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Comparison · DevOps
Heroku vs Rivet
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Heroku and Rivet — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Heroku vs Rivet: at a glance
| Feature | Heroku | Rivet |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | DevOps, Infra & APIs | DevOps |
| Velocity score | 5.0 | 7.5 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 2 |
| Top themes | managed postgres, runtime upkeep, deprecation cadence, buildpacks | actor-platform, agentic-backend, byoc-enterprise, dynamic-apps |
| Last editorial update | 1mo ago | 21h ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Heroku?
Runtime bumps fill the changelog; the managed Postgres line is where Heroku actually moves.
Day to day, Heroku's changelog is language-runtime upkeep: Python, Node, Ruby, Go, PHP, JRuby and .NET point releases, buildpack refreshes for Pipenv and uv, and periodic rebuilds of the Heroku-22, Heroku-24 and Heroku-26 stacks now maintained in parallel. The exception is the managed database. Postgres 18 entered beta on 14 July and reached general availability on 4 August, and Heroku deprecated Postgres 15 on the same day.
What is Rivet?
Rivet is shipping the complete agentic backend stack: actors, durable streams, BYOC, MCP integration, and a V8 app runtime in one month.
Rivet is in an intense release sprint across every layer of its platform. In roughly 25 days: JWT authentication for actors with direct client connections, OpenTelemetry tracing for actors and workflows, BYOC enterprise deployment into customer AWS/GCP VPCs, MCP integration for AI coding tools, Durable Streams on actor infrastructure, and Dynamic Apps (a V8 isolate runtime for deploying user-generated AI applications). Older entries reveal a zero-disk S3-tiered SQLite engine and an agentOS execution API for JavaScript and Python. The product is moving faster than almost any comparable infrastructure platform.
Heroku vs Rivet: editorial side-by-side
Heroku
5.0DEVOPSINFRA · APIS
Runtime bumps fill the changelog; the managed Postgres line is where Heroku actually moves.
◆ Current state
Day to day, Heroku's changelog is language-runtime upkeep: Python, Node, Ruby, Go, PHP, JRuby and .NET point releases, buildpack refreshes for Pipenv and uv, and periodic rebuilds of the Heroku-22, Heroku-24 and Heroku-26 stacks now maintained in parallel. The exception is the managed database. Postgres 18 entered beta on 14 July and reached general availability on 4 August, and Heroku deprecated Postgres 15 on the same day.
◆ Where it's heading
The platform is running two clocks at once. One is a near-daily maintenance cadence that keeps supported runtimes current and rarely changes behaviour. The other is a deliberate, publicly staged lifecycle for the data services, where a major version is walked from beta to GA and the version three releases behind is retired in the same announcement. Kafka is on the same track, with 2.8 and 3.7 deprecations and a revised version-support policy posted in late July.
◆ Prediction
Given that Postgres 15's deprecation was announced alongside 18's general availability, the next concrete step is a published end-of-life date and forced-upgrade window for Postgres 15. The runtime bumps will continue at their current weekly rhythm.
Rivet
7.5DEVOPS
Rivet is shipping the complete agentic backend stack: actors, durable streams, BYOC, MCP integration, and a V8 app runtime in one month.
◆ Current state
Rivet is in an intense release sprint across every layer of its platform. In roughly 25 days: JWT authentication for actors with direct client connections, OpenTelemetry tracing for actors and workflows, BYOC enterprise deployment into customer AWS/GCP VPCs, MCP integration for AI coding tools, Durable Streams on actor infrastructure, and Dynamic Apps (a V8 isolate runtime for deploying user-generated AI applications). Older entries reveal a zero-disk S3-tiered SQLite engine and an agentOS execution API for JavaScript and Python. The product is moving faster than almost any comparable infrastructure platform.
◆ Where it's heading
Rivet is building toward a complete backend platform for AI applications — one where persistent stateful actors, durable messaging, serverless AI app deployment, enterprise security, and native AI tool integration all run under one abstraction. Dynamic Apps plus Rivet Actors could become a unified PaaS where both AI-generated user-facing apps and their backend state live on Rivet infrastructure. The BYOC offering opens enterprise accounts that require data residency, and the MCP integration ensures Rivet is visible from within AI coding environments where developers make infrastructure decisions.
◆ Prediction
Dynamic Apps will expand to Python (matching agentOS's recent JavaScript + Python execution API addition), and Rivet will consolidate billing across actor-hours and Dynamic App compute into a single predictable spend model. BYOC pricing will be announced publicly as the enterprise motion becomes more defined.
Alternatives to Heroku and Rivet
Other DevOps products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Heroku or Rivet.
Sanity
Sanity is turning its CMS into agent infrastructure, one MCP patch at a time.
Manticore Search
Manticore Search adds direct-to-disk bulk import, eliminating RAM staging bottlenecks in large ingestion pipelines.
CodeRabbit
CodeRabbit launches a cross-repo PR triage queue that ranks every open pull request with evidence.
containerd
containerd patches CVE-2026-53493 across five branches the same day 2.4.0 ships 658 commits
Scalingo
Scalingo ships routine runtime maintenance at high cadence while expanding database observability through its SDK.
See all Heroku alternatives → · See all Rivet alternatives →
Recent activity from Heroku and Rivet
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoRivetIntroducing JWT Authentication for Rivet Actors
- 3d agoRivetIntroducing OpenTelemetry for Rivet Actors and Workflows
- 11d agoRivetRivet BYOC: run the control plane in your own AWS or GCP VPC ⚡
- 16d agoRivetRivet MCP: connect Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex to your Actors
- 23d agoRivetDurable Streams now supports Rivet Actors
- 26d agoRivetIntroducing Dynamic Apps: Deploy AI-Generated Apps for Your Users ⚡
- 1mo agoHerokuPostgres 18 GA and Postgres 15 deprecation; Python 3.14.7 and 3.13.15
- 2mo agoHeroku.NET SDK updates across the 8.0, 9.0 and 10.0 lines
- 2mo agoHerokuPostgres 18 enters beta; sbt 2 supported for Scala apps
- 2mo agoHerokuHeroku-22, Heroku-24 and Heroku-26 stacks updated
- 2mo agoHerokuPython buildpacks updated to Pipenv 2026.6.2 and uv 0.11.28
- 2mo agoHerokuNode.js 26.5.0 now available
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Heroku and Rivet?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Rivet is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 2 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 Rivet?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Rivet is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 2 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 Rivet?
Top Rivet alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Rivet alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rivet for the full list with editorial commentary on each.