Heroku vs Vercel Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

Heroku Vercel
Starts at $5/mo $20/mo
Number of plans 9 3
Free plan
Free trial
Pricing model usage-based usage-based

Eco

$5/mo
  • Deploy with Git and Docker
  • Custom domains
  • Unified logs
  • 2 process types
  • Container orchestration
  • Automatic OS patching
  • Automated certificate management
  • Personal accounts only
  • Sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity

Basic

$7/mo
  • Includes all Eco features
  • Free SSL
  • 10 process types
  • Always on
  • 0.28 Dyno Units / Month

Standard-1X

$25/mo
  • Includes all Basic features
  • Simple horizontal scalability
  • App metrics and threshold alerts
  • Preboot and zero-downtime deploys
  • Unlimited process types
  • Unlimited background workers
  • Can combine with Performance dynos
  • 1 Dyno Units / Month

Standard-2X

$50/mo
  • Includes all Basic features
  • Simple horizontal scalability
  • App metrics and threshold alerts
  • Preboot and zero-downtime deploys
  • Unlimited process types
  • Unlimited background workers
  • Can combine with Performance dynos
  • 2 Dyno Units / Month

Performance-M

$250/mo
  • Includes all Standard features
  • Predictable performance for your highest traffic applications
  • Dedicated compute resources
  • Autoscaling
  • Can mix with Standard dynos
  • 8 Dyno Units / Month

Performance-L

$500/mo
  • Includes all Standard features
  • Predictable performance for your highest traffic applications
  • Dedicated compute resources
  • Autoscaling
  • Can mix with Standard dynos
  • 16 Dyno Units / Month

Performance-L-RAM

$500/mo
  • Includes all Standard features
  • Predictable performance for your highest traffic applications
  • Dedicated compute resources
  • Autoscaling
  • Can mix with Standard dynos
  • 16 Dyno Units / Month

Performance-XL

$750/mo
  • Includes all Standard features
  • Predictable performance for your highest traffic applications
  • Dedicated compute resources
  • Autoscaling
  • Can mix with Standard dynos
  • 30 Dyno Units / Month

Performance-2XL

$1500/mo
  • Includes all Standard features
  • Predictable performance for your highest traffic applications
  • Dedicated compute resources
  • Autoscaling
  • Can mix with Standard dynos
  • 60 Dyno Units / Month

Hobby

$0/mo
  • Import your repo, deploy in seconds
  • Automatic CI/CD
  • Web Application Firewall
  • Global, automated CDN
  • Fluid compute
  • DDoS Mitigation
  • Traffic & performance insights

Pro

Popular
$20/mo
  • $20 of included usage credit
  • Advanced spend management
  • Team collaboration & free viewer seats
  • Faster builds + no queues
  • Cold start prevention
  • Enterprise add-ons

Enterprise

Custom
  • Guest & Team access controls
  • SCIM & Directory Sync
  • Managed WAF Rulesets
  • Multi-region compute & failover
  • 99.99% SLA
  • Advanced Support

Heroku vs Vercel FAQ

Which one is cheaper?
Heroku starts lower at $5/mo, compared to $20/mo for Vercel.
Can I use either one for free?
Vercel has a free plan. Heroku doesn't — you'll need to pay from day one.
How do they charge?
Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
Which one is a better deal?
Depends on what you need. Heroku: Premium pricing in the PaaS space - they're 3-4x more expensive than alternatives like Railway or Render for equivalent resources. They're betting on developer experience and ecosystem maturity over cost competitiveness. Vercel: Sits at the premium end of the frontend hosting/deployment category — more expensive than Netlify's comparable tier and well above raw cloud (AWS Amplify, Cloudfront). They're not chasing budget buyers; they're targeting teams that treat deployment infrastructure as a competitive advantage and will pay for DX.

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