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Deemwar Monads & Abstractions

Heroku Free Tier

Source: Heroku's Next Chapter, by Bob Wise

In August 2022 Heroku announced the end of its free plans. It gave notice and credits for open source, then added a low-cost Eco plan ($5 a month today) that sleeps when idle. This page reads the case for founders weighing their own free tier.

~3 months notice

$5/month Eco plan

1000 dyno hours

The pain

A free plan can cost more to police than it brings in. Bob Wise, Heroku CEO and Salesforce EVP, wrote that Heroku teams spent significant effort to “manage fraud and abuse of the Heroku free product plans”.

What Heroku decided

1. 1

   Announce

   Aug 25, 2022

   Heroku publishes “Heroku's Next Chapter” and names the dates.

2. 2

   Delete inactive accounts

   from Oct 26, 2022

   Accounts inactive for over a year start being deleted.

3. 3

   End free plans

   from Nov 28, 2022

   Free plans for Heroku Dynos, Heroku Postgres and Heroku Data for Redis end.

The near miss

Ending free outright would shut out students and open source projects. Heroku announced an upcoming program for students and nonprofits, with details at Dreamforce.

The three moves

The announcement itself pointed to paid dynos that start at $7/month, with “the assurance your dynos do not sleep”. If an owner took no action by Nov 28, their free dynos were converted to Eco dynos scaled down to 0.

A reading for founders

This is one reading of one case, not a promise of how yours will go.

• Name the cost of the free tier, including abuse handling.
• Give dates in advance. Heroku gave about three months to the end of free plans, but only about two months to inactive-account deletion (Oct 26).
• Offer a cheap paid step that costs little when idle.
• Keep a path for students and open source.
• Do not switch anything on that bills users without their action.

See it

Heroku's Next Chapter (Heroku blog, Aug 25, 2022).

Removal of Heroku free product plans FAQ.

Eco dyno hours (Heroku Dev Center).

Watch the 34-second short: coming soon

Sources: dates, abuse quote, programs and credits from the Heroku blog; 1000 shared hours, sleeping and scale-to-0 from the Heroku FAQ; $5 per month from the Dev Center. $7/month from the Heroku blog. Three months is Aug 25 to Nov 28; two months is Aug 25 to Oct 26.

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