Whisk vs Heroku
Heroku is a general hosting service for developers. You send it your code and it runs it. You add a database, logins and scheduling from its marketplace, and each one has its own price.
Whisk runs business apps that your AI coding assistant puts online. Logins, a database, backups, scheduled jobs and workflows are all included, for one flat price per app.
If you're building a public product for anyone to use, Heroku is a general option. If you're running tools for your own team and clients, Whisk already includes what those tools need.
At a glance
| Heroku | Whisk | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it's for | Developers deploying any kind of web app | Businesses running their own tools, built by an AI coding assistant |
| How you pay | Per running server ("dyno"), from $5 to $1,500 a month each, plus each add-on | Per live app, flat: one app free, Starter is $49 a month for 10 apps |
| Logins | Not included: you build it or add a third-party service | Included: every app gets logins for your team and your customers |
| Database | Postgres is a paid add-on, from $5 a month | Each app gets its own Postgres database, included |
| Backups | Daily backups on every database tier; rolling back to a point in time needs the $50-a-month tier or above | Backed up; restore it yourself on any paid plan |
| Scheduled jobs | Scheduler add-on, which Heroku says is "expected but not guaranteed" to run each job | Schedules and durable workflows with retries, included |
| Leaving | Easy: your code is in git and database backups download as standard files | Easy: your code is in your repository; export the database and files at any time |
Prices are in US dollars, from Heroku's pricing page and Whisk's in October 2026.
Heroku's future
In February 2026 Heroku said it is moving to a "sustaining engineering" model: it keeps the platform stable and secure, but stops adding features, and it no longer signs new Enterprise contracts. Existing apps keep running and no end date has been announced. It's worth knowing if you're choosing a home for a tool you'll use for years.
How pricing compares
On Heroku, one small production app with a web server, a background worker and a standard database comes to roughly $100 a month at list prices, before you add logins. Each extra app adds its own servers and database.
On Whisk, the first app is free and Starter is $49 a month for 10 live apps. Each one has its own database, logins, backups and schedules, and they can all stay on. Team is $149 for 50 apps if you outgrow that.
When Heroku is the better choice
- You're building a public product, an API or something that needs to scale to many thousands of users.
- You need Heroku's marketplace of add-ons, or its close links to Salesforce.
- Your developers already know it well and your apps already run there.
When Whisk is the better choice
- The apps are for your team and your clients, and they need logins from day one.
- An AI assistant is doing the building, and you want it to deploy without assembling services.
- You run several small tools and don't want to pay for servers and a database for each one.
- You want schedules and workflows that run reliably, retry when something fails and tell you when they can't.