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Gateways vs Heroku

Heroku is the classic developer PaaS: push code, run dynos, attach add-ons, and avoid most raw infrastructure decisions. It remains useful when an opinionated application platform is exactly what the team wants. Gateways is for organizations that operate directly in AWS, Azure, or GCP and still want a clean product experience. It provides a visual architecture canvas, workspace and environment model, resource connections, activity, and APIs over infrastructure your team owns.

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At A Glance

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Choose Heroku When

• You want an opinionated PaaS and do not need direct cloud resource ownership.
• Your application fits a dyno and add-on model.
• Your priority is developer simplicity over infrastructure control.

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Choose Gateways When

• Your organization requires infrastructure to run in its own AWS, Azure, or GCP accounts.
• You need visibility into real resources: servers, databases, DNS, storage, functions, and connections.
• Your team wants a Heroku-like level of usability while preserving cloud governance.
• You want operators to keep direct cloud and SSH access instead of relying only on a PaaS abstraction.
• Projects, environments, roles, activity, and APIs need to reflect your actual cloud estate.

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Bottom Line

Heroku is ideal when you want the platform to hide infrastructure. Gateways is ideal when infrastructure ownership is non-negotiable and the team still needs a fast, understandable way to operate it with provider-level control intact. Compare hub · Cloud connections