Alibaba Cloud
vs
Heroku
What's good about each
- 30+ regions, most in mainland China and Asia-Pacific
- 3,200+ CDN nodes in 70+ countries
- Qwen models served through Model Studio
- PolarDB, its own MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible database
- Add-on marketplace for databases, logging, monitoring and email
- Postgres with forks, followers and rollback
- Network-isolated Private Spaces across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific
- Salesforce integration through Heroku Connect and AppLink
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Heroku | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | $50.00 /mo 1 GB RAM (Standard-2X) | 89% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | $250.00 /mo 2.5 GB RAM (Performance-M) | 76% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | $500.00 /mo 14 GB RAM (Performance-L) | 62% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | -- Not listed | |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | -- Not listed | |
| PostgreSQL | -- Not listed | $50.00 /mo 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage (Standard-0) | |
| Redis | -- Not listed | $200.00 /mo 1 GB RAM (Premium-5) | |
| Load balancer | $19.40 /mo Network Load Balancer | Included in plan | |
| Serverless | $20.63 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (0.15 vCPU) | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | 2 TB / mo per app | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | Not publicly listed Soft limit of 2 TB / mo per app |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Alibaba Cloud offers 4 GPU models. We track no GPU listings from Heroku. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Heroku | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs
|
$1.51 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
T4
12 configs
|
$0.62 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
A10
26 configs
|
$0.71 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
P100
12 configs
|
$0.87 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months). The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Alibaba Cloud | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | Level 1, Heroku Shield only |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Alibaba Cloud | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2007 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | 10 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | World Economic Forum, PixieBrix, TAO Drive, Fastcall |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | heroku.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Heroku against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Heroku on Sept. 18, 2026.