# Temps vs Heroku

> Heroku moved to a sustaining-engineering model in February 2026 (stability and support over new features, no new Enterprise contracts; credit-card customers unaffected). It has had no free tier since November 2022: the cheapest always-on stack is a Basic dyno ($7) + Postgres Essential-0 ($5) + Key-Value Store Mini ($3) = $15/month, before observability. Temps is the self-hosted Heroku alternative: free on your own server, with the same git-push workflow, managed Postgres and Redis, and error tracking, analytics, session replay and uptime monitoring included.

Last updated 2026-10-10 · Competitor prices checked October 2026

Canonical: https://temps.sh/compare/vs-heroku

Heroku bills per dyno and per add-on. Temps is free to self-host.

## Short answer

Heroku is a managed platform billed per dyno and per add-on: the cheapest always-on app with Postgres and Key-Value Store is $15/month (Basic $7 + Essential-0 $5 + Mini $3), and a Standard-1X production app is about $37/month before observability. In February 2026 Heroku moved to a sustaining-engineering model and stopped offering Enterprise contracts to new customers; credit-card customers continue with no changes. Temps runs the same git-push workflow on your own server, with managed Postgres, MariaDB, MongoDB and Redis plus error tracking, session replay, analytics and uptime monitoring included. What Heroku has that Temps doesn't: A long production track record, a large add-on marketplace, Pipelines, and Salesforce integration, with no server to run. Migration is medium difficulty because each add-on has to be replaced individually.

## TL;DR

| Dimension | Temps | Heroku | Better fit |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cost, always-on app + Postgres + Redis | Free + your server | From $15/mo; ~$37/mo on Standard-1X | Temps |
| Cost with observability | Free (included) | ~$248/mo with Sentry, Plausible, LogRocket | Temps |
| Product direction | Actively developed (pre-1.0) | Sustaining engineering since Feb 2026 | Temps |
| Add-on ecosystem | Built-in services only | Large marketplace of add-ons | Heroku |
| Operations burden | You run the server | Fully managed | Heroku |
| Git-push deploy workflow | Yes | Yes | Tie |

## Key differences

- **Heroku is in sustaining mode:** On February 6, 2026 Heroku announced a move to a sustaining-engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability and support, and stopped offering Enterprise contracts to new customers. Credit-card customers continue with no changes to pricing or service. If you are choosing a platform for the next few years, that is worth weighing; Temps is under active development.
- **Observability built in, not added on:** Heroku has no built-in error tracking, web analytics or session replay; they come from add-ons or SaaS such as Sentry Team ($26/month, billed annually), Plausible ($9/month) and LogRocket ($176/month at 25,000 sessions), about $211/month together. Temps ships Sentry-compatible error tracking, analytics, session replay and uptime monitoring in the same binary as the deployment engine.
- **No dyno sleeping, no per-process bill:** Heroku Eco dynos ($5/month for a shared pool of 1,000 dyno hours) sleep after 30 minutes without traffic; Basic dynos ($7/month) stay on, and every extra process is another dyno. Temps services run continuously on your own server, however many you deploy.
- **Self-hostable:** Heroku is closed-source and owned by Salesforce. Temps is MIT / Apache 2.0 and installs on any VPS, cloud VM or on-premises server, so your code and data do not depend on one vendor's roadmap.

## Features

| Feature | Temps | Heroku |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Git push deployments | Yes | Yes |
| Docker support | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Custom domains | Yes | Yes |
| Preview environments | Yes (Per pull request) | Yes (Review Apps) |
| Managed PostgreSQL | Yes (Included) | Yes (From $5/mo (Essential-0)) |
| Managed Redis | Yes (Included) | Yes (Key-Value Store from $3/mo) |
| S3-compatible storage | Yes (Built-in (RustFS; legacy MinIO supported)) | No (Add-on or external) |
| Error tracking | Yes (Sentry-compatible) | No (Add-on (e.g. Sentry Team $26/mo)) |
| Web analytics | Yes (First-party, built-in) | No (Add-on or external) |
| Session replay | Yes (rrweb-based, built-in) | No (External tool) |
| Uptime monitoring | Yes (Built-in checks and alerts) | No (Add-on or external) |
| Self-hosted option | Yes | No |
| Horizontal scaling | Yes (Replicas and multi-node) | Yes (Standard-1X and up ($25+/mo per dyno)) |
| Background workers | Yes (Deploy the worker as its own service) | Yes (Separate worker dyno (from $7/mo)) |
| Pipelines (staged promotion) | No (Environments per project) | Yes (Heroku Pipelines) |

## Pricing

| Item | Temps | Heroku |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hobby / Eco | $0 (self-hosted) | $5/mo (sleeps after 30 min) |
| Always-on app + Postgres + Redis | $0 + your server | $15/mo (Basic $7 + Essential-0 $5 + Mini $3) |
| Production app + Postgres + Redis | $0 + your server | $37/mo (Standard-1X $25 + Essential-1 $9 + Mini $3) |
| Production + observability | Free (included) | ~$248/mo ($37 + $211 of Sentry, Plausible, LogRocket) |

Heroku bills dynos, databases, Key-Value Store and every observability tool separately. The cheapest always-on stack is $15/month; a Standard-1X production app with Postgres Essential-1 and Key-Value Store Mini is $37/month, and about $248/month once Sentry Team, Plausible and LogRocket are added. Self-hosted Temps is free on a server you provide, with those tools included.

### Heroku dyno and add-on prices

| Item | Price | Sleeps? | Memory | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Eco dyno | $5/mo (1,000 shared dyno hours) | Yes (30 min idle) | 512 MB | Dev and test |
| Basic dyno | $7/mo per dyno | No | 512 MB | Always-on side projects |
| Standard-1X dyno | $25/mo per dyno | No | 512 MB | Production apps |
| Standard-2X dyno | $50/mo per dyno | No | 1 GB | Memory-heavy apps |
| Performance-M dyno | $250/mo per dyno | No | 2.5 GB | High-traffic apps |
| Postgres Essential-0 / -1 | $5 / $9 per month | — | 1 GB / 10 GB storage | Small databases |
| Key-Value Store Mini / Premium-0 | $3 / $15 per month | — | 25 MB / 50 MB | Caches and queues |

## Choose Temps if

- You want error tracking, analytics and monitoring without extra subscriptions
- You want predictable costs rather than per-dyno and per-add-on billing
- You want always-on apps without paying per process
- You want a platform under active development rather than in sustaining mode
- You want to keep data in a jurisdiction you choose (Temps holds no SOC 2 or HIPAA attestation of its own)
- You want managed databases included, not billed separately

## Choose Heroku if

- You want a fully managed platform with no server to maintain
- You rely on Heroku's add-on marketplace
- You need Heroku Pipelines and Review Apps exactly as they work today
- You're already invested in the Salesforce ecosystem
- You value Heroku's long production record: Temps is pre-1.0 (v0.1.0 prereleases), newer and smaller, which is also why it bundles the observability Heroku sells as add-ons

## Migrating from Heroku (medium)

With a Dockerfile, your container deploys on Temps unchanged. Without one, Temps autodetects Next.js, Vite, Python, Go, Rust and Java apps (plain Node.js servers, Ruby and PHP use a preset you choose), and reads only the web: line of a Procfile as the start command; release: and worker: lines are ignored, so run migrations as a one-off step and deploy workers as their own service. The bigger effort is add-ons: Heroku Postgres and Key-Value Store map to Temps managed services (pg_dump and restore, Redis DUMP/RESTORE); SendGrid or Mailgun can stay as an SMTP relay behind Temps' transactional email. Import environment variables with `bunx @temps-sdk/cli environments vars import .env`. Plan half a day for a typical app.

[Step-by-step: migrate from Heroku to Temps](https://temps.sh/docs/from-heroku)

## FAQ

### Is Heroku shutting down?

No. On February 6, 2026 Heroku announced a move to a sustaining-engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability and support, which means little new feature work, and said Enterprise Account contracts will no longer be offered to new customers. Customers paying by credit card, existing and new, continue with no changes to pricing, billing or service.

### Does Heroku still have a free tier in 2026?

No. Heroku removed free dynos, free Postgres and free Redis in November 2022. The cheapest option is the Eco plan at $5/month (1,000 dyno hours shared across your Eco dynos, which sleep after 30 minutes idle). The cheapest always-on app is a Basic dyno at $7/month.

### How much does Heroku cost in 2026?

Dynos: Eco $5/month (shared hours, sleeps), Basic $7, Standard-1X $25 (512 MB), Standard-2X $50 (1 GB), Performance-M $250 (2.5 GB). Postgres: Essential-0 $5, Essential-1 $9, Essential-2 $20. Key-Value Store (Redis): Mini $3, Premium-0 $15. The cheapest always-on app with Postgres and Key-Value Store is $15/month; a Standard-1X production stack is about $37/month before observability add-ons.

### What is the cheapest Heroku alternative in 2026?

Self-hosted platforms such as Temps, Coolify and Dokploy are free to run on a server you rent, so the cost is the server. Temps is the one that includes error tracking (Sentry-compatible DSN), analytics, session replay and uptime monitoring. Managed alternatives include Render, Railway and Fly.io, each billed by plan and usage.

### Does Heroku have built-in error tracking or analytics?

No. Heroku has no built-in error tracking, web analytics or session replay. They come from marketplace add-ons or SaaS, for example Sentry Team ($26/month, billed annually), Plausible ($9/month) and LogRocket ($176/month at 25,000 sessions). Temps includes Sentry-compatible error tracking, first-party analytics, rrweb session replay and 60-second uptime monitoring.

### Can I migrate from Heroku to a self-hosted alternative?

Yes. A Dockerfile app deploys unchanged; buildpack apps are autodetected or use a preset. Temps uses only the web: line of a Procfile, so run release-phase migrations as a one-off step and deploy workers as their own service. Export config vars and import them with the Temps CLI, move Postgres with pg_dump and restore, and move Key-Value Store data with DUMP/RESTORE. The Heroku migration guide covers each step.

## Sources

- [Heroku pricing](https://www.heroku.com/pricing)
- [An update on Heroku (Feb 2026)](https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/)
- [Heroku Eco dyno hours](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/eco-dyno-hours)
- [Sentry pricing](https://sentry.io/pricing/)

## Further reading

- [Migrate from Heroku to a Self-Hosted VPS](https://temps.sh/docs/from-heroku): Procfiles, config vars, Heroku Postgres and add-ons, mapped to Temps step by step.
- [9 Best Heroku Alternatives in 2026](https://temps.sh/blog/9-best-heroku-alternatives-2026): Render, Railway, Fly.io, Coolify, Temps and more, compared on pricing, deploy workflow and observability.
- [Temps vs Render](https://temps.sh/compare/vs-render): Render's workspace plans and per-service compute against a self-hosted platform.
- [Managed PostgreSQL on Temps](https://temps.sh/docs/managed-postgresql): Create a Postgres service, link it to a project and restore a Heroku dump into it.
- [Deploy Ruby on Rails to your own server](https://temps.sh/deploy/rails): Rails on a server you own, with the nixpacks-ruby preset.

---

Source: https://temps.sh/compare/vs-heroku · Index of all pages: https://temps.sh/llms.txt