Heroku, line by line.

Where Heroku sits in the market

Cloud infrastructure is usage-based, not seat-based, so 'unused license' isn't the right frame. The waste is idle compute: instances, databases, and load balancers left running after development cycles end; volumes detached from terminated instances that still bill; cross-region redundancy configured for an environment that doesn't need it. Reserved capacity that doesn't match actual usage compounds the problem.

Original PaaS for web apps, now part of Salesforce; squeezed by Render, Railway, and Fly.io on the low end and direct cloud on the high end. Performance-L dynos at $500 each kept on for apps whose memory and CPU profile would run comfortably on Standard-2X.

What Heroku costs

Heroku is typically priced at $5-500 per dyno per month across Eco, Basic, Standard, and Performance tiers, plus add-on usage.. Pricing varies by tier and contract length; the patterns below describe the waste we see most often regardless of which tier a customer is on.

Common waste patterns

• Performance-L dynos ($500/month each) for applications that would run fine on Standard-2X
• Heroku Postgres Premium plans maintained for databases that rarely approach plan limits
• Multiple staging and review apps running continuously when they could be spun up on-demand
• Add-ons like logging, monitoring, and SSL that could be replaced with free alternatives

How Efficyon analyzes Heroku spend

Efficyon ingests your accounting data (Fortnox, QuickBooks, Stripe, Xero) and identity data (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace) and matches activity against billing. For Heroku, that surfaces performance-L dynos at $500 each kept on for apps whose memory and CPU profile would run comfortably on Standard-2X. The findings appear in your dashboard with the contract month they applied to and the dollar value at stake.