Firebase
vs
Heroku
What's good about each
- Generous free tier for small to medium projects
- Real-time database with synchronization
- Complete user auth system with social login
- Seamless integration with other Google Cloud services
- Solid mobile SDK for iOS and Android
- Fully-managed infra, minimal ops overhead
- Heroku Postgres is a one-click, battle-tested database
- Extensive add-on marketplace
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Firebase | Heroku | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | -- Not listed | $50.00 /mo Dyno 1 GB RAM (Standard 2X) | |
| Medium VM | -- Not listed | $250.00 /mo Dyno 2.5 GB RAM (Performance M) | |
| Large VM | -- Not listed | $500.00 /mo Dyno 14 GB RAM (Performance L) | |
| Object storage | $26.90 /mo 1 TB stored, 1M download + 100k upload operations | -- Not listed | |
| PostgreSQL | -- Not listed | $50.00 /mo 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage | |
| Redis | -- Not listed | $200.00 /mo 1 GB RAM | |
| Load balancer | -- Not listed | Included in plan | |
| Serverless | $44.66 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration · $0.40 / 1M invocations + Cloud Run CPU and memory rates | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 360 MB/day on Hosting (~10 GB/mo) | 2 TB / mo per app | |
| Egress | $150.00 /TB $0.15 / GB (Hosting) | Not publicly listed Bandwidth is soft limited per app (2 TB / mo) |
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.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Company details
| Fact | Firebase | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 | 2007 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 42 | 10 |
| Example customers | The New York Times, Duolingo, Venmo, Trivago, Ctrip, Gameloft | Airbase, Dovetail, Hotel Engine, ClickMechanic, Ambassify |
| Website | firebase.google.com | heroku.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Firebase and Heroku against other cloud providers.
Our data for Firebase was last updated on July 27, 2026, and for Heroku on Feb. 12, 2026.