Heroku vs AWS: 10 Most Important Differences You Must Know!
Details
What is AWS?
Amazon web service is a platform that offers flexible, reliable, scalable, easy-to-use and cost-effective cloud computing solutions.
AWS has a massive collection of cloud services that build up a fully-fledged platform. It is known as a powerhouse of storage, databases, analytics, networking and deployment/delivery options offered to developers. AWS Cloud is available in 16 different geographic regions, and the number is increasing.
Heroku is a cloud service provider and software development platform which facilitates fast and effective building, deploying and scaling of web applications. It has 140 inbuilt add-ons, ranging from alerts, analytic tools security services which are used for purpose like monitoring, caching and mailing or networking add-ons.
The tool can provide you with built-in instant run-time application services. Moreover, you don't need to think about infrastructure because it managed automatically by the software itself. Heroku is owned by Salesforce.
Heroku is a Platform as a Service built on Top of AWS
KEY DIFFERENCE
Heroku is container-base cloud platform offering (PaaS) whereas AWS is a secure cloud services platform providing IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.
Heroku offers you a ready-to-use environment that allows you to deploy your code fast whereas the deployment process of AWS service is quite complicated.
Heroku is best suitable for Startups, Medium Businesses whereas AWS is mainly focused on Medium Businesses and Large Enterprises.
Heroku can meet low computational demands whereas AWS can meet high/very high computational demands.
USA, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, China, etc.
Features
Fully flexible runtime environment with smart containers (dynos) system.
Allows manual horizontal and vertical scaling
Allows you to roll back your database or code in no time.
App monitoring system to keep track of metrics, like response time, throughput, memory, etc.
Multiple deployment options and the ability to roll back to the previous version
Quick restart of all app servers by using a single command
Automatic scaling of web apps based on their specific needs and defined conditions.
Best for
Startups, Medium Businesses, Large Enterprises
Medium Businesses, LargeEnterprises
Companies using
Toyota, Citrix, Westfield, Yesware, etc.
BMW Group.Airbnb, Coursera. Atlassian, etc.
Complexity
It's software some time too simple, even for professional developers.
Suitable for sophisticated products build by professionals. Not easy for beginners
Built-in Tools for Management and Monitoring
Heroku Command Line
Heroku Application Metrics
Heroku Connect
Heroku Status
AWS Management Console AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI).
Heroku Service Level Agreements
Available for Enterprise projects
Available for Elastic Compute Cloud
Rapid deployment
Heroku offers you a ready-to-use environment which allows you to push your code and make a few configuration changes to get your application running.
The deployment process of AWS service is quite hard.
Need DevOps Engineer
Not at all
Must
Development of server
The creation of a server is a simple process.
The creation of a server is a relatively complicated process.
Computational demands
Low
High
Disadvantages of Heroku
Here, are cons/drawbacks of using Heroku:
Heroku dynos are frequently unreachable for various reasons
Inbound and outbound latency is high.
It offers low network performance.
Heroku does not allow you to run any other services on dynos.
To purchase additional dynos/workers, you need to pay $35 a month which is quite costly.
It proves to be expensive for large and high-traffic apps.
Limited in types of instances
Not ideally suited for heavy-computing projects.
Disadvantages of AWS
Unreliable deployment with no error description
AWS deployment process is not easy and very lengthy which can take up to 15 to 20 minute for a simple website
AWS is not an ideal option for start-ups that are not tech-savvy
Less frequent updates and new stack versions.
You need to deploy your application yourself using recipes, Capistrano, or manually.
Launching multiple app instances is not an easy process in AWS.
The Verdict
Heroku and AWS both are excellent platforms. However, you need to understand what kind of feature your organization needs and how much you are ready to pay for them. You also need to ascertain the skills sets (especially DevOps) in your team before you make a choice. The right platform is one which helps you achieve your business goal and at the same time keeps your developers productive.