Heroku vs Railway

Heroku vs Railway comparison for app hosting. Compare the original PaaS with the modern alternative.

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Quick Verdict

Winner: Railway

Railway is the modern Heroku successor. Better DX, better pricing, better free tier. Heroku pioneered PaaS but Railway has surpassed it. Unless you have legacy Heroku apps, choose Railway.

Choose Heroku if...

✓ You have existing Heroku apps
✓ You need Heroku-specific add-ons
✓ Enterprise compliance requirements
✓ You know Heroku workflows well
✓ You need Salesforce integration

Choose Railway if...

✓ You want better developer experience
✓ You want a free tier that works
✓ You want modern, active development
✓ You want better pricing
✓ You're starting a new project

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Category	Heroku	Railway	Winner
Pricing	No free tier. Eco: $5/mo. Basic: $7/mo dyno.	Free: $5 credit/mo. Hobby: $5/mo. Usage-based.	Railway
Free Tier	None. Free tier removed November 2022.	$5 credit monthly. Generous for development.	Railway
Developer Experience	The original git push deploy. Solid but aging.	Modern, beautiful UI. GitHub integration. Preview deploys.	Railway
Documentation	Extensive docs. Years of content. Many tutorials.	Clean, modern docs. Growing. Good examples.	Tie
Scalability	Scales with dynos. Enterprise options available.	Auto-scaling. Good for most workloads.	Tie
Features	Add-ons marketplace, pipelines, review apps, Heroku Connect.	Git deploys, databases, preview URLs, environment sync.	Heroku

Code Comparison

Deploy to Heroku

bash

# The original git push deploy
heroku login
heroku create my-app
git push heroku main

# Add Postgres
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:mini

Heroku pioneered the 'git push to deploy' workflow.

Deploy to Railway

bash

# Connect GitHub in dashboard, or:
railway login
railway init
railway up

# Add Postgres (in dashboard or CLI)
railway add postgres

Railway offers similar simplicity with modern polish.

🔄 Migration Notes

Migration from Heroku to Railway is straightforward. Both use Procfile/nixpacks detection. Main work is moving add-ons to Railway equivalents or external services.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Heroku remove the free tier? ▼

Heroku (Salesforce) removed free tier in 2022 citing abuse and resource costs. This caused a mass migration to alternatives like Railway.

Is Railway the new Heroku? ▼

Many consider Railway the spiritual successor. It offers similar simplicity with modern features, better pricing, and an actual free tier.

Try Heroku

Focus on your apps, not your infrastructure

Try Railway

Bring your code, we'll handle the rest

⚖ Compare in Interactive Tool

Last updated: January 11, 2026