Heroku vs Heroku Postgres: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will explore the key differences between Heroku and Heroku Postgres. Heroku is a cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that allows developers to build, run, and scale applications easily, while Heroku Postgres is a relational database service provided by Heroku.

1. Pricing: One of the main differences between Heroku and Heroku Postgres is their pricing model. Heroku charges for the resources used by the application, such as dynos (computing containers) and add-ons, while Heroku Postgres has its own pricing based on the size of the database and the required performance level. This means that you can use Heroku without necessarily using Heroku Postgres, and vice versa.

2. Scalability: Heroku provides a wide range of scaling options for applications, allowing you to easily increase or decrease the number of dynos to handle different levels of traffic. However, Heroku Postgres offers limited scalability options and requires manual resizing of the database instance or using database forks for increased capacity.

3. Database Management: Heroku takes care of the infrastructure and management of the application platform, including features such as deploying, monitoring, and scaling the application. On the other hand, Heroku Postgres focuses solely on database management and provides advanced features like backup, replication, and data rollback.

4. Data Persistence: Heroku Postgres ensures data persistence by providing reliable and durable storage for your application's database. It offers features like automatic backups, replication, and failover to ensure data availability and integrity. Heroku, on the other hand, does not provide built-in data persistence as it is primarily a platform for running applications.

5. Compatibility: Heroku supports various programming languages and frameworks, allowing developers to build applications using their preferred tools. Heroku Postgres, being a PostgreSQL-based service, is compatible with standard SQL and supports many PostgreSQL features, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.

6. Data Isolation: Heroku Postgres provides data isolation by allowing you to create multiple database instances, each with its own database connection and access credentials. This ensures that the data for different applications or environments remains separate. Heroku, on the other hand, does not provide direct data isolation as it is primarily an application platform, but you can implement data isolation within your application code.

In summary, Heroku is a cloud platform-as-a-service that handles the infrastructure and management of applications, while Heroku Postgres is a PostgreSQL-based relational database service that focuses on database management. They differ in pricing, scalability, database management, data persistence, compatibility, and data isolation.