Heroku

Heroku pricing: tiers, seat costs, and hidden fees

Short answer

Veteran PaaS where total bill is dyno tier plus Postgres, Key-Value Store, Kafka, and SSL-ready Private Spaces. Easy to start, easy to overshoot.

Last verified: 2026-05-17 Model: month Official pricing

Public pricing tiers

TierMonthlyAnnual monthly equivalentNotes

Eco $5 month $5 month Personal dynos, sleeps after 30 min idle.

Basic $7 dyno/month $7 dyno/month Always on, SSL, 10 process types.

Standard-1X $25 dyno/month $25 dyno/month 0.5GB RAM, metrics, preboot, zero-downtime deploys.

Standard-2X $50 dyno/month $50 dyno/month 1GB RAM, same features as 1X.

Performance-M $250 dyno/month $250 dyno/month Dedicated compute, autoscaling.

Private-S $125 dyno/month $125 dyno/month Requires Private Space, full network isolation.

Shield-S $150 dyno/month $150 dyno/month HIPAA/PCI, strict TLS, keystroke logging.

Heroku cost calculator

For 10 seats on Eco, current public pricing implies $5 per month when annual pricing is available, or $5 month-to-month.

Sample stack cost at named team sizes

Heroku monthly cost projection by team size, based on public per-seat pricing.
Tier	10 seats / month	25 seats / month	50 seats / month
Eco	$5	$5	$5
Basic	$7	$7	$7
Standard-1X	$25	$25	$25
Standard-2X	$50	$50	$50
Performance-M	$250	$250	$250
Private-S	$125	$125	$125
Shield-S	$150	$150	$150

Math: per-seat tiers multiplied by seat count. Flat-fee tiers stay constant. Does not include add-ons, support tiers, implementation, or usage overages.

Hidden fees and quote risks

Heroku Postgres charged separately ($5/mo Essential up to $24,000/mo Shield).
Key-Value Store starts at $3/mo and runs to $12,500/mo for Premium tiers.
Kafka clusters start at $100/mo and reach $8,700/mo for Standard/Extended dedicated.
Add-ons from the Elements Marketplace bill independently and stack fast.
No annual discounts; everything billed monthly.

Enterprise notes

Enterprise Success Plans are quote-only. Shield and Fir tiers add compliance and Kubernetes-backed runtime but require Private Space.

Closest alternatives

RenderRailwayFly.io

Sources

Official Heroku pricing page

Pricing changes frequently. Confirm directly with the vendor before purchase.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Heroku cost?

Heroku pricing depends on its Per-dyno flat-rate + add-on usage. The page lists public tiers and flags custom or usage-based items that require vendor confirmation.

What is the main hidden fee risk for Heroku?

Heroku Postgres charged separately ($5/mo Essential up to $24,000/mo Shield).

Which Heroku alternatives should buyers compare?

Render, Railway, Fly.io are the closest alternatives most procurement teams compare against Heroku.