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Heroku

Heroku is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) owned by Salesforce, tied for the #37 most-used cloud platform in developer surveys at roughly 5.2% usage share. It was one of the original "push to deploy" platforms — running git push heroku main automatically builds and deploys your app — and that simplicity shaped how a whole generation of developers think about deployment. It's freemium today, with paid plans only (the free tier was discontinued in 2022).

Quick facts
Type: Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
Made by: Salesforce
License: Proprietary, freemium (paid plans only, free tier discontinued)
Platforms/Hosting: Fully managed cloud platform
Primary use case: Deploying web apps and APIs with a simple git-push workflow, no server management
Jump to: ExampleGetting startedBest for

Example

Heroku reads a Procfile in your repo root to know how to run your app, then deploys whatever you push to its git remote.

# Procfile — tells Heroku how to start your app
web: gunicorn app:app

# create the app and set the git remote
heroku create my-app-name

# deploy by pushing to the heroku remote
git push heroku main

# tail the running app's logs
heroku logs --tail

Getting started

Install the Heroku CLI, log in, then create an app inside an existing git repo.

# install the CLI (Windows/macOS/Linux installers available)
npm install -g heroku

# log in from the terminal
heroku login

# create a new Heroku app tied to this repo
heroku create
Best for: Small teams and solo developers who want a working production deploy in minutes without configuring servers, load balancers, or CI pipelines by hand — at the cost of paying a premium once traffic grows.