Moving from Heroku to Hetzner Cloud
Heroku's pricing has crept up, and you're wondering if there's a better option. Hetzner Cloud offers dramatically lower costs, but it's not a managed platform. Here's an honest breakdown of what you'd gain, what you'd lose, and whether the switch makes sense for your team.
Cost Comparison
Estimated Monthly Savings
~$160/month
That's approximately 79% less per month
Your actual costs depend on performance and load patterns, backup requirements, and whether you need additional services. The Hetzner Cloud setup assumes you're comfortable managing PostgreSQL and Redis on your own.
What You'll Gain
Dramatic cost savings
Expect to pay 60-80% less for equivalent compute and storage. A setup that costs over $200 per month on Heroku can run for under $50 per month on Hetzner Cloud.
More resources per dollar
Hetzner Cloud's starting price for a VPS with dedicated computing power and 8 GB of RAM starts at ~$15/month. Compare that to a single Standard-2x dyno at $50/month with 1 GB RAM.
Full control over your stack
Choose your PostgreSQL version, tune your database to your specific workload, and configure your server exactly how you want.
Excellent performance
Hetzner Cloud's NVMe SSDs and modern AMD/Intel CPUs deliver fast I/O and consistent response times, often better than Heroku's shared dyno infrastructure.
GDPR-compliant EU data centers
German company, strict European data protection standards, helpful for compliance requirements.
Performance visibility
When you control the server, you can log into the server to actually see what's happening. No more wondering why response times spike.
Deployment flexibility
Deploy from anywhere, use any CI/CD tool, run any software you want.
Resource headroom
For the same cost as cramped Heroku dynos, you get servers with breathing room for traffic spikes.
What You'll Lose
Heroku's managed PostgreSQL
Automatic backups, one-click followers, point-in-time recovery, easy upgrades are all gone unless you build it yourself.
No managed database service
Hetzner Cloud doesn't offer a managed PostgreSQL product. You'll need to run it yourself or use a third-party service.
Hands-off server maintenance
OS updates, security patches, firewall configuration, backups will be all on you. Heroku handles this invisibly.
Built-in autoscaling
You'll need to monitor and scale manually, or build your own automation.
Polished developer experience
No dashboard showing logs and metrics by default. You'll need to configure your own observability stack.
Add-on ecosystem
Need to send emails? Monitor errors? You'll provision and configure these services yourself.
Review apps and pipelines
Heroku's PR-based review environments don't have a direct equivalent, so you'd need to build a replacement.
US location advantages
Hetzner Cloud has limited capacity at US locations, and does not have dedicated VPS instances available outside of EU.
Should You Switch?
- You're paying $100+/month on Heroku and need more capacity soon
- Cost reduction is a priority
- You want more control over your infrastructure
- Your team has (or wants to develop) basic DevOps skills
- You're comfortable with command-line deployment and basic system management
- Your time is worth more than the cost savings
- You have zero interest in learning infrastructure management
- You heavily depend on Heroku add-ons that don't have easy replacements
- You need features like review apps for your development workflow
- Compliance or procurement requires a US-based vendor
Ready to Make the Switch?
Want help with the migration? I offer a done-for-you Heroku Exit Plan service that handles the entire transition—infrastructure setup, deployment configuration, database migration, and ongoing support.
Learn more about the Heroku Exit Plan