Compare / Netlify vs Heroku

Netlify vs Heroku

Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Netlify checked 2026-09-15, Heroku checked 2026-09-15.

The short version

Netlify 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 Netlify

Netlify is cheaper at every stage we model — about $20/mo even for a growing project.

Ease Netlify

Netlify is easier to get running: connect the Git repo; pushes build and deploy automatically with previews for every pull request.

Control Heroku

Heroku gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.

Free tier Netlify

Netlify has a free tier; Heroku doesn't.

Features Netlify

Netlify comes out ahead on 4 of the 15 features we track, versus 3.

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

Netlify Heroku
Best for Static sites and frontend apps that deploy from Git and want a generous, mature workflow. Teams that already know Heroku and value its mature workflow over price.
How deploys work Connect the Git repo; pushes build and deploy automatically with previews for every pull request. git push heroku main; buildpacks detect the stack and the platform handles the rest.
The tradeoff The credit system makes bills hard to predict — traffic, deploys, and compute all drain one pool. You pay a platform premium — comparable raw compute costs a third as much elsewhere.
Free tier Free: 300 credits per month with a hard stop. Commercial use is allowed; enough for a small site with modest traffic and few production deploys. None

What you'd realistically pay

Free $5 $9 $25 $20 $50 Just starting Steady traffic Growing
Netlify Heroku
Estimated monthly cost at each project stage. Estimates use each provider's real plans; euro prices are compared at a rough exchange rate.
Project stage Netlify Heroku Cheaper
Just starting Free Free — Watch the credit math: deploys cost 15 credits each out of 300. ≈$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. Netlify
Steady traffic ≈$9/mo Personal — 1,000 credits/month; extra 500-credit packs cost $5. ≈$25/mo Standard-1X — Adds horizontal scaling and zero-downtime deploys; database still extra. Netlify
Growing ≈$20/mo Pro — 3,000 credits/month; extra 1,500-credit packs cost $10. ≈$50/mo Standard dynos + add-ons — Two Standard-1X dynos; realistic totals depend heavily on add-ons. Netlify

Netlify pricing notes

  • Credit rates: 10,000 requests = 2 credits, 1 GB bandwidth = 20 credits, production deploy = 15 credits, 1 GB-hour of function compute = 10 credits.
  • Deploy previews and branch deploys are free; only production deploys cost credits.
  • Pro tiers: $20 for 3,000 credits without rollover; $33 for 5,000, $63 for 10,000, $95 for 15,000, or $126 for 20,000 with one-cycle rollover.

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).

Our ratings

Ease of use Netlify

Netlify 5/5
Heroku 4/5

Pricing clarity Heroku

Netlify 2/5
Heroku 4/5

Free tier Netlify

Netlify 3/5
Heroku 1/5

Scaling

Netlify 4/5
Heroku 4/5

Control Heroku

Netlify 2/5
Heroku 3/5

Feature by feature

Netlify wins 4, Heroku wins 3, with 8 even.

Deploy workflow

Netlify Heroku
Deploy from Git push Yes Connect GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps; pushes deploy. Yes git push heroku main is the original deploy story; GitHub integration too.
Preview deploys Yes Deploy previews per pull request and branch deploys, free of credit cost. Yes Review Apps create a running app per pull request.
Official CLI Yes The netlify CLI runs local dev, deploys, and manages functions. Yes The heroku CLI covers deploys, logs, scaling, and add-ons.
Instant rollbacks Yes Every deploy is kept; publish any previous one instantly. Yes heroku releases:rollback reverts to any previous release instantly.

Platform

Netlify Heroku
Custom domains + HTTPS Yes Custom domains with automatic TLS on all plans, including Free. Yes Custom domains with automated certificate management on paid dynos.
Built-in CDN / edge network Yes Global edge CDN serves all sites by default. No No built-in CDN — pair with Cloudflare or Fastly yourself.
Serverless functions Yes Netlify Functions (AWS Lambda under the hood) plus edge functions. No Dynos are long-running processes; there is no function product.
Docker containers No No container deploys — builds run in Netlify’s build image. Yes Deploy container images through the Heroku container registry.
SSH / shell access No No shell access; logs are the debugging surface. Partial heroku run bash gives a one-off shell in a fresh dyno, not the live one.
EU hosting region Partial The CDN is global, but functions default to a US region; region choice needs higher tiers. Yes Common Runtime offers a Europe region at the same prices.

Runtime & operations

Netlify Heroku
Automatic scaling Yes CDN and functions scale automatically with traffic. Partial Built-in autoscaling requires Performance-tier dynos; standard dynos scale manually.
Scale to zero Yes Nothing runs (or bills) while the site has no traffic — apart from credits. Partial Eco dynos sleep after 30 idle minutes; Basic and Standard run continuously.
Scheduled jobs Yes Scheduled functions run on a cron expression. Yes Heroku Scheduler (free add-on) runs tasks on a schedule.
Managed database Yes Netlify Database is managed Postgres. Its compute and bandwidth consume regular Netlify credits. Yes Heroku Postgres and Key-Value Store are fully managed add-ons.
Logs & metrics built in Partial Function and deploy logs included; analytics is a paid add-on. Partial Log stream and basic metrics included; serious monitoring means add-ons.

Watch out for

Netlify

  • Every production deploy costs 15 credits, so the 300-credit free tier covers only about 20 deploys a month even with zero traffic.
  • The free tier has an account-wide hard stop: if one project uses all credits, every project on the account pauses.
  • Bandwidth burns credits quickly — 1 GB costs 20 credits.
  • New public projects on the Free plan show a Powered by Netlify badge by default.

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.

Read the full reviews: Netlify and Heroku. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.