Compare / Heroku vs DigitalOcean App Platform
Heroku vs DigitalOcean App Platform
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Heroku checked 2026-09-15, DigitalOcean checked 2026-09-15.
The short version
DigitalOcean App Platform wins more of our comparison points, but Heroku still fits if teams that already know Heroku and value its mature workflow over price describes you.
Price DigitalOcean App Platform
DigitalOcean App Platform is cheaper at most of the stages we model.
Ease Tie
Both take similar effort to get a first deploy live.
Free tier DigitalOcean App Platform
DigitalOcean App Platform has a free tier; Heroku doesn't.
Features DigitalOcean App Platform
DigitalOcean App Platform comes out ahead on 3 of the 15 features we track, versus 1.
What developers say about this matchup
We couldn't find a substantive first-person discussion comparing this exact pair. We leave the section empty instead of filling it with vendor marketing or generic SEO comparisons.
At a glance
| Heroku | DigitalOcean App Platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Teams that already know Heroku and value its mature workflow over price. | Apps that want git-push deploys inside a provider they can grow with. |
| How deploys work | git push heroku main; buildpacks detect the stack and the platform handles the rest. | Connect the Git repo or a container image; App Platform builds, deploys, and scales it. |
| The tradeoff | You pay a platform premium — comparable raw compute costs a third as much elsewhere. | Weaker compute per dollar than a Droplet — the convenience premium is real. |
| Free tier | None | Free tier: 3 apps with static sites, 1 GiB of outbound transfer each per month. Extra static-site apps cost $3/month. |
What you'd realistically pay
Heroku DigitalOcean App Platform
| Project stage | Heroku | DigitalOcean App Platform | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈$5/mo Eco — One Eco dyno (512 MB) that sleeps after 30 idle minutes; an always-on Basic dyno is $7, and an Essential-0 Postgres adds $5. | ≈$5/mo 1 shared vCPU / 512 MiB — Includes 50 GiB of outbound transfer; billed per second. | ≈ Tie |
| Steady traffic | ≈$25/mo Standard-1X — Adds horizontal scaling and zero-downtime deploys; database still extra. | ≈$12/mo 1 shared vCPU / 1 GiB — Includes 150 GiB of transfer; a managed database adds more. | DigitalOcean App Platform |
| Growing | ≈$50/mo Standard dynos + add-ons — Two Standard-1X dynos; realistic totals depend heavily on add-ons. | ≈$24/mo Two 1 GiB containers — Horizontal scaling; database and extra transfer on top. | DigitalOcean App Platform |
Heroku pricing notes
- Dynos are prorated to the second up to the monthly maximum.
- Heroku Postgres starts at $5/month (Essential-0, 1 GB storage); the Redis-compatible Key-Value Store starts at $3/month (Mini, 25 MB).
DigitalOcean App Platform pricing notes
- Billed per second with a one-minute minimum.
- Scale to Zero is a private preview for web services. Sleeping services bill at 10% of the standard price.
Our ratings
Ease of use
Pricing clarity
Free tier DigitalOcean App Platform
Scaling Heroku
Control
Feature by feature
Heroku wins 1, DigitalOcean App Platform wins 3, with 11 even.
Deploy workflow
| Heroku | DigitalOcean App Platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes git push heroku main is the original deploy story; GitHub integration too. | Yes Connect GitHub or GitLab; pushes build and deploy automatically. |
| Preview deploys | Yes Review Apps create a running app per pull request. | No No automatic per-PR preview environments. |
| Official CLI | Yes The heroku CLI covers deploys, logs, scaling, and add-ons. | Yes doctl manages apps, Droplets, and databases from one CLI. |
| Instant rollbacks | Yes heroku releases:rollback reverts to any previous release instantly. | Yes Roll back to a previous deployment from the dashboard. |
Platform
| Heroku | DigitalOcean App Platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Custom domains with automated certificate management on paid dynos. | Yes Custom domains with managed TLS certificates. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | No No built-in CDN — pair with Cloudflare or Fastly yourself. | Partial Static assets go through a CDN; dynamic services run in one region. |
| Serverless functions | No Dynos are long-running processes; there is no function product. | Partial DO Functions exist within App Platform but are a minor, less-loved product. |
| Docker containers | Yes Deploy container images through the Heroku container registry. | Yes Deploy from a Dockerfile or any container registry. |
| SSH / shell access | Partial heroku run bash gives a one-off shell in a fresh dyno, not the live one. | Partial A web console reaches the running container; no true SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Common Runtime offers a Europe region at the same prices. | Yes Amsterdam and Frankfurt at identical US prices. |
Runtime & operations
| Heroku | DigitalOcean App Platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Partial Built-in autoscaling requires Performance-tier dynos; standard dynos scale manually. | Partial Request-based autoscaling works on shared and dedicated plans. CPU-based autoscaling requires dedicated CPU. |
| Scale to zero | Partial Eco dynos sleep after 30 idle minutes; Basic and Standard run continuously. | Partial Private preview for web services. Sleep costs 10% and cannot be combined with request-based autoscaling. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Heroku Scheduler (free add-on) runs tasks on a schedule. | Yes Scheduled jobs run every 15 minutes or more and bill only while running. |
| Managed database | Yes Heroku Postgres and Key-Value Store are fully managed add-ons. | Yes DO Managed Databases (Postgres, MySQL, Redis-compatible) attach directly. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Partial Log stream and basic metrics included; serious monitoring means add-ons. | Yes Insights graphs, runtime logs, and alert policies built in. |
Watch out for
Heroku
- There is no free tier.
- Compute is expensive for what you get: Standard-1X costs $25/month for 512 MB of RAM.
- Databases and other add-ons bill separately and can dominate the total.
DigitalOcean
- App Platform containers are small for the money — $12/month buys 1 GiB of RAM, while a $24 Droplet has 4 GiB.
- Managed databases bill separately from both products.
- Bandwidth allowances pool at the team level; overage is $0.02/GiB on App Platform and $0.01/GiB on Droplets.
Read the full reviews: Heroku and DigitalOcean. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.