Heroku has a been a staple in the launching game for a while now. While I’m a fan of the product, it can come with a steep learning curve or a bit of restriction depending on where you land on the non-technical to technical founder spectrum. If you’re in the middle, feel free to leverage Heroku to launch your product. However, if you’re somewhere on either side of this spectrum, you may want some alternatives to Heroku. Here are some alternatives to Heroku:
- JAMstack is a web development architecture that stands for JavaScript, API, and Markup. Jamstack places the focus on client side business logic rather than backend. This can be helpful if you want to keep the costs of your product low or if you’re a founder who is strong with respect to frontend web development. Netlify and Vercel (with Next.JS) are two products that fall under the Jamstack category that you can leverage.
- AWS Lightsail is an Amazon Web Services product that allows you to launch a virtual machine with low setup. They have templates including MEAN (MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node.JS), WordPress, and bare OS templates. This may be helpful for those developers who want a cheap (starting at $5/month) development environment without high effort setup. Lightsail can help you scale quickly.
- Databases. If you need a free database to compliment your backend, there are plenty of choices out there. A database is important for storing information used by your product. Typically for developers who have more than a beginner’s level of experience, you can find that these components can be expensive. There are some cheap alternatives out there. Examples include Fauna, a multi-tool for databases, or ElephantSQL, a free PostgreSQL database provider.
- No-Code solutions. For those of you who are non-technical entrepreneurs, the concept of dealing with a virtual machine or database may be daunting. Don’t let that stop you from launching your startup! There are no-code solutions available that help you launch your POC without coding knowledge. Check out a tool such as Bubble if you’re interested in no-code solutions.
Regardless of the approach you take, it’s amazing to see the options that are available to solopreneurs and entrepreneurs alike. There are some great alternatives to Heroku out. Feel free to pick and get started. If you need assistance, please reach out to us. Ehgo Solutions can help you if you don’t know how to make progress on your idea. Contact us today at info@ehgosolutions.com.