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Heroku pipeline dynos and add-ons


I'm using Heroku's Pipeline feature to manage the stages of my application. I received an email about Heroku getting rid of their free plans, so I went ahead and upgraded my plan just now. Currently, I have one app with two database add-ons in Heroku. This is the first time that I've used their Pipeline feature—and I'm by no means a Heroku expert. I have two questions:

  1. Do I need to purchase dynos for every new app that I use Heroku for? The plan that I ended up purchasing was the Production plan (since the app is for a client), and I also purchased two psql database add-ons which are attached to the app.

  2. Since I'm using their pipeline for my one app, I have staging and prod versions of the app assigned to their appropriate branches in the repo. The prod app is where I upgraded to the paid plan. Do I need to purchase any dynos or add-ons for the staging app within the Pipeline? I was able to attach the databases with no issue, but I purchased a dyno for the staging app just to be safe.

Feel free to share any of your favorite Heroku alternatives as well—I'm only using Heroku because that's what I learned how to use in school.


Solution

  • Fellow Heroku user here!

    Do I need to purchase dynos for every new app that I use Heroku for?

    Yes. Heroku have basically said they’re getting rid of free plans for all applications due to wanting to make more money security reasons. So staging apps will also fall under this.

    Basically, it sounds like there’s going to be no free tier dynos or first party add-ons from Heroku going forward. They do suggest for non-production apps (like testing and staging apps) to turn your dynos on when in use, and off when not in use, and you’ll only be billed for the time the dyno is on.

    I‘m not sure which plan is the Production plan (I couldn’t see it on the pricing page) but maybe try out Hobby first. I have multiple apps running with paid Hobby-tier dynos and they have ran just fine without really spiking the CPU or memory available in those dynos. But I’m running PHP apps, so your milage may vary if you’re using another tech stack, or do get more load than my apps.