Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Heroku VS VMware vSAN

Compare Heroku VS VMware vSAN 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.

VMware vSAN logo VMware vSAN

VMware vSAN is radically simple, enterprise-class software-defined storage powering VMware hyper-converged infrastructure. 
  • Heroku Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • VMware vSAN Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-28

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.

VMware vSAN features and specs

  • Cost Efficiency
    By pooling together the storage resources available on existing servers, it eliminates the need for expensive, dedicated storage arrays.
  • Scalability
    vSAN enables easy scalability by adding more drives or nodes without disruptive downtimes, meeting the dynamic needs of modern businesses.
  • Performance
    Integrates closely with VMware's vSphere ecosystem to deliver optimized performance tailored to enterprise workloads.
  • Simplified Management
    Managed through VMware's vCenter, it offers a unified console for easier monitoring, provisioning, and maintenance.
  • High Availability
    Ensures data redundancy and availability through its robust architecture, minimizing risks of data loss.
  • Integration
    Tightly integrates with the VMware ecosystem, which includes vSphere, NSX, and other VMware products, providing a comprehensive suite for data center management.

Possible disadvantages of VMware vSAN

  • Initial Setup Complexity
    The initial setup can be complicated and may require specific knowledge and expertise in VMware environments.
  • Licensing Costs
    While it reduces hardware costs, vSAN licensing fees can be high, especially for enterprise-grade features.
  • Resource Intensive
    Can be resource-intensive, affecting the overall performance of the servers it runs on, especially in resource-constrained environments.
  • Compatibility
    May have hardware compatibility issues, requiring careful selection of compatible components.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a significant learning curve involved, especially for administrators who are not already familiar with VMware products.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    As a proprietary solution, it can create vendor lock-in, making future migrations or integrations with non-VMware products challenging.

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 VMware vSAN

Overall verdict

  • Overall, VMware vSAN is considered a good solution for organizations already using VMware infrastructure or those looking for a highly available and scalable storage system. Its ease of use and solid integration make it a compelling choice for modern data centers.

Why this product is good

  • VMware vSAN is a well-regarded software-defined storage solution that integrates directly with VMware's vSphere, allowing for simplified management of storage resources. It offers features like high availability, scalability, and cloud native storage capabilities, which are beneficial for IT environments that require robust storage solutions. Additionally, vSAN's seamless integration into the VMware ecosystem means reduced complexity and improved disaster recovery options.

Recommended for

  • Organizations using VMware vSphere and looking to extend capabilities with a storage solution.
  • Enterprises needing scalable and flexible storage options.
  • IT environments requiring high availability and efficient resource management.
  • Businesses seeking storage solutions that support hybrid or multi-cloud strategies.

Heroku videos

What is Heroku | Ask a Dev Episode 14

More videos:

VMware vSAN videos

VMware VSAN Review (Real User: Marcus Puckett)

More videos:

  • Review - VMware VSAN Review (Real User: Matt Baltz)
  • Review - VMware VSAN Review (Real User: Ben Gent)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Heroku and VMware vSAN)
Cloud Computing
89 89%
11% 11
Cloud Storage
0 0%
100% 100
Cloud Hosting
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
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 VMware vSAN

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.

VMware vSAN Reviews

We have no reviews of VMware vSAN yet.
Be the first one to post

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)

View more

VMware vSAN mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of VMware vSAN yet. Tracking of VMware vSAN recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Nutanix - Nutanix is a virtualized datacenter platform that provides disruptive datacenter infrastructure solutions for implementing enterprise-class.

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

AWS Storage Gateway - AWS Storage Gateway is a service connecting an on-premises software appliance with cloud-based storage.

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

Azure Storage Explorer - Easily manage your Azure storage accounts in the cloud, from Windows, macOS, or Linux, using Azure Storage Explorer.