Forte vs. Heroku
Heroku deploys your dynos. Forte ships your product.
Heroku pioneered push-to-deploy and is still a simple way to ship a web app. Forte keeps that simple deploy and adds the app layer — user accounts, payments, production security, and request-level debugging — with autoscaling and always-on instances included.
Feature by feature
A straightforward look at how Forte compares to Heroku.
| Heroku | Forte | |
|---|---|---|
| Payments | ✗ Not included | ✓ Built in — subscriptions in one API call |
| User authentication | ✗ Not included | ✓ Built-in user auth and management |
| Debugging | Log drains, manual setup | ✓ Trace any request by ID |
| Auto-scaling | Performance-tier dynos only | ✓ Automatic, included by default |
| Cold starts | Dynos sleep when idle | ✓ Always-on instances |
| Billing | Per-dyno, plus add-ons | ✓ Predictable, flat-rate instances |
| Seat & platform fees | Per-dyno monthly fees; support behind paid tiers | ✓ No seat or platform fees — pay only for usage |
| What's included | Compute + add-on marketplace | ✓ Plus built-in user auth, payments, and request-level debugging |
| Support | Paid tiers only | ✓ Direct team access |
Migrate from Heroku in 15 minutes
No special tooling. No migration scripts. Just point Forte at your existing repository.
Connect your GitHub repo
Forte connects directly to GitHub. No Procfiles, no buildpacks. If you have a Dockerfile, Forte uses it; if not, it generates one automatically.
Move your config vars
Copy your Heroku config vars into Forte's environment settings. Same keys, same values — no code changes.
Deploy and let it scale
git push and Forte builds, deploys, and autoscales automatically — always-on, with no dynos to size and no sleep.
Debug by request, not by grep
Use Forte's built-in request debugger — search by request ID, with no log-drain add-on to wire up.
Add the app layer
Flip on built-in user authentication and Stripe-backed payments — the app-layer pieces you'd otherwise add as separate services.