Heroku is a Platform-as-a-Service owned by Salesforce that allows developers to deploy, run, and scale applications without managing infrastructure. Founded in 2007 and acquired by Salesforce in 2010, Heroku supports multiple programming languages including Ruby, Node.js, Python, Java, PHP, Go, and Scala. Applications are deployed via Git push, making it one of the most developer-friendly deployment platforms available.
The platform’s core compute units are dynos — containers that run application processes. Standard dynos are always-on and range from $25 to $50/month. Performance dynos start at $250/month. The Eco plan at $5/month covers 1,000 compute hours shared across all Eco dynos, which sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity. Heroku eliminated its free tier in November 2022. Basic dynos at $7/month provide always-on hosting for small projects.
Heroku’s primary strength is developer experience. Git-push deployment, automatic scaling, an extensive add-on marketplace, and a managed infrastructure layer mean teams can reach production without DevOps expertise. Salesforce-integrated teams also benefit from Heroku Connect, which syncs data between Heroku Postgres and Salesforce.
The main weakness is cost efficiency at scale. A simple production application with a web dyno, worker dyno, and Postgres database can easily cost $80–$100/month, while similar infrastructure on a VPS would cost $15–$30/month. Many teams use Heroku for early development and migrate to lower-cost infrastructure as they scale.
Heroku is best suited to small development teams, startups in early stages, and solo developers who want fast deployment without infrastructure management.