Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GNS3 VS Heroku

Compare GNS3 VS Heroku and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

GNS3 logo GNS3

GNS3 is a graphical network simulator that allows simulation of complex networks.

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.
  • GNS3 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-06
  • Heroku Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05

GNS3 features and specs

  • Realistic Network Simulation
    GNS3 provides a highly realistic environment for simulating complex networks, allowing users to design and test their network setups with real-world accuracy.
  • Wide Device Support
    It supports a wide range of network devices and software, including Cisco routers, switches, firewalls, and virtual machines, enabling diverse network topologies.
  • Free and Open-Source
    GNS3 is freely available and open-source, making it accessible to anyone without requiring a commercial license or subscription.
  • Community Support
    There is a large and active community of GNS3 users who provide support, share resources, and contribute to its development.
  • Extensive Learning Resources
    GNS3 has a vast array of tutorials, documentation, and guides that help users of all skill levels learn how to effectively use the tool.

Possible disadvantages of GNS3

  • Resource Intensive
    GNS3 can be very demanding on system resources, requiring significant CPU and memory, which may be challenging for users with lower-end hardware.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    For beginners, GNS3 can present a steep learning curve due to its complexity and the detailed knowledge required to effectively set up and manage network simulations.
  • Limited by Hardware Performance
    The performance and scale of simulations can be limited by the hardware of the host system, affecting the ability to run large or complex network topologies.
  • Initial Configuration Complexity
    The initial setup and configuration of GNS3, including the integration of virtual devices and images, can be complex and time-consuming.
  • Occasional Stability Issues
    Users may encounter stability issues or bugs, especially when integrating a variety of virtual devices and software versions, which can disrupt simulation activities.

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 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.

GNS3 videos

CCNA Labs - Packet Tracer or GNS3?

More videos:

  • Review - Packet Tracer vs GNS3 vs VIRL vs Physical Equipment (Part 1). Which is best?
  • Review - GNS3 2.1.3 Basic Full Setup Guide For Beginners (2018) Start To Finish

Heroku videos

What is Heroku | Ask a Dev Episode 14

More videos:

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GNS3 and Heroku)
Technical Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100
Simulation Software
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Hosting
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GNS3 and Heroku

GNS3 Reviews

We have no reviews of GNS3 yet.
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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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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Heroku should be more popular than GNS3. 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.

GNS3 mentions (12)

  • Bug Bounty Hunting 101: An Introduction for Beginners
    Practice: Set up simple networking labs using tools like Cisco Packet Tracer or GNS3. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Where do I go from here?
    If you mean a Cisco 2950, I guess you want to learn Networking. So a good place to start is to run GNS3 (https://gns3.com). You can download a VM image and run that, that's what I do. GNS3 is a great learning tool and you can use both real (your 2950) and virtual devices to make networks. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Exploiting Wpa3
    GNS3 is the software your looking for it can be found here https://gns3.com let me know if you could use some resources on it. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What skills are great to learn in a home lab for a beginner in IT ?
    GNS3 is a network device emulator, and more than a few devices requires lots of CPU and RAM resources. You need to pay for a licence for each device you want to emulate. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How to escape from Helpdesk hell ?
    Allow me to introduce you to https://gns3.com/. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

Heroku mentions (73)

  • How to deploy your web application? 3 different approaches to consider (+1 bonus)
    Providers include Digital Ocean, Heroku or Render for example. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Heroku Reviews Apps prevent delivering bugs on production
    Review Apps run the code in any GitHub PR in a complete, disposable Heroku application. Review Apps each have a unique URL you can share. It’s then super easy for anyone to try the new code. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • How to keep an HTTP connection alive for 9 hours
    The app is deployed to Heroku and when it came time to switch the mode to email-on-account-creation mode, it was a very simple environment change:. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How to Process Scheduled Queue Jobs in Node.js with BullMQ and Redis on Heroku
    Heroku is a cloud platform that makes it easy to deploy and scale web applications. It provides a number of features that make it ideal for deploying background job applications, including:. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • I made a Bot.. How do I use it?
    Once you've created it you can host it locally (this means leaving the program running on your computer) or host it through a service online. I haven't personally tried this yet, but I believe you can use a site like heroku.com or other similar services. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GNS3 and Heroku, you can also consider the following products

Cisco Packet Tracer - Download Cisco Packet Tracer, an innovative network simulation and visualization tool used by Cisco Networking Academy students and instructors.

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

ns-3 - a discrete-event network simulator for internet systems

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

NetSim - NetSim software was created to simulate various Cisco systems. Cisco software is known around the world as being one of the best network, routing and switch systems for businesses and private use. Read more about NetSim.

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