Which is cheaper, Heroku or Render?

Heroku is 3.8x cheaper than Render. Heroku starts at $5/mo, Render starts at $0/mo.

Does Heroku have a free tier?

No, Heroku does not have a free tier.

Heroku has moderate switching cost. Render has moderate switching cost. Both have similar switching complexity.

Hosting

Heroku

← More affordable

PaaS for deploying, managing, and scaling apps with managed dynos and add-ons

Switching Cost: moderate

Render

Cloud platform for deploying full-stack apps, databases, and services with usage-based compute pricing

Switching Cost: moderate

The cost difference is substantial — Render runs about 3.8x what Heroku charges.

For experimentation and testing, Render wins with its free tier option — something Heroku doesn't offer.

Cost modeling varies: flat-rate drives Heroku pricing, while Render uses per-seat.

Price-conscious teams should choose Heroku — the cost advantage is hard to ignore, especially for growing workloads.

Price-conscious teams should choose Heroku — the cost advantage is hard to ignore, especially for growing workloads.

Price Difference

3.8x

Heroku is cheaper by $14/mo

Free Tier

Render

Has a free tier option

Pricing Model

Different

Tools charge using different pricing philosophies