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Heroku vs Render: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Heroku and Render

Heroku and Render are both cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers that enable developers to deploy, manage, and scale their applications. However, there are several key differences between the two platforms.

1. Deployment Process: Heroku provides a streamlined deployment process where developers can simply push their code to a Git repository, and Heroku automatically builds and deploys the application. On the other hand, Render requires developers to define their deployment settings using a render.yaml file, which allows for more control and customization but requires additional configuration.

2. Pricing Model: Heroku has a flexibale pricing model based on dyno usage, offering both free and paid options. Render, on the other hand, offers a simpler pricing model based on actual resource consumption, allowing users to pay only for what they use, making it more cost-effective for small-scale applications.

3. Scalability: Heroku provides automatic horizontal and vertical scalability, allowing developers to easily scale their applications up or down based on demand. Render also offers automatic horizontal scaling, but lacks vertical scalability, meaning that developers have to manually adjust the number of instances to handle increased usage.

4. Environment Variables: Heroku provides a simple way to manage environment variables through their web interface or command-line tools, making it easy to handle sensitive information. Render, on the other hand, requires developers to manage environment variables using their render.yaml configuration file, which adds an extra layer of complexity.

5. Container Support: Heroku uses a proprietary containerization technology called "dynos" to run applications, while Render supports both Docker containers and static site deployments. Render's support for Docker containers allows developers to easily deploy and manage complex applications with specific dependencies.

6. Database Support: Heroku offers an extensive range of supported databases, including popular options like PostgreSQL and MySQL, as well as managed services like Heroku Postgres. Render, on the other hand, currently only supports PostgreSQL as a managed database service, limiting the options for developers who require different database technologies.

In Summary, the key differences between Heroku and Render include the deployment process, pricing model, scalability options, environment variable management, container support, and database options.

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Pros of Heroku
Pros of Render
  • 703
    Easy deployment
  • 459
    Free for side projects
  • 374
    Huge time-saver
  • 348
    Simple scaling
  • 261
    Low devops skills required
  • 190
    Easy setup
  • 174
    Add-ons for almost everything
  • 153
    Beginner friendly
  • 150
    Better for startups
  • 133
    Low learning curve
  • 48
    Postgres hosting
  • 41
    Easy to add collaborators
  • 30
    Faster development
  • 24
    Awesome documentation
  • 19
    Simple rollback
  • 19
    Focus on product, not deployment
  • 15
    Natural companion for rails development
  • 15
    Easy integration
  • 12
    Great customer support
  • 8
    GitHub integration
  • 6
    Painless & well documented
  • 6
    No-ops
  • 4
    I love that they make it free to launch a side project
  • 4
    Free
  • 3
    Great UI
  • 3
    Just works
  • 2
    PostgreSQL forking and following
  • 2
    MySQL extension
  • 1
    Security
  • 1
    Able to host stuff good like Discord Bot
  • 0
    Sec
  • 22
    Very easy to start
  • 17
    Zero Downtime Deploys
  • 17
    Infrastructure as Code
  • 16
    Pull Request Previews
  • 16
    Easy deployment
  • 14
    Custom domains support
  • 12
    Zero devops skills required
  • 12
    Free and automatic SSL
  • 11
    Tech oriented support
  • 10
    100GB free for static site

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Cons of Heroku
Cons of Render
  • 27
    Super expensive
  • 9
    Not a whole lot of flexibility
  • 7
    No usable MySQL option
  • 7
    Storage
  • 5
    Low performance on free tier
  • 2
    24/7 support is $1,000 per month
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    What is Heroku?

    Heroku is a cloud application platform – a new way of building and deploying web apps. Heroku lets app developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployment, ongoing operations, or scaling.

    What is Render?

    Render is a unified platform to build and run all your apps and websites with free SSL, a global CDN, private networks and auto deploys from Git.

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