Fly.io
vs
Heroku
Both run managed containers, Postgres and Redis. Fly.io charges less for VMs and places apps near users on six continents, while Heroku charges less for Postgres and adds an add-on marketplace.
What's good about each
- Excellent tooling and developer experience
- Fast deployments, scale to zero, little config needed
- Per-second billing, with a 40% discount for reserved compute blocks
- Anycast networking and global load balancing included at no extra cost
- 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 | Fly.io | Heroku | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.70 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (shared-cpu-1x) | $50.00 /mo 1 GB RAM (Standard-2X) | 89% cheaper on Fly.io |
| Medium VM | $42.79 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (shared-cpu-4x) | $250.00 /mo 2.5 GB RAM (Performance-M) | 83% cheaper on Fly.io |
| Large VM | $248.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (performance-8x) | $500.00 /mo 14 GB RAM (Performance-L) | 50% cheaper on Fly.io |
| Block storage | $15.00 /mo 100 GB | -- Not listed | |
| Object storage | $20.50 /mo 1 TB (Tigris) | -- Not listed | |
| PostgreSQL | $86.00 /mo 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB storage (Starter) | $50.00 /mo 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage (Standard-0) | 42% cheaper on Heroku |
| Redis | $20.00 /mo 1 GB data (Upstash Fixed 1GB) | $200.00 /mo 1 GB RAM (Premium-5) | 90% cheaper on Fly.io |
| Load balancer | Included with apps | Included in plan | |
| Egress allowance | -- Not listed | 2 TB / mo per app | |
| Egress | $20.00 /TB $0.02 / GB (North America and Europe) | 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.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Fly.io | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Data centers only | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | -- | 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 | Fly.io | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2017 | 2007 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 18 | 10 |
| Example customers | Cars.com, Fanatics, Tailscale, Supabase | World Economic Forum, PixieBrix, TAO Drive, Fastcall |
| Website | fly.io | heroku.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Fly.io and Heroku against other cloud providers.
Our data for Fly.io was last updated on Sept. 18, 2026, and for Heroku on Sept. 18, 2026.