I'm using Render for a part of #testkit (core web server, database, redis and queue) and it has been a blast! It's cheap (compared to Heroku), efficient and it really makes it super easy to deploy.

It even creates review environments for you without any effort.
I personally am never going back to Heroku and can only recommend Render :)
Btw I've tried a lot of PaaS platforms (Also DigitalOcean's App Platform, Dokku, Cloud66 etc.)

Hope it helps! :)

The main “gotcha” is that some parts work a bit differently from what you may be used to with Heroku, so the first time around getting set up with Render might take some more time.

But after that I think it’s a superior product in many ways. More affordable, great customer support, active developed, etc.

I guess the two things that can still use improvement are having an add-on marketplace like Heroku has (I’m sure that will come) and better metrics (they are working on this).

But they will get there whereas Heroku’s development seems stagnated. So yeah Render seems like a better long-term option 👌

+1 for Render. It's been a pleasure to use so far.

If you haven't already, check out their "infrastructure as code" using blueprint yaml files [1]. Saves so much time deploying new projects. I just copy & paste a render.yaml from an existing project and Render builds and connects the infrastructure.

Fly.io is another exciting platform but deploying a rails app is slow - maybe due to a lack of caching containers/builds. It's not as polished as Render but I love their multi-region databases deployed with just a few commands [2], i.e. Primary DB in Germany and replicas dotted all over the world.

I used Heroku for many years but like Marc says, it feels stagnant. My go to is Render.com.

1 - render.com/docs/infrastructur…
2 - fly.io/docs/getting-started/m…

I don't have any experience with Render so I guess take anything I have to say with a grain of salt?

Heroku does feel a little stagnant and expensive ever since Salesforce acquired it. And I switched over to hatchbox.io for my Rails apps because of cost.

But, Heroku does have a huge marketplace of add-ons that are pretty nice, scales neatly, and, as a company, is financially stable so I wouldn't worry about having to switch my infrastructure a year or two down the road.

I usually find the cheaper, recently funded, startups get acquired, sunsetted, or end up raising prices down the road cause they have to — unless they use some new technology makes their strategy dramatically more profitable, but I bet both Heroku and Render's costs are the same AWS services.

So, with that out of the way:

• Is there an issue with your current infrastructure choice?
• Will the cost of switching to a new platform, and the risk + cost of switching back, be more than the amount you'd save on Render?
• Is there something Heroku doesn't do that's stopping you from shipping a feature to customers?

I'm personally a recovering tool-tinkerer and switcher. For so many years... Probably because it's a problem I'm more comfortable solving rather than the whole marketing/sales/shipping thing 😅

I'm now about using the most boring, reliable, and familiar tools I have. If I keep playing this new-and-shiny game I'll never ship shit! 🤣

Hope you find what works best for you.

I'm a bit late to the party, but I would add fly.io to the list of options.