The best Heroku alternatives in 2026

The right choice depends on your app

• Do your apps handle health data, or do your customers require certifications? Choose Scalingo: it is ISO 27001 certified and offers health data hosting¹.
• Do your apps need to stop dead at a spending limit, production included? Choose Railway: at the limit you set, it stops your services².
• Would you rather keep your own servers? Choose Coolify: it is open source and free, and it turns your servers into a PaaS³.
• Is your AI agent the one deploying, and must your data stay in France? Choose while: your agent deploys there over MCP, and each project has its budget. A change that would exceed it waits for your approval, an alert goes out at 80% and at 100%, and an app that is live is never cut off.

Try while on your app, without an account. Copy the instructions

The comparison

Host	Your AI agent	The database	In France	To get started
Scalingo	No official MCP server: the command line	Managed PostgreSQL, point-in-time recovery over 7 to 30 days4	Yes5	€7.20 for the container and €7.20 for the database, per month6
Clever Cloud	Local MCP server, still young7	PostgreSQL free in DEV, then from €4.90 per month8	Yes, by default9	From €4.50 for the app10, and the database free in DEV, then €4.908, per month
Railway	MCP server with OAuth, projects of your choice11	PostgreSQL in one request11	No, Amsterdam at best12	Hobby at $5 per month, with up to $5 of usage included13
Render	Hosted MCP server that deletes nothing14	Managed PostgreSQL, from $6 per month15	No, Frankfurt at best16	$7 for the app and $6 for the database, per month15
Coolify	Built-in MCP server, tokens with limited permissions17	On your server, with backups you set up yourself	If your server is there	Free, or $5 per month in Cloud, plus your servers18
while	MCP server with OAuth: sensitive actions wait for your approval	PostgreSQL backed up every day, point-in-time recovery over 14 days20	Yes, with Nextmap, a French company	€0 to get started, then €13.75 per month for an app and its database

Scalingo, the closest to Heroku in France

Like Heroku, Scalingo deploys your code without a Dockerfile, and runs it in France⁵. Its PostgreSQL database goes back to a precise moment, over 7 to 30 days⁴.

Clever Cloud, a French PaaS with many languages

Clever Cloud runs your apps in France by default⁹, with many languages.

Railway, the smoothest for an agent

Railway is one of the smoothest for an agent: your database is created in one request, and your services stop dead at the spending limit you set².

Render, prices that are easy to read

Render has simple prices, and its MCP server doesn’t let anything be deleted¹⁴.

Coolify, on your own servers

Coolify is open source and free, and it turns any server into a PaaS³.

while, the Heroku alternative built for your agent

Your agent connects to while over MCP and does the rest: it deploys the app and its PostgreSQL database, its jobs and its storage, follows the logs and fixes things. Sensitive actions, like deleting a production database, wait for your approval, and your agent never sees your keys. Your apps and their backups are hosted in France, by Nextmap.

Next steps

• Leave Heroku without rewriting your app
• Deploy a Ruby on Rails app