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Comparison · DevOps
Heroku vs PlanetScale
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Heroku and PlanetScale — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Heroku vs PlanetScale: at a glance
What is Heroku?
Runtime bumps most weeks, but a new stack, a stack deprecation and an AI model cull underneath
Heroku's changelog is dominated by runtime maintenance - Node.js, .NET, Python, Ruby, Go and PHP updates land most weeks, often several in a day. Beneath that cadence the platform shipped real structural changes over May and June 2026: Heroku-26 reached general availability while Heroku-22 was deprecated, Heroku Connect opened to independent software vendors, a GitHub Enterprise Cloud integration arrived, Custom Trusted IPs came to Fir Private Spaces, and the CLI moved credential storage into system keychains. On the AI side, Heroku added Claude Opus 4.8 support in late May and then began deprecating select models from Managed Inference and Agents a week later.
What is PlanetScale?
PlanetScale is building out Postgres while making every control reachable without the dashboard.
The Postgres line carries the new capability: vectorscale extension support, storage configurable at database creation, out-of-memory alerts by both email and webhook, a customisable log line prefix, a Discovery Tool for evaluating existing databases, and updated pricing for private connection traffic. Database Traffic Control introduced resource budgets and has since gained warning thresholds and CLI management. The surface work is constant — API endpoints for backup policies, maintenance schedules, schema recommendations, deploy-request storage checks and invoice status, a Terraform provider at v1, and an Insights-only MCP server.
Heroku vs PlanetScale: editorial side-by-side
Heroku
5.0DEVOPSINFRA · APIS
Runtime bumps most weeks, but a new stack, a stack deprecation and an AI model cull underneath
◆ Current state
Heroku's changelog is dominated by runtime maintenance - Node.js, .NET, Python, Ruby, Go and PHP updates land most weeks, often several in a day. Beneath that cadence the platform shipped real structural changes over May and June 2026: Heroku-26 reached general availability while Heroku-22 was deprecated, Heroku Connect opened to independent software vendors, a GitHub Enterprise Cloud integration arrived, Custom Trusted IPs came to Fir Private Spaces, and the CLI moved credential storage into system keychains. On the AI side, Heroku added Claude Opus 4.8 support in late May and then began deprecating select models from Managed Inference and Agents a week later.
◆ Where it's heading
Two things are happening at once. The platform layer is going through a generational turn - a new stack promoted, the previous one deprecated, and enterprise-facing controls (trusted IPs, keychain credentials, ISV access, GitHub Enterprise) filling in around it, which is the profile of a mature PaaS defending its installed base rather than chasing new workloads. The AI layer is behaving differently: adding a frontier model and pruning others within days points at a curated, opinionated inference catalogue rather than a broad marketplace. The relentless buildpack cadence is the constant underneath both.
◆ Prediction
Expect the Heroku-22 deprecation to progress toward an end-of-life date and further consolidation of the Managed Inference model list. The entries do not indicate what replaces the deprecated models, so whether the AI catalogue is narrowing or being re-based is not yet visible.
PlanetScale
0.0INFRA · APISDEVOPS
PlanetScale is building out Postgres while making every control reachable without the dashboard.
◆ Current state
The Postgres line carries the new capability: vectorscale extension support, storage configurable at database creation, out-of-memory alerts by both email and webhook, a customisable log line prefix, a Discovery Tool for evaluating existing databases, and updated pricing for private connection traffic. Database Traffic Control introduced resource budgets and has since gained warning thresholds and CLI management. The surface work is constant — API endpoints for backup policies, maintenance schedules, schema recommendations, deploy-request storage checks and invoice status, a Terraform provider at v1, and an Insights-only MCP server.
◆ Where it's heading
PlanetScale is doing two things at once: closing the gap between its Postgres offering and its MySQL heritage, and making every operation scriptable. The API, Terraform and MCP work share a single goal — nothing should require the dashboard — and the schema-recommendations feature landing simultaneously as a REST endpoint and an MCP tool is the clearest statement of it. Traffic Control is the exception, launched as a named product surface and then immediately given the same CLI and threshold treatment.
◆ Prediction
Expect the remaining Postgres parity items and more MCP tools mirroring existing REST endpoints, following the schema-recommendations pattern where both arrived together.
Heroku alternatives
Other DevOps products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with Heroku.
Jenkins
Jenkins is shedding weight and hardening deserialization on its weekly train
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms 3.0 makes accessible forms the default, not a checkbox someone forgets
Laravel
Laravel runs two release trains at once, and 13.x is where anything interesting lands.
Bitwarden
Bitwarden's server releases are all plumbing right now — flags cleared, billing untangled, invites hardened.
Confluent
Confluent Platform 8.2 gives Kafka native queueing, removing a standing reason to run a second broker.
PlanetScale alternatives
Other DevOps products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with PlanetScale.
Talos Linux
Talos 1.14 pulls BGP routing into the OS and locks /var down by default.
Pressable
A fortnight of bulk operations and a DDEV integration, aimed squarely at agencies
ToolJet
An LTS patch train quietly absorbing security fixes and multi-model AI switching
Jenkins
Jenkins is shedding weight and hardening deserialization on its weekly train
Honeycomb
Honeycomb is turning Canvas from an investigation view into the console where the work actually happens
Cohere
Cohere is shipping a model a month and retiring the old ones just as briskly.
Recent activity from Heroku and PlanetScale
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 21d agoHeroku.NET SDK updates across the 8.0, 9.0 and 10.0 lines
- 22d agoHerokuPostgres 18 enters beta; sbt 2 supported for Scala apps
- 23d agoHerokuHeroku-22, Heroku-24 and Heroku-26 stacks updated
- 26d agoHerokuPython buildpacks updated to Pipenv 2026.6.2 and uv 0.11.28
- 27d agoHerokuNode.js 26.5.0 now available
- 28d agoHerokuPHP monthly updates; Go 1.25.12 and 1.26.5 available
- 3mo agoPlanetScaleQuery Insights negated search terms
- 3mo agoPlanetScaleNew GCP region: Eemshaven, Netherlands
- 3mo agoPlanetScaleIntroducing Database Traffic Control™: resource budgets for your Postgres query traffic.Learn more ⚡
- 3mo agoPlanetScaleConfigure Postgres storage at database creation
- 3mo agoPlanetScaleSign-up page fragment (no release content)
- 4mo agoPlanetScaleInsights-only MCP server
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Heroku and PlanetScale?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Heroku is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Heroku better than PlanetScale?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Heroku is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other DevOps products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Heroku?
Top Heroku alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Heroku alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/heroku for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to PlanetScale?
Top PlanetScale alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "PlanetScale alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/planetscale for the full list with editorial commentary on each.