The self-hosted alternative to Heroku
The original platform-as-a-service — git push deploys made simple, with every capability sold as a separate add-on. FlowForge - builder no-code de WhatsApp Flows gives you the same capabilities on a server you own, for a flat monthly bill.
What Heroku really costs
A realistic production setup — a Standard web dyno plus Standard Postgres — starts around $75/mo, before a worker dyno, Redis, log retention, or scheduler add-ons, and the free tier is long gone.
Where the Heroku model hurts
- Dynos and add-ons stack: web dyno, worker dyno, Postgres, Redis, logging — each a separate monthly line item.
- Background jobs conventionally require a second always-on dyno plus a Redis add-on, doubling the floor cost.
- Daily dyno restarts and a 30-second router timeout make long-lived connections and realtime awkward.
- Momentum has slowed for years; pricing has only moved up since the free tier was retired.
How FlowForge - builder no-code de WhatsApp Flows compares
- One compose file runs the web app, Postgres, object storage, and reverse proxy on a single VPS from €5.49/mo.
- Jobs and cron run on pg-boss inside the Postgres you already have — no worker dyno, no Redis add-on.
- A persistent Node process holds SSE connections for free, so realtime is built in rather than bolted on.
- Deploys stay simple: build the Docker image, run docker compose up on any provider — and you can leave with it.
To be fair: Heroku is a genuinely good product, and if you value a fully managed platform above predictable costs, it may be the right choice. This page is for teams whose bills grow faster than their revenue — and who would rather own the stack underneath them.
Own your stack instead
Auth, billing, jobs, storage and realtime — one codebase, one VPS, one flat bill.