Heroku

Heroku is a cloud platform and software brand best known for making application deployment comparatively simple for developers. It originated in 2007 as a platform-as-a-service company founded by James Lindenbaum, Adam Wiggins, and Orion Henry. Rather than requiring users to provision and administer conventional servers, Heroku abstracted much of the underlying infrastructure behind a developer-oriented workflow: source code could be deployed through Git, applications could be scaled through units called dynos, and supporting capabilities could be added through managed services and the Heroku Add-ons Marketplace. The platform initially became particularly influential among Ruby on Rails developers. Its deployment model helped popularize the idea that a small development team could push an application to production without building a large operations organization or managing a conventional server fleet. Heroku later expanded support beyond Ruby to languages and runtimes including Node.js, Java, Python, PHP, Go, Scala, and Clojure. Its buildpacks, command-line tools, review apps, pipelines, logs, configuration variables, and managed data services made it useful across development, testing, staging, and production workflows. Salesforce acquired Heroku in 2010. Heroku continued to operate as a distinct developer-facing brand while becoming part of Salesforce's broader cloud portfolio. Its relationship with Salesforce helped extend the platform's reach into enterprise accounts, although Heroku's product identity remained centered on application developers rather than on Salesforce's customer-relationship-management applications. Key offerings have included Heroku Platform, Heroku Postgres, Heroku Redis, Heroku Enterprise, Private Spaces, Heroku CI, and Heroku Connect, which links Heroku applications with Salesforce data. Heroku's commercial model historically combined free or low-cost development resources with paid dynos, data services, private networking, team administration, and enterprise capabilities. In 2022, Salesforce announced the retirement of Heroku's free product plans and free Heroku Postgres tiers, citing abuse and the cost of preventing misuse. The change required users on affected plans to move to paid resources or other hosting arrangements and marked a significant shift in the brand's entry-level positioning. Heroku remains an active platform for deploying and operating applications. It competes with broader cloud providers and application platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Render, Railway, and Vercel. Its continuing differentiation is the degree of operational simplicity offered by an opinionated platform model, although that simplicity can involve less infrastructure-level control and, in some workloads, higher costs than directly using infrastructure services.

Heroku was founded in 2007 by James Lindenbaum, Adam Wiggins, and Orion Henry. The company emerged during the growth of cloud application hosting and became closely associated with Ruby on Rails. Its central proposition was that developers should be able to deploy an application using a source-code workflow rather than manually configuring servers, operating systems, and application dependencies. Heroku's Git-based deployment process and dyno abstraction helped turn application hosting into a more standardized developer experience. The original platform focused on Ruby, but Heroku progressively added support for additional languages and runtimes. Buildpacks allowed the platform to detect an application's technology, assemble dependencies, and create a runnable deployment image. The Heroku Toolbelt, later the Heroku CLI, provided command-line access to deployment and administration functions. Heroku also developed a marketplace model in which third-party providers supplied databases, monitoring, messaging, search, and other services that could be attached to applications. Salesforce announced its acquisition of Heroku in December 2010. The transaction placed Heroku inside Salesforce's cloud-computing strategy and gave Salesforce a stronger connection to modern application developers. Heroku remained a separate brand and platform, while products such as Heroku Connect created a bridge between Heroku applications and Salesforce data. Over time, the company introduced enterprise capabilities including teams, role-based administration, pipelines, Private Spaces, compliance-oriented controls, and support for larger production deployments. Heroku's platform expanded beyond basic application hosting. Heroku Postgres supplied managed PostgreSQL databases with operational features such as backups, replication options, metrics, and higher-tier plans. Heroku Redis provided managed Redis instances. Heroku CI supported automated testing within deployment pipelines, while Review Apps enabled temporary environments associated with code changes. Heroku Connect synchronized data between Heroku Postgres and Salesforce, making the platform relevant to organizations building customer-facing applications around Salesforce systems. The brand's early free tier was an important part of its developer adoption. It allowed experimentation, education, prototypes, and small applications to run with limited resources. In 2022, Salesforce announced the retirement of Heroku's free dynos and free database tiers. Heroku stated that free resources were subject to abuse and that eliminating them would allow the company to focus on paid services and reduce misuse. The change was commercially significant because it removed one of the easiest entry points into the platform. Also in 2022, Heroku disclosed a security incident involving unauthorized access to a Heroku database and customer GitHub integration credentials. Heroku said the attacker used stolen OAuth tokens to access repositories belonging to some customers. The company revoked or rotated relevant credentials, worked with GitHub, and changed aspects of the integration. The incident increased scrutiny of the security controls surrounding developer platforms and software supply chains. Heroku continues to operate as a Salesforce-owned cloud application platform. Its strengths remain a relatively integrated developer workflow, managed operational services, and a recognizable deployment model. Its limitations include reduced infrastructure customization compared with direct use of hyperscale cloud infrastructure and potentially higher costs for some workloads. The platform therefore occupies a middle position between fully managed application services and infrastructure platforms that require customers to assemble more of the operating environment themselves.

• 2022

  Free plans are retired

  [3]Heroku: The Next Chapterblog.heroku.com

  Heroku announces the retirement of free dynos and free database tiers.

• 2022

  GitHub integration security incident

  [4]Heroku Security Incident on May 4, 2022blog.heroku.com

  Heroku discloses unauthorized access involving customer GitHub OAuth credentials and repositories.

• 2015

  Heroku Enterprise is introduced

  [5]Heroku Enterpriseheroku.com

  Heroku expands its enterprise-oriented capabilities with organizational controls, support, and governance features.

• 2011

  Heroku Postgres becomes a major platform service

  [6]Heroku Postgresheroku.com

  Managed PostgreSQL becomes a central part of Heroku's application platform and data-services offering.

• 2010

  Salesforce acquires Heroku

  [2]Salesforce to Acquire Herokusalesforce.com

  Salesforce announces an agreement to acquire Heroku and incorporates the platform into its cloud portfolio.

• 2007

  Heroku is founded

  [1]Heroku Aboutheroku.com

  James Lindenbaum, Adam Wiggins, and Orion Henry establish Heroku as a cloud application platform company.

A developer-focused platform-as-a-service brand emphasizing fast deployment, operational simplicity, managed infrastructure, and a streamlined path from source code to production.

• Platform as a service · 2007

  Heroku Platform

  Heroku Platform provides managed application deployment and runtime services. Developers deploy supported applications through Git, the Heroku CLI, or connected workflows, while Heroku manages much of the underlying infrastructure. Applications run in dynos and can use configuration variables, logs, buildpacks, pipelines, review environments, and operational controls.

• Managed database

  Heroku Postgres

  Heroku Postgres is a managed PostgreSQL database service integrated with Heroku applications. Plans provide different levels of storage, performance, availability, backups, monitoring, and operational support. It is commonly used as the primary relational data store for applications deployed on Heroku.

• Managed data service

  Heroku Redis

  Heroku Redis provides managed Redis instances for caching, queues, sessions, counters, and other fast-access data use cases. The service is provisioned and administered through Heroku's platform and can be attached to applications using standard Redis connection methods.

• Enterprise cloud platform · 2015

  Heroku Enterprise

  Heroku Enterprise adds organizational management, team administration, governance, support, and enterprise-oriented controls to the core platform. It is intended for companies operating multiple applications and development teams that need centralized oversight without abandoning Heroku's developer workflow.

• Salesforce integration

  Heroku Connect

  Heroku Connect synchronizes selected data between Heroku Postgres and Salesforce. It is designed for applications that use Heroku for custom web or mobile experiences while relying on Salesforce as a system of record for customer, sales, or service data.

• Private application environment · 2016

  Private Spaces

  Private Spaces provide isolated Heroku application environments with private networking and additional controls for enterprise and regulated workloads. They are positioned for organizations that need a more controlled network architecture than the standard shared platform environment.

• 2022

  Heroku GitHub integration security incident

  Heroku disclosed that an attacker obtained access to a Heroku database and used stolen OAuth credentials associated with Heroku's GitHub integration. The attacker accessed GitHub repositories belonging to some customers. Heroku and GitHub responded with credential revocation and rotation measures, integration changes, and customer notifications.

  Source

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• 2022

  Retirement of free dynos and database plansPrice change

  Background

  Heroku stated that free resources were being abused and that operating free plans required measures to prevent misuse.

  Action taken

  Heroku announced the retirement of free dynos, free Heroku Postgres plans, and free Heroku Data for Redis plans, directing affected users toward paid services or other hosting options.

  Aftermath

  The decision ended Heroku's free entry tier and prompted developers and small projects to reassess their hosting arrangements.

  Source

• 2010

  Salesforce acquisition of HerokuM&A

  Background

  Heroku had established a recognizable developer platform during the early expansion of cloud application hosting, while Salesforce was broadening its cloud-computing portfolio.

  Action taken

  Salesforce announced an agreement to acquire Heroku and continued operating it as a distinct platform and brand.

  Aftermath

  Heroku gained the resources and enterprise reach of Salesforce while preserving its developer-oriented product identity.

  Source

1. 1Heroku Aboutheroku.com
2. 2Salesforce to Acquire Herokusalesforce.com
3. 3Heroku: The Next Chapterblog.heroku.com
4. 4Heroku Security Incident on May 4, 2022blog.heroku.com
5. 5Heroku Enterpriseheroku.com
6. 6Heroku Postgresheroku.com