-service projects on one canvas
Railway bills per second for the memory and CPU you actually use. Databases are one-click templates that run as services next to your app, and its Heroku guide includes a command to import your Heroku config vars.
Hobby is $5/month including $5 of usage. RAM is $10 per GB per month and CPU $20 per vCPU per month, so a 1 GB service costs about $10 plus CPU. The Free plan gives $1 of credit a month, capped at 0.5 GB per service.
Best for: Running close to users in many regions
Fly.io runs your app as Machines (lightweight VMs) in 17 regions, with private networking between them. `fly launch` generates a Dockerfile, and machines can stop when idle and start again on the next request.
New organizations get no free tier, only a trial of 2 hours of machine runtime or 7 days. A shared-cpu-1x machine with 1 GB is $6.70/month. Managed Postgres starts at $38/month. Redis is offered through Upstash from $10/month or per request.
Best for: Heroku buildpack compatibility from a large, established cloud
App Platform builds with Cloud Native Buildpacks, and for Node.js it uses Heroku's own buildpack, so builds behave much like they did on Heroku. Worker components and scheduled jobs cover the rest of a typical Heroku app.
Containers start at $5/month for 512 MiB; 1 GiB is $10 fixed or $12 shared. A dev Postgres is $7/month; managed Postgres starts at $15.15/month. Redis has been replaced by Valkey, from $15/month. The free tier covers up to 3 static sites only.
You want a cheap always-on app with a database
Pick EthioDeploy. Pro at $10 a month gives a 1 GB container and a 5 GB Postgres, MySQL or Redis in one price. On Heroku that is a $50 dyno plus a database add-on.
You rely on cron jobs and several process types
Pick Render. Web services, workers and cron jobs are separate first-class services, which maps most directly onto a Procfile plus Heroku Scheduler.
Your users are spread across continents
Pick Fly.io. 17 regions with Anycast routing. None of the other options here run your app in that many places.
Your build depends on Heroku buildpacks
Pick DigitalOcean App Platform. It builds Node.js apps with Heroku's own buildpack, so build-time behavior changes the least.
Is Heroku shutting down?
No. On February 6, 2026 Heroku announced a move to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability and support, rather than new features. Existing customers, and new customers paying by card, can keep using it with no pricing changes. It stopped offering Enterprise contracts to new customers.
What is the cheapest Heroku alternative?
For an always-on app with about 1 GB of memory and a Postgres database, EthioDeploy Pro at $10 a month includes both. Fly.io's 1 GB machine is $6.70 a month, but its managed Postgres starts at $38. Render's cheapest always-on service is $7 a month with 512 MB.
Which Heroku alternatives have a free tier?
EthioDeploy (1 project, sleeps after 30 minutes idle), Render (web services sleep after 15 minutes, free Postgres expires after 30 days) and Railway ($1 of credit a month). Fly.io has no free tier for new accounts, and DigitalOcean's free tier covers static sites only.
Can I keep my Procfile?
Partly, on most platforms. EthioDeploy uses the web line as the start command for Node.js, Python, Go and Ruby apps. Railway reads a Procfile but supports one process. Render, Fly.io and DigitalOcean have you recreate each process type by hand. Worker processes become separate services everywhere.
How do I move my Heroku config vars?
On EthioDeploy, run heroku config -s > .env to export them, delete the DATABASE_URL and REDIS_URL lines (they point at Heroku, and the addon sets its own), then run ethiodeploy env push .env to import the rest. Delete the local .env file afterwards, since it holds your secrets.
What replaces Heroku Scheduler?
Render, Railway and DigitalOcean have cron jobs built in. On EthioDeploy and Fly.io, run a scheduler inside a long-running process, for example a Background Worker running Laravel's schedule:work, a node-cron script or APScheduler.
Which Heroku alternative is closest to Heroku buildpacks?
DigitalOcean App Platform uses Cloud Native Buildpacks and Heroku's own Node.js buildpack. Koyeb also builds with a builder derived from Heroku's, but it announced it is joining Mistral AI and removing its free Starter plan, so check its current terms first.
Competitor facts come from these official pages, read on 2026-10-23:
EthioDeploy details are on our pricing and docs pages. Spot a mistake? Tell us via Contactand we'll fix it.
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