Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Heroku VS Heroku DX

Compare Heroku VS Heroku DX 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.

Heroku DX logo Heroku DX

The new Heroku developer experience
  • Heroku Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • Heroku DX Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-29

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 Herokuโ€™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
    Herokuโ€™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 Herokuโ€™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 Herokuโ€™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.

Heroku DX features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Heroku DX is designed to streamline the development process by providing a set of tools that are easy to learn and use, thereby reducing the time and effort needed to deploy applications.
  • Integrated Tools
    The platform offers a comprehensive set of built-in tools that support continuous delivery and integration, facilitating a more seamless workflow for developers.
  • Focus on Productivity
    Heroku DX emphasizes developer productivity by simplifying complex deployment processes and allowing developers to focus on building features instead of managing infrastructure.
  • Scalability
    The platform supports scalable application development, allowing developers to efficiently manage applications as they grow in user base and functionality without a significant overhead.
  • Collaboration Support
    Heroku DX provides tools for collaborative development, enabling teams to work together more effectively through shared environments and streamlined communication.

Possible disadvantages of Heroku DX

  • Learning Curve
    While designed for ease of use, new users unfamiliar with Heroku's specific processes and conventions may experience an initial learning curve.
  • Cost
    Leveraging the full suite of Heroku DX tools and services can become costly, particularly for startups or individual developers operating under budget constraints.
  • Limited Customization
    Some developers may find the level of abstraction in Heroku DX limiting, with less control over the infrastructure compared to more traditional server management platforms.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    As with many PaaS solutions, there is a risk of vendor lock-in, making it potentially challenging to migrate away from Heroku if a different infrastructure is required later.

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.

Heroku videos

What is Heroku | Ask a Dev Episode 14

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Heroku DX videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Heroku and Heroku DX)
Cloud Computing
98 98%
2% 2
Developer Tools
95 95%
5% 5
Cloud Hosting
98 98%
2% 2
VPS
100 100%
0% 0

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 Heroku DX

Heroku Reviews

  1. Useful Cloud Platform

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

    ๐Ÿ Competitors: Amazon AWS, Dokku on Digital Ocean, Firebase
    ๐Ÿ‘ Pros:    Easy user interface|Good customer service|Multi-language cloud application platform
    ๐Ÿ‘Ž Cons:    Limitation with some addons|Low network performance
  2. jamestelford
    ยท Full Stack Developer at OutDev ยท
    ๐Ÿ Competitors: Docker, Amazon AWS
    ๐Ÿ‘ Pros:    Powerful development environments|Great value for the money|Great customer support|Paas

10 Top Firebase Alternatives to Ignite Your Development in 2024
Herokuโ€™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 Herokuโ€™s ability to accelerate development and deployment, allowing them to get their ideas to market faster.
Source: genezio.com
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Heroku Postgres โ€“ 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.
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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.jsโ€™ 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 doesnโ€™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.

Heroku DX Reviews

We have no reviews of Heroku DX yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Heroku seems to be more popular. 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.

Heroku mentions (73)

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Heroku DX mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Heroku DX yet. Tracking of Heroku DX recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Turboku - Make your Heroku web dynos 60% faster with fly.io

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

Hoss DX - The developer experience platform

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

One-off Dyno Metrics - The One-off Dyno Metrics Heroku add-on allows you to natively monitor and investigate detached one-off dynos.