Heroku Free Tier

Discontinued

Historical free Heroku plan replaced by paid dyno and data options

Historical free Heroku dyno/Postgres/Redis plan. Heroku ended free product plans in 2022; current docs and pricing route users to paid Eco dynos plus paid dyno, Postgres, Redis, and app-platform options.

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About Heroku Free Tier

Heroku Free Tier was the default zero-cost deployment path for countless prototypes, student projects, demos, bots, and small web apps. Its importance is historical: “push to Heroku” became a simple deployment habit long before today’s serverless and cloud-platform alternatives were as accessible.

Heroku’s own 2022 announcement phased out free dynos, free Heroku Postgres, and free Heroku Data for Redis. The current Heroku pricing and Eco dyno documentation describe paid successor paths, so the page should not imply that a comparable no-cost Heroku plan still exists.

Readers looking for a replacement should compare paid Heroku Eco or Basic-style plans against modern free or low-cost alternatives such as Render, Fly.io, Railway, Vercel, Netlify, and cloud-provider free credits. Keep this page focused on migration context, cost expectations, and why the old free-tier workflow no longer applies.

Pricing & Platform Specs

Pricing Summary

Heroku retired its free product tier in November 2022. Modern entry pricing starts with the Eco dynos pool at $5/month (1,000 shared Eco dyno hours across apps), Basic Dynos at $7/dyno/month, and Mini/Essential data plans ($5/month for Essential 0 Postgres, $3/month for Essential Redis). Production Standard dynos range from $25 to $50/month, and Performance dynos start at $250/month.

Supported Platforms

Was: Heroku PaaS free plans; current Heroku remains active as a paid cloud application platform.

Why it was discontinued

discontinued November 28, 2022

Heroku’s free product plans were phased out in 2022. Heroku’s own “Next Chapter” announcement said free dynos, free Heroku Postgres, and free Heroku Data for Redis would be discontinued, and current Heroku documentation/pricing routes hobby and production users to paid Eco dynos and paid data/app platform plans. Keep this page as a historical free-tier and migration guide, not as a live free-plan recommendation.

use instead: Netlify, Railway, Fly.io

Explore categories, tags & use cases

Use Cases

Self-Hosted Deployment DevOps Automation

Alternatives

All Heroku Free Tier alternatives →

Netlify

Web platform for modern development

Jamstack-focused cloud platform specializing in deploying static sites, serverless functions, and modern web applications with Git-based CI/CD. Features instant rollbacks, deploy previews for every PR, split testing, edge functions, form handling, identity/auth, and a global CDN with automatic HTTPS. Native support for Next.js, Nuxt, Gatsby, Hugo, Astro, and all major static site generators. Free $0 forever plan plus Personal and Pro credit-based tiers for growing traffic and team workflows.

freemium

Railway

Infrastructure, instantly

Modern cloud platform for deploying full-stack apps, databases, and workers with instant provisioning and usage-based pricing. Deploy from GitHub or CLI with zero config for Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, and Docker. Built-in PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB with auto backups. Features private networking, environment management, cron jobs, TCP proxying, and real-time logs. Popular with indie hackers and startups for fast MVPs with a generous free trial including $5 monthly credits.

paid

Fly.io

Run your app close to users

Global application hosting platform that runs full-stack apps, databases, and services close to users in 30+ regions using lightweight Firecracker micro-VMs. Deploy Docker containers or use built-in builders for Rails, Laravel, Django, Node.js, and Go. Features persistent volumes, private networking, auto-scaling, PostgreSQL/Redis managed databases, and a powerful CLI. Ideal for latency-sensitive apps needing multi-region presence. Generous free allowance with pay-as-you-go pricing.

paid

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Community experience

Sources & verification

Heroku Free Tier Official Documentation & Repository

Sources checked: September 5, 2026
Content verified: September 6, 2026

Verification dates are editorial checks. Routine CMS saves and automatic updatedAt timestamps do not advance them.

FAQ

What is Heroku Free Tier?

Is Heroku Free Tier free?

No — Heroku Free Tier is a paid tool. Heroku retired its free product tier in November 2022. Modern entry pricing starts with the Eco dynos pool at $5/month (1,000 shared Eco dyno hours across apps), Basic Dynos at $7/dyno/month, and Mini/Essential data plans ($5/month for Essential 0 Postgres, $3/month for Essential Redis). Production Standard dynos range from $25 to $50/month, and Performance dynos start at $250/month.

Is Heroku Free Tier still available?

No — Heroku Free Tier was discontinued on November 28, 2022. Heroku’s free product plans were phased out in 2022. Heroku’s own “Next Chapter” announcement said free dynos, free Heroku Postgres, and free Heroku Data for Redis would be discontinued, and current Heroku documentation/pricing routes hobby and production users to paid Eco dynos and paid data/app platform plans. Keep this page as a historical free-tier and migration guide, not as a live free-plan recommendation. Consider Netlify, Railway, Fly.io instead.

What are the best Heroku Free Tier alternatives?

The first editor-selected Heroku Free Tier alternatives are Netlify, Railway, Fly.io.

Heroku Free Tier

About Heroku Free Tier

Pricing & Platform Specs

Pricing Summary

Supported Platforms

Why it was discontinued

Categories

Tags

Use Cases

Alternatives

Netlify

Railway