Heroku vs CapRover
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Heroku and CapRover.
Quick Verdict
3.4/5
Heroku
0 reviews
4.0/5
CapRover
0 reviews
CapRover is rated higher (4.0 vs 3.4). Heroku pioneered platform-as-a-service in 2007. Owned by Salesforce. Supports 10+ languages, huge addon marketplace (150+ addons). Removed free tier in 2022 but remains popular for ease of use. Eco plans restart. CapRover is a free, open source PaaS that runs on your own server. Deploy apps via CLI, dashboard, or GitHub Actions. One-click app templates for WordPress, Ghost, Mattermost, Nextcloud, and 100+ more.
Heroku The original PaaS — still the easiest deploy | CapRover Self-hosted app deployment — free open source PaaS | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.4 (0 reviews) | 4.0 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | free |
| Starting price | From $5/mo | Free✓ |
| Best for | Time-poor developers and small teams who want git-push deploys, a huge add-on ecosystem and zero server operations, and who accept premium per-unit pricing for it | Developers and small teams wanting a free, self-hosted Heroku-style PaaS with one-click apps on their own VPS |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | — |
| RAM | 1 GB | — |
| Storage | — | — |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | — | — |
| Data-center count | 12 | — |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €5.00 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | useuDublinFrankfurtLondonMontreal+6 | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | managed optionus datacentereu datacenterapi access | free tieropen sourceself hostable |
| Visit Heroku → | Visit CapRover → | |
Heroku
Pros
- + Still the smoothest deploy workflow in the market — git push and done
- + Large add-on marketplace and mature language buildpack support
- + Transparent dyno pricing with clear tiers from $5 to $1,500/month
- + Automated OS patching, free SSL, unified logs and instant scaling
- + Private Spaces and Shield options for network isolation and compliance
Cons
- - Poor price-performance versus raw VPS compute
- - No free tier since 2022; Eco dynos sleep and meter hours
- - 2026 engineering pivot to stability — new features and new Enterprise contracts paused
- - 2022 security breach remains part of the track record
- - Only two Common Runtime regions, and region choice does not guarantee data residency
CapRover
Pros
- + Free forever, Apache 2.0, no feature gating or license keys
- + One-click app catalog (WordPress, MySQL, MongoDB, and more) deploys in minutes
- + Automatic Let's Encrypt HTTPS with one-click redirects
- + Deploys from dashboard, CLI, webhook, or Git; runs on any VPS you choose
- + Docker-native: any language or service that runs in a container
Cons
- - Largely solo-maintained — feature development has slowed and the bus factor is low
- - You own server ops: patching, backups, monitoring, and build sizing
- - Rougher edges and docs than commercial PaaS; support is community-only with no SLA
- - No autoscaling, managed backups, or Kubernetes-grade orchestration
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