Moving from Heroku to Microsoft Azure
Heroku's pricing has crept up, and you're wondering if there's a better option. Azure offers the deepest enterprise integration and most compliance certifications, but cost savings are modest without Reserved Instances or existing Microsoft licensing. Here's an honest breakdown of what you'd gain, what you'd lose, and whether the switch makes sense for your team.
Cost Comparison
Estimated Monthly Savings
~$6/month
That's approximately 3% less per month
Azure's on-demand pricing offers minimal savings over Heroku. The value proposition requires 1-year Reserved Instances (31% savings) or Azure Hybrid Benefit with existing Microsoft licensing (up to 40% additional savings). Without these, consider other providers.
What You'll Gain
Most global regions
60+ regions worldwide, more than any other cloud provider. Excellent for applications requiring specific geographic presence.
Deepest enterprise integration
Native integration with Active Directory, Office 365, Microsoft 365, and hybrid on-premises environments. Unmatched for Microsoft shops.
Most compliance certifications
The most comprehensive in the industry, with 90+ compliance certifications. SOC 1/2/3, PCI DSS, HIPAA BAA, FedRAMP High, and dozens of country-specific certifications.
Azure Hybrid Benefit
Existing Windows Server or SQL Server licenses can reduce VM costs by up to 40%, significant savings for organizations with Microsoft Enterprise Agreements.
Managed services quality
Azure Database for PostgreSQL and Azure Cache for Redis are mature, well-documented products with automatic backups and high-availability options.
ARM-based Ampere VMs
Dps_v5 and Dpds_v5 series use Ampere Altra processors for competitive ARM pricing. Rails runs well on ARM.
What You'll Lose
Competitive on-demand pricing
Without Reserved Instances or Hybrid Benefit, Azure costs roughly the same as Heroku. The migration effort may not be worth it for on-demand usage.
Simple billing
Azure billing is complex. Stopped VMs still charge for storage and IPs. Zone redundancy doubles costs. Log Analytics charges per GB ingested.
Burstable VM guarantees
B-series VMs can throttle when CPU credits deplete. For consistent workloads, choose D-series or pay attention to credit accumulation.
Simple networking
VNets, NSGs, and resource groups require learning. Similar complexity to AWS.
Integrated logging by default
Azure Monitor and Log Analytics require configuration and incur per-GB ingestion costs.
Built-in autoscaling simplicity
VM Scale Sets can autoscale but require setup.
Review apps and pipelines
You'd need to build these with Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
Hands-off server maintenance
OS updates, security patches, and firewall configuration for your VMs are your responsibility. Heroku handles this invisibly.
Should You Switch?
- You're already a Microsoft shop with Active Directory, Office 365, or existing Azure services
- You have Windows Server or SQL Server licenses eligible for Hybrid Benefit
- You can commit to 1-year Reserved Instances for meaningful savings
- You need specific compliance certifications that Azure uniquely provides
- Regional presence in Azure's 60+ locations matters for your application
- You'd be paying on-demand prices without Reserved Instances or Hybrid Benefit
- Your team has no existing Azure or Microsoft ecosystem experience
- You don't need Azure-specific integrations (Active Directory, etc.)
- You heavily depend on Heroku add-ons that don't have easy replacements
- You need features like review apps without building custom CI/CD
Ready to Make the Switch?
Want help with the migration? I offer a done-for-you Heroku Exit Plan service that handles the entire transition—infrastructure setup, deployment configuration, database migration, and ongoing support.
Learn more about the Heroku Exit Plan