Is Heroku's Advanced 4G-Performance the best deal?

Heroku Postgres · $0/mo (4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 102400 GB)

Better deals exist

Heroku's Advanced 4G-Performance tier pricing is opaque and requires sales contact, making direct comparison difficult. However, several published alternatives offer 2-4GB RAM PostgreSQL at $11-65/mo with transparent pricing and comparable or better specs. For workloads that don't require Heroku's ecosystem lock-in, Scaleway, Azure, and DigitalOcean deliver significantly lower entry costs.

DB-DEV-S

$11/mo

Lowest published price at $11/mo for 2GB RAM PostgreSQL with transparent billing and no sales gatekeeping.

Caveat: Development/prototyping tier only, no HA available, and not suitable for production workloads requiring 99.9%+ SLA.

Burstable B1ms

$12.41/mo

Published pricing at $12.41/mo for 2GB RAM with 99.99% SLA and no sales contact required.

Caveat: Burstable CPU model may not suit sustained workloads, and storage/backup billed separately (~$0.115/GB/mo); outbound bandwidth charged above 100GB/month pooled free tier.

Managed Databases OpenSearch Basic 2GB

$19.6/mo

Transparent $19.6/mo pricing for 2GB RAM with 99.99% SLA and straightforward bandwidth overage model ($0.01/GB).

Caveat: Product listed as OpenSearch (not PostgreSQL); verify if this matches your database engine requirement.

Managed Databases 2GB Standard

$30/mo

Fixed $30/mo for 2GB RAM with 80GB disk, 100GB transfer included, and 99.9% SLA; no hidden tier cliffs like Heroku Essential.

Caveat: Data transfer overage varies by region ($0.09-$0.132/GB); 80GB disk is smaller than Heroku's 100GB-100TB range.

Managed Database PostgreSQL Essential DB1-4

$64.24/mo

Published $64.24/mo for 4GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 80-240GB storage, and 99.99% SLA; matches Heroku's Advanced tier specs more closely.

Caveat: IPv4 addresses billed separately; APAC region outbound traffic loses free-egress status after mid-2026; storage overage charged at $0.0004/GB/hr.

Before you switch

Heroku Advanced 4G pricing is not published; obtain a quote before committing to avoid sticker shock or lock-in.
Heroku Postgres Essential tier has a reliability cliff (99.5% SLA, no fork/follow, no HA) compared to Standard; verify which tier you actually need.
Heroku add-on overages (row/connection limits) can force unplanned tier upgrades; monitor usage closely or choose a provider with more granular scaling.
Scaleway and Azure Burstable options are best for dev/test; production workloads may need higher-tier HA options that narrow the cost gap.
Verify database engine compatibility: DigitalOcean's listed option is OpenSearch, not PostgreSQL; confirm the provider supports your required engine.
OVHcloud and other alternatives may have regional egress billing changes or IPv4 surcharges; factor these into total cost of ownership.
AWS Lightsail and Linode require established payment history or have bandwidth overage rates that vary by region; request a cost projection for your expected traffic.

This comparison is generated from publicly listed pricing and may contain errors or omissions. It is not financial or professional advice, and CloudHosting.io is not responsible for decisions made based on it. Pricing, promotions, and specs change frequently and may not reflect current terms, regional availability, taxes, or contract length. Always verify current pricing and terms directly on the provider's site before purchasing or switching.

Comparable plans across providers

Provider	Plan	Price	Specs
Scaleway	Managed Database for PostgreSQL and MySQL · DB-DEV-S	$11/mo	2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB SSD	Visit
Microsoft Azure	Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server · Burstable B1ms	$12.41/mo	2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU	Visit
DigitalOcean	Managed Databases · OpenSearch Basic 2GB	$19.6/mo	2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU	Visit
AWS Lightsail	Managed Databases · 2GB Standard	$30/mo	2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 80 GB	Visit
UpCloud	Managed MySQL · Single-node 1x2GB	$30/mo	2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB	Visit
UpCloud	Managed PostgreSQL · Single-node 1x2GB	$30/mo	2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB	Visit
Vultr	Managed Databases · MySQL CC-HP 2vCPU/2GB (0 rep)	$54/mo	2 GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 80 GB	Visit
OVHcloud	Managed Database - MongoDB · Production DB2-2	$54.09/mo	2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU	Visit
Render	Render Postgres · Pro-4gb	$55/mo	4 GB RAM, 1 vCPU	Visit
OVHcloud	Managed Database - Valkey (Redis-compatible) · Essential DB1-4	$55.77/mo	4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU	Visit
OVHcloud	Analytics - Managed Dashboards (Grafana) · Essential DB1-4	$55.77/mo	4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU	Visit
OVHcloud	Managed Database - MySQL · Essential DB1-4	$64.24/mo	4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU	Visit
OVHcloud	Managed Database - PostgreSQL · Essential DB1-4	$64.24/mo	4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU	Visit
Linode (Akamai)	Managed Databases · Shared 4 GB - Standalone	$65/mo	4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 80 GB SSD	Visit
OVHcloud	Analytics - OpenSearch · Essential DB1-4	$70.08/mo	4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU	Visit

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Comparing prices across every provider we track...