PandaStack vs Heroku
Heroku pioneered PaaS deployments and still runs serious production workloads. Here's how the two platforms compare today.
PandaStack
Newer platform with a free tier, edge compute, GitHub Actions runners, and managed app hosting.
- Free plan with no time limit or credit card required
- Edge functions at 45+ global PoPs
- GitHub Actions self-hosted runners (Firecracker)
- Managed WordPress and Drupal on dedicated VMs
- Lower total cost — subscription includes compute
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Heroku
Mature PaaS with a deep ecosystem, broad language support, and a proven add-ons marketplace.
- Mature, battle-tested platform (since 2007)
- Rich buildpack ecosystem for many languages and frameworks
- 200+ add-ons marketplace for databases, logging, monitoring
- Excellent Heroku Postgres — widely trusted in production
- Good CI/CD with Review Apps and Heroku CI
| Feature | PandaStack | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | ✓ Free plan (no expiry) | ✗ No free tier since Nov 2022 — from $5/dyno/mo |
| Container deployments | ✓ Any Dockerfile on Kubernetes | ✓ Docker + Heroku container registry |
| Buildpacks | ✗ Dockerfile-based only | ✓ Mature buildpack ecosystem (Ruby, Node, Python, Java…) |
| Managed databases | ✓ PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis | ✓ Heroku Postgres (add-on, well-regarded) — MySQL via ClearDB |
| Add-on marketplace | ⚠ Limited integrations | ✓ Mature marketplace — 200+ add-ons (logging, metrics, email…) |
| Edge functions | ✓ 45+ global PoPs | ✗ Not available |
| Cron jobs | ✓ Any container, full history | ⚠ Heroku Scheduler — basic, HTTP-triggered tasks only |
| Managed WordPress | ✓ One-click on dedicated VMs | ✗ Not officially supported |
| GitHub Actions runners | ✓ Firecracker microVM runners | ✗ Not offered |
| Autoscaling | ✓ HPA on all paid plans | ⚠ Auto-scaling on Standard dynos only (paid) |
| Dyno sleeping | Services stay running | ⚠ Eco/Basic dynos sleep after 30 min inactivity |
| CI/CD | ✓ GitHub integration + webhooks | ✓ Heroku CI (add-on, $10/mo) + review apps |
| Review apps | ⚠ Branch previews | ✓ Review Apps — automated PR environments |
| SSO / SAML | ✓ Built-in (Business+) | ✓ Available via add-ons (e.g. Okta) at extra cost |
| Monitoring & logs | ⚠ Built-in metrics, basic logs | ✓ Logplex built-in; rich via add-ons (Papertrail, Datadog) |
| Base price | Free → $19/mo | $5/dyno/mo → $50+/mo (no free tier) |
Data sourced from heroku.com/pricing and pandastack.io/pricing. Last updated April 2025.
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