Deploying web applications in the cloud has never been easier thanks to intuitive platforms like Netlify and Heroku. But how do you decide which one is the best fit for hosting your next big app? This comprehensive guide examines the core functionality of each platform across key areas like languages/frameworks supported, Git integration, database options, content hosting, pricing models and more. Read on to determine which platform aligns closest with your feature and budget needs.
Overview of Netlify and Heroku
Both Netlify and Heroku offer Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions for launching web apps without managing servers yourself. But they take slightly different approaches:
Netlify is a simpler, more constrained platform optimized for static sites built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It shines for use cases like:
- Landing pages
- Marketing sites
- Documentation
- Blogs
- Portfolios
- Basic web apps with some interactivity
Heroku offers a more full-featured PaaS supporting popular server-side languages like Ruby, Python, PHP, Go and more. It’s better suited for:
- Content management systems (CMS)
- Database-backed web apps
- eCommerce stores
- Web services with robust backend logic
- Mobile/browser apps needing API integration
So while basic websites can run on either platform, Heroku provides greater flexibility for customization at the cost of more complexity. Netlify trades flexibility for simplicity.
Language and Framework Support
Since Netlify focuses on static sites, it only requires frontend code written in HTML/CSS/JS to deploy. But that doesn’t mean your options are limited. Netlify supports popular JS frameworks like:
- React
- Vue
- Angular
- Svelte
- Gatsby
It automatically detects and builds sites using these frameworks. For example, Netlify can run npm run build when you push React code to compile down to static assets.
Herokualternatively supports a breadth of backend and frontend languages:
- Ruby
- Python
- PHP
- Go
- Scala
- Clojure
- Node.js
- Java
- And more
This language versatility makes Heroku adaptable to more use cases. For example, you could run a Ruby on Rails app on Heroku with a React frontend. Or build a Scala-based API with Angular consuming it.
So if you need Ruby, Python, Go etc. then Heroku is likely the better fit over Netlify.
Git and GitHub Integration
Both platforms provide excellent CI/CD pipelines tied to Git and GitHub. When you push code changes, they will automatically rebuild and redeploy your app.
For example, the workflow on both Netlify and Heroku looks like:
- Push code changes to GitHub repo
- Platform detects changes and pulls latest commit
- Build process runs (npm, dependencies installed)
- New version of app is deployed
- Rollback to previous version if build fails
This automation speeds up and simplifies the development process. Less time is wasted manually building, packaging and uploading app updates.
While GitHub is popular, both platforms also work with BitBucket and GitLab – so you‘re not locked into any one git hosting service. Overall the CI/CD integration is excellent on both Netlify and Heroku.
Database and Storage Options
When it comes to data persistence, Heroku has more robust options through add-ons like:
- PostgresSQL: Full-featured relational database easily provisioned.
- Redis: In-memory data store and cache.
- MongoDB: Popular JSON document database.
Other Heroku add-ons provide functionality like sending email, monitoring app performance, running background jobs and more.
Netlify alternatively offers basic data storage through Netlify Forms. Submitted data can be saved to your Google Sheet or sent to a custom endpoint. But relational data storage and manipulation requires a third-party service integration like:
- Airtable
- FaunaDB
- Cloud Firestore
So if you need to search, filter or run advanced queries on related data – Heroku‘s built-in Postgres is likely the simpler solution. Netlify would require additional work to integrate a robust database.
Content Hosting
A major difference between the two platforms is how site content is hosted.
With Netlify‘s static-site model, all HTML, images, CSS, JS etc. must be stored in a GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket repo. This external hosting provides version control and backups for your content.
But on Heroku, you can use a local git repo to store and push all code and assets. No need to rely on a third-party Git provider. Heroku builds and hosts the live site itself.
This gives Heroku users greater flexibility and control over their content. Netlify‘s dependency on GitHub or Bitbucket to host files can be limiting if you ever want to migrate away. Just something to consider as your site grows long term.
Pricing Comparison
Both platforms utilize a "freemium"-style pricing model with free tiers to incentivize new users and development teams. But how do the paid plans compare for serious projects at scale?
Netlify‘s pricing starts at:
- Free: Limited features useful for experiments
- $45/month: 5 team members, advanced features
- $290/month: 10 team members, added functionality
So even at 10 members with more features unlocked, Netlify is reasonably affordable.
Heroku offers hobby dyno units, each allowing:
- 1000 Free dyno hours/month
- $7/month for extra dyno usage
- $25+ for more RAM, faster CPU etc.
The key difference is Netlify charges per team member while Heroku charges per compute usage.
This means Heroku can scale more cost effectively for high-traffic apps. 10 heavy users on Netlify would be $290/month but may only incur $25/month of dyno charges on Heroku.
However, Heroku‘s addon costs can grow quickly for extras like Postgres, Redis, email services and more. So both platforms can become expensive with complex infrastructure – but Heroku allows finer cost control.
Verdict – Assessing Your Needs
Deciding between Netlify and Heroku depends mainly on your app requirements:
- For simple static sites, Netlify is the winner. Quicker to deploy, simpler hosting model.
- For advanced server-side apps, Heroku provides more flexibility.
Other considerations around scale, database needs and pricing also come into play. Both platforms enable you to prototype and launch web apps for low monthly fees. Assess your long-term vision to pick the optimal solution from the start.
Overall Netlify and Heroku both deliver excellent web app hosting experiences – just suited for different use cases. Hopefully mapping out their core differences here provides some guidance! Let us know if you have any other questions.
