Google CloudvsHeroku

Platform62

Platform48

Score Comparison

Overall

Pricing

Usability

Performance

Support

Reliability

Onboarding

Security

Integrations

Google CloudHeroku

Signals Comparison

Pricing

Google Cloud

Billing surprises even with credits(9/10)
Data egress and networking costs surprise users(8/10)
Free tier extremely limited compared to AWS(6/10)

Heroku

Free tier eliminated in November 2022(10/10)
Costs escalate quickly with scale(9/10)
Billing continues after account deletion(8/10)
Eco dynos sleep after 30 minutes(6/10)
Limited payment options - credit card only(4/10)

Support

Google Cloud

Impossible to reach human support(9/10)
Support slow with wait times(7/10)

Heroku

Customer support described as 'comically bad'(8/10)

Reliability

Google Cloud

June 2025 global outage - 6 hours downtime(10/10)
Account suspension causes data loss risk(9/10)

Heroku

June 10, 2025 outage - 15+ hours of downtime(10/10)
Entering sustaining engineering mode - no new features(9/10)
Multiple major outages in June 2025(9/10)
Status page ran on affected infrastructure(8/10)

Usability

Google Cloud

Steep learning curve and overwhelming complexity(7/10)
Console interface slow and laggy(5/10)

Heroku

GitHub deployment errors and log tracking issues(6/10)

Integrations

Google Cloud

DevOps tooling less mature than competitors(6/10)

Heroku

No signals

Customization

Google Cloud

Cloud Functions single-file code limitation(5/10)

Heroku

Limited infrastructure control - vendor lock-in(8/10)

Performance

Google Cloud

Cold start latency affects serverless performance(5/10)

Heroku

No signals

Pricing Comparison

Google Cloud

Free Trial ($300 credits)

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: As credits allow

Limits: 90-day expiration, some services not eligible, GPU/TPU restrictions may apply

Credits may be ignored while charges still apply per some reports, no warnings before credit exhaustion

Always Free Tier

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: 5GB Cloud Storage

Limits: Extremely limited compared to AWS Free Tier, e2-micro only, US-west1/central1/east1 only

Very limited - most services not included, egress beyond 1GB charged, only US regions free

Compute Engine (e2-micro)

Popular

$7.67/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: Separate

Limits: Shared vCPU, basic support only, limited for production

Egress $0.12/GB (first 10TB), storage extra, premium images cost more

Premium Support

$12500/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: N/A

Limits: Very expensive, Essential/Standard support with longer response times also available

Minimum $12,500/mo or 4% of spend (whichever higher), required for SLA guarantees

Heroku

Eco Dynos

$5/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: N/A

Limits: Sleeping dynos, not suitable for production, no custom domains on some plans

Dynos sleep after 30 min inactivity (10-30s wake time), hours shared across ALL apps

Basic Dynos

Popular

$7/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: N/A

Limits: No memory scaling, no autoscaling, basic monitoring only

Database separate (Mini Postgres $5/mo), add-ons extra, each dyno billed separately

Standard-1X

$25/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: N/A

Limits: Still single-tenant, no dedicated resources

Standard-2X is $50/mo, databases charged separately, add-ons accumulate

Performance-M

$250/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: N/A

Limits: Still limited compared to raw cloud VMs at similar prices

Performance-L is $500/mo, Shield (compliance) adds more, enterprise pricing opaque

Feature Comparison

Feature	Google Cloud	Heroku
Infrastructure
Compute Engine (VMs)
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Best-in-class
40+ Global Regions
Deployment
Git Push Deployment Heroku pioneered this
Container Support Docker support
Databases
Managed Postgres Mini $5/mo
Managed Redis $3/mo start
Storage
Cloud Storage
Analytics
BigQuery Industry-leading
Integrations
Add-on Marketplace Extensive options
AI
Vertex AI / Gemini Leading AI platform
TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) Unique to Google
CI/CD
Review Apps
Compute
Cloud Functions Cold start issues
Scaling
Autoscaling Standard+ only
Pricing
Free Tier Removed Nov 2022
Platform
New Features Development Sustaining mode Feb 2026
Support
Free Technical Support Paid plans required
DevOps
DevOps/CI-CD Tools Less mature than competitors
Availability
Always-On ($5) Eco dynos sleep

Signals Comparison

Pricing

Google Cloud

Billing surprises even with credits(9/10)
Data egress and networking costs surprise users(8/10)
Free tier extremely limited compared to AWS(6/10)

Heroku

Free tier eliminated in November 2022(10/10)
Costs escalate quickly with scale(9/10)
Billing continues after account deletion(8/10)
Eco dynos sleep after 30 minutes(6/10)
Limited payment options - credit card only(4/10)

Support

Google Cloud

Impossible to reach human support(9/10)
Support slow with wait times(7/10)

Heroku

Customer support described as 'comically bad'(8/10)

Reliability

Google Cloud

June 2025 global outage - 6 hours downtime(10/10)
Account suspension causes data loss risk(9/10)

Heroku

June 10, 2025 outage - 15+ hours of downtime(10/10)
Entering sustaining engineering mode - no new features(9/10)
Multiple major outages in June 2025(9/10)
Status page ran on affected infrastructure(8/10)

Usability

Google Cloud

Steep learning curve and overwhelming complexity(7/10)
Console interface slow and laggy(5/10)

Heroku

GitHub deployment errors and log tracking issues(6/10)

Integrations

Google Cloud

DevOps tooling less mature than competitors(6/10)

Heroku

No signals

Customization

Google Cloud

Cloud Functions single-file code limitation(5/10)

Heroku

Limited infrastructure control - vendor lock-in(8/10)

Performance

Google Cloud

Cold start latency affects serverless performance(5/10)

Heroku

No signals

Pricing Comparison

Google Cloud

Free Trial ($300 credits)

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: As credits allow

Limits: 90-day expiration, some services not eligible, GPU/TPU restrictions may apply

Credits may be ignored while charges still apply per some reports, no warnings before credit exhaustion

Always Free Tier

Free

Users: N/A

Storage: 5GB Cloud Storage

Limits: Extremely limited compared to AWS Free Tier, e2-micro only, US-west1/central1/east1 only

Very limited - most services not included, egress beyond 1GB charged, only US regions free

Compute Engine (e2-micro)

Popular

$7.67/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: Separate

Limits: Shared vCPU, basic support only, limited for production

Egress $0.12/GB (first 10TB), storage extra, premium images cost more

Premium Support

$12500/mo

Users: Unlimited

Storage: N/A

Limits: Very expensive, Essential/Standard support with longer response times also available

Minimum $12,500/mo or 4% of spend (whichever higher), required for SLA guarantees

Heroku

Eco Dynos

$5/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: N/A

Limits: Sleeping dynos, not suitable for production, no custom domains on some plans

Dynos sleep after 30 min inactivity (10-30s wake time), hours shared across ALL apps

Basic Dynos

Popular

$7/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: N/A

Limits: No memory scaling, no autoscaling, basic monitoring only

Database separate (Mini Postgres $5/mo), add-ons extra, each dyno billed separately

Standard-1X

$25/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: N/A

Limits: Still single-tenant, no dedicated resources

Standard-2X is $50/mo, databases charged separately, add-ons accumulate

Performance-M

$250/mo

Users: N/A

Storage: N/A

Limits: Still limited compared to raw cloud VMs at similar prices

Performance-L is $500/mo, Shield (compliance) adds more, enterprise pricing opaque

Feature Comparison

Feature	Google Cloud	Heroku
Infrastructure
Compute Engine (VMs)
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Best-in-class
40+ Global Regions
Deployment
Git Push Deployment Heroku pioneered this
Container Support Docker support
Databases
Managed Postgres Mini $5/mo
Managed Redis $3/mo start
Storage
Cloud Storage
Analytics
BigQuery Industry-leading
Integrations
Add-on Marketplace Extensive options
AI
Vertex AI / Gemini Leading AI platform
TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) Unique to Google
CI/CD
Review Apps
Compute
Cloud Functions Cold start issues
Scaling
Autoscaling Standard+ only
Pricing
Free Tier Removed Nov 2022
Platform
New Features Development Sustaining mode Feb 2026
Support
Free Technical Support Paid plans required
DevOps
DevOps/CI-CD Tools Less mature than competitors
Availability
Always-On ($5) Eco dynos sleep