Heroku vs Railway

Heroku vs Railway comparison for app hosting. Compare the original PaaS with the modern alternative.

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Veredicto Rápido

Ganador: Railway

Railway is the modern Heroku successor. Better DX, better pricing, better free tier. Heroku pioneered PaaS but Railway has surpassed it. Unless you have legacy Heroku apps, choose Railway.

Elige Heroku si...

✓ You have existing Heroku apps
✓ You need Heroku-specific add-ons
✓ Enterprise compliance requirements
✓ You know Heroku workflows well
✓ You need Salesforce integration

Elige Railway si...

✓ You want better developer experience
✓ You want a free tier that works
✓ You want modern, active development
✓ You want better pricing
✓ You're starting a new project

Comparación Característica por Característica

Categoría	Heroku	Railway	Ganador
Pricing	No free tier. Eco: $5/mo. Basic: $7/mo dyno.	Free: $5 credit/mo. Hobby: $5/mo. Usage-based.	Railway
Free Tier	None. Free tier removed November 2022.	$5 credit monthly. Generous for development.	Railway
Developer Experience	The original git push deploy. Solid but aging.	Modern, beautiful UI. GitHub integration. Preview deploys.	Railway
Documentation	Extensive docs. Years of content. Many tutorials.	Clean, modern docs. Growing. Good examples.	Empate
Scalability	Scales with dynos. Enterprise options available.	Auto-scaling. Good for most workloads.	Empate
Features	Add-ons marketplace, pipelines, review apps, Heroku Connect.	Git deploys, databases, preview URLs, environment sync.	Heroku

Comparación de Código

Deploy to Heroku

bash

# The original git push deploy
heroku login
heroku create my-app
git push heroku main

# Add Postgres
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:mini

Heroku pioneered the 'git push to deploy' workflow.

Deploy to Railway

bash

# Connect GitHub in dashboard, or:
railway login
railway init
railway up

# Add Postgres (in dashboard or CLI)
railway add postgres

Railway offers similar simplicity with modern polish.

🔄 Notas de Migración

Migration from Heroku to Railway is straightforward. Both use Procfile/nixpacks detection. Main work is moving add-ons to Railway equivalents or external services.

Preguntas Frecuentes

Why did Heroku remove the free tier? ▼

Heroku (Salesforce) removed free tier in 2022 citing abuse and resource costs. This caused a mass migration to alternatives like Railway.

Is Railway the new Heroku? ▼

Many consider Railway the spiritual successor. It offers similar simplicity with modern features, better pricing, and an actual free tier.

Probar Heroku

Focus on your apps, not your infrastructure

Probar Railway

Bring your code, we'll handle the rest

⚖ Comparar en Herramienta Interactiva

Última actualización: January 11, 2026