Heroku vs IBM Public Cloud comparison

Heroku and IBM are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Heroku is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.7, while IBM is ranked #15 with an average rating of 6.7. Heroku holds a 3.4% mindshare in PSP, compared to IBM’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Heroku users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Heroku

Read 29 Heroku reviews

2,164 Views
1,948 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

IBM Public Cloud

Read 18 IBM Public Cloud reviews

2,196 Views
2,020 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Heroku

IBM Public Cloud

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Heroku and IBM Public Cloud are competing in the cloud service platform market. Heroku is known for simplicity and ease of use, while IBM Public Cloud stands out for its robust infrastructure and enterprise-level features.

Features: Heroku's valuable features include a seamless deployment process with multilingual support, easy scaling, and third-party integration focusing on developer experience. IBM Public Cloud offers a diverse range of services such as AI, IoT, data analytics, and strong security measures, highlighting its enterprise-grade capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Heroku can improve by enhancing its support for larger enterprise needs, offering more scalability options, and expanding its feature set to include better analytics tools. IBM Public Cloud could benefit by simplifying its deployment procedures, reducing the learning curve for new users, and addressing feedback regarding its pricing structure.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Heroku facilitates an easy deployment model allowing rapid application launches, suited for small to medium projects, with user-friendly service and support. IBM Public Cloud, while powerful and suited for complex enterprises, requires more learning and offers dedicated enterprise-level support services.

Pricing and ROI: Heroku offers a straightforward, affordable pricing model, ideal for startups with a focus on ROI through fast deployment. IBM Public Cloud has a reputation for higher costs but delivers significant ROI for businesses needing advanced features and scalability.

To learn more, read our detailed Heroku vs. IBM Public Cloud Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Heroku vs. IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

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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

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

IBM Public Cloud

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IoT Platforms (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Heroku is 3.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Public Cloud is 3.1%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Heroku	3.4%
IBM Public Cloud	3.1%
Other	93.5%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

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.

Read full review

Premnath Jaganathan

Product Manager at Uop Ipl

Affordability and security improve our cloud experience while learning new systems

I'm not working with any AI features in IBM Public Cloud, but they are in the process of building it.I am very satisfied with the security that IBM Public Cloud provides. I would rate IBM Public Cloud eight out of ten, where one is worst and ten is the best.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's easy to push a change and to deploy new things."

"I like the tool's scalability, CLI, and dashboards."

"What I found most valuable about this solution is that it's easy to use and integrate with GitHub actions."

"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."

"Thanks to Heroku, we don't need to do as much direct management in AWS."

"The product is stable."

"The platform is very Node.js-friendly, which is something that is important to us."

More Heroku pros

"For non-complex applications, the IBM Cloud works fine and the price is much lower than the competitors."

"It is a scalable product. You can scale it up and down."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations."

"One of the features that I really like about IBM Cloud is the flexibility where you can order your own hardware."

"This is a predictable and dependable service."

"An advantage of IBM Public Cloud is the bare metal server. We can take the bare metal server. It's not shared with anyone. We can deploy our applications without sharing them with anyone. That is an advantage of IBM Public Cloud."

"The beauty of cloud service providers, especially public cloud service providers, is that they are scalable every time when you need them because their payment model is pay-as-you-go."

"The price of IBM Cloud is most valuable for us. The service is personable and gives us a good rapport. I can't say it's the best, but it was enough for our needs."

More IBM Public Cloud pros

Cons

"The tool's configuration is complex."

"The pricing could be improved because scaling the database becomes costly."

"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."

"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."

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

"I think this solution would be improved if free demos were available indefinitely."

"Heroku should increase its slug size limits."

"Their support is good, but they can improve their response time."

More Heroku cons

"The deployment can be a bit of a pain. There are a lot of packages and a lot of options and it can require complex configuration to get it right."

"The initial setup and the pricing are areas that need improvement."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"The product should offer more computing, similar to Amazon."

"Support could be improved."

"While they have about 99% of what we need, the only exception, perhaps, was the push notification feature that was discontinued. They delayed the replacement product."

"It could be more secure."

"I would like to see a more user-friendly deployment process in the next release of this solution."

More IBM Public Cloud cons

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."

"In order to be competitive, you have to commit to a contract for at least one year, but you pay a fixed monthly fee."

"The licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."

"We are using the trial version of this solution, so we have not paid anything."

"It pretty much has a standard price. There is no hidden price with IBM Public Cloud."

"The price of IBM Cloud is very cheap compared to competitors AWS and Azure."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."

"Pricing is not as fair as Amazon or Azure."

"IBM Public Cloud is pretty cheap. They have an ongoing free tier that basically won't expire, so as long as your solution is small enough, you can have a test set that you can use for demos, which will cost you almost nothing."

More IBM Public Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

University

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Heroku?

I like the tool's scalability, CLI, and dashboards.

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Heroku?

We use the solution for web applications and web APIs.

See all answers

Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?

IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud?

The front end is not pervasive, so it is very difficult get the status of your current services or account from a mobile device.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Public Cloud?

The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure vs Heroku

Compared 17% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Heroku

Compared 12% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Heroku

Compared 11% of the time

AWS Fargate vs Heroku

Compared 9% of the time

Render vs Heroku

Compared 9% of the time

More Heroku Competitors

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 32% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 29% of the time

Amazon AWS vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 21% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Public Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Heroku

September 2025

Download Heroku product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

Download IBM Public Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

IBM Bluemix

Overview

Established in 2007, Heroku is a cloud application platform providing a streamlined, efficient place for web app developers to create and deploy their applications. Heroku is designed to maximize developer productivity. With the entire web application development process available on the Herokucloud, creating and rolling out web apps has been made more efficient, convenient, and cost-effective than ever before.

Heroku

IBM Cloud is a full-stack cloud platform that spans public, private and hybrid environments. Build with a robust suite of advanced data and AI tools, and draw on deep industry expertise to help you on your journey to the cloud.

IBM

Sample Customers

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

Uvionics Tech, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alpha Modus, Inventive, Web Business Consulting, FindBrok, SilverHook Powerboats, United Way of Allegheny County

Buyer's Guide

Heroku vs. IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

Free Report: Heroku vs. IBM Public Cloud

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