VeloxaHost as a Heroku alternative

Where Heroku falls short

Heroku is easy to start with: push code, and it builds and runs it. The costs come from how it is priced. Prices below are Heroku's as of 2026-10-08.

• There is no free tier any more. Heroku announced on 25 August 2022 that, starting 28 November 2022, it would stop offering free dynos, free Heroku Postgres and free Heroku Data for Redis. The cheapest option now is Eco: $5 a month for 1,000 dyno hours shared by all Eco dynos on the account. Eco web dynos sleep after 30 minutes without traffic, and when the hours run out, every Eco dyno on the account sleeps for the rest of the month.
• You pay per dyno, and dynos are small. A Basic dyno is $7 a month with 0.5 GB of RAM. Standard-1X is $25 with 0.5 GB, Standard-2X $50 with 1 GB, and Performance-M $250 with 2.5 GB. A web process and a background worker each need their own dyno, so each one is billed.
• Data is billed again as add-ons. Heroku Postgres Essential-0 is $5 for 1 GB of storage, Essential-1 $9 for 10 GB, Essential-2 $20 for 32 GB, and Standard-0 $50. Heroku Key-Value Store (Redis) starts at $3 for the Mini plan with 25 MB.
• Idle time still costs money. Heroku bills dynos by wall-clock time: any dyno scaled above zero accrues usage whether or not it gets traffic.

How VeloxaHost handles it

VeloxaHost sells resources by the plan, not by the process. You get a fixed amount of CPU, RAM and disk and run what you like in it.

• Git deploy for web apps. Hosting plans run PHP, Node, Python and static sites. A deploy pulls a branch from your Git repository, installs dependencies (npm ci or npm install for Node, pip install -r requirements.txt for Python) and restarts the app with the start command you set. Deploys can be started from the console, from a CI webhook, or on an hourly or daily schedule. Each site gets automatic HTTPS. The Launch plan is $9.99 a month for 3 sites with 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM, 20 GB of NVMe storage and backups on the schedule you choose.
• A VPS for workers and databases. Root servers start at $5 a month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM and 25 GB of disk. They are billed by the hour and capped at the monthly price, so a server you delete after a day costs a day.
• One-click databases. The marketplace has 66 apps, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis and Valkey. You deploy them onto your own server, and snapshots and scheduled backups come with every plan.
• What you give up. VeloxaHost does not take a git push to its own remote, does not use buildpacks or a Procfile, and does not run your database for you. Patching and tuning the database is your job. VeloxaHost also runs one region, US East, in the Washington, DC area.

The pricing math

Take a small production app: a web process, a background worker, a PostgreSQL database under 10 GB, and Redis for a job queue. Nothing sleeps.

	Heroku	VeloxaHost
Web app	Basic dyno, 0.5 GB RAM: $7	Launch hosting plan, deployed from Git (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB): $9.99
Worker	Basic dyno, 0.5 GB RAM: $7	Runs on the server below: $0
PostgreSQL	Essential-1, 10 GB: $9	Veloxa 1 VPS (1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB disk) running PostgreSQL from the marketplace: $10
Redis	Key-Value Store Mini, 25 MB: $3	Installed on the same VPS: $0
Per month	$26	$19.99

The gap grows as the app grows. Moving both Heroku dynos to Standard-1X makes the Heroku column $62 a month, while the VeloxaHost setup stays at $19.99 until you outgrow the plan. The next hosting plan, Grow, is $19.99 a month for 2 vCPU and 4 GB.

Two honest caveats. First, on Heroku the database is managed for you; on VeloxaHost you run it. Second, if your app can sleep and its data fits in 1 GB, Heroku Eco ($5) with Postgres Essential-0 ($5) costs $10 a month, which is less than this VeloxaHost setup.

VeloxaHost hosting plans billed monthly are 30% off for the first 3 months, which takes Launch to $6.99. Annual billing brings it to $8.32 a month.

FAQ

Does Heroku still have a free tier?

No. Heroku stopped offering free dynos, free Heroku Postgres and free Heroku Data for Redis starting 28 November 2022. Its cheapest plan is Eco, at $5 a month for 1,000 dyno hours shared across the account, and Eco web dynos sleep after 30 minutes without traffic.

Can I deploy with git push like on Heroku?

Not in the same way. VeloxaHost pulls from your Git repository rather than receiving a push. You set the repository, branch and optional subdirectory once, then deploy from the console, from a CI webhook, or on a schedule. There are no buildpacks or Procfile: Node apps install from package.json, Python apps from requirements.txt, and you set the start command.

How do I move my Heroku Postgres database?

Capture and download a backup with heroku pg:backups:capture and heroku pg:backups:download, which give you a pg_dump file in custom format. Deploy PostgreSQL from the VeloxaHost marketplace, copy the file to that server, and load it with pg_restore --no-acl --no-owner. Then point the app's DATABASE_URL at the new database.

Where do my config vars go?

Sites do not have a config-vars screen. Set environment variables inside the site or server, for example from the browser terminal, and keep secrets out of your Git repository.

When should I stay on Heroku?

Stay if you rely on Heroku running your database, want to deploy with git push and buildpacks, or need servers outside the US East Coast. Also stay if your app can sleep on Eco and fit in a 1 GB database, because that costs less than our smallest equivalent setup.

Can I try VeloxaHost first?

Yes. The 14-day trial needs no credit card and covers 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM, 40 GB of disk and up to 2 instances. Hourly-billed VPS sizes need billing activated, even during the trial.