Software comparison - Hosting Platforms
Heroku vs Hetzner: 2026 Comparison
Heroku is a Platform-as-a-Service that abstracts infrastructure away; Hetzner is raw cloud compute and bare metal at European prices. Heroku wins on ergonomics, Hetzner wins on cost. Your choice depends on whether you value developer time or server spend.
Comparison dimensions
DX & Deploys
Heroku: Heroku's git push deploy model is legendary—one command ships your app, and buildpacks handle most tech stacks.
Hetzner: Hetzner requires manual provisioning and CI/CD wiring; deployers with ops experience move fast, newcomers learn slowly.
Performance
Heroku: Heroku dyos are shared and noisy; latency can spike unpredictably. Good for user-facing apps with forgiving SLAs.
Hetzner: Hetzner Cloud gives you dedicated vCPUs and predictable performance; bare metal is rock-solid but requires tuning.
Pricing
Heroku: Heroku charges $7+ per month per dyno minimum; at scale, costs balloon. Small projects stay affordable, growth gets painful.
Hetzner: Hetzner's Cloud servers start at 3 EUR/month; bare metal is 50+ EUR. Massive savings at scale if you tolerate ops overhead.
Scaling
Heroku: Heroku's managed postgres and redis scale vertically; multi-tenant isolation is built-in. Limits kick in around 10K req/sec.
Hetzner: Hetzner Cloud scales horizontally; you manage load balancing and DBs yourself but can handle virtually any throughput.
Integrations
Heroku: Heroku's addon ecosystem is broad (Papertrail, SendGrid, Auth0); one dashboard integrates everything seamlessly.
Hetzner: Hetzner has minimal managed services; you wire integrations yourself. More freedom, more toil.
Support
Heroku: Heroku support is responsive; docs are clear and the community answers questions fast.
Hetzner: Hetzner support is fine for billing; technical support relies on forums and third-party guides.
Best for Heroku
- Teams that want classic paas for shipping apps
- Users prioritizing scaling
- Growth-stage teams
Best for Hetzner
- Teams that want european cloud and dedicated servers
- Users prioritizing performance
- Growth-stage teams
Decision notes
Choose Heroku if speed to market and mental simplicity matter; choose Hetzner if you're budget-conscious and have DevOps bandwidth. Try [launch guides](/resources/launch-guides) to understand your infrastructure needs before deciding.
- Export/import support between Heroku and Hetzner
- Team onboarding and learning curve
- Pricing at your seat count
- Integration coverage for your stack
Frequently asked questions
More research