Removal of Heroku Free Product Plans FAQ

What are we announcing?

• Public roadmap: Launch of our interactive product roadmap for Heroku on Github.
• Focus on what's mission-critical: Removal of free dynos, free Heroku Postgres and free Heroku Key-Value Store plans starting November 28, 2022 and inactive account deletion starting October 26, 2022.
• Student program: Eligible students can apply for platform credits in our new Heroku for GitHub Students program.
• Nonprofit program: An upcoming program to support students and nonprofits in conjunction with our nonprofit team.
• Open-source support: We will continue to contribute to open-source projects, notably Cloud-Native Buildpacks. We will be offering Heroku credits to select open-source projects through Salesforce's Open Source Program Office.
• New low-cost plans: Our new Eco dynos plan provides 1000 dyno hours shared across all your Eco dynos. Eco dynos sleep after a period of inactivity and don't consume dyno hours while sleeping. Our new Mini data plans provide 10,000 rows of storage for Heroku Postgres ($5/month) and 25 MB for Heroku Key-Value Store ($3/month) Learn more in our blog post and FAQs.

What products are impacted by the removal of free plans?

free dynos, hobby-dev Heroku Postgres, dev Heroku Postgres, and hobby-dev Heroku Key-Value Store plans.

What happens if I take no action on my free apps or databases or do not upgrade to a paid plan?

If you take no action by November 28, 2022:

• free dynos will be converted to eco dynos scaled down to 0. You must subscribe to the Eco dyno hours plan or upgrade to another paid plan before you can scale them up again. Any Scheduler jobs that used free dynos will fail until they are reconfigured to use another dyno type.
• For non-Enterprise users, free databases will be deleted in accordance with the Heroku Documentation starting November 28, 2022.
• For Enterprise users, hobby-dev databases that belong to an Enterprise Account or Team will be converted to mini. There will be no immediate change in cost to your Heroku Enterprise invoices if an app is upgraded from a free tier resource to a paid tier resource. Any changes to Heroku Enterprise pricing would require a contract update to take effect. If you have any concerns about your contract pricing, contact your account executive.
• Free databases that belong to personal accounts will be deleted, and free dynos will be converted to eco dynos scaled down to 0, even if that user also belongs to an Enterprise Team. These users must upgrade to paid resources before November 28, 2022.

Learn more about our Eco and Mini plans here.

If you wish to upgrade to a paid product plan, we have documentation on how that can be done for Heroku Dynos, Heroku Postgres and Heroku Key-Value Store. You can download your Heroku Postgres data if you need a backup.

What is Heroku's focus going forward?

The priority going forward is to support customers of all sizes who are betting projects, careers, and businesses on Heroku. Our customers include PensionBee, who helps people manage their pensions, and Softgiving, who uses Heroku to engage with donors. We are taking another step by sharing the Heroku roadmap live on GitHub. We look forward to your feedback on this new project, and welcome your comments on the roadmap itself. We'll be watching this project closely and look forward to interacting with you there.

Why is this happening now?

After a review of the steps needed to manage fraud and abuse from free resources on Heroku, we have made the choice to end these free product plan offerings that will allow Heroku to focus on customers of all sizes. Our blog post has more insight into this decision.

Do these changes affect paying customers (Enterprise or Credit Card)?

There are no changes to our existing paid plans, except for the renaming of Hobby dynos and Hobby-Dev databases to Basic.

However, non-Enterprise users with free dynos or free Heroku Postgres or Heroku Key-Value Store plans, you must upgrade to paid plans to avoid disruption or data loss. free dynos will be automatically converted to Eco dynos and scaled down to 0. You can't scale them up from 0 until you subscribe to the Eco dynos plan or upgrade to another paid tier.

hobby-dev databases that belong to an Enterprise Account or Team will be converted to mini starting November 28, 2022. There will be no immediate change in cost to your Heroku Enterprise invoices if an app is upgraded from a free tier resource to a paid tier resource. Any changes to Heroku Enterprise pricing would require a contract update to take effect. If you have any concerns about your contract pricing, contact your account executive.

Note that free databases that belong to personal accounts will be deleted, and free dynos will be converted to eco dynos scaled down to 0, even if that user also belongs to an Enterprise Team. These users must upgrade to paid resources before November 28, 2022. Learn more about our Eco and Mini plans here. Any Scheduler jobs that used free dynos will fail until they are reconfigured to use another dyno type.

What changes will happen to my Heroku Enterprise pricing if I upgrade to a paid plan?

There will be no immediate change in cost to your Heroku Enterprise invoices if an app is upgraded from a free tier resource to a paid tier resource. Any changes to Heroku Enterprise pricing would require a contract update to take effect. If you have any concerns about your contract pricing, contact your account executive.

What are the alternatives for customers that are currently on Heroku free plans?

• Student programs: Eligible students can apply for platform credits in our new Heroku for GitHub Students program.
• Nonprofits: We are working with our nonprofit team to announce an offering next year.
• Open source programs: If you are a maintainer on an open-source project, and would like to request Heroku support for your project, contact the Salesforce Open Source Program office at ospo-heroku-credits@salesforce.com.

How do I demo Heroku before I buy it?

You can use paid dynos and data plans. We charge by the second, which means you only pay for the resources you use. When you are done trying Heroku, simply scale your Eco, Hobby or Basic dyno to zero and remove your test database.

If you're an existing Salesforce enterprise customer, you can reach out to your Account Executive. Otherwise, you can contact us at https://www.heroku.com/enterprise.

Are you making changes to free partner add-ons?

No, third-party partner add-ons available in the Heroku Elements Marketplace are not affected.

Can I still use other free add-ons?

Yes, you can use whatever plans our third-party add-on providers offer.

You can also use the free Heroku Scheduler add-on, but your jobs must use paid dynos. You must reconfigure any existing Scheduler jobs that use free dynos to use another dyno type before November 28th, 2022 or your jobs will fail after this date.

You can also use the free demo Heroku Connect plan. However, you still need to upgrade any hobby-dev Heroku Postgres databases you use with Heroku Connect before November 28th, 2022 to avoid database deletion.

Additional FAQs

• FAQs for our new low-cost plans

• How can I find all my free dynos or data add-ons?

• How much do Eco dynos cost? How do Eco dyno hours work?

• How much does a Hobby or Basic dyno cost?

• What are your cheapest Heroku Postgres and Heroku Key-Value Store plans?

• Information on Heroku's pricing and usage

• How do I upgrade from Heroku's free tier and begin using paid resources?

• Can Heroku Support upgrade my dynos/data add-ons for me?

• Why am I get an email titled "Important Information About Heroku Free Products"?

• Why am I receiving the email titled "Important Information About Heroku Free Products" when I have a paid app?

• Why am I receiving the email titled "Important Information About Heroku Free Products" when I have a Heroku Enterprise contract?

• How do I delete my account?

• What happens if I have paid add-ons on apps using free or no dynos?

• Are free add-ons affected by the announced free plan changes?

• What happens to my Heroku Scheduler jobs when free plans go away?

• How do I move my source code to an external provider? (git.heroku.com to GitHub/GitLab/etc.)

• Where do I go for further information on continuing to use my Nightscout service?

• How can I minimize my costs on Heroku

• I'm a collaborator. Can I upgrade from free to paid resources to keep apps running and retain data?

Data FAQs

• What is happening to my free data add-on? Is access being denied? Is my data being deleted? If so, when and how?

• How long can I continue to use my existing free data Heroku Postgres plan?

• How long can I continue to use my existing free data Heroku Key-Value Store plan?

• Can I keep using my free data add-on if I am a paying customer, online or Enterprise?

• Will my free data add-ons be automatically converted to paying ones when free plans go away?

• How can I retain access to my free data add-on?

• How do I export and save my data before my Heroku Postgres databases get de-provisioned?

• If I don't export my data before my data sources get de-provisioned, is there any way to get it restored or get a copy?

• What are your cheapest Heroku Postgres and Heroku Key-Value Store plans?

Inactive Account Deletion FAQs

• What criteria are used to determine if an account is inactive?

• Why are you deleting apps and data for inactive users?

• Why did I receive an email titled "Inactive Heroku account notification - deletion pending"?

• I have running apps / add-ons. Why did I still receive the email titled "Inactive Heroku account notification - deletion pending"?

• What do I need to do if I want to keep my Heroku account active?

• Will my paid apps or add-ons be deleted even if I have not logged into my account in over a year?

• What happens if I take no action on my inactive account?

• How do I delete my account?

We'll keep this FAQ updated as things evolve. Bookmark it and reference it whenever you need to. If you have specific concerns or technical hurdles in completing the necessary upgrades, you can reach out to Heroku Support at help.heroku.com or email support@heroku.com.