Nodion vs Heroku
Heroku pioneered the PaaS category and made "git push" deployments a standard. It is owned by Salesforce, and its free plans ended in November 2022. Nodion is a European alternative with more first-party services on one platform, from managed databases and object storage to CDN, transactional emails and DNS.
What it costs per month
Always-on prices in USD per month, excl. tax: list prices, or estimates at list rates where a provider bills by usage. For every provider the cheapest plans that meet each minimum, in its cheapest region.
Small project
1 app with 512 MB RAM and the cheapest managed SQL database
65% less on Nodion
Nodion
App, 512 MB $2.40 + PostgreSQL, 256 MB RAM, 4 GB $1.80 (3.50 EUR)
Heroku
Basic dyno, 512 MB $7 + Postgres Essential-0 $5
Growing app
2 app instances with 2 GB RAM each, a PostgreSQL or MySQL database with 4 GB RAM and 50 GB storage
91% less on Nodion
Nodion
2 × app, 2 GB $19.20 + PostgreSQL, 4 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 64 GB $28.80 (40 EUR)
Heroku
2 × Performance-M, 2.5 GB $500 + Postgres Standard-0, 4 GB $50
Production at scale
4 app instances with 8 GB RAM and 2 vCPU each, a PostgreSQL or MySQL database with 16 GB RAM, 4 vCPU, 250 GB storage and high availability
86% less on Nodion
Nodion HA standby
4 × app, 8 GB, 2 vCPU $153.60 + PostgreSQL with HA standby, 2 × 16 GB RAM, 4 vCPU, 256 GB $230.40 (320 EUR)
Heroku HA standby
Private Space $1,000 + 4 × dyno-2c-8gb $640 + Postgres Premium-4 with HA, 30.5 GB $1,200
Heroku's Eco and Basic dynos run one instance per process type, and Eco sleeps after 30 minutes without traffic. Heroku has no dyno between 1 GB and 2.5 GB, and its first Postgres plan with 16 GB RAM and 4 vCPU is Premium-4 (30.5 GB RAM, HA included). The production setup uses Fir dynos, which need a Private Space; on the Common Runtime it costs $3,200. Nodion: DS-G2 and GP-G2 packages from its public price book; an HA standby is billed as a second database node. List prices checked on October 12, 2026; usage beyond what is listed, such as traffic, is not included.
| Feature | Nodion | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Stuttgart, Germany (EU) | San Francisco, USA (Salesforce) |
| Where Apps and Data Run | EU (Frankfurt), US (Manassas, San Jose), APAC (Singapore) | US and EU (Common Runtime), more regions with Private Spaces |
| Data Protection | EU company, self-service DPA | US company, DPA in Salesforce terms |
| Managed Applications | Yes | Yes |
| Managed PostgreSQL | Yes | Yes |
| Managed MySQL | Yes | No (third-party add-ons) |
| Managed Valkey (Redis-compatible) | Yes | Yes (Key-Value Store) |
| Object Storage | Yes (S3-compatible) | No (third-party add-ons) |
| CDN | Yes (30 locations) | No (third-party add-ons) |
| Transactional Emails | Yes (SMTP) | No (third-party add-ons) |
| Managed DNS | Yes (free, GeoDNS) | No |
| Billing Model | Per-second, no plan or seat fees | Per-second (Basic and up), Eco is a flat $5 for 1,000 dyno hours |
| Free Tier / Credit | Up to 15 EUR sign-up credit | No free plans since 2022 |
| Docker + Buildpacks | Yes | Yes |
| 1-Click Deploy Marketplace | 20+ open source apps | Heroku Buttons |
EU Hosting and Data Sovereignty
Both platforms offer EU hosting on their standard runtimes. Heroku's Common Runtime has a US and a Europe region; its other regions, including Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai and Tokyo, require a Private Space. The bigger difference is the company behind the platform. Nodion is a German company headquartered in Stuttgart, operating under EU law, and runs your apps and data in the region you choose, including Frankfurt for the EU. Heroku is part of Salesforce, a US corporation subject to US law, including the CLOUD Act. Its DPA is part of Salesforce's standard terms and relies on Standard Contractual Clauses and Binding Corporate Rules for international transfers. For organizations where the legal entity matters, and not just the data center location, this distinction is significant.
All-in-One Platform
Heroku does not offer first-party object storage, CDN, transactional emails or DNS hosting. These come from third-party add-ons or external providers, each with its own plans, support and terms, even though add-on charges appear on your Heroku invoice. Nodion runs all of these as first-party services: applications, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, S3-compatible object storage, a CDN, transactional emails and managed DNS, with one support team.
Pricing and Billing
Heroku ended its free plans in November 2022. Its cheapest dyno type (Eco) costs $5 per month for a shared pool of 1,000 dyno hours and sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity, and the smallest managed PostgreSQL database costs $5 per month. A minimal Heroku setup with one dyno and one database therefore starts at $10 per month. On Nodion, the smallest application instance costs 1 EUR per month and a database starts at 1.50 EUR per month, billed per second. New accounts can earn up to 15 EUR in credit when signing up.
Product Direction
Heroku was acquired by Salesforce in 2010. In February 2026, Heroku announced a transition to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability and support, and stopped offering Enterprise Account contracts to new customers. Nodion is an independent company focused on its cloud platform and keeps adding new services, from managed databases to AI inference. Support comes from the team that builds and runs the platform.
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