Heroku vs Cloudways(2026)
Heroku is better for teams that need large add-ons ecosystem. Cloudways is the stronger choice if freedom to pick underlying cloud provider. Heroku is paid (from $5/month) and Cloudways is paid (from $14/month).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
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Heroku
Heroku is a platform as a service (PaaS) that enables developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud.
Starting at $5/month
Visit HerokuCloudways
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that runs on top of AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr — abstracting server management while giving you cloud flexibility.
Starting at $14/month
Visit CloudwaysHow Do Heroku and Cloudways Compare on Features?
| Feature | Heroku | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | $5/month | $14/month |
| Git push deploy | ✓ | — |
| Add-ons marketplace | ✓ | — |
| Managed PostgreSQL | ✓ | — |
| Review apps | ✓ | — |
| CI/CD pipeline | ✓ | — |
| Multi-cloud (AWS, GCE, DO, Linode, Vultr) | — | ✓ |
| One-click app installs | — | ✓ |
| Managed security and patching | — | ✓ |
| PHP/Node/Laravel/WordPress support | — | ✓ |
| Team collaboration | — | ✓ |
| Performance monitoring | — | ✓ |
Heroku Pros and Cons vs Cloudways
Heroku
Cloudways
Should You Use Heroku or Cloudways?
Choose Heroku if…
- •Large add-ons ecosystem
- •Mature platform
- •Good documentation
Choose Cloudways if…
- •Freedom to pick underlying cloud provider
- •Significantly cheaper than managed alternatives
- •No server management headaches