Compare / Heroku vs Fly.io Machines
Heroku vs Fly.io Machines
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Heroku checked 2026-08-01, Fly.io checked 2026-08-01.
The short version
Fly.io Machines wins more of our comparison points, but Heroku still fits if teams that already know Heroku and value its mature workflow over price describes you.
Price Fly.io Machines
Fly.io Machines is cheaper at every stage we model — about $12/mo even for a growing project.
Ease Heroku
Heroku is easier to get running: git push heroku main; buildpacks detect the stack and the platform handles the rest.
Control Fly.io Machines
Fly.io Machines gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Features Tie
Feature coverage is even: each wins 5 of the 15 rows we track.
What developers say about this matchup
First-person discussions from the past three years that compare these products directly. Summaries are paraphrased; follow the source for the full context.
Rails users compare Fly and Render on Heroku-like DX, support, pricing, reliability, databases, and operational responsibility.
Can anyone compare Fly.io to Render.com?Operators directly compare Fly and Render as Heroku alternatives, including Render experience at 2.4 million monthly users and the platforms' differing operational models.
How do Fly.io and Render compare?A purpose-built calculator discussion compares actual compute value, shared CPU strength, price, and reliability across all four PaaS products.
Price comparison calculator for Fly.io, Heroku, Render, and RailwayDevelopers directly contrast Heroku's backend and full-stack strengths with Vercel's frontend focus, newer PaaS alternatives, and much cheaper Hetzner compute.
Been a while since I used Heroku — how is it faring with Vercel out?Show 2 more comparison sources
A production team compares seven Heroku replacements hands-on after an outage, focusing on Git/Docker deploys, managed databases, previews, workers, observability, billing, and uptime.
Recent outage was the last straw — testing seven alternativesRails teams compare Heroku's managed compliance and service ecosystem with Fly's operational model, Render's similar zero-config path, and cheap DigitalOcean hosting.
Is Heroku still a recommendable platform?At a glance
| Heroku | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Teams that already know Heroku and value its mature workflow over price. | Dockerized apps that want low cost, fine control, or multi-region placement. |
| How deploys work | git push heroku main; buildpacks detect the stack and the platform handles the rest. | fly launch builds the image and deploys it; configuration lives in fly.toml and the flyctl CLI. |
| The tradeoff | You pay a platform premium — comparable raw compute costs a third as much elsewhere. | You operate more of the stack yourself — especially the database. |
| Free tier | None | None |
What you'd realistically pay
| Project stage | Heroku | Fly.io Machines | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈$7/mo Basic | ≈$3/mo shared-cpu-1x, 256 MB | Fly.io Machines |
| Steady traffic | ≈$25/mo Standard-1X | ≈$6/mo shared-cpu-1x, 1 GB | Fly.io Machines |
| Growing | ≈$50/mo Standard dynos + add-ons | ≈$12/mo Two 1 GB Machines | Fly.io Machines |
Our ratings
Ease of use Heroku
Pricing clarity Heroku
Free tier
Scaling
Control Fly.io Machines
Feature by feature
Heroku wins 5, Fly.io Machines wins 5, with 5 even.
Deploy workflow
| Heroku | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes git push heroku main is the original deploy story; GitHub integration too. | Partial No native git integration; the documented path is flyctl in GitHub Actions. |
| Preview deploys | Yes Review Apps create a running app per pull request. | Partial PR apps work via the official GitHub Action, not out of the box. |
| Official CLI | Yes The heroku CLI covers deploys, logs, scaling, and add-ons. | Yes flyctl does everything: launch, deploy, scale, ssh, logs. |
| Instant rollbacks | Yes heroku releases:rollback reverts to any previous release instantly. | Partial Redeploy any previous image; no one-click dashboard rollback. |
Platform
| Heroku | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Custom domains with automated certificate management on paid dynos. | Yes Custom domains with free managed certificates. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | No No built-in CDN — pair with Cloudflare or Fastly yourself. | Partial Anycast routing sends users to the nearest region, but there is no static-asset CDN. |
| Serverless functions | No Dynos are long-running processes; there is no function product. | No Machines are micro-VMs, not functions. |
| Docker containers | Yes Deploy container images through the Heroku container registry. | Yes A Docker image is the deployment unit. |
| SSH / shell access | Partial heroku run bash gives a one-off shell in a fresh dyno, not the live one. | Yes fly ssh console opens a shell in any running Machine. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Common Runtime offers a Europe region at the same prices. | Yes Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, London, and more. |
Runtime & operations
| Heroku | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Partial Built-in autoscaling requires Performance-tier dynos; standard dynos scale manually. | Yes Machines autostart and autostop with traffic; scale counts per region. |
| Scale to zero | Partial Eco dynos sleep after 30 idle minutes; Basic and Standard run continuously. | Yes Stopped Machines cost only their storage. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Heroku Scheduler (free add-on) runs tasks on a schedule. | Partial Scheduled Machines run on fixed intervals; full cron needs a workaround. |
| Managed database | Yes Heroku Postgres and Key-Value Store are fully managed add-ons. | Partial Fly Postgres is automated-but-unmanaged; managed options come from partners like Supabase and Upstash. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Partial Log stream and basic metrics included; serious monitoring means add-ons. | Yes Built-in metrics (Grafana), live logs, and log shipping. |
Watch out for
Heroku
- There is no free tier.
- Compute is expensive for what you get: Standard-1X costs $25/month for 512 MB of RAM.
- Databases and other add-ons bill separately and can dominate the total.
Fly.io
- New pay-as-you-go organizations get no free allowance.
- Fly Postgres is explicitly unmanaged: automated but not a managed database service — backups and failover are your responsibility.
- Per-second compute plus $0.02/GB egress makes bills variable; prices differ by region.
Read the full reviews: Heroku and Fly.io. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.