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.At A Glance
| Decision area | Gateways | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure boundary | Your cloud accounts | Heroku platform |
| Primary workflow | Manage cloud resources and relationships | Deploy apps to dynos and add-ons |
| Best fit | Teams with cloud ownership, compliance, multi-cloud, or landing zones | Teams that want simple app hosting without cloud exposure |
| Operational model | Architecture canvas, resources, environments, APIs | PaaS abstractions and add-on ecosystem |
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.
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.