Heroku
New Relic
| Feature | Heroku | New Relic |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | From $5/mo | Free / from $0.3/mo |
| Free Plan | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | startups, prototyping, small-teams, ruby-python-node-developers | development-teams, sre-teams, startups, devops-engineers |
| Founded | 2007 | 2008 |
| Git Deploy | ✓ | ✗ |
| Managed Postgres | ✓ | ✗ |
| Managed Redis | ✓ | ✗ |
| Add Ons | ✓ | ✗ |
| Review Apps | ✓ | ✗ |
| Pipelines | ✓ | ✗ |
| Auto Scaling | ✓ | ✗ |
| Apm | ✗ | ✓ |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Log Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Browser Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Synthetics | ✗ | ✓ |
| Ai Assistant | ✗ | ✓ |
| Distributed Tracing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Error Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Heroku Pros
- Simplest deployment experience (git push to deploy)
- Extensive add-on marketplace for databases and services
- Great for prototyping and MVPs
- Managed Postgres and Redis included
✗ Heroku Cons
- Removed free tier in 2022
- Expensive for production workloads at scale
- Limited infrastructure customization
✓ New Relic Pros
- Generous free tier with 100GB/month data ingest
- Full-stack observability in one platform
- Usage-based pricing is cost-effective for many teams
- Strong AI assistant (New Relic AI) for troubleshooting
✗ New Relic Cons
- Per-user pricing for full platform access
- Data retention limits on free tier
- Can be complex to set up comprehensively
The Verdict
Heroku is built for startups and prototyping, with a focus on git-deploy and managed-postgres. New Relic targets development teams and sre teams and leads with apm and infrastructure-monitoring.
Pricing is close: New Relic starts at $0.3/mo versus $5/mo for Heroku — not a deciding factor on its own.
New Relic has a free plan, which gives it a meaningful edge for individuals and small teams exploring their options. Heroku requires a paid subscription from day one.
Feature-wise, New Relic offers broader built-in capabilities (8 features vs 7), while Heroku takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
Both tools are a solid fit for startups — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
Bottom line: New Relic has a slight overall edge — but if simplest deployment experience (git push to deploy) matters most to you, Heroku may still be the right call.