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Apache Thrift VS Heroku

Compare Apache Thrift VS Heroku and see what are their differences

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Apache Thrift logo Apache Thrift

An interface definition language and communication protocol for creating cross-language services.

Heroku logo Heroku

Agile deployment platform for Ruby, Node.js, Clojure, Java, Python, and Scala. Setup takes only minutes and deploys are instant through git. Leave tedious server maintenance to Heroku and focus on your code.
  • Apache Thrift Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-07-12
  • Heroku Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05

Apache Thrift features and specs

  • Cross-Language Support
    Apache Thrift supports numerous programming languages including Java, Python, C++, Ruby, and more, enabling seamless communication between services written in different languages.
  • Efficient Serialization
    Thrift offers efficient binary serialization which helps in reducing the payload size and improves the communication speed between services.
  • Service Definition Flexibility
    Thrift provides a robust interface definition language (IDL) for defining and generating code for services with strict type checking, fostering strong contract interfaces.
  • Scalability
    Due to its lightweight and efficient serialization mechanisms, Apache Thrift can handle a large number of simultaneous client connections, making it suitable for scalable distributed systems.
  • Versioning Support
    Thrift supports service versioning which helps in evolving APIs without disrupting existing services or clients.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Thrift

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For new users, especially those not familiar with RPC frameworks, learning and understanding Thrift’s IDL and operations can be complex and time-consuming.
  • Documentation and Community Support
    Compared to some alternative technologies, Apache Thrift's documentation and community support can be less robust, which might pose challenges in troubleshooting or seeking guidance.
  • Lack of Advanced Features
    Thrift does not support some advanced features like streaming or multiplexing out of the box, which could limit its use in complex systems requiring these functionalities.
  • Infrastructure Overhead
    Integrating Thrift into an existing system might introduce infrastructure overhead both in initial setup and ongoing maintenance, especially when dealing with multiple languages.
  • Protocol Limitations
    While Thrift is highly efficient, its protocol limitations might require additional workarounds for certain data structures or transport mechanisms, complicating development.

Heroku features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Heroku offers an extremely user-friendly interface and a high level of abstraction, making it easy for developers to deploy, manage, and scale applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
  • Quick Deployment
    One of Heroku’s strongest points is the ability to deploy applications quickly using Git. Developers can push their code to Heroku with a simple command, streamlining the entire process.
  • Scalability
    Heroku provides effortless scaling options by allowing developers to add more dynos (containers) with a single command to handle increased traffic and workload.
  • Add-Ons Ecosystem
    Heroku offers a rich ecosystem of add-ons, such as databases, caching, monitoring, and more, which can be easily integrated into applications to extend their functionality.
  • Automatic Updates
    Heroku automatically handles operating system and server updates, allowing developers to focus solely on their application code rather than maintenance tasks.
  • Free Tier
    Heroku offers a free tier with sufficient resources to host small projects and learn the platform without incurring costs, making it accessible for beginners and small-scale applications.

Possible disadvantages of Heroku

  • Cost
    While Heroku offers a free tier, the costs can quickly add up for larger applications and professional use. Paid plans and additional dynos or add-ons can become expensive.
  • Performance
    Heroku’s performance can sometimes be suboptimal compared to other cloud providers, particularly when running high-performance or resource-intensive applications.
  • Limited Control
    Heroku abstracts away a lot of infrastructure management, which can be a downside for developers who need fine-grained control over their environments and configurations.
  • Dyno Sleeping
    Applications running on Heroku’s free tier experience 'dyno sleeping,' where the application goes to sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity, causing a delay when it wakes up after receiving a new request.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Relying heavily on Heroku’s ecosystem and platform-specific features can lead to vendor lock-in, making it challenging to migrate to another platform if needed.
  • Add-On Costs
    The costs for add-ons can also become significant, as many useful features and integrations require paid add-ons, increasing the overall expense.

Analysis of Apache Thrift

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Apache Thrift is considered to be a good option for projects needing cross-language communication and efficient serialization. Its efficiency and wide adoption have proven it to be a reliable framework in many production environments.

Why this product is good

  • Apache Thrift is a widely used framework for scalable cross-language services development. It allows for seamless communication between programs written in different languages by providing code generation and serialization capabilities for a variety of languages. Thrift supports an efficient binary protocol and is highly customizable, making it a robust choice for services that require performance and flexibility. Additionally, it's an open-source project under the Apache Software Foundation, which ensures it has a strong community and ongoing updates.

Recommended for

  • Organizations that require cross-language service communication
  • Projects that need high-performance and low-latency data transmission
  • Developers looking for a framework with support for multiple programming languages
  • Teams looking for a customizable serialization protocol

Analysis of Heroku

Overall verdict

  • Heroku is a solid choice for developers seeking a straightforward, cloud-based solution for deploying and managing applications. However, it may not be the most cost-effective option for large-scale or data-intensive applications.

Why this product is good

  • Heroku is a popular platform as a service (PaaS) due to its ease of use, fast deployment process, and robust support for multiple programming languages. It allows developers to focus on building applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. Heroku offers scaling capabilities, a wide variety of add-ons, and a strong developer community.

Recommended for

    Heroku is recommended for startups, small to medium-sized applications, hobby projects, and developers who value ease of use and quick deployment cycles. It is particularly suited for those who are developing web applications in languages such as Ruby, Node.js, Python, and others supported by the platform.

Apache Thrift videos

Apache Thrift

Heroku videos

What is Heroku | Ask a Dev Episode 14

More videos:

Category Popularity

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Web Servers
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Cloud Computing
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Web And Application Servers
Cloud Hosting
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Thrift and Heroku

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Heroku Reviews

  1. mark-mercer
    Useful Cloud Platform

    Great service to build, run and manage applications entirely in the cloud!

    🏁 Competitors: Amazon AWS, Dokku on Digital Ocean, Firebase
    👍 Pros:    Easy user interface|Good customer service|Multi-language cloud application platform
    👎 Cons:    Limitation with some addons|Low network performance
  2. jamestelford
    · Full Stack Developer at OutDev ·
    🏁 Competitors: Docker, Amazon AWS
    👍 Pros:    Powerful development environments|Great value for the money|Great customer support|Paas

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Heroku’s focus on simplicity and developer experience makes it a perfect fit for those who want to focus on building their apps, not babysitting servers. Startups and small businesses, in particular, can benefit from Heroku’s ability to accelerate development and deployment, allowing them to get their ideas to market faster.
Source: genezio.com
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Koyeb is a decent alternative to Heroku that you can consider for hosting or deploying your web apps and APIs. It has all the features of Heroku that you will need for your projects. So far, I have not encountered an importer tool for migrating Heroku deployments but I am sure doing that manually will not be that hard. Just like Heroku it offers you an intuitive web UI as...
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However, there are a few disadvantages to Heroku. First of all, despite its build pack, Heroku will run your project as a Node.js application. As a result, you will lose some of Next.js’ most interesting features, such as Incremental Static Regeneration. Analytics are replaced by metrics and measured throughput, response time, and memory usage (only on paid plans).
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Heroku is another alternative to Netlify that doesn’t only host static websites but has the ability to host dynamic websites. This PaaS platform was launched in 2007 and conferred highly scalable features to deploy, host and launch applications.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Heroku should be more popular than Apache Thrift. It has been mentiond 73 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Thrift mentions (13)

  • Show HN: TypeSchema – A JSON specification to describe data models
    I once read a paper about Apache/Meta Thrift [1,2]. It allows you to define data types/interfaces in a definition file and generate code for many programming languages. It was specifically designed for RPCs and microservices. [1]: https://thrift.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Delving Deeper: Enriching Microservices with Golang with CloudWeGo
    While gRPC and Apache Thrift have served the microservice architecture well, CloudWeGo's advanced features and performance metrics set it apart as a promising open source solution for the future. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Reddit System Design/Architecture
    Services in general communicate via Thrift (and in some cases HTTP). Source: about 2 years ago
  • Universal type language!
    Protocol Buffers is the most popular one, but there are many others such as Apache Thrift and my own Typical. Source: over 2 years ago
  • You worked on it? Why is it slow then?
    RPC is not strictly OO, but you can think of RPC calls like method calls. In general it will reflect your interface design and doesn't have to be top-down, although a good project usually will look that way. A good contrast to REST where you use POST/PUT/GET/DELETE pattern on resources where as a procedure call could be a lot more flexible and potentially lighter weight. Think of it like defining methods in code... Source: over 2 years ago
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Heroku mentions (73)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Thrift and Heroku, you can also consider the following products

Docker Hub - Docker Hub is a cloud-based registry service

DigitalOcean - Simplifying cloud hosting. Deploy an SSD cloud server in 55 seconds.

Eureka - Eureka is a contact center and enterprise performance through speech analytics that immediately reveals insights from automated analysis of communications including calls, chat, email, texts, social media, surveys and more.

Linode - We make it simple to develop, deploy, and scale cloud infrastructure at the best price-to-performance ratio in the market.

Traefik - Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

Amazon AWS - Amazon Web Services offers reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. Free to join, pay only for what you use.