Compare / Heroku vs Scaleway Instances
Heroku vs Scaleway Instances
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Heroku checked 2026-08-06, Scaleway checked 2026-08-06.
The short version
Heroku wins more of our comparison points, but Scaleway Instances still fits if eU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler describes you.
Price Heroku
Heroku is cheaper at most of the stages we model.
Ease Heroku
Heroku is easier to get running: git push heroku main; buildpacks detect the stack and the platform handles the rest.
Control Scaleway Instances
Scaleway Instances gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Features Heroku
Heroku comes out ahead on 4 of the 15 features we track, versus 2.
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 | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Teams that already know Heroku and value its mature workflow over price. | EU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler. |
| How deploys work | git push heroku main; buildpacks detect the stack and the platform handles the rest. | Spin up an instance from the console or the scw CLI, then manage it like any VPS; Terraform and cloud-init are first-class. |
| The tradeoff | You pay a platform premium — comparable raw compute costs a third as much elsewhere. | À la carte pricing makes the real cost higher than the sticker, and account verification can be painful. |
| Free tier | None | None |
What you'd realistically pay
Heroku Scaleway Instances
| Project stage | Heroku | Scaleway Instances | 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. | ≈€10.42/mo DEV1-S + IPv4 + 10 GB volume — ~€6.55 instance (2 shared vCPU, 2 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€0.95 block storage. Ex-VAT, ~730h/month. | Heroku |
| Steady traffic | ≈$25/mo Standard-1X — Adds horizontal scaling and zero-downtime deploys; database still extra. | ≈€24.92/mo PLAY2-NANO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€20.10 instance (2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | Heroku |
| Growing | ≈$50/mo Standard dynos + add-ons — Two Standard-1X dynos; realistic totals depend heavily on add-ons. | ≈€45/mo PLAY2-MICRO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€40.20 instance (4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | ≈ Tie |
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).
Scaleway Instances pricing notes
- Hourly billing (~730 h/month), ex-VAT, with no egress fees — bandwidth is an unmetered per-instance speed.
- Flexible IPv4 €0.004/h (~€2.92/month); IPv6 is free. Block Storage 5K is €0.000130/GB/h (~€0.095/GB/month).
- Savings Plans (12/36-month commitment) take up to 25% off compute.
- New Professional accounts with a payment method get €100 in credit.
Our ratings
Ease of use Heroku
Pricing clarity Heroku
Free tier
Scaling Heroku
Control Scaleway Instances
Feature by feature
Heroku wins 4, Scaleway Instances wins 2, with 9 even.
Deploy workflow
| Heroku | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes git push heroku main is the original deploy story; GitHub integration too. | No Not on Instances — bring your own CI, or use Scaleway’s separate serverless products. |
| Preview deploys | Yes Review Apps create a running app per pull request. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes The heroku CLI covers deploys, logs, scaling, and add-ons. | Yes The scw CLI covers instances, volumes, IPs, and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks | Yes heroku releases:rollback reverts to any previous release instantly. | Partial Snapshots and images restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| Heroku | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Custom domains with automated certificate management on paid dynos. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | No No built-in CDN — pair with Cloudflare or Fastly yourself. | Partial Edge Services adds a CDN in front of load balancers and object storage; nothing automatic on a bare instance. |
| Serverless functions | No Dynos are long-running processes; there is no function product. | No Not on Instances — Scaleway sells separate Serverless Containers and Functions products. |
| Docker containers | Yes Deploy container images through the Heroku container registry. | Yes Docker-ready images or install it yourself. |
| SSH / shell access | Partial heroku run bash gives a one-off shell in a fresh dyno, not the live one. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Common Runtime offers a Europe region at the same prices. | Yes Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Milan — EU-only by design. |
Runtime & operations
| Heroku | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Partial Built-in autoscaling requires Performance-tier dynos; standard dynos scale manually. | No Manual resizing on Instances; autoscaling lives in the serverless products. |
| Scale to zero | Partial Eco dynos sleep after 30 idle minutes; Basic and Standard run continuously. | Partial A fully powered-off (archived) instance stops compute billing, but IPs and volumes keep billing. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Heroku Scheduler (free add-on) runs tasks on a schedule. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | Yes Heroku Postgres and Key-Value Store are fully managed add-ons. | Yes Managed PostgreSQL/MySQL from ~€11.40/month plus storage; Redis and MongoDB too. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Partial Log stream and basic metrics included; serious monitoring means add-ons. | Partial Cockpit collects instance metrics and logs into managed Grafana; app-level instrumentation is yours. |
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.
Scaleway
- List prices exclude storage and public IPv4: add ~€2.92/month for a flexible IPv4 and ~€0.095/GB/month for block storage.
- Scaleway raised prices across Stardust, PLAY2, PRO2, BASIC3, and storage on 1 June 2026.
- "Standby" bills as a running instance; only a full power-off (archive) stops compute billing — and IPs and volumes keep billing regardless.
- Automated KYC can freeze accounts (sometimes with servers running) until you re-verify with ID and selfie.
- The famous €0.43/month Stardust instances are chronically out of stock.
Read the full reviews: Heroku and Scaleway. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.