Laravel Cloud vs. Heroku
Laravel Cloud is the best cloud hosting platform for deploying and scaling Laravel applications.
Start in Cloud with $5 in free usage credit.
Laravel Cloud
Laravel Cloud is built and maintained by the Laravel team. Deployments in under a minute. Automatic scaling. Managed databases, caches, and object storage included. Everything is purpose-built for how Laravel applications actually work.
- Ship without fighting infrastructure. Built by the Laravel team, Cloud natively supports Laravel's AI tools, Octane, the Laravel scheduler and queues, and zero-downtime deployments.
- Sleep soundly with autoscaling. Compute, queue workers, and schedulers scale independently based on real demand.
- Stop paying for servers that aren't serving requests. Pay-for-what-you-use pricing with auto-hibernation.
Heroku
Heroku is a general-purpose PaaS owned by Salesforce that supports Laravel via generic PHP buildpacks. It entered maintenance mode in February 2026, meaning no new features, no new enterprise contracts, and a platform that's falling further behind the Laravel ecosystem every month.
- Generic PHP buildpack support requires manual Procfile configuration, buildpack setup, and separate worker dynos for queues and scheduled tasks.
- Billing fragments across dynos and every add-on, with no built-in cost forecasting tools.
- No new features in development; enterprise contracts no longer available to new customers.
Over 20K teams deploy faster with Laravel Cloud
Why Laravel Cloud is better than
Heroku
Deploy in under 60 seconds
with no Procfiles or buildpacks.
Built for Laravel and actively developed,
unlike Heroku.
Save up to 50% on infrastructure costs
compared to Heroku.
“Laravel Cloud provides the programmable, seamless infrastructure that mirrors our own ambition, allowing us to slash our spend by 50% and shift our focus from managing servers to building the future of insurance.”
Craig Morris
Technical Program Manager at Superscript
Migrate from Heroku to Laravel Cloud
Heroku is in maintenance mode. Laravel Cloud is where Laravel apps go next.
Who should choose Laravel Cloud vs. Heroku?
Laravel Cloud
Choose Laravel Cloud if you're building on Laravel and want a fully managed, Laravel-native platform that autoscales, includes everything you need, and is actively developed by the same team building the framework.
Heroku
Choose Heroku if you're running a polyglot stack and are already deeply invested in its add-on ecosystem. However, given its maintenance mode status, it's worth planning your next move regardless.
Frequently asked questions:
Laravel Cloud vs. Heroku
Laravel Cloud is a fully managed platform built by the Laravel team exclusively for Laravel applications. It automates deployment, scaling, queues, caching, and monitoring with minimal manual setup. Heroku is a general-purpose PaaS owned by Salesforce that supports PHP via buildpacks but has no native understanding of Laravel's architecture, and entered maintenance mode in February 2026.
Yes. Laravel Cloud deploys in under 60 seconds with zero configuration. Heroku's git push workflow is fast once configured, but getting a Laravel app properly set up takes significantly longer before you're production-ready.
Heroku's pricing fragments across dynos, databases, Redis, and add-ons, with no built-in way to forecast costs before they arrive. Laravel Cloud uses a pay-for-what-you-use model with auto-hibernation, billing clarity, and invoice previews so you always know where you stand. Users switching from Heroku are saving up to 50% on infrastructure costs.
Yes. Queue workers, Horizon, and the Laravel scheduler are first-class features on Laravel Cloud. On Heroku, each requires a separate worker dyno and manual setup.
Heroku entered maintenance mode in February 2026. No new features are being built, and enterprise contracts are no longer available to new customers. For teams actively building on Laravel, that's meaningful platform risk.
Yes. Laravel Cloud supports zero-downtime deployments, and your codebase moves cleanly from Git. The main migration steps involve replacing Heroku Postgres and Redis add-ons with Laravel Cloud managed equivalents. Check our Heroku to Laravel Cloud migration guide.
Yes. Laravel Cloud includes managed databases (Laravel MySQL, Serverless Postgres, and Amazon RDS for Private Cloud customers), cache, and auto-configured queue workers. On Heroku, each of these is an add-on that you provision and manage yourself.
Laravel Cloud is made for teams that want to ship Laravel features without owning infrastructure. Heroku is better suited to polyglot teams already invested in its add-on ecosystem, though the maintenance mode announcement makes that a harder case to make in 2026.
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