Amazon AWS vs Heroku comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Heroku are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3, while Heroku is ranked #16. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 13.6% mindshare in PSP, compared to Heroku’s 2.8% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Heroku users who would recommend it.

Amazon AWS

Read 260 Amazon AWS reviews

44,835 Views
17,934 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Heroku

Read 29 Heroku reviews

3,798 Views
3,494 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Amazon AWS

Heroku

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Amazon AWS and Heroku are competing in the cloud services category. Amazon AWS has the upper hand due to its extensive deployment capabilities, high performance, and wide range of features.

Features: Amazon AWS includes comprehensive deployment features, exceptional load balancing, and robust security integrations, offering an extensive range of connectors. It supports numerous operating systems and programming models, providing flexibility and scalability for various applications. Heroku is recognized for its ease of use, fast deployment, and scalable solutions, supporting quick application development without needing infrastructure management.

Room for Improvement: Amazon AWS could improve its integration with other platforms, streamline its sorting model for simplicity, and reduce licensing costs. Enhancements in security features and cost transparency are also needed. Heroku users express concerns about pricing, limited free service options, and the requirement for more scalability. The platform lacks Docker CI integration, and daily restarts can be an issue for some users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon AWS is known for its powerful deployment options and wide support across hybrid and public cloud models. Customer service is generally positive, though response times can be slower than some competitors. Heroku excels in deployment ease, offering rapid application implementation with minimal maintenance, focusing on public cloud functionality. Its support is good but could benefit from faster response times.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon AWS features a competitive pay-as-you-go model, noted for scalability, though transparency in cost predictions requires attention. Some users consider it expensive yet beneficial due to the lack of initial investments. Heroku's pricing is perceived as high at scale, although the free tier appeals to small-scale projects. AWS targets large-scale global infrastructure, while Heroku provides cost-effective options for swift deployments with minimal infrastructure management.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon AWS vs. Heroku Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS vs. Heroku

September 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon AWS

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

260

Ranking in other categories

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (2nd)

Heroku

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

16th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Amazon AWS is 13.6%, up from 13.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Heroku is 2.8%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Amazon AWS	13.6%
Heroku	2.8%
Other	83.6%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

Manojchekkilla Manojchekkilla

Data Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Cloud training has boosted my data analytics skills and simplifies building small projects

One area that could be improved in Amazon AWS is its learning curve. The large number of services and configuration options can be overwhelming, especially for new users. Understanding its pricing can also be challenging, as costs can add up unexpectedly if resources are not monitored carefully. For data analytics, setting up and integrating services such as S3, Glue, and Athena sometimes requires a good understanding of permissions, data formats, and service configurations. More guided, simplified onboarding for analytics use cases would make the platform more accessible. One additional area for improvement is documentation and service selection. Amazon AWS offers many services with overlapping capabilities, and it can sometimes be difficult for users to determine which service is the best fit for a particular use case. More decision support tools and guided recommendations would help reduce this complexity. From a data analytics perspective, cost visibility could also be improved since analytics workloads can scale quickly. Having more proactive cost forecasting and optimization recommendations would help teams manage budgets more effectively. Another challenging area is IAM and permission management. While Amazon AWS provides strong security controls, configuring permissions correctly can be complex, especially when multiple analytics services need to interact with one another. Simplifying permissions while maintaining security would enhance the overall user experience. The other area I would mention for improvement is the overall user experience. Given the huge number of services, which are truly excellent, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to navigate, especially for a new user that requires much training. A more streamlined interface and clearer recommendations between similar services would make it easier to get started. I would also like to see more built-in cost optimization guidance and cost management tools. Other than that, Amazon AWS is a very good and mature platform. Most of my feedback is about making it easier to learn, manage, and optimize rather than adding new capabilities.

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Cristian-Molina

Senior Developer at Go Coeupas

Has a quick development cycle and continuous integration

The initial setup is straightforward. Heroku integrates well. You only have to push the code, and it automatically deploys the new version. Whether you have permission depends on the application. Currently, I have one application that I deploy myself. I rate the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The storage is most valuable. The gateway and documentation are also quite good."

"The bundle of services provided by them such as CloudFront, CloudWatch, EC2, Simple Storage service etc undoubtedly cover all the aspects needed by the developers and system administrators to match infrastructure and scalability issues for the growing demands."

"The most important feature is deploying our production in multi-data regions around the world."

"I value the automation and the stability of this product."

"The tool is a hosting platform that we can leverage to open servers. We can use it to build databases. We use cost management and high-performance capabilities of the tool."

"It's highly scalable. It's guaranteed 99.99% uptime, and it shows you can scale up or scale out whenever you need more space."

"They are all excellent in terms of offering great functionality."

"AWS has improved our organization by driving efficiency in our product development cycles."

More Amazon AWS pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is the auto maintenance of databases."

"Thanks to Heroku, we don't need to do as much direct management in AWS."

"The platform is very Node.js-friendly, which is something that is important to us."

"We use Heroku to run generic data. We also use it for our customer development environment. It helps us to build and test websites."

"The product is stable."

"I have been a great fan of Heroku as it simplified my work for many years."

"We, as a startup, can use Heroku and the plenty of possible configurations to scale from the very beginning to a medium-sized company."

"I like the operations of the product because it makes it easy to push a change and to deploy new things."

More Heroku pros

Cons

"There's a huge cost for support."

"It would be nice to be able to test Direct Connect without having to pay a line."

"We would like to see if AWS includes any inbuilt automation. Also, we are very interested in AWS's AI/ML features, as well as IoT, AR, and VR."

"Some of the storage services could be cheaper."

"AWS should reduce its cost to become more affordable for small-scale organizations."

"Price can always be cheaper."

"There is room for improvement in cost. Everyone complains about AWS being expensive. The initial cost starts small but can skyrocket unexpectedly."

"It is difficult to hand over legacy applications when migrating them to the cloud."

More Amazon AWS cons

"Heroku is pretty stable. We experience the occasional outages."

"The pricing could be improved because scaling the database becomes costly."

"Plugins aren't cheap (Mailchimp is $1.5/1000 emails)."

"I think this solution would be improved if free demos were available indefinitely."

"Their support is good, but they can improve their response time."

"Slow restart on servers"

"We have to do daily restarts of some processes, which is annoying, and the support for custom CI could be better."

"There is an issue because Heroku supports Docker container images, but not if you're using the continuous integration infrastructure."

More Heroku cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon AWS is a bit more expensive than Oracle."

"AWS is cost-effective because it saves time. Faster deployments and testing make it very valuable."

"If I was going to compare the cost of Amazon AWS to Microsoft Azure, they are approximately the same."

"The solution is on a subscription-based model, and it is pay-as-you-go. The price could be cheaper."

"We have a monthly subscription for Amazon AWS."

"As a startup business, it's very well priced, but if a number of transactions go up, clients have voiced that they are in a situation and feel a type of pressure and desire to move out of AWS."

"It's a pay-per-use model."

"The solution is expensive, and I rate it an eight out of ten."

More Amazon AWS pricing and cost advice

"The tool is free."

"Its price is very good."

"The price of Heroku could be less expensive."

"I rate the tool's pricing a three out of ten."

"There is a standard fee for a processing unit, they call them "dynos," and then you pay for add-ons."

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Comparison Review

it_user8586

Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Aug 14, 2013

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	131
Midsize Enterprise	48
Large Enterprise	120

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

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Open Shift makes managing infrastructure easy because of self-healing and automatic scaling. There is also a wonderful dashboard mechanism to alert us in case the application is over-committing or ...

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How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS?

How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS? Amazon AWS offers options both in terms of upgrading and expanding capabilities as well as acquiring greater storage space. These upgrades can ...

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Looking to compare Google Firebase, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure

We like Google Firebase hosting and authentication and also the excellent cloud functionality. Our team found the flexibility of handling and dealing with the database through EDL to be very useful...

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Comparisons

Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs Amazon AWS

Compared 18% of the time

SAP Business Technology Platform vs Amazon AWS

Compared 7% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Amazon AWS

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Amazon AWS

Compared 4% of the time

Alibaba Cloud vs Amazon AWS

Compared 3% of the time

More Amazon AWS Competitors

Google App Engine vs Heroku

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Heroku

Compared 9% of the time

Render vs Heroku

Compared 8% of the time

Engine Yard Cloud vs Heroku

Compared 7% of the time

Konfigure vs Heroku

Compared 5% of the time

More Heroku Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS

October 2026

Download Amazon AWS product report

Buyer's Guide

Heroku

October 2026

Download Heroku product report

Also Known As

Amazon Web Services, AWS

No data available

Overview

Amazon AWS offers cloud services known for ease of use, scalability, and diverse services such as EC2, S3, and Lambda. Its pay-as-you-go pricing and robust security features make it a preferred choice for businesses managing growing demands efficiently.

Amazon AWS provides a comprehensive ecosystem with services like EC2 for computing, S3 for storage, and Lambda for serverless computing. It emphasizes scalability and quick resource provisioning, allowing businesses to handle IT workloads, host websites, and manage analytics seamlessly. AWS integrates a wide range of services, enhancing flexibility and reliability while offering robust security and automated management to streamline operations.

What are the most important features of Amazon AWS?

EC2: Offers scalable computing capacity in the cloud to manage business applications efficiently.
S3: Provides highly secure, durable, and scalable cloud storage solutions for data archiving and backup.
Lambda: Enables running code without provisioning or managing servers, improving application deployment.
Pricing: Employs a pay-as-you-go model, allowing cost-effective resource usage.
Security: Implements comprehensive security protocols to ensure data protection across services.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Scalability: Supports business growth by easily scaling resources according to demand.
Integration: Offers seamless integration capabilities with numerous services, enhancing operational flexibility.
Performance: Provides stable and reliable performance for critical IT workloads and applications.
Management: Features automated management tools that reduce overhead and improve deployment efficiency.

Amazon AWS is widely implemented across industries for cloud computing, infrastructure hosting, and data storage. Businesses in finance, healthcare, and technology sectors leverage AWS for running applications, hosting analytics databases, and deploying scalable solutions. By utilizing tools like EC2, S3, and Lambda, they ensure flexibility and security in infrastructure management and data applications, meeting diverse operational needs effectively.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Heroku offers fast deployment with ease of use and seamless integration capabilities, making it a preferred platform for developers needing reliable continuous integration and scalability.

Heroku is known for handling server-related tasks, allowing developers to concentrate on building application functionality. Its automatic database maintenance and powerful performance are key for projects using Node.js and Ruby on Rails. Users appreciate its simple application deployment and maintenance, supported by a diverse range of plugins. Beyond efficiency, its CLI and dashboards enable a straightforward user experience, essential for developers focused on production, staging, and development environments.

What are Heroku's key features?

Fast Deployment: Offers rapid application deployment with minimal setup.
Continuous Integration: Supports streamlined integration processes for development cycles.
Scalability: Easily scales applications to meet growing demand.
High Availability: Ensures applications remain online and responsive.
Automatic Database Maintenance: Provides hands-off management of database tasks.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Ease of Use: Simplifies complex tasks, allowing developers to focus on coding.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with tools like GitHub for updates.
Performance: Delivers consistent, reliable application performance.
Development Flexibility: Supports Node.js, Ruby on Rails, and Docker environments.

Organizations use Heroku to deploy production servers and stage development environments. Educational apps and offsite backends benefit from its Docker support. E-commerce, mobile app development, and web apps leverage Heroku's ability to maintain rapid development cycles and manage server deployment efficiently.

Heroku

Sample Customers

Pinterest, General Electric, Pfizer, Netflix, and Nasdaq.

Facebook, UrbanDictionary, Code for America, Mailchimp, Rapportive, GitHub, TED, and Lyft.

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS vs. Heroku

September 2026

Free Report: Amazon AWS vs. Heroku

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon AWS vs. Heroku and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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