The best Heroku alternative for most apps is Render: the same model of web services, background workers, cron jobs and managed Postgres deployed from Git, with paid instances from $7 a month and a free tier that Heroku no longer has. Railway is the best for usage-based pricing and one-click databases, from $5 a month including $5 of usage. Netlify is the best if your app is mostly a frontend, and Cloudflare Workers the best for lightweight APIs with no egress fees.
Best Heroku alternatives in 2026
Render
The closest match to Heroku's model: web services, background workers, cron jobs, managed Postgres and Key Value from Git or Docker, with preview environments. Paid instances from $7 a month, the same as a Heroku Basic dyno; free web services sleep after 15 minutes, and Pro is $25 a month plus compute.
Railway
Deploy a repo or Docker image and add Postgres, MySQL or Redis in a click, billed per second of CPU and memory. Hobby is a $5 monthly minimum that includes $5 of usage, Pro $20 including $20; egress is $0.05 per GB, and the free plan is a 30-day trial with $5 of credit.
Netlify
If your Heroku app mostly serves a React, Next.js or static frontend with a few API routes, Netlify handles builds, previews and serverless functions with no servers to manage. Free has 300 credits a month; Pro is $20 a month for unlimited members. Not a home for long-running workers.
Cloudflare Workers
Small APIs and webhooks run on Cloudflare's network with no egress fees: 100,000 requests a day free, Workers Paid from $5 a month. The runtime is not full Node.js and there are no long-running processes, so it suits APIs, not classic Heroku worker apps.
Questions buyers ask
What is the best alternative to Heroku?
Render for most apps: it runs the same pieces Heroku does (web services, workers, cron jobs, Postgres) from Git or Docker, with paid instances from $7 a month. Railway if you prefer usage-based billing and one-click databases. Netlify or Cloudflare Workers if your app is mainly a frontend or a small API.
Does Heroku still have a free tier?
No. Heroku removed free dynos, free Postgres and free Redis on November 28, 2022. The cheapest option is Eco at $5 a month for a 1,000-hour pool shared by Eco dynos on a personal account, and they sleep after 30 minutes without traffic. An always-on Basic dyno is $7 a month and Postgres Essential-0 is $5 a month.
Is Heroku shutting down?
No shutdown has been announced. On February 6, 2026 Heroku moved to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability and support rather than new features, and stopped offering Enterprise Account contracts to new customers. Customers who pay by card, existing and new, keep the same pricing and service. It is a reason to plan a migration path, not an emergency.
Render vs Railway: which is better for a Heroku app?
Render if you want fixed monthly instance prices and the most Heroku-like setup, with web services, workers and Postgres as separate managed services. Railway if your app idles a lot and you would rather pay per second of CPU and memory; it starts at $5 a month including $5 of usage but bills more in a busy month, so set usage limits.
What about Fly.io?
Fly.io runs your app as Machines (fast-starting VMs) in many regions, billed per second with no platform fee: a shared-cpu-1x with 256 MB is $2.19 a month and with 1 GB $6.70. Egress is $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe, Managed Postgres starts at $38 a month, and invoices under $5 are waived. It suits apps that need to run close to users worldwide, but takes more setup than Render or Railway.
What is the cheapest way to run an always-on app off Heroku?
A Fly.io shared-cpu-1x Machine from $2.19 a month, or Railway Hobby at $5 a month if the app's usage fits the included $5 of credit. Render's cheapest always-on web service is $7 a month, the same as a Heroku Basic dyno, but its free tier lets you test before paying.
Can I move a Heroku app without a Dockerfile?
Yes. Render and Railway build most Node, Python, Ruby and Go apps straight from the repo, and Heroku's own buildpacks are open source as Cloud Native Buildpacks if you need identical builds. Move Postgres with pg_dump and pg_restore, and replace each add-on with the host's own database or a hosted service.
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