Head-to-head, indicative as of Oct 2026. Prices change — always confirm on the vendor page.
Quick read: pick Heroku if your workload is no-devops deploys for small teams and shopify-style workflows and its included egress fits your traffic shape; pick Appwrite if you need open-source firebase alternative you can own. For anything latency-sensitive at the edge, cold start row is the tiebreaker.
| Heroku | Appwrite | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | PaaS (classic) | Backend platform (OSS) |
| Free tier | Eco dynos ~$5/mo shared pool | Self-host free; cloud free tier |
| Paid pricing (indicative) | Basic dyno ~$7/mo each | Cloud Pro from ~$15/mo |
| Egress | Included allowances | n/a |
| Cold start | Dyno boot ~seconds | n/a |
| Regions | US + EU | Self-host or cloud |
| Best for | No-DevOps deploys for small teams and Shopify-style workflows | Open-source Firebase alternative you can own |
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Last reviewed 2026-10-02 · NinjaOps SEO grid · DevOps blog