---
title: "Heroku alternative - Deplo"
description: "A Standard-1X dyno is $25 a month for 512 MB, and a Postgres with 4 GB is another $50. Deplo runs the same app, worker and database on a server you own."
url: "https://deplo.build/comparison/heroku"
image: "https://deplo.build/api/media/file/og_cover.png"
updated: "2026-10-08"
---

# Deplo vs Heroku

## Memory you can actually afford.

A dyno with half a gigabyte is $25 a month, and its database another $50. Here they share one machine.

[Get started](https://deplo.build/get-started)

[Read the docs](https://deplo.build/docs/getting-started/install)

![Deplo dashboard](https://deplo.build/api/media/file/deplo_screenshot-1.png)

## Three numbers from their price list.

No opinions here: dyno sizes, add-on prices, and what each one holds.

### Twenty-five dollars for 512 MB.

That is what a Standard-1X dyno holds, and it works out at fifty dollars a gigabyte of memory per month. On a server a gigabyte costs about one euro.

### The database costs more than the app.

A Postgres with four gigabytes of memory is $50 a month, and 50 MB of Key-Value store is $15. Here they are two apps on the machine you already pay for.

### No Dockerfile, same as before.

Buildpacks ran your repository without a container file. Deplo reads the framework from your package.json on every deploy and builds it with Railpack or Nixpacks, and a Dockerfile you already have is used as it is once you pick the Dockerfile method.

| | Deplo | Heroku |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **The memory the machine has**: An app takes what the server has. There is no dyno size to climb when it needs another gigabyte. | Yes | No |
| **Databases that are not add-ons**: Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis and ClickHouse managed by Deplo, on the environment's own private network, at no price of their own. | Yes | No |
| **A worker that costs nothing extra**: A queue consumer is another app on the same server. It does not become another line on an invoice. | Yes | No |
| **Your own hardware**: One command installs Deplo on a VPS, a dedicated server or the machine in your office. | Yes | No |
| **Roles you write yourself**: One capability per action, and roles built out of them. Not a fixed list. | Yes | Partial |
| **Backups in a bucket you own**: Encrypted on the server before they leave, to your S3-compatible bucket or to another machine. | Yes | Partial |
| **Cron in its own timezone**: Each job carries its own timezone and runs a command inside the container, at the minute you choose. | Yes | Partial |
| **A shell in the running container**: Run commands in the container from the browser, through the agent on the server. | Yes | Partial |
| **A marketplace of managed add-ons**: Deplo has a catalog of apps you run yourself. What it does not have is a hundred vendors billing you through the platform. | No | Yes |
| **Somebody else keeps the machine alive**: The server is yours, so the kernel, the disks and the uptime are yours too. On Heroku that is their job. | No | Yes |

## The same stack, by the dyno.

Three answers, two numbers. Theirs comes from their published price list; ours is a plan you can buy today.

Deplo itself: free, every feature, no seats.

One server for the whole team and all its services.

No meter: the plan has one price a month.

- One always-on service is a gigabyte of memory on both sides. On Heroku the dyno that holds one is the Standard-2X, $50 a month: the $25 Standard-1X and the $7 Basic carry 512 MB. A database is an add-on on top, from $5 to $50 and beyond.
- Prices read on 2026-10-08 from https://www.heroku.com/pricing/.

Heroku numbers are their published list, read on 8 October 2026.

## Try Deplo before you leave Heroku.

Click around a real Deplo on a real server for a few minutes. No email, no password, nothing to migrate yet.

## What you get on day one

Deploys, backups, logs, metrics and TLS, already on. Nothing to buy on top, nothing to hunt down.

### Let AI interact with your infra

Ask, and it's done. Connect Claude, Cursor or any assistant that supports MCP, and it can deploy, read the logs and roll back when you ask in plain words. It works with a key you create and can revoke at any time, and it can never do more than you can. Nothing connects until you create a key, and one switch turns it off for the whole team.

[Learn more](https://deplo.build/use-cases/ai-interact-with-infra)

### Ship on every push

Your whole release process becomes a push. Connect GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or Gitea once. Every push to your main branch goes live, every pull request on GitHub gets its own preview link that disappears when it closes, and a bad release goes back to the version that worked.

[Learn more](https://deplo.build/use-cases/ship-on-every-push)

### Control who can do what

Your team works on the same apps without stepping on each other. Give each person exactly the access they need, like "can deploy, can't delete", and hand a freelancer or a client one project and nothing else. The activity timeline shows who did what and when, right in the dashboard.

[Learn more](https://deplo.build/use-cases/control-who-can-do-what)

### Host your Web app

Your app online without touching a setting. Connect the repo and you get a live link, and HTTPS the moment you add your domain. Deplo recognises your framework and builds it for you, and Postgres or Redis sits next to your app in two clicks. Same stack you ran on the cloud. Only the bill changed.

[Learn more](https://deplo.build/use-cases/host-your-web-application)

## Moving from Heroku

What a real stack costs there, and what comes across.

### What does a normal app cost on Heroku?

A web dyno, a worker and a Postgres with four gigabytes: $25 plus $25 plus $50, so $100 a month for one gigabyte of application memory. A server with eight gigabytes, from one of our partners, is single digits in euros, and Deplo on top is free.

### Does my app need a Dockerfile?

No. Deplo detects the framework from your package.json on every deploy and builds with Railpack or Nixpacks, the same job buildpacks did. If you already wrote a Dockerfile, pick the Dockerfile method and it is used as it is.

### What happens to my add-ons?

Postgres, Redis, MySQL and Mongo become databases Deplo manages on your server, with scheduled encrypted backups. Third-party services you reached over the internet stay where they are: the key moves into an environment variable.

### What do I give up?

The add-on marketplace, and somebody else's on-call. The server becomes yours, which is the trade: the bill stops growing and the uptime becomes your problem.

## Ten minutes from now, 
it's live.

Answer three questions and pick a host, or install Deplo on a server you already have. It's free, and leaving is as easy as arriving. What you do with the money you save is your business.

[Docs](https://deplo.build/docs)

[Get started](https://deplo.build/get-started)

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