App platforms

DigitalOcean App Platform vs Heroku

Choose DigitalOcean App Platform when a Git deploy and a $5 shared container are enough. Choose Heroku when you want buildpacks and a catalog of add-ons and you already expect to pay for dynos.

DigitalOcean App Platform

Git deploys with a free static tier and paid containers

Free static tier, containers from $5/mo

Strengths

  • Static sites can stay on the free tier
  • A shared container has a flat monthly price

Limits

  • The $5 container is one shared instance with 512 MiB
  • A development database costs extra and is destroyed with the app

Vendor pricing Alternatives

Heroku

Mature app platform with a large add-on catalog

Paid dynos

Strengths

  • Add-ons cover databases, cache, and logging
  • Buildpacks still cover common stacks

Limits

  • Dynos cost more than a comparable VPS
  • There is no permanent free dyno

Vendor pricing Alternatives