Heroku vs Microsoft Azure comparison

Heroku and Microsoft are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Heroku is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. Heroku holds a 3.0% mindshare in PSP, compared to Microsoft’s 19.8% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Heroku users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Heroku

Read 29 Heroku reviews

2,361 Views
1,712 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure

Read 313 Microsoft Azure reviews

18,771 Views
14,454 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Heroku

Microsoft Azure

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Microsoft Azure and Heroku compete in the cloud computing space, each offering unique strengths. Azure appears to have the upper hand due to its wide array of features and extensive service offerings, appealing to large-scale, enterprise scenarios despite its complex pricing.

Features: Microsoft Azure provides high scalability, diverse service integrations, and strong hybrid cloud support, offering a versatile platform for a wide range of applications. It supports multiple programming languages and has global data center availability, making it suitable for enterprise needs. Heroku, while feature-limited compared to Azure, offers easy application deployment, seamless GitHub integration, and a focus on simplicity and speed, which is beneficial for development workflows.

Room for Improvement: Azure faces challenges with complex pricing models, an intricate UI, and technical limitations such as resource constraints and integration issues. Concerns also exist about physical security and relative high costs. On the other hand, Heroku has scalability limitations, server issues, and escalating costs as deployments grow, with inadequate Docker support on CI infrastructure.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure's broad service range allows for diverse deployment options suitable for public and hybrid cloud models, though support can be complex and slow unless escalated. Heroku excels in straightforward setups and fast customer support, enhancing developer experiences with smooth integration and management.

Pricing and ROI: Azure offers flexible pay-as-you-go pricing but is often criticized for opaque pricing structures and higher costs, offset by substantial ROI in large enterprise scenarios. Heroku’s straightforward pricing is advantageous for small to medium projects with low upfront costs but can quickly increase with higher resource demands.

To learn more, read our detailed Heroku vs. Microsoft Azure Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Heroku vs. Microsoft Azure

April 2025

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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

Heroku

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

15th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

313

Ranking in other categories

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Heroku is 3.0%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure is 19.8%, up from 19.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

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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Nicolas Chabrier

Cloud Strategy B2B leader at Sunrise UPC

Promotes clear, logical structures preventing impractical configurations and offers seamless integration

The only thing is regarding the management of multi-cloud environments. That's not really possible. So basically, it's wonderful if you manage Microsoft clearly and if you manage Microsoft Azure, but if you need to consume external services and have a global overview of all your consumption, it's not the case. Google, for instance, has tools that help you manage multiple environments, which makes sense because Google is really the cloud provider. So that's why they need to be compliant with the others. But for sure, Microsoft's approach is different, and it's wonderful when you're one hundred percent on Azure. But if you'd like to have something more of a multi-cloud strategy, that's a bit of a gap where they could improve.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"What I found most valuable about this solution is that it's easy to use and integrate with GitHub actions."

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

"The most valuable feature of Heroku is the continuous integration and applications it provides."

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

"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."

"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."

More Heroku pros

"The ability to quickly create and manage resources is critical to getting things done, Azure just makes getting things done a lot simpler."

"The redundancy across different regions is the most valuable. It provides a big value for cloud services, especially for Microsoft."

"The most important thing is we don't have to maintain any physical infrastructure. With typical conventional on-premise solutions, we have to maintain many things like the hardware, clusters, etc. With this cloud platform, you don't have to worry about all those things. We have the service always available, and this is the main advantage. I like that we use everything on our standard Active Directory on on-premises on Azure. The key advantage is that you can have the sole indication based on the cloud. This isn't possible with an on-premise Active Directory. This enables work from home and at the office because it's on the cloud."

"In terms of scalability, it is perfect."

"Azure is stable. I don't have any problems with it."

"One of the most valuable features of Azure is that it's a very integrated solution. You have to learn how to use it properly, but it's not that hard, and you can define your whole scrum process and deploy it from one place. It was a really nice surprise to see how easily integrated this tool is."

"Microsoft Azure is a very dynamic cloud service that allows you to migrate your workload, applications, and data."

"The most valuable feature is the virtual machine."

More Microsoft Azure pros

Cons

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

"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."

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

"The tool's configuration is complex."

"Heroku should increase its slug size limits."

"Heroku had an authentication problem a few months ago, but they solved it."

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

"I improved the application performance by monitoring and adjusting the cleaner configuration to help set better lightweight limits on containers that run the app instances."

More Heroku cons

"The management portal can be confusing sometimes. We have difficulty navigating the menus because the terminology is unclear, especially when referring to the content or actionable items."

"They're already doing quite a bit. I'm not unsatisfied with anything that they're doing right now. They can maybe make the transitions a little smoother and improve its pricing. The pricing for the end-user packages is a bit high."

"I would like to see Internet content filtering included."

"Azure installation is complicated. When we first deployed Azure, it was challenging."

"We have reported some bugs we encountered, and it would be good if those bugs were resolved more quickly."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing structure, user interface design (UI/UX), clear navigation, and documentation support of Microsoft Azure."

"There could be more documentation and video tutorials to incorporate each and every feature. This way one can easily get the knowledge and implement it."

"I believe that some of the services need to be available on the on-premises version and not only based on the cloud."

More Microsoft Azure cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"The tool is free."

"Its price is very good."

"Currently, we do not have anything reserved. There are no reservations that we have built into the Azure environment, so all of our licensing is on a consumption basis. As things spin up, those licenses spin up."

"This is an expensive product."

"The pricing of Microsoft Azure is not very flexible."

"The current pricing is on a pay-as-you-go subscription."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive and the pricing model could be less confusing."

"Monthly billing convenience reduced cost overheads up to 70 percent."

"Price could always be cheaper. Its licensing and usage aren't always cheap. We pay monthly."

"Customers pay for our software and use our solution as a service through monthly payments. They don't pay the licensing fee directly to Microsoft."

More Microsoft Azure pricing and cost advice

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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

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Educational Organization

University

Educational Organization

44%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Heroku?

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

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Heroku?

We use the solution for web applications and web APIs.

See all answers

Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?

IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...

See all answers

Which is better - SAP Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure?

One of the best features of SAP Cloud Platform is that it is web-based and you can log in from anywhere in the world. SAP Cloud Platform is suitable for companies of any size; it works well with bo...

See all answers

How does Microsoft Azure compare to Google Firebase?

I would recommend Google Firebase instead of Microsoft Azure, simply for the array of features that it has to offer. In particular, the Firebase library grants you access to a shared data structure...

See all answers

Comparisons

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Heroku

Compared 14% of the time

AWS Fargate vs Heroku

Compared 10% of the time

Google App Engine vs Heroku

Compared 7% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs Heroku

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon Lightsail vs Heroku

Compared 6% of the time

More Heroku Competitors

Alibaba Cloud vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 11% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 11% of the time

SAP Cloud Platform vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 9% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 9% of the time

Google App Engine vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Heroku

April 2025

Download Heroku product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure

December 2024

Download Microsoft Azure product report

Also Known As

No data available

Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure

Overview

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.

Heroku

Windows Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform, where developers can create, deploy, and maintain their apps. This cloud application platform allows developers to concentrate on the actual applications, while it takes care of all the elements behind the apps.

Windows Azure works across multiple frameworks and languages. It is fully scalable, localized in that it is hosted globally in many datacenters, and has widespread capabilities with elements of application development, deployment, and management.

Azure is comprised of several different service modules, including Infrastructure; Web; Mobile; Dev & Test; Big Data; Media;Storage, Backup & Recovery; and Identity & Access Management.

Microsoft Azure works as a:

Platform as a service (PaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS)
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Microsoft Azure is available:

On-premises
Hybrid
Multi-cloud
At the edge

Compared to its competitors, Microsoft Azure:

Has more affordable features
Has easier migration for organizations already using other Microsoft tools
Has several educational resources available
Provides robust support
Is ideal for small and large businesses

Microsoft Azure Features:

Scalability
Stability
Flexibility
Azure Site Recovery
Active Directory
Monitoring features
Cloud-based
Automated tasks
Change capability cadence
Showback capabilities
Information protection
Azure Data Lake
Excellent portal
Intuitive user interface
Remote desktop
Fast provisioning
Data security
Data resiliency
Speed of service
Integrated delivery pipeline
Disaster recovery
Robust templates
Flexible coding languages
Virtual systems testing

Benefits of Microsoft Azure:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Because Microsoft Azure is an IaaS, organizations can deploy as well as manage applications easily and quickly. Azure also provides you with the ability to customize the cloud software to meet your specific business needs.
Seamless integration: Microsoft Azure is built to seamlessly integrate with existing IT departments via hybrid databases, secure private connections, and storage solutions.
Cost-effective: Because Azure can harmoniously exist in your business environment with your data center, it is a very cost-effective solution.
Analytics support: Azure is designed with built-in support that is used to analyze data and provide key insights. Azure offers Cortana Analytics, Stream Analytics, Machine Learning, and SQL services.
Unique storage system: Compared to other cloud services, Microsoft Azure has more data centers and delivery points, which helps create an optimal user experience and also helps deliver content faster. In addition, Microsoft Azure makes it possible for organizations to exchange content across several virtual machines.
Enhanced flexibility: Azure provides extreme flexibility by allowing you to choose any level of functionality you require. It also supports many of the same technologies IT teams and developers usually depend on, making it easier for them to manage.
Easy implementation: Microsoft Azure is easy and quick to deploy. If necessary, you can change web apps to Azure with almost zero downtime.

Reviews from Real Users:

"It is a flexible solution that is straightforward to use," says the principal consultant at a computer software company.

OmarJ., future datacenter consultant: Microsoft Azure Cloud at a tech company, adds that "The user interface is very nice and makes everything easy to use."

“You can build an environment in minutes. It's very good in terms of being an infrastructure as a service, and I found that really fascinating,” says an information technology consultant at a computer software company.

"I think Azure's level of automation to achieve efficiency or agility is valuable. I also like the change capability cadence, the showback capabilities, and understanding what our costs are," says an enterprise architect at an energy/utilities company.

Marco C., Ing. at Wolters Kluwer, says "The valuable features of Microsoft Azure are that it is cloud-based and has good storage. The storage is completely managed by Azure. We do not need to do any patching of security because it is handled by Azure which is a benefit. The solution is fully compatible with the Microsoft technology stack and is very scalable."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure is it has everything together in one place. It is one large tool with lots of small tools that are updated often," says the owner of a media company.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

BMW, Toyota, easyJet, NBC Sports, HarperCollins, Aviva, TalkTalk Business, Avanade, and Telenor.

Buyer's Guide

Heroku vs. Microsoft Azure

April 2025

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