Heroku Pricing Plans 2026 — Dyno Costs & Compute

Current Heroku Pricing (May 2026)

Plan	Monthly Cost	Key Features	Best For
Eco	$7/month	0.5 dyno hours/month, shared CPU, 512 MB RAM	Hobby projects, sleeping apps
Standard-1X	$25/month	1 dyno 24/7, 512 MB RAM, dedicated CPU, 1 GB storage	Small production apps
Standard-2X	$50/month	1 dyno 24/7, 1 GB RAM, dedicated CPU, 2 GB storage	Medium production apps
Performance-M	$250/month	1 dyno 24/7, 2.5 GB RAM, dedicated CPU, fast networking	High-traffic apps
Performance-L	$550/month	1 dyno 24/7, 14 GB RAM, dedicated CPU, priority support	Enterprise-scale apps

Heroku Add-ons (Database Costs)

Heroku charges separately for databases and services. Here's a typical stack:

Standard-1X Dyno $25/month

PostgreSQL (Essential) $0/month (free tier)

PostgreSQL (Standard) $9/month

Redis (Premium) $30/month

Typical Small App (with DB + cache) $64/month

Why Heroku Was (and Still Is) Popular

Deploy simplicity: Push to Heroku, auto-scales within dyno type
Built-in databases: Postgres, MySQL add-ons included in ecosystem
Git integration: Deploy directly from GitHub
Add-ons marketplace: Auth0, SendGrid, Stripe, etc. integrations pre-configured
No infrastructure management: No servers to configure, update, or maintain

Why Developers Are Leaving Heroku

Pricing shock: Free tier removal in Nov 2022 forced thousands to migrate overnight. A $0 app suddenly required $7+/month commitment.

Expensive for small apps: $7 Eco tier + $9 PostgreSQL = $16/month minimum (vs. $2-5 on competitors)
Performance concerns: Community reports slower cold starts vs. newer alternatives (Render, Railway)
Better alternatives: Vercel (Next.js native), Railway (simpler pricing), Render (same simplicity, cheaper)

Heroku vs. Competitors

Service	Free Tier	Cheapest Paid	Best For
Heroku	❌ Removed Nov 2022	$7/month (Eco)	Mature apps with dev team
Render	✅ Yes (but paused)	$7/month (Starter)	Hobby → production (lower cost)
Railway	✅ $5 free/month	Pay-as-you-go (~$1-5/month)	Cost-conscious developers
Vercel	✅ Yes (static + serverless)	Free (Pro $20/month)	Next.js and Node.js apps
AWS (EC2)	✅ 1 year free	~$3/month (t3.micro)	Custom infrastructure

Heroku Cost at Scale

Small app vs. production app monthly costs:

Hobby project (Eco + basic DB) ~$20/month

Small production (Standard-1X + Postgres + Redis) ~$64/month

Medium production (Standard-2X + Postgres Premium + Redis) ~$104/month

High-traffic (Performance-M + multiple DBs) $400+/month

Heroku's pricing advantage was simplicity (all-in-one platform). After removing free tier, that advantage disappeared. Competitors offer free tiers, better pricing, and easier migration paths.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Heroku have a free tier?

No. Heroku removed the free tier on November 28, 2022. The cheapest option now is the Eco tier at $7/month.

What happened to Heroku free dynos?

Salesforce (Heroku's parent company) discontinued free dynos to reduce costs and focus on paying customers. This migration pushed thousands of developers to Render, Railway, and Vercel.

Is Heroku still worth it?

Heroku is worth it if: (1) You need seamless Git deployment, (2) Your team values simplicity over cost, (3) You're running mature, production apps. Not worth it for hobby projects or MVPs.

What's cheaper than Heroku?

Render ($7/month starter with free tier), Railway (pay-as-you-go), Vercel (free for Next.js), and AWS (free tier + cheap EC2).

Get price change alerts for Heroku

Heroku raises prices occasionally. Get notified the moment they change (like when they removed the free tier in 2022).

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