Frontend and app hosting · Comparison
Heroku vs Netlify vs Render
3 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Heroku | Netlify | Render |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Saves engineering timePush code and run it on managed dynos with no bandwidth or seat charges, from $7 a month for an always-on Basic dyno. | Saves engineering timeDeploys, previews, functions, forms and a database in one credit balance, with unlimited team members on Pro for $20 a month. | Saves engineering timeManaged web services, Postgres and Key Value behind one workspace plan, with unlimited seats and audit logs from the $25 Pro plan. |
| Overall score | 6.2 | 7.3 | 7.7Best |
| Free option | Paid only | Free plan | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $5/mo | $9/mo | $25/mo |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Tiered | Seat + usage |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing units | Dynos and add-ons, prorated to the second | Credits (bandwidth, requests, compute, deploys) | Workspace plan and instances, then bandwidth and build minutes |
| Free plan | None; Eco dynos $5/mo for personal apps | 300 credits/mo, commercial use allowed | Hobby: 1 member, 750 free instance hours; not for production |
| 3 developers, 10M requests, 1 TB/mo | $7 on one Basic dyno, computed | $155 on Pro, computed | $178.25 on Pro, computed |
| Data transfer | Not billed; 2 TB per app soft limit | 20 credits per GB (about $0.13 at the Pro pack rate) | 25 GB on Pro, then $0.15/GB; 1 TB on Scale |
| Seats for people who deploy | Heroku Teams: no seat charge, up to 25 members | Unlimited members on Pro | Unlimited on Pro, no seat charge |
| SAML SSO | Heroku Teams, no extra charge | Enterprise | Scale ($499/mo) |
| Spend cap | None stated | Stops at your credits unless auto recharge is on | Spend limit for build minutes only; usage emails |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both (reports by request) | Both | Both (documents on Pro, under NDA) |
| HIPAA BAA | Shield Private Space (up to $3,000/mo), by ticket | Enterprise add-on | Scale, with 20% added to usage |
| Runtime logs, entry paid plan | Last 1,500 lines, up to 1 week; drains to export | 7 days | 14 days (log streams to export) |
| Audit logs | Enterprise accounts only, not sold to new customers | Pro, 7-day history | Pro (workspace), at least 90 days |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Heroku covers our scenario for $7 and charges neither seats nor bandwidth. It scores lower on this rubric for having no free plan, no stored logs and no audit trail for new customers, and it is now in a sustaining engineering model. | From its public pages, Netlify suits teams with modest traffic: unlimited members on Pro, a free plan you may use commercially and spending that stops by default. Bandwidth is billed in credits, so data-heavy apps cost more here than on the other two. | From its public pages, Render suits teams that want services and databases managed together, with no seat charges and audit logs on Pro. Bandwidth is the cost to watch: 1 TB a month adds $146.25 on Pro. |
Evidence: Heroku: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Netlify: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Render: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
When to pick each
In the words of each review, with the date its facts were checked.
From our Heroku review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Heroku when
- Your app moves a lot of data, or you want SAML SSO without a $499 plan.
- Pick Render when
- You want a free tier to try things, and audit logs and 14-day log retention on the $25 Pro plan.
From our Render review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Render when
- You want a free tier to try things, and audit logs and 14-day log retention on the $25 Pro plan.
- Pick Heroku when
- Your app moves a lot of data: Heroku does not bill data transfer, and one $7 Basic dyno covers our scenario.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- HerokuLowest priceEco$5/mo1,000 dyno hours a month shared across Eco dynos; personal apps only
- Sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity
- Not available to Heroku Teams
- NetlifyPersonal$9/mo1,000 credits/mo; 1 member; 500 more credits for $5
- Smart secret detection
- Priority email support
- 7-day function logs
- RenderWeb service instance$7/mo0.5 CPU, 512 MB; 1 CPU, 2 GB is $25; prorated by the second
- Postgres from $6 and Key Value from $10 a month
- Static sites free to deploy
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Heroku 2026-10-15, Netlify 2026-10-15, Render 2026-10-15.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- RenderSelf-serve sign-up; the highest score of the 3 self-serve products here (7.7/10).
- Lowest starter price
- Heroku$5/mo for the Eco dynos plan.
- Highest overall score
- Render7.7/10 (Good). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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