Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Heroku VS Flynn

Compare Heroku VS Flynn and see what are their differences

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.

Flynn logo Flynn

Run apps, databases, websites and services at scale.
  • Heroku Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • Flynn Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-26

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.

Flynn features and specs

  • Integrated Platform
    Flynn offers a fully integrated platform as a service (PaaS) that includes features like continuous deployment, scaling, and management of microservices, simplifying the deployment and management of applications.
  • Flexibility
    Flynn is designed to support any application, service, or database, providing developers flexibility to use the languages and frameworks they are comfortable with.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, Flynn allows developers to contribute to its improvements or tailor the platform to better suit their specific needs.
  • Self-hosted
    Flynn provides users the capability to self-host their PaaS, offering more control over their infrastructure and data, which is crucial for compliance and security.
  • Scalability
    Flynn supports automatic scaling of applications, helping to efficiently manage resources and handle varying loads with ease.

Possible disadvantages of Flynn

  • Complexity
    Flynn can be complex to set up and maintain compared to other PaaS solutions, potentially requiring a higher level of expertise in managing infrastructure.
  • Smaller Community
    Flynn has a smaller user and support community compared to larger platforms such as Kubernetes, which might lead to fewer resources or third-party integrations.
  • Limited Features
    Relative to larger established platforms, Flynn might have fewer built-in features or integrations, which could limit advanced use cases or necessitate additional custom development.
  • Development Activity
    The development activity and support for Flynn may be less active or slower compared to other open-source projects, potentially leading to delays in bug fixes or new feature releases.
  • Hardware Requirements
    Running Flynn might require more substantial infrastructure and resources due to its integrated, multi-component nature, which could be costly for small teams or projects.

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.

Analysis of Flynn

Overall verdict

  • Flynn can be a good choice for teams that value automation and need a robust platform to deploy and manage their applications efficiently. However, it may not be suitable for all use cases, especially those that require the flexibility and scalability offered by more mature PaaS solutions like Kubernetes. It fits well for small to medium-sized projects due to its ease of setup and maintenance.

Why this product is good

  • Flynn is an open-source platform as a service (PaaS) that simplifies managing, deploying, and scaling applications. It is designed to handle production-ready environments, making it a suitable option for developers looking to automate complex tasks and focus on their core applications. The system is particularly beneficial for applications that need continuous integration and deployment workflows. Flynn provides a full-stack agnostic platform, meaning it can support various types of applications and databases.

Recommended for

  • Small to medium-sized development teams looking for an easy deployment solution.
  • Developers seeking a self-hosted PaaS that handles database and application deployments.
  • Organizations that prefer open-source solutions for their development and deployment workflows.
  • Projects that benefit from a Heroku-like experience with more control over the infrastructure.

Heroku videos

What is Heroku | Ask a Dev Episode 14

More videos:

Flynn videos

DOJ Dismisses Flynn? Not So Fast. (LegalEagle’s Law Review)

More videos:

  • Review - FLYNN AND FRECKLES - PS4 REVIEW
  • Review - American Assassin (2017) - Movie Review (Vince Flynn Film Adaptation)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Heroku and Flynn)
Cloud Computing
91 91%
9% 9
Developer Tools
84 84%
16% 16
Cloud Hosting
100 100%
0% 0
DevOps Tools
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 Heroku and Flynn

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

10 Top Firebase Alternatives to Ignite Your Development in 2024
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
2023 Firebase Alternatives: Top 10 Open-Source & Free
Heroku Postgres – Majority of businesses like Heroku because of its SQL database support. Yes, PostgreSQL as a service is an appealing product of this PaaS vendor with quick deployment approaches.
5 Free Heroku Alternatives with Free Plan for Developers
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...
Choosing the best Next.js hosting platform
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).
Top 10 Netlify Alternatives
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.

Flynn Reviews

Heroku vs self-hosted PaaS
Flynn was very promising when it was announced but it seems like the project is not getting anywhere. The company blog has not been updated in two years and there are multiple issues on the Github page asking if the project is abandoned. People have also reported that the project is buggy and does not work as well as it was intended. Flynn was announced before the rise of...
Source: www.mskog.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Heroku seems to be a lot more popular than Flynn. While we know about 73 links to Heroku, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Flynn. 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.

Heroku mentions (73)

View more

Flynn mentions (3)

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Porter - Heroku that runs in your own cloud

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

Dokku - Docker powered mini-Heroku in around 100 lines of Bash

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

CapRover - Build your own PaaS in a few minutes!