Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Heroku VS Up by apex

Compare Heroku VS Up by apex 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.

Up by apex logo Up by apex

Deploy serverless apps and APIs in seconds to AWS Lambda
  • Heroku Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • Up by apex Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-26

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.

Up by apex features and specs

  • Simplicity
    Up offers a simple way to deploy serverless applications without needing to manage infrastructure. It uses a single configuration file and a few commands to get applications running.
  • Multi-language support
    Up supports multiple programming languages, allowing developers to use the same tool across different projects and stack types.
  • Environment Management
    Up provides built-in support for managing different environments (development, staging, production) which helps streamline the deployment process.
  • Automatic SSL
    Up automatically provisions SSL certificates for custom domains, ensuring secure communication without additional configuration.
  • Zero-downtime deployments
    Up deploys new versions of an application without any downtime, providing a seamless update process for end-users.

Possible disadvantages of Up by apex

  • AWS dependency
    Up is heavily dependent on AWS services like Lambda and API Gateway, which might not be ideal for organizations using a different cloud provider.
  • Limited customization
    While simplicity is a benefit, it also means that Up might not offer the same level of customization and control as other deployment platforms.
  • Learning curve
    Although Up aims for simplicity, developers who are not familiar with serverless concepts or AWS services might face a learning curve initially.
  • Cost considerations
    Since Up relies on AWS managed services, it can incur additional costs, especially at scale, which might be a consideration for some organizations.
  • Community and support
    As a relatively new tool, Up might not have the same extensive community and support options as more established platforms.

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 Up by apex

Overall verdict

  • Up by Apex is a robust and reliable tool for deploying serverless applications, especially for users who seek simplicity and efficiency in their deployment processes.

Why this product is good

  • Up by Apex is considered good because it offers a simple and efficient way to deploy and manage serverless applications. It provides developers with a streamlined workflow, integrates seamlessly with AWS Lambda, and supports a variety of languages. Furthermore, it gives users fine-grained control over their infrastructure, with features like zero-downtime deployments and automated scaling.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for an easy-to-use deployment tool for AWS Lambda
  • Teams aiming to implement serverless architectures
  • Projects that require fast deployment times and low overhead
  • Users who need a consistent and repeatable deployment process

Heroku videos

What is Heroku | Ask a Dev Episode 14

More videos:

Up by apex videos

Up explained by an idiot

More videos:

  • Review - Up [Movie Review]
  • Review - Why Pixar's Up is a Masterpiece! (Video Essay-Disney Movie Masterpiece Series)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Heroku and Up by apex)
Cloud Computing
96 96%
4% 4
Developer Tools
81 81%
19% 19
Cloud Hosting
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
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 Up by apex

Heroku Reviews

  1. 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.

Up by apex Reviews

We have no reviews of Up by apex yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

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

Up by apex mentions (3)

  • Streamline Your Serverless Development with These Top 10 Powerhouse Tools
    Apex is an open-source tool that makes it easy to build and deploy serverless applications on AWS. It's a great tool for any serverless developer, as it simplifies the process of building and deploying serverless applications, making it easier to focus on writing code. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Does anyone else find the AWS Lambda developer experience poor?
    I can also recommend serverless.com framework for local development and running lambdas offline. AWS provides a docker image for emulating DynamoDB which works great for local dev and will commonly be paired with lambdas. Another option I have used recently for implementing node web services is https://github.com/apex/up which also has a nice local dev experience. - Source: Hacker News / about 4 years ago
  • JavaScript Influencers to Follow in 2021🤩
    Projects: apex/up, git-extras, koajs/koa, clibs/clib, commander.js. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Heroku and Up by apex, you can also consider the following products

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

Serverless - Toolkit for building serverless applications

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

Nimbella - Simple serverless cloud for developers

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

Render UIKit - React-inspired Swift library for writing UIKit UIs