European Alternatives to Heroku
Looking for a European alternative to Heroku? Since Heroku discontinued its free tier and remains a US-based service (owned by Salesforce), many developers are seeking alternatives that offer similar ease of use with better pricing and European data protection.
We've curated the best Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions built in Europe. These alternatives provide Heroku-like deployment experiences with git-push workflows, automatic scaling, and managed databases - all while keeping your data protected under GDPR.
Why Choose a European Alternative to Heroku?
GDPR Protection
Your data and your users' data stays in Europe under GDPR protection.
Better Pricing
Competitive pricing without Heroku's premium costs after free tier removal.
No US Surveillance
Free from CLOUD Act and other US data access laws.
Git-Push Deploy
Same simple deployment workflow you know and love.
Best European Alternatives to Heroku
We've curated the best PaaS platforms from European companies. Each alternative has been evaluated for developer experience, features, and GDPR compliance.
Clever Cloud
French PaaS with true Heroku-like experience
Northflank
Modern PaaS with container-native deployments
Frequently Asked Questions
Clever Cloud is often considered the closest European equivalent to Heroku, offering the same git-push deployment experience with add-ons for databases and other services. For enterprise users, Platform.sh provides more advanced features. For budget-conscious developers, self-hosted options like Dokku on Hetzner offer excellent value.
Heroku discontinued its free tier in November 2022, citing abuse of free resources and a desire to focus on their paying customers. This affected free dynos, free Postgres, and free Redis. This change has led many developers to explore alternatives, with European options being attractive for both pricing and GDPR compliance.
Yes, most European PaaS alternatives support similar deployment workflows. Clever Cloud and Platform.sh both support git-push deployments. Self-hosted options like Dokku even support Heroku buildpacks directly, making migration straightforward. You'll mainly need to update your database connections and environment variables.
Generally, yes. Clever Cloud's entry-level plans start around 4.50 EUR/month compared to Heroku's €7/month minimum. Self-hosted options like Dokku on Hetzner can cost as little as 4-5 EUR/month total for a capable setup. The savings become even more significant at scale.
European PaaS providers have their own add-on ecosystems. Clever Cloud offers databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis), message queues, and more. For services not available as native add-ons, you can typically use third-party services directly - many popular services like Mailgun or SendGrid work with any hosting provider.
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