Cloud computing is currently the most trending topic in the IT industry. Regardless of whether you are just migrating to the cloud, storing files on a cloud or deploying software, more and more companies are showing interest in the ways they can benefit from the services of a cloud. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), international spending on public Cloud Platform will increase from about $70 billion in 2015 to $141 billion in 2019.

Market leaders in Cloud Platforms – AWS vs Heroku

Amazon Web Services or AWS is among the leading cloud service providers, but due to its complexity, cost and internal issues, most people are looking out for other options too. So here is where Heroku has stepped in. When people do a comparison of AWS vs Heroku, they tend to find a host of advantages and disadvantages in both service providers.

In order to run a web project, whether it’s a small API solution or a full-fledged web application, you will eventually have to host your service and make it available to the world. Today, there is a plethora of options with several market leaders. Amazon.com’s AWS vs Heroku from the house of Salesforce.com, are strong contenders in the cloud computing market, among many others. When doing a comparison of features of AWS vs Heroku, Amazon’s Elastic Beanstalk is equivalent to Heroku.

AWS is a huge collection of cloud computing services that build up a full-fledged platform. AWS Cloud is available in several geographic locations and is growing fast.  Heroku on the other hand, is a cloud platform that offers an efficient and adaptable platform for building, deploying and scaling web applications. Its features include 140 add-ons ranging from alerts and notifications to databases, analytics tools or security services to monitoring, caching, mailing or networking add-ons.

A study of AWS vs Heroku will reveal a host of attractive features as well as some shortcomings in both the ecosystems. AWS is primarily an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform which facilitates dealing with databases, management and analytics and deployment. Heroku, on the other hand, is an AWS-based Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution that is a lot different from Amazon.

Advantages

Languages – AWS vs Heroku

In the battle between AWS vs Heroku, it’s important to first see the differences between the two solutions. Both solutions use common languages like Ruby, Python, PHP, Go, Node.js. Apart from these AWS uses Docker and .NET whereas Heroku uses Clojure, Java, and Scala.

AWS vs Heroku Pricing

Cost is a primary concern of all organizations and that is where the first comparison comes in for AWS vs Heroku. One of the biggest advantages of AWS today is its pricing as compared to any other solution. It has one of the lowest prices per hour in the sphere. Heroku prices will seem steep to a business that has a tight budget.

Deployment

Both cloud-based solutions were designed to make the deployment of apps as fast as possible and both of them give you the opportunity to monitor the viability of your app. However, in the battle of AWS vs Heroku, you will find that Heroku offers a ready-to-use environment where you can enter your code, make changes to your configuration and you are ready to go. Besides, you can also perform the migration and run apps much faster as compared to AWS. This feature of rapid deployment makes Heroku a preferred solution when it comes to deploying apps that need modifications based on customers’ reviews.

What is the perfect solution for your app?

Now that we have a fair idea about the features of both solutions, take a quick look at which solution works best for your kind of business. Since different businesses have different needs, its best to look at the generic features of AWS vs Heroku.

Even though Heroku and AWS are excellent cloud computing platforms, they are completely different in certain key areas. That is why it is important to understand each feature of the solution in order to choose the right platform for your project. There is no complete right or wrong decision in the battle of AWS vs Heroku, but it’s a matter of the demands of your business that will dictate the choice between AWS vs Heroku.