# AgentCell vs Heroku for Internal Tools

> Heroku killed free in 2022, Eco starts at $5/mo per app, and Salesforce has it in maintenance mode. Twenty idle internal tools means twenty per-app fees — the tax that kills sprawl.

Published: 2026-09-19  
Canonical: https://agentcell.dev/resources/vs-heroku  
Markdown: https://agentcell.dev/resources/vs-heroku.md

> **TL;DR verdict:** Use Heroku when buildpacks, add-ons, and a decade of operational knowledge still serve a stable app. Use AgentCell when the workload is many occasionally-used internal tools: Heroku's per-app fees ($5/mo Eco and up) charge rent on every tool whether anyone opens it or not.

## Where Heroku wins (honestly)

- **Buildpacks.** `git push` and it builds — the workflow every PaaS since has imitated, still smooth.
- **Add-ons.** Postgres, Redis, logging, monitoring: one marketplace, attached in a command.
- **Known quantity.** A decade of runbooks, Stack Overflow answers, and teams that can operate it blindfolded.

Nobody should migrate a stable, working Heroku app on principle. This page is about where the *next* twenty tools go.

## The per-app tax

Heroku killed its free tier in November 2022. Eco starts at **$5/mo per app** — and that is the floor, before databases, before anything beyond one tiny dyno. Twenty internal tools, seventeen of them asleep, still cost twenty app-fees. That arithmetic is precisely what makes teams prune: every experiment carries rent, so experiments stop. Add Salesforce's "sustaining engineering" (maintenance) status as of February 2026, and the platform is charging growing rent on a shrinking roadmap.

AgentCell inverts the unit: unlimited cells, no per-app fee, idle cells bill nothing for compute. The twentieth experiment costs nothing to keep.

## The missing half (same as everywhere)

Heroku is auth-agnostic: the app is public unless your code says otherwise. Internal tools need the same second vendor and second bill (WorkOS/Clerk/Auth0 with their $125–300/mo enterprise floors), plus session logic maintained across every tool. Heroku's add-on ecosystem never included "let three colleagues log in with Google" — because that was never a Heroku-shaped problem.

## Side-by-side

| | Heroku | AgentCell |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy flow | `git push`, buildpacks | `agentcell deploy` from a folder, no git required: static sites detected, servers from a Dockerfile |
| Cost per idle app | $5+/mo Eco per app | ~Nothing for idle compute |
| Twenty idle tools | ~$100+/mo rent | Storage/domains only, capped |
| Data | Add-on Postgres/Redis (mature) | Per-cell datastore + object storage (small-tools scope) |
| Share with colleagues | DIY auth in every app | Share list + identity-aware front door |
| Trajectory | Maintenance mode (Salesforce, Feb 2026) | Independent vendor, small software only |
| Best for | Stable existing apps, steady traffic | Many occasional tools, 1–10 users each |

## Fit checklist

**Use AgentCell when:** new tools outnumber stable ones; per-app rent exceeds each tool's value; sharing needs named people, not public URLs.

**Stay on Heroku when:** the app is stable, trafficked, and paid for; buildpacks/add-ons are load-bearing; the team already operates it well.

## FAQ

**Is this another 'Heroku killer' pitch?**
No — Heroku's maintenance-mode status does that work itself. We're the home for what gets built *next*, not a re-platforming crusade.

**Can agents deploy to AgentCell like git push to Heroku?**
Closer: no git repo required. The agent deploys from the working folder via CLI or MCP tool call, in the session where the code was written.

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*Paying rent on apps nobody opens? [Deploy now](/docs/deploy/).*