Compare
Amazon EC2 vs Heroku
Heroku abstracts infrastructure into a PaaS with simple deployment, whereas EC2 gives low-level control over servers and networking.
Short answer: Pick Amazon EC2 if you want general-purpose and specialized cloud compute; pick Heroku if you want managed containers and data services for web apps. Amazon EC2 has a free plan; Heroku starts at $5/month.
Which to pick
Pick Amazon EC2 if you want…
- General-purpose and specialized cloud compute
- A free plan to start with
Pick Heroku if you want…
- Managed containers and data services for web apps
- PaaS app hosting
Side by side
- What it is
- Amazon EC2:Amazon EC2 provides secure, resizable virtual servers with a wide choice of processors, storage, networking, OS, and purchase models.
- Heroku:Heroku is a fully managed PaaS that lets developers build, deploy, and scale apps using git, containers, and managed data services.
- Best for
- Amazon EC2:General-purpose and specialized cloud compute
- Heroku:Managed containers and data services for web apps
- Who it’s for
- Amazon EC2:Developers, enterprises, and teams needing flexible cloud compute.
- Heroku:Developers, teams, startups and enterprises needing simple app hosting
- Pricing
- Amazon EC2:Freemium
- Heroku:Paid
- Starting price
- Amazon EC2:—
- Heroku:$5/month (Eco)
- Free plan or trial
- Amazon EC2:Free trial
- Heroku:—
- Plans
- Amazon EC2:—
- Heroku:Eco $5 per month · Basic $7 per month · Standard-1X $25 per month · Performance-M $250 per month · Private-S $125 per month
- Works with
- Amazon EC2:—
- Heroku:Git, GitHub, Docker, Node.js, Ruby, Java, PHP, Python
Amazon EC2 features
- Resizable compute. Scale virtual servers up or down on demand with over 1,000 instance types.
- Processor choice. Select Intel, AMD, or Arm CPUs, including Graviton for price-performance.
- AWS Nitro security. Hardware-based isolation and virtualization for secure workloads.
- Flexible pricing. Pay-as-you-go On-Demand, Spot discounts up to 90%, or Savings Plans up to 72% off.
- High availability SLA. 99.99% availability with capacity reservations for critical events.
- GPU & ML support. Dedicated GPU instances and Capacity Blocks for machine-learning training and inference.
- Dedicated Hosts. Physical servers for license-bound software with optional Savings Plans.
- Per-second billing. Charges in one-second increments, removing cost of unused compute time.
Heroku features
- Dyno containers. Runs apps in smart, isolated containers with automatic scaling and patching.
- Heroku Postgres. Fully managed PostgreSQL database service optimized for developers.
- Heroku Redis. Managed key-value store with a developer-friendly experience.
- GitHub Integration. Creates disposable Review Apps for pull requests and auto-deploys on push.
- Add-ons & Buildpacks. Extend apps with 150+ third-party add-ons and community buildpacks.
- Security & Compliance. Provides PCI, HIPAA, ISO, SOC compliance and optional Shield environments.
Amazon EC2 vs Heroku FAQ
What is the difference between Amazon EC2 and Heroku?+
Heroku abstracts infrastructure into a PaaS with simple deployment, whereas EC2 gives low-level control over servers and networking.
Should I use Amazon EC2 or Heroku?+
Pick Amazon EC2 if you want general-purpose and specialized cloud compute or a free plan to start with. Pick Heroku if you want managed containers and data services for web apps or PaaS app hosting.
Is Amazon EC2 or Heroku free?+
Amazon EC2 has a free plan and paid plans. Heroku is paid, from $5/month (Eco).
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.