Netlify vs Heroku
Netlify is built for front-end sites and light serverless code; Heroku is built for application processes in dynos with Postgres alongside. Netlify bills in credits, Heroku in fixed monthly dyno prices with data products on top. Pick by the shape of the workload.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderVendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Choose Netlify ifyou publish a Git-based site with branch previews and only need short serverless functions.
Choose Heroku ifyou run a back-end application process, want fixed dyno prices, and need managed Postgres from the same dashboard.
Netlify and Heroku side by side
| Netlify | Heroku | |
|---|---|---|
| Our backend and app hosting platform rank | #7 of 14 | #10 of 14 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| List price, 2 November 2026 | Free (300 credits); Personal $9 per month, 1,000 credits; Pro from $20 per month | Per dyno per month: Eco $5, Basic $7, Standard-1X $25, Standard-2X $50, Performance-M $250, Performance-L $500; data add-ons billed separately |
| Free tier | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | Front-end teams shipping sites with previews and light serverless code | Teams that want git push deploys and a managed Postgres they can dump |
| Not for | Teams that need long-running services or a fixed server bill | Teams that want one flat price covering app and database |
Both are reviewed in full in our backend and app hosting platform ranking: Netlify and Heroku.
Where they differ
Netlify 1 · Heroku 1 · open 2- 01
Workload shape
Netlify runs functions, blob storage and a managed database next to a CDN-served site. Heroku deploys from Git or a Docker image and runs dynos, with Standard tiers adding horizontal scaling and zero-downtime preboot. For a long-running web process, Heroku is the natural home.
Edge: Heroku
- 02
How you are billed
Netlify lists Personal at $9 for 1,000 credits and Pro from $20, with per-metric credit costs. Heroku lists fixed dyno prices from Eco at $5 to Performance-L at $500 per month, but Postgres and Key-Value are billed separately. Heroku is easier to predict for one dyno; the data add-ons change that.
Depends on the buyer
- 03
Idle and cap behaviour
Netlify's free plan has a hard 300-credit limit with no recharge, so a spike stops the site. Heroku's Eco dyno sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity and is for personal accounts only. Both free-leaning entries have a catch; the Netlify one hits at traffic peaks, the Heroku one when idle.
Depends on the buyer
- 04
Ownership
Netlify's terms name Netlify, Inc. of San Francisco. Heroku's pricing page footer names Salesforce, Inc., and it offers Heroku Connect for syncing with Salesforce CRM. A Salesforce shop may see that as a plus; a buyer avoiding large parents may not.
Edge: Netlify
When neither fits
If you want an app runtime and a database without either model, Render and Railway are the closest alternatives in our ranking.
Netlify or Heroku: questions
3 answersCan Netlify host a back-end like Heroku does?
Only light serverless code as far as its pricing page shows: functions, blob storage and a database. Heroku runs dynos for persistent processes.
Is Heroku's price all-in?
No. Postgres, Key-Value and Kafka are separate products on the pricing page, so the dyno price is not the total.
What does Netlify's free plan cap at?
300 credits per month, with no auto recharge on the free plan.
Sources
Checked 2 November 2026- Netlify pricing page: Personal and Pro prices, 300-credit free limit, functions, blob storage and database included.
- Netlify terms of use: Netlify, Inc. in San Francisco.
- Heroku pricing page: dyno prices, Eco sleep and personal-only, Standard scaling and preboot, separate data products, Heroku Connect, Salesforce footer.