# Heroku vs Render

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/heroku-vs-render/

Every value below is read from Heroku's and Render's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Heroku | Render |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Usage-based on wall-clock time, prorated to the second | The Hobby plan does not have a monthly fee, so you only pay for usage. |
| When you exceed a cap | Service sleeps: on the Eco plan ($5/month for a 1000 dyno-hour pool, the cheapest paid tier) exhausting the pool forces every Eco dyno on the account to sleep for the rest of the month, and extra hours cannot be bought | Pipeline minutes: overage is auto-purchased, but with no payment method or once the monthly spend limit is reached Render stops running pipeline tasks, builds included. |
| Memory (entry plan) | 0.5 GB RAM on the Eco dyno ($5 flat/month, the cheapest paid dyno) and 0.5 GB on Basic. | 512 MB RAM (with 0.5 CPU) on the 0.5c-512mb instance type, the cheapest paid web service compute plan. |
| Sites or apps included | 100 apps per account, platform-wide on all plans (Heroku Team 100, Enterprise Team 200) | 25 total services on the Hobby workspace plan (Render's entry workspace tier, compute billed separately); also limited to a single team member |
| Concurrent builds | 10 concurrent builds for verified users without an established payment history; 300 for verified users with one (platform-wide, all plans) | One active build per service, platform-wide on all plans; a new build cancels the in-progress one for that service |
| Managed connection pooling | Limited | Supported |
| Git deployment | Supported | Supported |
| Docker deployment | Supported | Supported |
| Containers | Supported | Supported |
| Scheduled jobs | Supported | Supported |
| Persistent processes | Supported | Supported |
| Persistent storage | Not supported | Supported |
| Managed databases | Supported | Supported |
| Scales to zero | Limited | Supported |
| Autoscaling | Limited | Limited — Requires a Pro workspace plan or higher; scales on CPU or memory utilisation targets. |
| Regions | 2 regions on the Common Runtime, which is what a standard dyno runs in: eu (Europe) and us (United States). A further 10 — Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Montreal, Mumbai, Oregon, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Virginia — exist only in Private Spaces, an Enterprise product. | Oregon, USA; Ohio, USA; Virginia, USA; Frankfurt, Germany; Singapore |
| Support on entry paid plan | Ticket-based support to technical or billing staff for all customers. Heroku Enterprise adds Salesforce Success Plans — Standard, Premier and Signature — which are what buy a named contact and a committed response. | Chat support, from the free Hobby plan upward. Professional ($25/month plus compute) adds seats, bandwidth and features but no separate support tier. |

## Where they differ

### Pricing model

- Heroku: Usage-based on wall-clock time, prorated to the second ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/usage-and-billing))
- Render: The Hobby plan does not have a monthly fee, so you only pay for usage. ([source](https://render.com/docs/new-workspace-plans))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### When you exceed a cap

- Heroku: Service sleeps: on the Eco plan ($5/month for a 1000 dyno-hour pool, the cheapest paid tier) exhausting the pool forces every Eco dyno on the account to sleep for the rest of the month, and extra hours cannot be bought ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/eco-dyno-hours))
- Render: Pipeline minutes: overage is auto-purchased, but with no payment method or once the monthly spend limit is reached Render stops running pipeline tasks, builds included. ([source](https://render.com/docs/build-pipeline))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### Memory (entry plan)

- Heroku: 0.5 GB RAM on the Eco dyno ($5 flat/month, the cheapest paid dyno) and 0.5 GB on Basic. ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/dyno-types))
- Render: 512 MB RAM (with 0.5 CPU) on the 0.5c-512mb instance type, the cheapest paid web service compute plan. ([source](https://render.com/docs/compute-plans))
- Lean: 50% Heroku / 50% Render — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Sites or apps included

- Heroku: 100 apps per account, platform-wide on all plans (Heroku Team 100, Enterprise Team 200) ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/limits))
- Render: 25 total services on the Hobby workspace plan (Render's entry workspace tier, compute billed separately); also limited to a single team member ([source](https://render.com/docs/new-workspace-plans))
- Lean: 80% Heroku / 20% Render — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Concurrent builds

- Heroku: 10 concurrent builds for verified users without an established payment history; 300 for verified users with one (platform-wide, all plans) ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/limits))
- Render: One active build per service, platform-wide on all plans; a new build cancels the in-progress one for that service ([source](https://render.com/docs/build-pipeline))
- Lean: 91% Heroku / 9% Render — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Managed connection pooling

- Heroku: Limited ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/postgres-connection-pooling))
- Render: Supported ([source](https://render.com/docs/postgresql-connection-pooling))
- Lean: 36% Heroku / 64% Render — documented support level. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Persistent storage

- Heroku: Not supported ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/dynos))
- Render: Supported ([source](https://render.com/docs/disks))
- Lean: 18% Heroku / 82% Render — documented support level. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Scales to zero

- Heroku: Limited ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/eco-dyno-hours))
- Render: Supported ([source](https://render.com/docs/free))
- Lean: 36% Heroku / 64% Render — documented support level. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Regions

- Heroku: 2 regions on the Common Runtime, which is what a standard dyno runs in: eu (Europe) and us (United States). A further 10 — Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Montreal, Mumbai, Oregon, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Virginia — exist only in Private Spaces, an Enterprise product. ([source](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/regions))
- Render: Oregon, USA; Ohio, USA; Virginia, USA; Frankfurt, Germany; Singapore ([source](https://render.com/docs/regions))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### Support on entry paid plan

- Heroku: Ticket-based support to technical or billing staff for all customers. Heroku Enterprise adds Salesforce Success Plans — Standard, Premier and Signature — which are what buy a named contact and a committed response. ([source](https://www.heroku.com/support/))
- Render: Chat support, from the free Hobby plan upward. Professional ($25/month plus compute) adds seats, bandwidth and features but no separate support tier. ([source](https://render.com/pricing))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

## Which should you choose?

Pick Heroku if Teams that want to deploy by pushing to Git and let the platform handle the runtime, with Postgres, a scheduler and Docker deploys available on the same platform.

Pick Render if Workloads that need real background workers and persistent processes alongside web services, deployed from a repository or a Dockerfile. Managed Postgres and static sites run on the same platform.

Consider something else: Heroku — The dyno filesystem is ephemeral, and a web process must respond within 30 seconds of receiving a request.

Consider something else: Render — Free web services spin down after 15 minutes without traffic, which makes the free tier unsuitable for anything that must answer immediately.

## Documented by only one

One side documents these and the other does not. An absence is a missing source, not a stated "no" — except where a line says the other page was READ on a date and does not mention it, which is a sourced observation and the only one-sided case this site leans on.

- Free tier: Render: Yes
- Kind of free offer: Render: Free tier
- What the free plan includes: Render: Free instances of web services, Render Postgres and Key Value, plus static sites at no charge. Free instances carry documented limitations.
- Credit card to start: Render: No — Free services run without one until the workspace's included bandwidth or pipeline minutes run out.
- When the free offer ends: Render: Free Postgres databases expire 30 days after creation, with a 14-day grace period to upgrade to a paid plan.
- Entry paid plan: Heroku: $5 per month (Eco dynos plan, 1000 dyno hours shared across the account)
- Storage (entry plan): Render: No persistent disk is included on any instance type, including the entry `0.5c-512mb` plan; services run on an ephemeral filesystem unless a persistent disk is attached separately
- Monthly visits cap: Render: No request-count cap is published; traffic is capped by outbound bandwidth, 5 GB/month included on Hobby and 25 GB on Pro.
- Included bandwidth: Render: Hobby: 5 GB; Pro: 25 GB; Scale: 1 TB; Enterprise: Custom
- File, inode or volume limit: Heroku: 1000 MB maximum compressed slug size, platform-wide on all plans; raisable via support ticket
- Build allowance: Render: 500 build-pipeline minutes a month on Hobby, 1,000 on Pro, 5,000 on Scale. Minutes, not builds.
- Max request duration: Heroku: 30 seconds (initial window for the web process to return response data)
- Streaming response limit: Heroku: Platform-wide (router): 30 seconds to send the first byte, then a rolling 55-second idle window — if no data is sent for 55 seconds the connection is terminated
- Edge network: Render: Supported
- Uptime SLA: Render: Enterprise only, and custom-priced. Hobby, Professional and Organization publish no uptime SLA, and no percentage is given for the Enterprise one.
- Audit logs: Render: Built-in audit logging and monitoring for platform events.
  - Heroku: not stated on https://www.heroku.com/policy/security/, read 2026-09-21. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 22% Heroku / 78% Render — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-21).
- Response time commitment: Heroku: Best effort for a business-stopping issue on the plans any customer can buy. Heroku Enterprise Success Plans commit to 2 days in business hours, 1 hour, or 15 and 30 minute updates. Business hours are Monday to Friday, 9am-9pm Eastern.
- SOC 2: Heroku: SOC 1 and SOC 2/SSAE 16/ISAE 3402 (Previously SAS 70 Type II)
  - Render: not stated on https://render.com/, read 2026-09-21. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 78% Heroku / 22% Render — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-21).
- HIPAA: Render: Meet SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and GDPR requirements without overhead.
  - Heroku: not stated on https://www.heroku.com/policy/security/, read 2026-09-21. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 22% Heroku / 78% Render — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-21).
- GDPR / data residency: Render: Meet SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and GDPR requirements without overhead.
  - Heroku: not stated on https://www.heroku.com/policy/security/, read 2026-09-21. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 22% Heroku / 78% Render — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-21).
- Private networking / VPC: Render: Intuitive hosting and private networking for web services , Postgres databases , cron jobs , workflows , static sites , background jobs , key value stores , private services , WebSockets , edge caches , isolated environments ,
  - Heroku: not stated on https://www.heroku.com/policy/security/, read 2026-09-21. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 22% Heroku / 78% Render — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-21).

## Questions this comparison answers

**When you exceed a cap: Heroku or Render?**

Heroku: Service sleeps: on the Eco plan ($5/month for a 1000 dyno-hour pool, the cheapest paid tier) exhausting the pool forces every Eco dyno on the account to sleep for the rest of the month, and extra hours cannot be bought
Render: Pipeline minutes: overage is auto-purchased, but with no payment method or once the monthly spend limit is reached Render stops running pipeline tasks, builds included.

**Should I choose Heroku or Render?**

Pick Heroku if Teams that want to deploy by pushing to Git and let the platform handle the runtime, with Postgres, a scheduler and Docker deploys available on the same platform.
Pick Render if Workloads that need real background workers and persistent processes alongside web services, deployed from a repository or a Dockerfile. Managed Postgres and static sites run on the same platform.