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Cloud · head to head

Heroku vs Qovery

Heroku logo

Heroku

Cloud

Cloud Application Platform

From
$5/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Qovery logo

Qovery

Cloud

Deployment platform that provisions and operates Kubernetes inside your own cloud account

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Heroku there is no free dyno tier; the cheapest Eco dyno is $5 per month; Qovery no plan publishes a price, deployment minute overage rates are not disclosed, and there is a 14 day trial rather than a free tier, so you cannot budget or compare against alternatives without going through sales.
  • They diverge on capability: Heroku covers Git-based deployment, Qovery covers Bring your own cloud.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Heroku and Qovery actually diverge.

Attributes where Heroku and Qovery differ
AttributeHerokuQovery
Starting price$5/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Api, WorkersWeb, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes
Founded2007Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Heroku

  • Git-based deployment
  • Buildpacks
  • Dynos (containers)
  • Add-ons marketplace
  • Postgres database
  • Environment variables
  • Logging
  • API

Only in Qovery

  • Bring your own cloud
  • Preview environments
  • Cluster lifecycle
  • Terraform provider
  • MCP server
  • Policy as code

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Heroku

  • Application hostingnot Qovery
  • Database as a servicenot Qovery
  • CI/CD pipelinesnot Qovery
  • API deploymentnot Qovery

Qovery

  • A regulated business that must keep application data inside its own AWS account but has nobody to build a deployment platformnot Heroku
  • Giving twenty engineers preview environments per pull request without writing and maintaining Terraform and Helm by handnot Heroku
  • Standardising deployment across AWS and GCP when acquisitions have left the organisation on two cloudsnot Heroku
  • Replacing a managed platform when data residency rules put every hosted option out of reachnot Heroku

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Heroku

  • There is no free dyno tier; the cheapest Eco dyno is $5 per month
  • Eco dynos sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity, are restricted to personal accounts and allow only 2 process types
  • Free SSL and 10 process types start at the Basic dyno at $7 per month
  • Private and Shield dyno types require a Private Space, which is billed on top of the dynos
  • Private Space dynos start at $250 per month for Private-M and $500 per month for Private-L
  • Dyno prices are per dyno per month, so an app with several process types multiplies the bill

Qovery

  • No plan publishes a price, deployment minute overage rates are not disclosed, and there is a 14 day trial rather than a free tier, so you cannot budget or compare against alternatives without going through sales.
  • The GPL-3.0 engine and console do not constitute a self-hostable product, because the control plane and API are closed and the self-hosted option is gated behind Enterprise, so the open licence gives you no exit if the company changes direction.
  • Qovery provisions managed Kubernetes into your account, which means the cloud bill sits on top of the licence and Qovery initiates control plane and ingress controller upgrades on infrastructure your team is accountable for.
  • The company repositioned to agentic infrastructure in June 2026 and now ships a deployment platform, a browser development portal and autonomous coding agents concurrently, so a buyer of the deployment product is not at the centre of the roadmap.
  • Team and Business are capped at two and three connected clusters with fixed 4 vCPU CI runners and no single sign-on on Team, which pushes teams of moderate size onto quoted Enterprise pricing earlier than the plan names imply.

Pricing, plan by plan

Heroku

$5/month
  • Eco Dyno$5/month
    • 0.5 GB RAM
    • Git/Docker deploy
    • Custom domains
  • Basic Dyno$7/month
    • 0.5 GB RAM
    • Always-on
    • Free SSL
  • Standard-1X Dyno$25/month
    • 0.5 GB RAM
    • Horizontal scaling
    • App metrics
  • Standard-2X Dyno$50/month
    • 1 GB RAM
    • Horizontal scaling
    • App metrics

Qovery

On request
  • Team$undefined/year
    • Billed on usage with no published rate card
    • 10 users, up to 100 environments, 2 connected clusters
    • 5,000 deployment minutes and 7 day audit logs
  • Business$undefined/year
    • Billed on usage with no published rate card
    • 20 users, up to 250 environments, 3 connected clusters
    • 10,000 deployment minutes and 30 day audit logs
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom users, environments and clusters
    • Self-hosted or air-gapped control plane
    • On-premises and bring-your-own-Kubernetes

Which should you pick?

Choose Heroku if

  • You need git-based deployment.
  • You work on Web, Api, Workers.
  • You also want buildpacks.
Heroku review

Choose Qovery if

  • You need bring your own cloud.
  • You work on Web, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes.
  • You also want preview environments.
Qovery review

Questions people ask

Is Heroku or Qovery better?
Neither clearly leads. Heroku starts at $5/month and Qovery at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Heroku or Qovery?
Heroku starts at $5/month and Qovery at On request.
Does Heroku or Qovery run on more platforms?
Heroku runs on Web, Api, Workers. Qovery runs on Web, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes.
What is Heroku best used for?
Heroku is most often used for application hosting, database as a service, ci/cd pipelines, api deployment. Of those, application hosting and database as a service are not what Qovery is typically brought in for.
What can Heroku do that Qovery cannot?
Heroku covers Git-based deployment, Buildpacks, Dynos (containers), Add-ons marketplace. Qovery covers Bring your own cloud, Preview environments, Cluster lifecycle, Terraform provider.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Heroku: How much does Heroku cost?

Heroku dyno pricing starts at $5 per month USD for the Eco tier (with 30-minute inactivity sleep), $7 per month for Basic (always-on), and scales up to $1,500 per month for Performance-2XL with 126 GB RAM.

Source
Qovery: Does Qovery run my applications on its own servers?

No. It provisions and operates Kubernetes inside your AWS, GCP, Azure or Scaleway account, so compute and data stay with your cloud provider and that bill is entirely separate from the Qovery licence.

Heroku: What is the cheapest always-on Heroku plan?

The Basic Dyno at $7 per month USD is Heroku's cheapest always-on container option. It provides 0.5 GB RAM, free SSL, and support for 10 process types.

Source
Qovery: Can I self-host Qovery?

Only on Enterprise. The deployment engine and console are GPL-3.0, but the control plane is closed source and the self-hosted and air-gapped deployments are commercial Enterprise features.

Heroku: How is Heroku Postgres priced?

Heroku Postgres Essential tier (shared resources) starts at $5-$20 per month for 1-32 GB disk. Standard tier (dedicated) ranges $50-$12,000 per month. Premium, Private, Shield, and Advanced tiers offer higher performance at corresponding prices.

Source
Qovery: What does it cost?

Qovery does not publish a rate card. Team and Business are billed on usage and quoted through sales, and Enterprise is fully custom. There is a 14 day trial with no card required.

Qovery: What survives if I stop paying?

The Kubernetes cluster and the workloads keep running in your cloud account, but you lose the console, the deployment pipeline, preview environments and every process built on top of them.

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