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Heroku vs Pivotal Web Services (PWS): What are the differences?
Introduction
When comparing Heroku and Pivotal Web Services (PWS), it is essential to understand their key differences to make an informed decision on which platform best suits your needs.
Deployment Process: Heroku offers a simpler deployment process where developers can easily push their code to the platform using Git with minimal configuration, making it beginner-friendly. On the other hand, PWS follows a more complex deployment process, requiring users to follow a series of steps such as setting up a Cloud Foundry CLI and pushing applications through this interface, which might be more suited for experienced developers.
Pricing Structure: Heroku has a straightforward pricing structure based on resources consumed, with different tiers offering various functionalities such as dynos and databases. In contrast, PWS offers a more flexible pricing structure, allowing users to pay for only the resources they use without the need for long-term commitments, making it more suitable for scalable projects with fluctuating resource needs.
Maintenance and Support: Heroku handles the maintenance and support of the platform, ensuring that it is always up to date and secure without requiring users to perform manual updates. PWS, on the other hand, requires users to handle maintenance tasks such as updating the platform and applying security patches themselves, giving them more control but also more responsibility.
Integration with PaaS Ecosystem: Heroku is known for its seamless integration with various platform-as-a-service (PaaS) ecosystem components, providing users with a wide range of add-ons and services that can enhance their applications. In comparison, PWS is more focused on providing a stable and secure platform, with limited integration options for external services, which might constrain developers looking for extensive ecosystem support.
Scalability Options: Heroku offers automatic vertical and horizontal scaling options, allowing applications to handle increased traffic and workload without manual intervention. Conversely, PWS requires users to configure scaling settings manually, providing more control over resource allocation but potentially requiring more time and expertise to optimize for performance.
Community and Documentation: Heroku boasts a robust community and extensive documentation that can help developers troubleshoot issues, share knowledge, and optimize their applications effectively. PWS, while having a supportive community, may lack the same level of comprehensive documentation and user-generated content, potentially making it more challenging for users to find solutions to specific problems.
In Summary, Heroku and PWS differ in terms of deployment process simplicity, pricing structure flexibility, maintenance and support responsibilities, PaaS ecosystem integration, scalability options, and community support resources.
As I was running through freeCodeCamp's curriculum, I was becoming frustrated by Replit's black box nature as a shared server solution for Node app testing. I wanted to move into a proper workflow with Git and a dedicated deployment solution just for educational or non-commercial purposes. Heroku solved that for me in spades.
Not only does Heroku support free app deployment if you don't use their extra service handlers, but you can directly hook into your GitHub repos and automatically update the app whenever you commit to the main branch. It's a simple way to get an app running as fast as possible if you wish to share a proof of concept or prototype before moving to dedicated servers.
The Friendliest.app started on Heroku (both app and db) like most of my projects. The db on Heroku was on the cusp of becoming prohibitively expensive for this project.
After looking at options and reading recommendations we settled on Render to host both the application and db. Render's pricing model seems to scale more linearly with the application instead of the large pricing/performance jumps experienced with Heroku.
Migration to Render was extremely easy and we were able to complete both the db and application moves within 24 hours.
The only thing we're really missing on Render is a CLI. With Heroku, we could manage everything from the command line in VSCode. With Render, you need to use the web shell they provide.
I'm transitioning to Render from heroku. The pricing scale matches my usage scale, yet it's just as easy to deploy. It's removed a lot of the devops that I don't like to deal with on setting up my own raw *nix box and makes deployment simple and easy!
Clustering I don't use clustering features at the moment but when i need to set up clustering of nodes and discoverability, render will enable that where Heroku would require that I use an external service like redis.
Restarts The restarts are annoying. I understand the reasoning, but I'd rather watch my service if its got a memory leak and work to fix it than to just assume that it has memory leaks and needs to restart.
Pros of Heroku
- Easy deployment703
- Free for side projects459
- Huge time-saver374
- Simple scaling348
- Low devops skills required261
- Easy setup190
- Add-ons for almost everything174
- Beginner friendly153
- Better for startups150
- Low learning curve133
- Postgres hosting48
- Easy to add collaborators41
- Faster development30
- Awesome documentation24
- Simple rollback19
- Focus on product, not deployment19
- Natural companion for rails development15
- Easy integration15
- Great customer support12
- GitHub integration8
- Painless & well documented6
- No-ops6
- I love that they make it free to launch a side project4
- Free4
- Great UI3
- Just works3
- PostgreSQL forking and following2
- MySQL extension2
- Security1
- Able to host stuff good like Discord Bot1
- Sec0
Pros of Pivotal Web Services (PWS)
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Cons of Heroku
- Super expensive27
- Not a whole lot of flexibility9
- No usable MySQL option7
- Storage7
- Low performance on free tier5
- 24/7 support is $1,000 per month2
Cons of Pivotal Web Services (PWS)
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