Heroku Alternatives for Teams That Want EU Hosting

If you run on Heroku and want your apps and data in the EU, you have two kinds of options: Nodion, a German platform with its EU Central region in Frankfurt, and US platforms with EU regions, such as Render, Fly.io, Railway and DigitalOcean App Platform. In this comparison, Nodion is the only provider headquartered in the EU.

Heroku itself has a Europe region on its Common Runtime, so moving is not the only path. Its Postgres docs note, though, that PGBackups snapshots and Dataclips are stored in the US; for logical backups in another region, Heroku points to a separate guide. And in February 2026, Heroku announced a move to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability and support. For many teams, that is a good moment to review where they host. This guide compares the options as of October 2026.

Region or company: what "EU hosting" means

Two things are easy to mix up. The region decides where your app and its main data run. The company behind the service decides which laws can reach that data: check the named contracting entity, the governing-law clause, the corporate owner and the sub-processors, not only the headquarters.

A Frankfurt region places your app and primary database in Frankfurt, but check backups, logs, control-plane data and add-ons separately: Heroku, for example, stores PGBackups snapshots and Dataclips in the US. A US company also stays subject to US law. The US CLOUD Act, for example, can require US providers to disclose data in their possession, custody or control, wherever it is stored. For many apps an EU region is enough. For public sector work, health data or customers who ask for an EU contract partner, the company behind the platform matters too. The legal background is in Why EU hosting matters for SaaS and AI teams.

At a glance

Provider	Headquarters	EU regions	Managed databases	Notes
Nodion	Stuttgart, Germany	EU Central (Frankfurt)	PostgreSQL, pgvector, MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse	Procfile support, object storage, CDN, email, DNS
Render	San Francisco, USA	Frankfurt	PostgreSQL, Key Value (Redis-compatible)	Native runtimes and Docker
Fly.io	USA	Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Stockholm	Managed Postgres	Firecracker microVMs in 17 regions
Railway	San Francisco, USA	EU West (Amsterdam)	Railway-maintained templates for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB; backups and HA optional	Template marketplace, usage-based pricing
DigitalOcean App Platform	Broomfield, Colorado, USA	Amsterdam, Frankfurt	PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, MongoDB, Kafka, OpenSearch	Droplets and Kubernetes in the same account
Heroku (for reference)	San Francisco, USA (Salesforce)	Europe (Common Runtime); Dublin, Frankfurt (Private Spaces)	Postgres, Key-Value Store	MySQL via third-party add-ons

Details as of October 2026, taken from each provider's own website and documentation.

Sources, checked October 2026: Heroku regions, Heroku Postgres, Heroku update of February 2026.

1. Nodion

Nodion is a European cloud platform from Nodion GmbH, based in Stuttgart, Germany. Its EU Central region runs in a datacenter in Frankfurt, and the API and control plane are hosted in Germany. Apps, databases, volumes, buckets, logs and metrics stay in the region you pick. Datacenter addresses and certifications are listed under Regions.

Coming from Heroku, the workflow feels familiar. Nodion builds your repository with Cloud Native Buildpacks or a Dockerfile, and a Procfile defines your process types, so web and worker carry over. Managed PostgreSQL, pgvector, MySQL, Valkey and ClickHouse attach to an app in the same region. S3-compatible object storage, a CDN, transactional email over SMTP and managed DNS run on the same platform, so you need fewer outside services.

Best for: teams that want an EU company with an EU region for apps, databases and object storage, and transactional email, DNS and a CDN on the same platform. Details: Nodion vs Heroku.

Sources, checked October 2026: Regions, Buildpacks, Databases.

2. Render

Render is headquartered in San Francisco and offers a Frankfurt region next to Oregon, Ohio, Virginia and Singapore. It runs Node.js, Bun, Python, Ruby, Go, Rust and Elixir natively, and anything else from a Docker image. Its managed data stores are Render Postgres and Render Key Value, which is Redis-compatible.

Comparison: Nodion vs Render.

Sources, checked October 2026: about, regions, language support, databases.

3. Fly.io

Fly.io, Inc. is a US company. It runs apps in Firecracker microVMs in 17 regions, four of them in the EU: Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Stockholm. Fly.io Managed Postgres includes high availability, and among the EU regions it can be created in Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Comparison: Nodion vs Fly.io.

Sources, checked October 2026: regions, architecture, Managed Postgres.

4. Railway

Railway is a US company based in San Francisco with an EU West region in Amsterdam, next to regions in the US and Singapore. You add PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis or MongoDB from templates, and the template marketplace offers prebuilt services and stacks. Pricing is usage-based.

Comparison: Nodion vs Railway.

Sources, checked October 2026: terms, regions, databases, pricing.

5. DigitalOcean App Platform

DigitalOcean is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. App Platform runs in Amsterdam and Frankfurt, among other regions. Its Managed Databases offer PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, MongoDB, Kafka and OpenSearch, all available in both EU datacenters. The same account also gives you Droplets (virtual machines) and managed Kubernetes.

Comparison: Nodion vs DigitalOcean.

Sources, checked October 2026: terms, App Platform availability, regional availability.

Also worth a look

• Laravel Cloud is the managed cloud for Laravel, with EU Central (Frankfurt) and EU West (Ireland) among its regions. See Nodion vs Laravel Cloud.
• For frontend-first projects, see Nodion vs Vercel and Nodion vs Netlify.

Moving from Heroku to Nodion

• Keep your Procfile. Nodion Buildpacks read it from the base directory; web is the default process, and for every other process type, such as worker, you add a process of the same name on the Processes tab. A Dockerfile works too.
• Create the database in EU Central and attach it on the app's Environment tab. You choose which connection fields become variables and what they are called, so your app keeps the names it expects.
• Redis users: use Valkey. Its default variable is still REDIS_URL, so existing code keeps working.
• Config vars go on the same Environment tab, and your custom domain on the Domains tab.
• Every step with commands, from the database dump to the domain: Migrate from Heroku.

How to choose

• An EU company with an EU region for apps, databases and storage: Nodion, plus email, DNS and a CDN on the same platform.
• Keep the Heroku workflow: Nodion reads your Procfile and builds with Cloud Native Buildpacks or a Dockerfile.
• Pay for usage, without seat fees: Nodion meters apps and databases per second.
• Apps and data in Frankfurt: Nodion's EU Central region; the API and control plane run in Germany.

Coming from Heroku? Start with Nodion vs Heroku, check the datacenters under Regions and see current prices on the pricing page. All comparisons are on the Compare page.