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 pricing | Vercel pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $5/mo | $20/mo |
| Number of plans | 9 | 3 |
| Free plan | — | |
| Free trial | — | |
| Pricing model | usage-based | hybrid |
Price is one row. To weigh the features too, use our feature comparison template →
Eco
- 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
- Includes all Eco features
- Free SSL
- 10 process types
- Always on
- 0.28 Dyno Units / Month
Standard-1X
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 of included usage credit
- Flat Rate CDN with traffic spike protection
- Advanced spend management
- Team collaboration & free viewer seats
- Cold start prevention
- Free custom domain
Enterprise
- 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?
- Different approach here. Heroku uses usage-based pricing, while Vercel goes with hybrid. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- 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: Vercel sits at the premium end of the hosting/PaaS spectrum — Netlify and Railway can undercut them on raw compute cost, and self-hosting Next.js on a VPS is dramatically cheaper. They're betting teams will pay up for DX polish and tight Next.js integration rather than shop on price.
Still deciding? See the best Heroku alternatives or the best Vercel alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
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