AWS vs. Heroku: Why We Choose AWS (and You Should Too)

If you're trying to decide between AWS and Heroku, let's cut through the noise. Heroku is easy, but AWS is powerful; and if you’re serious about building something that scales, AWS is the smarter play.

At Valere, we’ve worked with everyone from scrappy startups to Fortune 500 companies, and nearly every time, AWS wins. It’s more scalable, more cost-effective, and gives you the control you need to build a business that lasts.

Let’s break it down.

1. AWS Gives You the Full Cloud, Heroku Just Gives You a Slice

Heroku is built on top of AWS, which means when you use Heroku, you’re already using AWS… just with fewer options and higher costs.

Heroku’s whole pitch is simplicity: you push your code, and it just works. And for small projects, that’s great. But as soon as you start growing, you hit a wall. You don’t get full control over your infrastructure, and customizing anything beyond the basics can get frustrating (and expensive).

AWS, on the other hand, gives you the whole cloud, not just a managed platform, but Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), PaaS, and even SaaS options. That’s why 90% of Fortune 100 companies use AWS​.

For us at Valere, that flexibility is a game-changer. Our clients don’t want one-size-fits-all solutions. They want to build products that fit their business, not squeeze their business into a platform’s limitations​.

2. AWS Lets You Scale Without the Sticker Shock

Heroku makes deployment dead simple, but when traffic spikes, so do your costs.

• A standard Heroku dyno (their basic compute unit) costs $50 per month.

• A comparable AWS EC2 instance? As low as $10 per month​.

And if you need a database, AWS’s RDS (Relational Database Service) crushes Heroku Postgres on both price and performance.

At Valere, we work with startups that need to scale fast without burning cash. AWS lets us do that by using:

Auto Scaling Groups that adjust resources in real time
Spot Instances that reduce compute costs by up to 90%
Serverless (AWS Lambda) for handling unpredictable loads

Heroku locks you into a rigid pricing structure. AWS? You pay for what you actually use.

3. AWS Gives You Enterprise-Grade Security & Compliance

If security matters to you (and let’s be real—it should), AWS wins.

AWS is built for finance, healthcare, and high-security applications, offering things like:

VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) for total network isolation
IAM (Identity and Access Management) for strict permission control
Compliance certifications (HIPAA, SOC2, ISO 27001) that Heroku can’t match

At Valere, we built an AI-powered medical documentation tool that integrates with hospital systems. AWS was the only provider that met the industry’s strict compliance needs​.

Security isn’t optional, and AWS is the gold standard.

4. Customization: Build What You Need, Not What Heroku Lets You Have

Heroku is great, if you stay inside its ecosystem. But the moment you need something custom? Good luck.

AWS gives you:

A choice of databases (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora—you name it)
Direct access to computing resources (EC2, ECS, Kubernetes, Lambda)
The ability to use any programming language or framework

At Valere, we specialize in AI and machine learning, and AWS has the best AI/ML tools in the industry—like SageMaker, Bedrock, and EC2 GPUs for training models​.

We built Meteor AI, a custom AI platform using AWS Bedrock, boosting productivity by 66% while keeping enterprise security tight​. No way we could have done that on Heroku.

Bottom Line: AWS is the Smarter Investment

If you’re a solo dev hacking together a quick MVP? Heroku is fine. But if you’re building something meant to scale, last, and compete? AWS is the way to go.

90% of Fortune 100 companies run on AWS​
AWS is up to 45% more cost-effective than competitors​
AWS powers 32% of the global cloud market, the largest share worldwide​

At Valere, we don’t just use AWS because it’s popular. We use it because it’s the best tool for building the kind of products that change industries.

If you're serious about scaling your business, start on AWS by contacting us at valere.io and don’t look back.