Head-to-head · Ruby on Rails Hosting
Heroku vs Engine Yard Cloud
Heroku leads on 0 checks, Engine Yard Cloud on 0, and 1 is even. Who comes out ahead on the 1 yes/no, price and count check where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.
Our verdict
- Highest scoreHeroku · 9.4/10
- Free trialonly Engine Yard Cloud
Heroku scores higher on our rubric for ruby on rails hosting: 9.4 against 8.5 out of 10; our editors rank them #1 and #8.
Heroku is the better fit for teams wanting a mature Rails PaaS. Engine Yard Cloud is the better fit for enterprise Rails workloads needing autoscaling.
- Heroku fits best
Teams wanting a mature Rails PaaS
- Engine Yard Cloud fits best
Enterprise Rails workloads needing autoscaling
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Side by side
| Feature | Heroku 9.4/10 Visit ↗ | Engine Yard Cloud 8.5/10 Visit ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Editor score | 9.4 | 8.5 |
| Ranking | #1 in Ruby on Rails Hosting | #8 in Ruby on Rails Hosting |
| Best for | Teams wanting a mature Rails PaaS | Enterprise Rails workloads needing autoscaling |
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $5/unit/mo | $270/device/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | 7 days |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Platforms | Web | Web |
| Support | Email, Tickets, Community, Docs | Phone, Tickets, Docs, Live chat · 24/7 |
| Compliance | SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS | 2FA |
| Integrations | 200+ integrations | 8 integrations |
| Built for | Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise | Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Features Heroku 0/3 · Engine Yard Cloud 0/3 | ||
| Managed database | Not checked yet | Not checked yet |
| Background jobs | Not checked yet | Not checked yet |
| Git deployment | Not checked yet | Not checked yet |
| Specs | ||
| Ruby version support | Not checked yet | Not checked yet |
| Apps on entry plan | Not checked yet | Not checked yet |
| Deployment regions | Not checked yet | Not checked yet |
| Our review | ||
| Pros |
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| Cons |
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| Our verdict | Heroku is a paid platform as a service for teams building, deploying, running, and scaling applications, including Ruby on Rails applications. It runs applications in managed dynos and supports web and API workloads. The platform suits… Read the review → |
Engine Yard Cloud is a managed platform-as-a-service for deploying and operating Ruby on Rails, PHP and Node.js applications on Amazon Web Services. It runs applications on EC2 instances and combines Git push deployment with automated… Read the review → |
Strengths and trade-offs
Heroku — where it wins
- Managed dyno runtime with Git, GitHub, Docker, and CI deployment
- Pipelines, Review Apps, release history, and rollback support
- Managed data services, logging, APIs, and extensive integrations
Where it doesn't
- No free plan is available
- Eco dynos sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity
- Audit trails are documented for Enterprise accounts
Engine Yard Cloud — where it wins
- Automated horizontal autoscaling with load balancing
- Managed PostgreSQL and MySQL databases with backups
- Multi-region AWS deployment across 14 regions
Where it doesn't
- Starts at $270 per instance per month
- AWS instance usage is billed separately
- Legacy platform with development focused on newer offerings
- Heroku9.4/10 · Paid
A mature Rails PaaS with managed runtime, deployment workflows, and data services.
Visit HerokuFull verdict → - Engine Yard Cloud8.5/10 · 7-day trial
A mature managed AWS platform for scaling Rails workloads, priced for larger teams.
Visit Engine YardFull verdict →
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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Last updated · How we research and update






