Our take
Pick DigitalOcean if app teams who will stay on Free at $0 (3 static-site apps, 1 GiB transfer each) while they open a first Insights tab, then buy a shared container at $5 / month (1 vCPU / 512 MiB) when they need a web service or worker. Pick Heroku if app teams who will stay on Eco at $5 / month (1,000 shared dyno hours, sleeps after 30 minutes) while they open a first Datastores list, then buy Basic at $7 / dyno
Best for
DigitalOcean CPU / memory you chart at a public $
Heroku Postgres rows you attach at a public $
Free plan
DigitalOcean $0 · / month. 3 apps with static sites. 1 GiB transfer / app. GitHub / GitLab deploy. Automatic HTTPS. Extra static-only apps $3 / month
Heroku No free plan
Lowest paid
DigitalOcean Paid containers $5
Heroku Eco $5
Next step up
DigitalOcean Add-ons we fetched $25
Heroku Basic $7/hour
Runs where
DigitalOcean Hosted
Heroku Hosted
Watch out
DigitalOcean Free is static sites only
Heroku There is no $0 dyno
Last checked
DigitalOcean 2026-10-23 · digitalocean.com/pricing/app-platform
Heroku 2026-10-23 · heroku.com/pricing
app teams who will stay on Free at $0 (3 static-site apps, 1 GiB transfer each) while they open a first Insights tab, then buy a shared container at $5 / month (1 vCPU / 512 MiB) when they need a web service or worker.
Read the DigitalOcean pageapp teams who will stay on Eco at $5 / month (1,000 shared dyno hours, sleeps after 30 minutes) while they open a first Datastores list, then buy Basic at $7 / dyno / month when they need always-on.
Read the Heroku page
