AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Heroku comparison

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AWS Elastic Beanstalk

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Heroku and AWS Elastic Beanstalk are platforms competing in the cloud application deployment sector. Heroku is favored for its pricing and support, while AWS Elastic Beanstalk is noted for its comprehensive features.

Features: Heroku simplifies app development with easy scalability, integrated tools, and a straightforward environment. AWS Elastic Beanstalk offers automatic scaling, health monitoring, and extensive AWS service integration, providing flexibility through its robust service ecosystem.

Room for Improvement: Heroku could improve in areas like offering more robust feature sets, enhancing customization options, and expanding integration capabilities. AWS Elastic Beanstalk may benefit from easing its learning curve, simplifying setup, and streamlining its intricate deployment processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Heroku provides a user-friendly deployment experience focusing on developer-centric services and responsive customer support. AWS Elastic Beanstalk offers powerful customization options, requiring a deeper understanding but providing comprehensive deployment features, backed by extensive support from Amazon.

Pricing and ROI: Heroku's transparent pricing appeals to startups and small businesses, offering a good return on investment for smaller applications. AWS Elastic Beanstalk's pay-as-you-go model is scalable, potentially providing higher ROI for large-scale applications due to its expansive features and service offerings.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Heroku Report (Updated: March 2026).

AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Heroku

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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

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

8th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Heroku

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

13th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of AWS Elastic Beanstalk is 1.0%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Heroku is 3.5%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
AWS Elastic Beanstalk	1.0%
Heroku	3.5%
Other	95.5%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

Kunal Das

Test Engineer at Happiest Minds Technology Limited

Quick automation has simplified my app deployments and has let me focus on data engineering

The overall experience with AWS Elastic Beanstalk was excellent. The performance made deploying and managing my application very easy, and it was really smooth and efficient. The automatic scaling can be improved so it can handle traffic changes more smoothly. I have given a rating of nine out of ten because auto scaling works reliably and it handles traffic spikes well with minimal manual effort needed. There is a balance between simplicity and control. I have not given a ten out of ten because sometimes the scaling decision can feel slightly delayed depending on the metrics. AWS Elastic Beanstalk is powerful, but not as advantageous or granular as ECS or EKS auto-scaling. Customization is good but not fully flexible for complex architectures.

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Faizan Haider

Senior Software Engineer at Aldaim Solutions

Used for server deployment and provides auto maintenance of databases

Heroku is deployed on the cloud. We can deploy our private and public projects over at Heroku. Most of the time, when we are starting any new project from scratch, we have to implement our MVP for that project or the core idea. We are unsure how our traffic flow will go or the actual production environment requirements. We don't want to spend the most on the server sites, so then we can use it with our go-to plan for Heroku, and all the resources are available in the basic plan with the minimum expenses. So, it helps us to deploy and make our features available online at the minimum cost. Once we know our needs, we can add the professional add-ons and shift it to another platform. Heroku supports any resource listed in the marketplace. We just have to deploy our AI solutions, and Heroku can also support AI projects. I would recommend the solution to other users. I advise users not to purchase extra add-ons but to make scalable resources so that they can use all the resources efficiently. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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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

"I highly recommend it to others and frequently discuss it with customers."

"One of the most valuable aspects is that developers can access logs directly. They can download them from the AWS console within Elastic Beanstalk."

"Elastic Beanstalk is helpful and easy to manage services, even when dealing with multiple clients."

"I find the versioning to be especially valuable on AWS Elastic Beanstalk."

"The most valuable feature of Elastic Beanstalk is its ease of use and management."

"The feature I like most about Elastic Beanstalk is the way I do not have to do anything, just deploy my app."

"I would rate the overall solution a ten out of ten."

"AWS Elastic Beanstalk helps improve my efficiency, saves time, and streamlines application hosting in the cloud."

More AWS Elastic Beanstalk pros

"Lots of integrations"

"I like the tool's scalability, CLI, and dashboards."

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

"One of the best things about Heroku is that it is very easy and straightforward to deploy an application."

"Valuable for us was the fast deployment. This means the time to market is improved without pain for developers."

"It is easy to deploy applications, and we don't need to bother about software updates on the server. We don't need to bother about machines, servers, and hardware. We only need to care about the system and functionality that we need or want to develop. They take care of everything else. It provides high availability. It is a pretty good solution that provides everything that we need. It has everything that we need to run our applications. We have many different applications, and we generate three million bills for a company in Brazil. We see more than a billion requests per day in another application. Everything works just fine, and it is very good."

"It's easy to push a change and to deploy new things."

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

More Heroku pros

Cons

"AWS Elastic Beanstalk could improve its auto-scaling feature to better detect potential AI-based attacks or misuses that could lead to unexpected costs."

"One area where AWS Elastic Beanstalk struggles is with the complexity of deployments."

"One area where AWS Elastic Beanstalk struggles is with the complexity of deployments. As deployments become more complex, technical constraints can become a burden."

"Sometimes there are issues when auto-scaling with CloudFront."

"The documentation needs to be clearer, particularly relating to editing JSON files before uploading applications."

"Elastic Beanstalk can enhance its customizability further, especially in terms of deployment options."

"There are areas for improvement in Elastic Beanstalk, especially in the management part."

"Logs and debugging can sometimes be cumbersome, and there could be a more seamless method to analyze application issues without relying heavily on CloudWatch, which would improve my experience."

More AWS Elastic Beanstalk cons

"We don't find the pipelines intuitive. The user experience could be better. Having to set up multiple apps, then a pipeline, seems like an overkill on the amount of work to do."

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

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

"Heroku doesn't support Docker images on the CI infrastructure."

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

"We would like to be notified when something goes wrong in the process. When something is not working, we should get an alert."

"I had an issue recently where my site was down intermittently for unknown reasons. I posted a ticket and 5 days have gone by without any resolution."

More Heroku cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

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

"The price of Heroku could be less expensive."

"Its price is very good."

"The tool is free."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

12%

University

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

University

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	6

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

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

AWS Elastic Beanstalk itself is free to use, but there are charges for other integrated services like RDS ( /products/amazon-rds-reviews ), ELBs, and EC2s. If only AWS Elastic Beanstalk is used, th...

What needs improvement with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Elastic Beanstalk can enhance its customizability further, especially in terms of deployment options.

What is your primary use case for AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

I have used AWS Elastic Beanstalk ( /products/aws-elastic-beanstalk-reviews ) primarily to manage infrastructure. The main purpose is to offload the complexity of managing servers, operating system...

What needs improvement with Heroku?

I don't like that the web server crashes every day, every 24 hours. The pricing could be improved because scaling the database becomes costly. The Docker features are not great. You cannot use any ...

What is your primary use case for Heroku?

We use the solution for web applications and web APIs.

What advice do you have for others considering Heroku?

The integration capabilities are great because of the quick integration and the management features. We don't need a lot of expertise and all external DevOps people. Heroku is the easiest platform ...

Microsoft Azure vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Comparisons

Compared 24% of the time

Amazon Lightsail vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Compared 20% of the time

Google App Engine vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Compared 11% of the time

Google Cloud vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Compared 9% of the time

More AWS Elastic Beanstalk Competitors

Amazon AWS vs Heroku

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Heroku

Compared 12% of the time

Render vs Heroku

Compared 11% of the time

Google App Engine vs Heroku

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Public Cloud vs Heroku

Compared 3% of the time

More Heroku Competitors

Product Reports

PaaS Clouds

Download AWS Elastic Beanstalk product report

Download Heroku product report

Overview

AWS Elastic Beanstalk streamlines deploying and managing web applications, providing efficient session management, direct log access, and seamless rollback during deployment for uninterrupted operations.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is designed for developers seeking ease of use in provisioning and deployment without any application downtime. With auto-scaling capabilities that enhance application performance, users can deploy directly on EC2 or Dockerized environments. While it supports a range of application frameworks, improvements in integration with CloudFront, auto-scaling against AI-based attacks, and simplified HTTPS integrations are suggested by users. Additionally, expanding Docker support and enhancing documentation can address user challenges, offering a more comprehensive experience.

What features make AWS Elastic Beanstalk efficient?

Direct Log Access: Easily retrieve logs through the console for efficient monitoring.
Session Management: Manages sessions between Elastic Beanstalk and RDS smoothly.
Auto-Scaling: Enhances performance by adjusting resources automatically.
Versioning: Allows application changes without downtime, boosting flexibility.

What benefits do users find in AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Continuous Operation: Seamless rollbacks ensure website functionality during deployments.
Ease of Use: Simplifies the provisioning of applications and environmental configurations.
Flexibility: Offers versatile framework support, catering to different application needs.
Integration: Facilitates integration with services like S3 and LoadBalancer for efficient management.

Organizations adopt AWS Elastic Beanstalk for deploying web applications such as Django, Laravel, native PHP, and .NET Core. They leverage its management capabilities for environmental configurations like Python virtual environments and PHP-FPM. It's a practical tool for educators and businesses managing client migrations, utilizing its seamless integration with AWS services.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Established in 2007, Heroku is a cloud application platform providing a streamlined, efficient place for web app developers to create and deploy their applications. Heroku is designed to maximize developer productivity. With the entire web application development process available on the Herokucloud, creating and rolling out web apps has been made more efficient, convenient, and cost-effective than ever before.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs. Heroku