Nodion vs Heroku
Heroku pioneered the PaaS category and made "git push" deployments a standard. Today it is owned by Salesforce and its free tier has been removed. Nodion is a modern European alternative with a broader integrated platform and transparent per-second billing.
| Feature | Nodion | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Stuttgart, Germany (EU) | San Francisco, USA |
| Data Residency | EU, US and APAC regions | US and EU (Common Runtime) |
| GDPR by Default | Yes | DPA available on request |
| Managed Applications | Yes | Yes |
| Managed PostgreSQL | Yes | Yes |
| Managed MySQL | Yes | No (add-on only) |
| Managed Valkey / Redis | Yes | Yes |
| Object Storage | Yes (S3-compatible) | No |
| Global CDN | Yes (25 locations) | No |
| Transactional Emails | Yes (SMTP) | No |
| Managed DNS | Yes (free, GeoDNS) | No |
| Billing Model | Per-second | Per-second (Eco/Basic dynos) |
| Free Tier | First 5 EUR/month free | Removed in 2022 |
| Docker + Buildpacks | Yes | Yes |
| 1-Click Deploy Marketplace | 25+ apps | Heroku Buttons (ecosystem) |
EU Hosting and Data Sovereignty
Both platforms offer EU regions on their standard runtimes. Heroku also offers APAC regions (Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, Tokyo), but only through Private Spaces, which start at $1,000 per month. The key difference is the company behind the platform: Nodion is a German company headquartered in Stuttgart, operating under EU jurisdiction. Heroku is owned by Salesforce, a US corporation subject to US data access laws. For organizations where the legal entity matters, and not just the data center location, this distinction is significant. Nodion is GDPR compliant by default as an EU company, whereas Heroku requires a separate DPA arrangement.
All-in-One Platform
Heroku relies heavily on its marketplace of third-party add-ons for services like object storage, CDN, transactional emails and DNS. This means multiple vendors, multiple bills and multiple points of failure. Nodion provides all of these as first-party, fully integrated services on a single platform with a single bill.
Pricing and Billing
Heroku removed its free tier in November 2022. Its cheapest dyno (Eco) costs $5 per month, and a basic managed PostgreSQL database starts at $5 per month. A minimal Heroku setup with one dyno and one database costs at least $10 per month. On Nodion, the smallest application instance costs approximately 1 EUR per month and a database starts at 1.50 EUR per month. With the first 5 EUR of monthly usage free for every user, you can run a small application with a database at no cost. No payment method is required to get started.
Independence vs Corporate Ownership
Heroku was acquired by Salesforce in 2010. Product development stalled for years before recent improvements. Nodion is an independent company focused exclusively on its cloud platform, with direct access to the engineers who build and run it. When you open a support ticket, you get answers from the developers who wrote the code.
When Heroku Might Be the Better Choice
Heroku has a large ecosystem of add-ons and a long track record with enterprise customers. If your team is already deeply invested in the Heroku ecosystem or needs Salesforce integration, Heroku remains a solid option. For teams that value EU hosting, an integrated platform and transparent pricing, Nodion is the stronger choice.
Start for free! The first 5 EUR of monthly usage is free for everyone.