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It's a split decision.
Choose Heroku for a managed runtime with listed dyno plans from $5/month, though its Eco plan sleeps after 30 minutes; Basic costs $7/month and stays on. Choose Upsun for isolated branch and pull-request environments, YAML-defined infrastructure, and multi-cloud deployment. Its €9/month project fee is only the starting point: compute, memory, storage, egress, seats, and some support or security options can add charges. Neither has a free plan; Upsun lists a 15-day trial. The choice is simpler listed tiers versus usage-based billing.
01Side by side
| Heroku | Upsun | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $5/month; Eco sleeps after 30 minutes | €9/project/month, plus usage |
| Free plan | No free plan listed | No free plan; 15-day trial |
| Best for | Managed app hosting, from personal projects to enterprise | Git-based teams needing isolated branch environments |
| Core strength | Managed dynos, databases, and deployment tools | Isolated environments and YAML-defined infrastructure |
| Learning curve | Not published | Not published |
| Integrations and data | Add-ons, buildpacks, Postgres, and Redis | Git-based YAML stacks; managed databases, caches, and search |
| Team and seat costs | Seat pricing not published | €10/user/month; advanced management adds €9/user/month |
| Support | Support pricing not published | Standard included; advanced +10%, premium +15% of global spend |
Heroku Choose Heroku if
- Choose Heroku if you want an always-on app from a listed $7/month.
- Choose Heroku if you need managed Postgres and Redis.
- Choose Heroku if add-ons and buildpacks fit your existing stack.
Upsun Choose Upsun if
- Choose Upsun if you need isolated branch and pull-request environments.
- Choose Upsun if you want infrastructure defined in repository YAML.
- Choose Upsun if you can budget for variable resource and add-on charges.
02Pricing compared
Heroku’s listed dyno plans start at $5/month for Eco, but Eco sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity. Basic costs $7/month and stays on. Higher tiers range from $25/month for Standard-1X to $1,500/month for Performance-2XL; private and compliance-focused plans cost extra. The pricing page lists monthly prices, with no annual billing or free plan shown.
Upsun starts at €9 per project per month, plus usage, and lists a 15-day trial without a card. That fee includes 10 GB egress and 500,000 ingress requests monthly, but compute, memory, disk, backups, seats, and extra traffic can add charges. Enterprise pricing is custom. The currencies and billing models make these starting prices poor one-to-one comparisons: Heroku has listed tiers, while Upsun’s total depends on provisioned resources.
03Features and depth
Heroku bundles a managed runtime built around dynos with deployment tools, managed data services, add-ons, and buildpacks. Its feature set includes Heroku Postgres, a managed Redis-based key-value store, GitHub deployments, Review Apps, and continuous delivery. The product also lists managed inference, agents, MCP hosting, and pgvector for Heroku Postgres. Plan choice affects capacity and behavior: for example, Eco sleeps after inactivity, while Basic is always on.
Upsun centers on Git-based infrastructure management. Teams define application stacks, routing, and services in repository YAML, and the platform can provision isolated environments for branches and pull or merge requests. It offers configurable databases, caches, search, messaging, and other managed services, with usage-based container sizing or predefined tiers. Upsun also lists security and observability features, including automated TLS, DDoS defense, and WAF; its pricing page separately prices WAF and other options such as CDN services. Dispatch adds review gates, immutable run logs, and spend tracking for AI agents and developers.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Heroku is the more straightforward fit if you want a managed runtime with published dyno tiers and familiar deployment options. You still need to choose the right plan and account for managed data services or add-ons separately where applicable; the published pricing lists no add-on prices.
Upsun can reduce manual infrastructure work, but its YAML-defined setup, environment model, and resource-based billing ask teams to understand more than a single monthly tier. Branch environments may help teams reviewing changes, while usage charges make cost monitoring part of day-to-day operations. Before switching, map your app’s services, deployment workflow, resource needs, and required security options to Upsun’s billable components.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, Heroku or Upsun?
There is no fixed winner from the starting prices alone. Heroku lists Eco at $5/month and always-on Basic at $7/month. Upsun starts at €9 per project monthly, plus resource usage and possible extras. Compare equivalent workloads, including data services, traffic, storage, and seats.
Does either platform have a free plan?
Neither pricing summary lists a free plan. Heroku’s lowest listed plan is Eco at $5/month. Upsun lists a 15-day free trial that requires no card, followed by a €9 monthly project fee plus usage charges.
Which platform supports preview environments for pull requests?
Both list review-oriented workflows, but they describe them differently. Heroku supports disposable Review Apps. Upsun automatically provisions isolated environments for Git branches and pull or merge requests, according to its product description.
When should we choose Heroku over Upsun?
Choose Heroku if its managed dyno model, deployment tools, and listed monthly tiers fit your workload. Choose Upsun if isolated branch environments, YAML-defined infrastructure, and multi-cloud deployment matter more—and you are prepared to track resource-based charges and priced options.