Google Cloud vs Heroku comparison

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Google Cloud

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Heroku and Google Cloud are competing products in the platform-as-a-service and cloud computing markets. Google Cloud has the advantage in scalability and features, aligning it with enterprises needing advanced solutions, whereas Heroku is favored by startups for its simplicity and affordability.

Features: Heroku's features include seamless integration with multiple programming languages, an app-centric approach, and continuous integration capabilities. In contrast, Google Cloud provides robust infrastructure capabilities, advanced machine learning tools, and a comprehensive global network.

Room for Improvement: Heroku could enhance its scalability and offer more detailed customization options to attract more extensive user bases. Additionally, expanding its enterprise-level features would better cater to larger organizations. Google Cloud could improve its user complexity by simplifying deployment processes. Lowering pricing complexity and offering more beginner-friendly resources would be beneficial. Further enhancements in customer support could also help.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Heroku simplifies deployment with its automated model and responsive customer support ideal for rapid launches. Google Cloud offers a complex deployment model with multiple custom options, supported by detailed documentation and extensive advanced support plans.

Pricing and ROI: Heroku offers competitive and predictable pricing, advantageous for budget-conscious teams which results in satisfactory ROI for smaller projects. Google Cloud features a complex pricing structure with scalable options that deliver high ROI for larger organizations, thanks to its comprehensive service offerings. The key difference lies in Heroku's predictable, lower-cost model versus Google Cloud's flexible pricing tailored for extensive use.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud vs. Heroku Report (Updated: June 2026).

Google Cloud vs. Heroku

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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 Cloud

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (3rd)

Heroku

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Google Cloud is 5.4%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Heroku is 3.0%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Google Cloud	5.4%
Heroku	3.0%
Other	91.6%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

AnjaneyaVara Prasad

Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Cloud services have reduced on‑prem hardware costs and now support flexible microservices workloads

Regarding potential areas of improvement for Google Cloud, considering that they are providing 300 plus services, some services could be improved. For example, if I am facing some network troubleshooting issue in GKE in Google Cloud, I have to dig deeply and enable some special logs, such as flow logs. To enable that, it is chargeable. At least for basic services, they should give end-to-end support. In terms of end-to-end support, if I am purchasing one firewall from Google and using that firewall, all firewall-related services should be free. If I want to troubleshoot something deep and perform deep troubleshooting, you have to enable some additional logs. That is not that good. If I have to enable additional logs and want to store them into Google Cloud storage, which is similar to an S3 bucket, it is again chargeable. Those kinds of things should be given as part of the package. If you take firewall, all firewall-related logs, activities, and diagnostics everything should come as one package. If you want to do some deep analysis, you have to enable these logs, and for that you have to store them in the cloud storage, which is again chargeable. We should not have those kinds of things.Regarding additional costs, it can vary case by case. If I want to do deep analysis, I have to enable some logs, and for those logs, Google is charging. I am already paying for my virtual firewall from Google, and I am paying the cost for that. If I want to do some further troubleshooting and enable some low-level logs, they are charging for that. So these are the kinds of things I am talking about. To do very deep-level troubleshooting and enable additional logs, they will be charging. Not only Google, but all clouds are charging for this. Functionality-wise, Google Cloud is fine. In terms of virtual machine deployment or VM instance, the functionality is good.

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Cristian-Molina

Senior Developer at Go Coeupas

Has a quick development cycle and continuous integration

The initial setup is straightforward. Heroku integrates well. You only have to push the code, and it automatically deploys the new version. Whether you have permission depends on the application. Currently, I have one application that I deploy myself. I rate the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable aspect is that it is cloud-based and we do not need to maintain any data center; everything is taken care of by a third party."

"The scalability is awesome, we don't have to do the heavy lifting of maintaining the infrastructure or anything, as everything is bundled up by Google."

"The solution's features are very good and our staff loves using them."

"I like it due to the fact that it can be accessed from everywhere and it can be used for every kind of solution you need."

"It's available any time you need it."

"Google Cloud's most valuable attribute is its capability for on-demand auto-scaling, and it also simplifies numerous intricate tasks for its users."

"Most recently, we implemented a data science agent for querying data using natural language, beyond that, it primarily relates to the cost effectiveness of data warehouse running costs versus competitors such as Snowflake."

"It is a stable solution."

More Google Cloud pros

"One of the best things about Heroku is that it is very easy and straightforward to deploy an application."

"My advice for anybody who is considering Heroku is that it's really simple to use, it's stable, and it is very powerful for continuous deployment."

"They solve most of our problems and we don't experience many issues with them."

"The most valuable feature of Heroku is the continuous integration and applications it provides."

"I have been a great fan of Heroku as it simplified my work for many years."

"Lots of integrations"

"Valuable for us was the fast deployment. This means the time to market is improved without pain for developers."

"I like the operations of the product because it makes it easy to push a change and to deploy new things."

More Heroku pros

Cons

"I cannot recall coming across any missing features."

"I always found that AWS is easier to use and more comprehensive."

"Google Cloud does not have many build pipelines like Azure does."

"The product should be more cost-effective."

"Lower pricing would make Google Cloud better."

"I would like for this solution to improve its user interface and documentation."

"The price of the license could be cheaper."

"An area of improvement could be the release of products prior to general availability not being performant, as releasing to private preview occurs too soon before products are ready."

More Google Cloud cons

"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."

"I have an issue with the session server in terms of how it can scale, and where I can put my sessions."

"There is an issue because Heroku supports Docker container images, but not if you're using the continuous integration infrastructure."

"Plugins aren't cheap (Mailchimp is $1.5/1000 emails)."

"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."

"But I recently got my account suspended because someone abused one of my apps."

"Heroku doesn't support Docker images on the CI infrastructure."

"We would like to be notified when something goes wrong in the process. When something is not working, we should get an alert."

More Heroku cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to Azure Cloud, Google Cloud is more expensive but it is okay."

"We use the NGO version so the cloud reasonably priced at $2 to $3 per month."

"The service is cheap and I give it a seven out of ten for the cost."

"Google Cloud could be cheaper."

"The price of the solution could be better."

"Google Cloud should be divided into modules so that users can buy which module will satisfy them. The overall price of Google Cloud should be reduced, Microsoft is a little bit cheaper. However, if Google divided the cloud offering it would be better. For example, if someone wants to use only for OneDrive they should be able to purchase the service separately, it would reduce the price. There is a license required to use this solution for enterprises. There is a free account, which the users can increase the size of the space. Google cloud is used in most Android Mobile device operating systems."

"It is not easy to calculate the price of the solution from the pricing table since they are not standard rates. However, I find the solution’s prices to be fair and reasonable."

"I don't pay for the license. For me, it's completely free."

More Google Cloud pricing and cost advice

"The tool is free."

"There is a standard fee for a processing unit, they call them "dynos," and then you pay for add-ons."

"I rate the tool's pricing a three out of ten."

"The price of Heroku could be less expensive."

"Its price is very good."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Comms Service Provider

10%

University

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	42
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	38

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud?

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud?

The main requirement from my clients to Google Cloud is to reduce the on-prem footprint or to minimize the maintenance cost of the on-prem data center. Those who are looking for a scalable solution...

What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud?

The AutoML feature of Google Cloud is really good. Google is providing good AI features. We have been leveraging ServiceNow integration through API. Whatever knowledge base articles are stored in S...

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.

What advice do you have for others considering Heroku?

The integration capabilities are great because of the quick integration and the management features. We don't need a lot of expertise and all external DevOps people. Heroku is the easiest platform ...

Alibaba Cloud vs Google Cloud

Comparisons

Compared 20% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Google Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Google Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs Google Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

More Google Cloud Competitors

Microsoft Azure vs Heroku

Compared 12% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Heroku

Compared 11% of the time

Google App Engine vs Heroku

Compared 8% of the time

Render vs Heroku

Compared 8% of the time

Konfigure vs Heroku

Compared 4% of the time

More Heroku Competitors

Product Reports

Google Cloud

Download Google Cloud product report

Download Heroku product report

Also Known As

GCP

No data available

Overview

Google Cloud offers a comprehensive platform renowned for cost-effectiveness, scalability, robust security, and seamless integration with tools such as Kubernetes, making it suitable for various business functions.

Google Cloud stands out for its ease of setup, stable infrastructure, and user-friendly interface. It provides essential features for AI, data analytics, and reliable storage, supporting multi-regional deployments for diverse applications. While maintaining minimal operational costs, it ensures simplified deployment and comprehensive application capabilities. However, improvements are needed in monitoring tools, customer support, documentation, and pricing options. Enhancements in stability, integration, and workload management are also required.

What are the essential features of Google Cloud?

Cost-effectiveness: Enables budget-friendly operations and reduced operational costs.
Easy Setup: Offers a straightforward and quick setup process.
Scalability: Supports growing business needs with vast resources and infrastructure.
Robust Security: Provides strong protection and compliance measures.
Seamless Integration: Effective integration with tools like Kubernetes and other applications.

What benefits and ROI can be observed?

Reduction in Operational Costs: Minimizes infrastructure and maintenance expenses.
Global Reach: Allows businesses to expand operations across multiple regions.
Flexibility: Adapts to different business models and rapid scaling needs.
Cross-Platform Compatibility: Facilitates integration with existing tools and platforms.

Industries leverage Google Cloud for infrastructure management, analytics, application hosting, and development environments. Entities utilize its cloud network, machine learning support, disaster recovery solutions, and big data handling. Many rely on Workspace tools for communication and virtual machine applications for efficient IT infrastructure deployment.

Google

Heroku offers fast deployment with ease of use and seamless integration capabilities, making it a preferred platform for developers needing reliable continuous integration and scalability.

Heroku is known for handling server-related tasks, allowing developers to concentrate on building application functionality. Its automatic database maintenance and powerful performance are key for projects using Node.js and Ruby on Rails. Users appreciate its simple application deployment and maintenance, supported by a diverse range of plugins. Beyond efficiency, its CLI and dashboards enable a straightforward user experience, essential for developers focused on production, staging, and development environments.

What are Heroku's key features?

Fast Deployment: Offers rapid application deployment with minimal setup.
Continuous Integration: Supports streamlined integration processes for development cycles.
Scalability: Easily scales applications to meet growing demand.
High Availability: Ensures applications remain online and responsive.
Automatic Database Maintenance: Provides hands-off management of database tasks.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Ease of Use: Simplifies complex tasks, allowing developers to focus on coding.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with tools like GitHub for updates.
Performance: Delivers consistent, reliable application performance.
Development Flexibility: Supports Node.js, Ruby on Rails, and Docker environments.

Organizations use Heroku to deploy production servers and stage development environments. Educational apps and offsite backends benefit from its Docker support. E-commerce, mobile app development, and web apps leverage Heroku's ability to maintain rapid development cycles and manage server deployment efficiently.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Facebook, UrbanDictionary, Code for America, Mailchimp, Rapportive, GitHub, TED, and Lyft.

Google Cloud vs. Heroku