HEROKU FREE TIER STATUS 2026
Is Heroku Free in 2026? No.
Heroku's free tier was permanently discontinued on November 28, 2022.
Free dynos, free Heroku Postgres, and free Heroku Redis are all gone. Heroku has no free plan and has shown no plans to bring it back. The cheapest Heroku option is now Eco dynos at $5/month.
Last verified 28 September 2026 against Heroku's pricing page, the Heroku Dev Center, and each alternative's own pricing or limits page.
Heroku's Current Pricing (2026)
Since removing the free tier, here's what Heroku costs in 2026:
Eco Dynos
1,000 shared hours/month. Apps sleep after 30 min inactivity.
Basic Dynos
Always-on. 512 MB RAM per dyno. No sleeping.
Essential-0 Postgres
1 GB storage, 20 connections. Formerly "Mini".
Redis Mini (Key-Value Store)
25 MB memory, 20 connections.
Minimum cost for a basic Heroku app + database: $10-12/month — that's $120-144/year for a hobby project.
What Replaced the Free Tier, in Practice
Heroku's answer to the old free dynos is the Eco plan: $5 a month buys a pool of 1,000 dyno hours shared by every Eco dyno in the account, and each Eco app goes to sleep after 30 minutes without web traffic. For a hobby app that a few people open now and then, 1,000 hours is plenty; the $5 is the point. For an app that must stay awake, a Basic dyno at $7 a month never sleeps and supports up to ten process types, and the Standard-1X dyno at $25 adds the production features.
The database is the part people forget. Free Heroku Postgres went away with the free dynos, and the smallest plan, Essential-0, is $5 a month for 1 GB and 20 connections. The old free Redis is now Key-Value Store Mini at $3. So the true floor for "a small app with a database" is $10 to $12 a month, and $13 with a cache, before any add-on.
Add the 6 February 2026 announcement that Heroku is now in sustaining engineering, meaning security and stability work without new features and no new Enterprise contracts, and the calculation for a new project is straightforward: pay Heroku's floor for a platform that is standing still, or move the app to a platform with a free tier and an active roadmap. Existing apps are not at risk today; they are simply not going anywhere new.
What to Do with an Old Heroku App
It is a hobby app you still open
Move it to a free tier. On SnapDeploy it runs free within 100 hours a month, sleeps after 15 minutes idle and wakes on the next visit, with no card. The six-step migration takes about ten minutes.
It must answer around the clock
Compare Heroku Basic at $7 with Always-On Small at $12 for the same 512 MB, and Standard-1X at $25. Basic is cheaper for one small always-on app; Always-On wins against Standard and comes with a free tier around it for everything else.
It depends on Heroku add-ons
Check the list before moving. Postgres, Redis and queues have managed equivalents on most platforms; a niche marketplace add-on may only exist on Heroku, and that decides the timing more than the dyno price does.
Heroku Free Tier Timeline
2011 — Free Tier Launched
Heroku introduced free dynos, making it the go-to platform for hobby developers and students.
August 25, 2022 — Shutdown Announced
Salesforce announced the removal of free plans, citing abuse from crypto miners, spammers, and bad actors using free dynos at scale.
November 28, 2022 — Free Tier Removed
All free dynos, free Heroku Postgres, and free Heroku Redis were permanently discontinued. Millions of hobby apps went offline.
2024-2026 — Sustaining Mode
Heroku entered sustaining engineering — security patches only, no new features. The newer Fir runtime is limited to enterprise Private Spaces.
Free Heroku Alternatives (2026)
These platforms offer real free tiers — no credit card required for most:
1. SnapDeploy
Best Overall — Free, 10 Deploys/Day
- Free — 10 deploys/day · 100 hours/month, sleeps when idle (no credit card needed); pay $12/mo per app for 24/7
- 4 containers, 512 MB RAM, free SSL
- Deploy from GitHub in minutes — auto-detects framework
- Managed databases from $29/month (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB)
- Always-On from $12/mo per container (24/7 uptime)
2. Render
Best for Static Sites
Free web services (512 MB, 0.1 CPU) within 750 instance-hours a month per workspace; free Postgres (1 GB) expires after 30 days. Apps spin down after 15 minutes without traffic and take about a minute to wake. Paid instances from $7/month.
3. Railway
Heroku-Like Experience
$5 one-time trial credit (30 days). After trial: $1/month in credits (very limited). Hobby plan at $5/month with $5 included credits. Usage-based pricing beyond that.
4. Fly.io
Edge Deployment (Pay-as-you-go)
Free trial: 2 VM hours or 7 days (whichever comes first). After trial, pay-as-you-go only — no free allowance for new customers since 2024. CLI-based deployment, good for edge workloads but steeper learning curve.
5. Koyeb
Free Instance, card required
1 free web service per organisation (512 MB RAM, 0.1 vCPU, 2 GB SSD), Frankfurt or Washington only; scales to zero after an hour without traffic. Since February 2026 a credit card with a $29 hold is required and new accounts start on the $29/month Pro plan. Free Postgres is limited to 5 compute-hours a month. Mistral AI agreed to acquire Koyeb in February 2026. Koyeb alternative →
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Heroku have a free tier in 2026?
No. Heroku permanently discontinued its free tier on November 28, 2022. Free dynos, free Heroku Postgres, and free Heroku Redis were all removed. The cheapest Heroku plan is now Eco dynos at $5/month, and a basic app with a database costs $10-12/month minimum.
When did Heroku remove its free tier?
Heroku removed its free tier on November 28, 2022. Salesforce (Heroku's parent company) announced the decision in August 2022, citing abuse and cost concerns. Free dynos, free Heroku Postgres (dev and mini plans), and free Heroku Redis were all discontinued.
Will Heroku's free tier come back?
No. Heroku has entered sustaining engineering mode — focused on stability and support, not new features. Salesforce has shown no indication of restoring free plans. Developers looking for free hosting should consider alternatives like SnapDeploy (free — 10 deploys/day · 100 hours/month, auto-sleep/wake), Render, Railway, or Fly.io.
What is the cheapest Heroku plan in 2026?
The cheapest Heroku option is Eco dynos at $5/month, which gives you 1,000 shared dyno hours and apps that sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity. Adding a database (Essential-0 Postgres at $5/month) brings the minimum cost to $10/month. Basic dynos (always-on) start at $7/month per dyno.
What are the best free Heroku alternatives in 2026?
The best free Heroku alternatives in 2026 are: 1) SnapDeploy — free — 10 deploys/day · 100 hours/month, auto-sleep/wake, no credit card, Docker-native with managed databases. 2) Render — free web services with 512 MB RAM and 750 instance-hours a month, free Postgres that expires after 30 days. 3) Railway — $5 one-time trial credit, then $1 a month. 4) Koyeb — 1 free web service with 512 MB RAM in Frankfurt or Washington, but a credit card with a $29 hold is required since February 2026. 5) Fly.io — pay-as-you-go with a brief free trial (2 machine-hours or 7 days).
Is Heroku still worth using in 2026?
For enterprise teams with existing Heroku infrastructure, it still works. For new projects, individual developers, and startups, modern alternatives offer better value. Heroku is in sustaining mode with no new features, while platforms like SnapDeploy, Render, and Railway are actively innovating.
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