Heroku Migration

The Managed Heroku Alternative

Heroku is in sustaining engineering mode. Railway, Render, and Fly.io are all self-serve. vmfarms is not — we handle the migration, the ops, the on-call, and the 3AM incidents. You ship code. We keep it running.

Dedicated bare-metal hardware — no public cloud, no noisy neighbors
Full-stack managed: databases, queues, security, backups, CI/CD
Free white-glove migration
24/7 human on-call
Canadian data residency

What you’re actually losing when Heroku dies

Heroku’s value was never the platform. It was the operational responsibility it absorbed. When you move to Railway or Render, you get a deployment platform. When something breaks at 3AM, you get a ticket. When your database is slow, you go back to reading documentation. When you move to vmfarms, you get a team.

What Heroku gave you What vmfarms gives you
Git-push deploys Git-push deploys (Docker-native)
Managed Postgres, Redis Managed Postgres, MySQL, Redis — dedicated, not shared
Dyno restarts, log drains Container orchestration with zero-downtime rolling updates
Add-on marketplace Full-stack bundled: WAF, secrets management, observability, CI/CD
Support tickets 24/7 human on-call — we answer when things break
Shared cloud infrastructure Dedicated bare-metal Proxmox hypervisors — you’re not sharing compute
US East / EU West Canadian data residency — PIPEDA-ready, no US CLOUD Act exposure

The migration you’ve been avoiding

We know why you haven’t migrated yet. It’s not the app code. It’s the database. Moving 200GB of Postgres with live traffic, no downtime tolerance, and a team that’s never done it before is genuinely scary. Every PaaS migration guide skips this part. We don’t skip it. We do it for you.

01

Assessment call (30 min)

We review your Heroku stack, identify dependencies, estimate timeline. No commitment — just an honest assessment of what migration involves.

02

Staging migration

We stand up your app on vmfarms infrastructure in staging and validate everything works before touching production.

03

Database migration

We use logical replication to keep your Postgres in sync during cutover — no extended downtime windows, no data loss risk.

04

DNS cutover

We coordinate the switchover at a time you choose. You stay in control of the schedule.

05

Hypercare period (14 days)

We monitor your stack intensively for two weeks post-migration and fix anything that surfaces. Your team focuses on shipping.

It’s free. For teams migrating from Heroku before July 2026, the migration service is included. No extra charge.

What you’re actually paying on Heroku

Actual Heroku costs are higher once you add the add-ons that come bundled with vmfarms. The comparison below reflects a typical mid-size app stack.

Stack component Heroku (per month) vmfarms (per month)
2 web dynos (Standard-2X) $100 ~$120
all included
Heroku Postgres (Standard-0) $50
Heroku Redis (Premium-0) $30
Papertrail logging $10
SSL, custom domain $20
Total $210/mo ~$120/mo

Your dedicated hardware, your data — not shared infrastructure. Flat pricing, no usage surprises.

Is vmfarms the right fit for you?

vmfarms works best for

  • Teams of 2–50 people who want managed infrastructure without hiring a DevOps engineer
  • Rails, Django, Node.js, or any Docker-native application
  • Companies with Canadian data residency requirements (healthcare, fintech, government-adjacent)
  • Heroku Enterprise customers who need SLA and compliance continuity
  • Agencies managing multiple client apps who want a migration partner

May not be right if

  • You need multi-region global CDN for latency-sensitive consumer apps (Fly.io is better suited)
  • You want free tier or hobby hosting — we’re production-focused
  • You want to self-manage the underlying infrastructure — we won’t let you, and that’s the point

One price. No add-ons.

Everything bundled at one price. No add-on marketplace, no per-feature charges.

Infrastructure

Container orchestration

Docker Swarm on dedicated Proxmox hypervisors. No noisy neighbors, no shared compute.

Data

Managed databases

Postgres, MySQL, Redis — fully managed, backed up, monitored. Not shared add-ons.

Deployment

CI/CD

Automated builds and rolling deployments with zero-downtime updates.

Security

Scanning + SIEM + EDR

Trivy CVE scanning, Wazuh SIEM, and Velociraptor EDR — all pre-configured.

Network

WAF

Coraza WAF + CrowdSec for traffic protection, running in front of your apps.

Secrets

Secrets management

Infisical-backed. No plaintext secrets in environment variables or config files.

Observability

Grafana + Loki + Prometheus

Dashboards, logs, and metrics — all pre-configured, no setup required.

Resilience

Automated backups

Daily backups with point-in-time recovery. We test restores, not just runs.

On-call

24/7 monitoring

AI-powered autonomous incident response with human escalation. Someone answers at 3AM.

Limited Time — Heroku Migration Package

Free white-glove migration.
50% off for 3 months.

For teams migrating from Heroku before July 1, 2026.

Full migration handled by our team (app containers, databases, configs, DNS)
Zero-downtime database migration using logical replication
14 days of hypercare monitoring post-launch
First 3 months at 50% off your plan price
Book a Free Migration Assessment →

No commitment. We’ll give you an honest timeline and cost estimate.

Offer expires July 1, 2026

Frequently asked

How is vmfarms different from Railway, Render, or Fly.io?
Those are self-serve platforms — you manage the configuration, you respond to incidents, you handle migrations. vmfarms is a managed hosting company — we handle all of that. It’s the difference between renting a car and having a driver.
My app uses Heroku Buildpacks, not Docker. Can you still migrate it?
Yes. We’ll help you containerize your app as part of the migration. Most Rails and Node apps containerize in under an hour; we handle it.
What’s your uptime SLA?
99.9% uptime SLA included on all production plans.
Do you support Rails / Django / Node.js?
Yes. If it runs in Docker, it runs on vmfarms. We have extensive experience with Rails (including Sidekiq, Action Cable), Django, Node.js, and Python ML workloads.
What does “Canadian data residency” actually mean?
All vmfarms infrastructure is physically located in Canada, owned by a Canadian company. There is no US parent company, no US corporate entity with access to your data. This is relevant for PIPEDA compliance, Quebec’s Law 25, and organizations that need to avoid US CLOUD Act exposure.
How long does a migration take?
For most mid-size Heroku apps (single database, 5–10 containers), 1–2 weeks from assessment to live. We do the heavy lifting; you need to be available for testing and the DNS cutover call.

Ready to leave Heroku?

Book a free 30-minute migration assessment. We’ll review your stack, answer your questions, and give you a clear timeline and cost estimate. No pressure — just an honest conversation.