Heroku vs Railway
Heroku was the original developer PaaS and shaped an entire generation of application deployment practices. After Salesforce removed the free tier in 2022, many developers migrated to alternatives like Railway that offer similar DX. Railway is now often compared to Heroku and wins on price for most workloads.
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Build data-driven apps with fully managed data services vs Infrastructure made simple.
| Feature | Heroku | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing from | $5–$250/mo per dyno | Free–$20/mo |
| Pricing | Eco dynos $5/mo; Basic $7/mo; Standard 1X $25/mo | Hobby $5/mo; Pro $20/mo; usage-based compute |
| Best for | Teams with existing Heroku deployments and add-ons | Teams migrating off Heroku or building fresh |
| Add-on ecosystem | 300+ third-party add-ons | Template-based services, smaller ecosystem |
| Managed databases | Heroku Postgres and Data (Redis) | PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis add-ons |
| Git deploy | Yes, git push heroku main | Yes, GitHub auto-deploy |
| CLI | Heroku CLI (mature and feature-rich) | Railway CLI (modern, fast) |
The third option most teams miss
Picking between Heroku and Railway isn't the only choice.
Appaca provides a migration-in-a-box from Heroku to Railway, automatically mapping Heroku Procfile, environment variables, and add-on dependencies to Railway equivalents. Migrate in hours, not days.
- No code, no deployment, no devops
- Built-in database, dashboards, team access
- Refine with chat as your needs change
- Free to start, no per-seat pricing surprises
Common questions
Yes, for most workloads Railway is significantly cheaper than Heroku. A basic web service and database on Heroku costs $25-$32/mo minimum; Railway's equivalent starts under $10/mo.
If cost is a concern, yes. Railway has strong Heroku compatibility and an active migration community. Teams with complex add-on dependencies or who need Heroku's mature enterprise support may want to evaluate Render or Fly.io as well.
No. Heroku removed its free dyno tier in November 2022. Eco dynos at $5/mo for up to 1,000 dyno hours are the lowest available tier.