Heroku vs Hetzner

Detailed comparison to help you choose the right tool for your needs

H

Heroku

Cloud platform for app deployment

4.3
Editorial Rating
H

Hetzner

Affordable European cloud hosting

4.6
Editorial Rating

Quick Comparison

Rating

4.3
vs
4.6

Starting Price

$5
vs
$4

Pricing Model

paid
vs
paid
Feature
Heroku
Hetzner
Git-based deployment
Managed Postgres
Add-ons marketplace
Auto-scaling
CI/CD pipelines
Review apps
Cloud VPS
Dedicated servers
Block storage
Load balancers
Firewalls
Server auction

Heroku Pros

  • Simplest deployment workflow with git push
  • Mature add-ons ecosystem
  • Good for prototyping and MVPs
  • Managed Postgres is reliable
  • Review apps for PR environments
  • Well-documented with strong community

Heroku Cons

  • No free tier since November 2022
  • Expensive at scale compared to alternatives
  • Performance concerns with shared dynos
  • Limited regions US and EU only
  • Salesforce ownership creates uncertainty
  • Many developers have migrated to Railway or Render

Hetzner Pros

  • Unbeatable price-to-performance ratio
  • Excellent European data center locations
  • Dedicated servers at cloud prices
  • Server auction for incredible deals
  • GDPR-compliant European hosting
  • 20TB included transfer is extremely generous

Hetzner Cons

  • Limited managed services
  • No equivalent to Lambda or managed databases
  • US region only recently added
  • Less polished control panel than DigitalOcean
  • No PaaS layer with bare infrastructure only
  • Support is email-only on basic plans

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