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Google App Engine vs Heroku comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Google App Engine
Ranking in PaaS Clouds
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Heroku
Ranking in PaaS Clouds
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Google App Engine is 2.2%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Heroku is 3.0%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
PaaS Clouds
 

Featured Reviews

OmkarPatil - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplifies app development process for businesses
The product simplifies app development processes since once the local development is completed, my company has a common configuration in place where we can specify the requirements to run an application, after which we need to do a one-click GCP deployment for the entire application. In general, the two offer managed deployment options, so we don't have to worry about deployment. In my company, we just configure the servers and check if anything needs to be containerized, after which GCP handles everything for us. A project where Google App Engine scalability was essential was when, recently, my company was involved with Golang to build a web application, after which deploying that application on Google App Engine was really easy. In my company, we also had a Django application in Python, and it was easy to deploy. As my company deals with small-scale projects, the automated scaling feature of Google App Engine is not something we thought about. I wouldn't recommend the product to others unless the potential end users use GCP and have a word with their vendors about their plans. One specific recommendation from me would be that the product's potential uses should stick with a particular vendor. If someone wants a product that is easy to deploy and scalable, then multiple options are available in the market. The product integrates very well with other Google solutions. I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.
Faizan Haider - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for server deployment and provides auto maintenance of databases
Heroku is deployed on the cloud. We can deploy our private and public projects over at Heroku. Most of the time, when we are starting any new project from scratch, we have to implement our MVP for that project or the core idea. We are unsure how our traffic flow will go or the actual production environment requirements. We don't want to spend the most on the server sites, so then we can use it with our go-to plan for Heroku, and all the resources are available in the basic plan with the minimum expenses. So, it helps us to deploy and make our features available online at the minimum cost. Once we know our needs, we can add the professional add-ons and shift it to another platform. Heroku supports any resource listed in the marketplace. We just have to deploy our AI solutions, and Heroku can also support AI projects. I would recommend the solution to other users. I advise users not to purchase extra add-ons but to make scalable resources so that they can use all the resources efficiently. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Google App Engine is highly scalable and can integrate easily with other applications."
"Seurity features - unauthorized individuals are unable to access certain applications."
"The most valuable features of Google App Engine include the ease of rolling back deployments when failures occur, the ability to track deployment times, and the feature to split traffic between different instances."
"Its ability to integrate with most devices helps users who have different or old devices."
"The product's setup and deployment phases are easy."
"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward, considering that there is good documentation explaining the implementation part of it."
"Administering App Engine is simple; it has intuitive UIs and a very scalable app engine."
"The initial setup is okay. It's not too complex. Deployment took about one day."
"Thanks to Heroku, we don't need to do as much direct management in AWS."
"I like the tool's scalability, CLI, and dashboards."
"Valuable for us was the fast deployment. This means the time to market is improved without pain for developers."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the auto maintenance of databases."
"One of the best things about Heroku is that it is very easy and straightforward to deploy an application."
"The most valuable feature of Heroku is the continuous integration and applications it provides."
"What I found most valuable about this solution is that it's easy to use and integrate with GitHub actions."
"The platform is very Node.js-friendly, which is something that is important to us."
 

Cons

"Difficult to assess how pricing is managed."
"The interface and IDE, where I write code, could be improved. Unlike other IDEs like Visual Studio, it lacks easy access to available functions."
"I think there's still a lot that can be done with Google Meet and the video conferencing part of it. It could be more dynamic in terms of what can be done with it."
"The only concern is that there is a number of the offerings which are built on their own proprietary technologies. With some of the offerings in Google Cloud, it's difficult to have a path to migrate to other cloud providers."
"Google Cloud support for Google App Engine is very poor, with unresponsive and unaware agents. It took them almost a month to inform me that SSH is not possible with private instances."
"There needs to be more directions in terms of how to use the solution."
"The documentation and community are lacking for this product."
"I would like a simpler deployment tool on laptops. It is a bit complicated at the moment. We know how to do it, but it could be easier to deploy it on laptops."
"We would like to be notified when something goes wrong in the process. When something is not working, we should get an alert."
"Heroku doesn't support Docker images on the CI infrastructure."
"Heroku should increase its slug size limits."
"Heroku had an authentication problem a few months ago, but they solved it."
"The pricing could be improved because scaling the database becomes costly."
"We don't find the pipelines intuitive. The user experience could be better. Having to set up multiple apps, then a pipeline, seems like an overkill on the amount of work to do."
"I think this solution would be improved if free demos were available indefinitely."
"I improved the application performance by monitoring and adjusting the cleaner configuration to help set better lightweight limits on containers that run the app instances."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If we don't know how to work with the tool, we might have some spikes in price."
"I would like to have more free application with it. Some of the applications, I am paying more for them. I think that they must be free."
"We pay the license yearly. It's about $6 a month, which is $72 a year per person, so it's about $500."
"The tool is free."
"Its price is very good."
"I rate the tool's pricing a three out of ten."
"There is a standard fee for a processing unit, they call them "dynos," and then you pay for add-ons."
"The price of Heroku could be less expensive."
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Comparison Review

it_user8586 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 14, 2013
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
10%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Educational Organization
10%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google App Engine?
The product's setup and deployment phases are easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google App Engine?
I have always used the free tier of Google App Engine, so I do not have insights into its pricing structure or costs.
What needs improvement with Google App Engine?
The main areas for improvement in Google App Engine include security restrictions and deployment processes. The whitelist and blacklist of APIs can be a deal-breaker due to security concerns, and t...
What do you like most about Heroku?
I like the tool's scalability, CLI, and dashboards.
What needs improvement with Heroku?
I don't like that the web server crashes every day, every 24 hours. The pricing could be improved because scaling the database becomes costly. The Docker features are not great. You cannot use any ...
What is your primary use case for Heroku?
We use the solution for web applications and web APIs.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Khan Academy, Best Buy, Gigya, MetOffice, Getaround, Mimiboard, NewsLimited, WebFilings, and CloudLock.
Facebook, UrbanDictionary, Code for America, Mailchimp, Rapportive, GitHub, TED, and Lyft.
Find out what your peers are saying about Google App Engine vs. Heroku and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.