Heroku vs VMware Tanzu Platform comparison

Heroku and VMware are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Heroku is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.0, while VMware is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.8. Additionally, 87% of Heroku users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Heroku

Read 29 Heroku reviews

2,361 Views
1,712 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

VMware Tanzu Platform

Read 21 VMware Tanzu Platform reviews

2,088 Views
1,651 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Heroku

VMware Tanzu Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Heroku and VMware Tanzu Platform are competitive products focusing on cloud application deployment. VMware Tanzu often has the upper hand due to its scalability and robust enterprise-grade capabilities.

Features: Heroku offers easy configuration and seamless GitHub integration, making it ideal for rapid application development. It features a vast add-on marketplace, supporting continuous integration and deployment. VMware Tanzu Platform provides comprehensive Kubernetes support, microservices architecture, and enterprise-grade security, appealing to large organizations needing extensive solutions.

Room for Improvement: Heroku could improve by offering more robust enterprise features and scaling options for larger businesses. User management and advanced analytics are areas where enhancements could be made. VMware Tanzu can enhance its user interface to be more intuitive for less technically experienced users. Streamlining the setup process and reducing costs could also make it more competitive.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Heroku is known for its simple deployment model, which allows rapid application releases without needing in-depth DevOps knowledge. It offers effective customer support suited for smaller teams. VMware Tanzu provides a strong deployment framework, especially for containerized applications, but demands more technical expertise from users. Its comprehensive support is more aligned with large-scale enterprise needs.

Pricing and ROI: Heroku provides simple, predictable pricing options that cater to small and medium teams, offering good ROI through ease of use. VMware Tanzu involves higher initial costs but delivers high ROI for enterprises requiring superior scalability and long-term flexibility. The extensive infrastructure capabilities of VMware Tanzu make it a preferred option for organizations prioritizing these features.

To learn more, read our detailed Heroku vs. VMware Tanzu Platform Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Heroku vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Heroku

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

15th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Tanzu Platform

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (13th), Cloud Management (25th), Development Platforms (3rd), Container Management (3rd), Service Mesh (7th), Agile and DevOps Services (2nd)

Featured Reviews

Faizan Haider

Senior Software Engineer at Aldaim Solutions

Used for server deployment and provides auto maintenance of databases

Heroku is deployed on the cloud. We can deploy our private and public projects over at Heroku. Most of the time, when we are starting any new project from scratch, we have to implement our MVP for that project or the core idea. We are unsure how our traffic flow will go or the actual production environment requirements. We don't want to spend the most on the server sites, so then we can use it with our go-to plan for Heroku, and all the resources are available in the basic plan with the minimum expenses. So, it helps us to deploy and make our features available online at the minimum cost. Once we know our needs, we can add the professional add-ons and shift it to another platform. Heroku supports any resource listed in the marketplace. We just have to deploy our AI solutions, and Heroku can also support AI projects. I would recommend the solution to other users. I advise users not to purchase extra add-ons but to make scalable resources so that they can use all the resources efficiently. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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DarshanChaudhari

Solutions Architect Hybrid Cloud Practice US/Europe at Tech Mahindra Limited

Empowers seamless connectivity and integration through APIs while offering robust auto-scaling

I am involved in IT services and we provide a solution to customers. We work with VMware, Nutanix, OpenShift, and Microsoft Hyper-V The Tanzu platform is highly available, scalable, and flexible. It offers native services for autoscaling and integrations through APIs, allowing seamless…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It's easy to push a change and to deploy new things."

"The most valuable feature of Heroku is the continuous integration and applications it provides."

"One of the best things about Heroku is that it is very easy and straightforward to deploy an application."

"What I found most valuable about this solution is that it's easy to use and integrate with GitHub actions."

"We use Heroku to run generic data. We also use it for our customer development environment. It helps us to build and test websites."

"Thanks to Heroku, we don't need to do as much direct management in AWS."

"The product is stable."

"Valuable for us was the fast deployment. This means the time to market is improved without pain for developers."

More Heroku pros

"The multi-tenancy with the VCD is great."

"Defining security metrics has proven beneficial for customers in maintaining a safe environment."

"I have multiple Kubernetes environments within my environment. TMC gives me a single pane view, which is good for managing everything."

"The most valuable feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is the management functionality of the cluster life cycle. Additionally, the solution integrates well with other vendors, such as Velero for backups and Sonobuoy for compliance. Additionally, it works well in multi-cluster environments."

"We never experienced any problems with scalability."

"The most popular feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is its graphical user interface for describing network policies on the Service Mesh, which is highly integrable with other tools commonly used in supply chains such as security."

"The valuable feature I have found to be the management of Kubernetes clusters in a private cloud or public clouds, such as Azure or Google Cloud Platform."

"There are a lot of services available in VMware Tanzu Application Service, such as databases and application servers. You have everything you need in one application and you do not need to search outside of the solution."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pros

Cons

"We would like to be notified when something goes wrong in the process. When something is not working, we should get an alert."

"They could flesh out some of their analytics a little more."

"We have to do daily restarts of some processes, which is annoying, and the support for custom CI could be better."

"Heroku had an authentication problem a few months ago, but they solved it."

"Their support is good, but they can improve their response time."

"We don't find the pipelines intuitive. The user experience could be better. Having to set up multiple apps, then a pipeline, seems like an overkill on the amount of work to do."

"Heroku doesn't support Docker images on the CI infrastructure."

"The tool's configuration is complex."

More Heroku cons

"Tanzu could provide more granular control over whatever networking is being done on the containers. I would also like to see a slightly more detailed view of application-level tracing. I'm referring to the connections between different microservices. If they added a service-matching feature, that would be helpful for the customers to build or be more effective."

"Another area of improvement is pricing."

"This product doesn't have a GUI. In order to use it properly, I need to connect it to a new GUI or build a GUI to manage it — it's pretty difficult."

"The solution's initial setup process was complex...The solution could benefit from improved customization and visibility for its users."

"Having a unified dashboard to manage all infrastructure, whether it involves additional IT infrastructure or modern apps, would be highly advantageous"

"We want to see a new feature that helps build more security architecture like Zero Trust Security or shifting left in Kubernetes."

"The solution could improve by having better integration with other solutions such as HPE."

"The disaster recovery feature could be improved to provide better tracking of issues. I would also like to see the introduction of a dashboard view, for even further integration of all the areas that Mission Control looks at."

More VMware Tanzu Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a standard fee for a processing unit, they call them "dynos," and then you pay for add-ons."

"The price of Heroku could be less expensive."

"I rate the tool's pricing a three out of ten."

"The tool is free."

"Its price is very good."

"The product is not expensive, but it is not cheap."

"The license for VMware Tanzu Application Service is expensive. The license should be cheaper."

"Its pricing is very competitive. We get around 70% or 75%, sometimes even 80%, discount on the product. I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing."

"The least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core."

"I would recommend that businesses look into the full price for their requirements. The price is high, but there are some open-source add-ons that can be used for customization while keeping costs down, although these might not be suitable for everyone."

"The licensing cost is expensive."

"VMware Tanzu Mission Control is cheaper than Red Hat OpenShift."

"One of our Spanish customers told us that VMware Tanzu Service Mesh is a very expensive product for their data center."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

University

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Heroku?

I like the tool's scalability, CLI, and dashboards.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Heroku?

I don't like that the web server crashes every day, every 24 hours. The pricing could be improved because scaling the database becomes costly. The Docker features are not great. You cannot use any ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Heroku?

We use the solution for web applications and web APIs.

See all answers

Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Tanzu Application Service?

The solution is integrated very well with a lot of other systems. Also, its GUI is very good.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Application Service?

Since I have a developer team, they use the solution for testing purposes.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure vs Heroku

Compared 30% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Heroku

Compared 14% of the time

AWS Fargate vs Heroku

Compared 10% of the time

Google App Engine vs Heroku

Compared 7% of the time

Salesforce Platform vs Heroku

Compared 3% of the time

More Heroku Competitors

Rancher Labs vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 18% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 12% of the time

Kubernetes vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 8% of the time

More VMware Tanzu Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Heroku

April 2025

Download Heroku product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Tanzu Platform

March 2025

Download VMware Tanzu Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tanzu Application Catalog, Application Platform, Application Service, Hub, Mission Control, Service Mesh, Build Service, Concourse for VMware Tanzu

Overview

Established in 2007, Heroku is a cloud application platform providing a streamlined, efficient place for web app developers to create and deploy their applications. Heroku is designed to maximize developer productivity. With the entire web application development process available on the Herokucloud, creating and rolling out web apps has been made more efficient, convenient, and cost-effective than ever before.

Heroku

VMware Tanzu Platform is designed for cloud-native development and management of Kubernetes, CI/CD processes, microservices, and containerized workloads. It supports deployments both on cloud and on-premises, providing centralized management via Mission Control.

VMware Tanzu Platform offers seamless integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN, supporting centralized cluster management and lifecycle management. The platform provides a GUI for monitoring CI/CD pipelines and network policies, enhancing multi-tenancy and Day 2 operations. Users can easily manage Kubernetes clusters, monitor applications, and integrate with tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Cloud Foundry, and Azure. It ensures compliance and security for service providers, financial institutions, and businesses.

What are the key features of VMware Tanzu Platform?

Integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN: Enhances compatibility and flexibility.
Seamless Cluster Management: Centralized control over Kubernetes clusters.
CI/CD Pipelines and Network Policies: Simplifies monitoring and management.
Multi-tenancy Support: Facilitates resource sharing among multiple users.
Comprehensive Lifecycle Management: Streamlines deployment and scalability.
Observability Platform: Provides enhanced visibility and control.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in VMware Tanzu Platform reviews?

Centralized Management: Simplifies operations and reduces manual effort.
Enhanced Compliance and Security: Meets regulatory requirements.
Flexibility in Deployment: Supports both cloud and on-premises options.
Seamless Integration: Works with multiple vendors and tools.
Developer-Friendly Environment: Improves productivity and innovation.

Industries such as financial institutions, service providers, and businesses requiring rigorous compliance and security deploy VMware Tanzu Platform. These entities benefit from centralized management, streamlined DevOps processes, and integrated tools, enhancing their capabilities in cloud-native developments and containerized workloads.

VMware

Sample Customers

Facebook, UrbanDictionary, Code for America, Mailchimp, Rapportive, GitHub, TED, and Lyft.

Verizon, Cerner, Zipcar, Avarteq

Buyer's Guide

Heroku vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

April 2025

Free Report: Heroku vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

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