Is Heroku's Extended-0 the best deal?

Before you switch

• Verify that none of the alternatives support Apache Kafka or Kafka-compatible APIs; the candidate list appears to contain only relational databases and caches, not message brokers.
• If you need Kafka specifically, compare against AWS MSK, Confluent Cloud, or other dedicated Kafka providers rather than general-purpose database services.
• Confirm Heroku's retention, throughput, and partition limits for Extended-0 against your actual workload before committing to the $4000/mo tier.
• Review whether Heroku's 6-week retention and 400GB capacity meet your use case; overages or tier jumps could trigger unplanned costs.
• Check if Heroku Kafka pricing includes network egress or if data transfer out is billed separately, as this is a common hidden cost in managed streaming.