In February 2026, Salesforce [announced](https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/) that Heroku is transitioning to a sustaining engineering model. No new features, no new Enterprise contracts for new customers, and a strategic pivot toward AI-driven products instead of platform development.

For the thousands of teams that built their deployment workflows around Heroku, this raises a practical question: what now?

This article breaks down what the announcement actually means, who should consider migrating, and how [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) fits as a deployment layer — especially if you deploy to your own servers or cloud infrastructure.

## What Heroku's Sustaining Engineering Actually Means

Heroku's [official update](https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/) and [March 2026 follow-up](https://www.heroku.com/blog/march-2026-update/) confirm the following:

- **No new feature development.** The roadmap is defensive — security patches, stability fixes, and infrastructure maintenance only.
- **Enterprise contracts are no longer offered to new customers.** Existing Enterprise customers can renew, but Salesforce is not onboarding new ones.
- **Credit card customers are unaffected for now.** If you pay via the Heroku dashboard, pricing and billing remain the same.
- **No sunset date announced.** Heroku could run in this mode for years, but long-term certainty decreases over time.

The [March 2026 update](https://www.heroku.com/blog/march-2026-update/) framed this as a mission to provide the most stable, secure, and reliable environment for your apps and data — but conspicuously dropped any mention of innovation or feature roadmap.

In software terms, sustaining engineering is the phase before end-of-life. It does not mean Heroku is shutting down tomorrow. It means the platform has stopped evolving, and teams planning for the next 2-5 years should factor that into their infrastructure decisions.

## Who Should Consider Moving — And Who Shouldn't

Not every Heroku customer needs to migrate immediately. Here is a practical framework:

### Stay on Heroku (for now) if:

- Your app is stable, low-traffic, and doesn't require new platform features
- You are on a credit card plan with no Enterprise dependencies
- You have no compliance requirements that demand an active development roadmap from your platform vendor
- Migration cost exceeds the risk of remaining on a sustaining platform

### Start planning a migration if:

- You need features Heroku will never ship (private networking, advanced build controls, regional deployment)
- You are an Enterprise customer whose contract renewal terms may change
- Your compliance or security team requires vendors with active development commitments
- You are scaling and hitting Heroku's known limitations (30-second request timeout, daily dyno restarts, limited build customisation)
- You deploy to your own servers, VPS, or cloud infrastructure — Heroku was always an awkward fit for this

## Why DeployHQ Is Worth Considering

[DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) is not a Heroku replacement in the traditional PaaS sense. It does not host your application or manage your infrastructure. Instead, it handles one thing exceptionally well: **getting your code from a Git repository to your servers, reliably and automatically**.

This distinction matters. Many Heroku users — particularly those deploying PHP, Ruby, Python, or Node.js applications — do not actually need a full PaaS. They need a deployment pipeline that connects to their existing servers.

Here is where [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) fits:

### Git-Native Deployment

[DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) connects directly to [GitHub](https://www.deployhq.com/deploy-from-github), [GitLab](https://www.deployhq.com/deploy-from-gitlab), and [Bitbucket](https://www.deployhq.com/deploy-from-bitbucket). Push to a branch and your code is deployed — similar to Heroku's `git push heroku main` workflow, but to any server you control.

### Zero Downtime Deployments

Heroku handles this behind the scenes with its dyno management. With [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com), [zero downtime deployments](https://www.deployhq.com/features/zero-downtime-deployments) work by maintaining atomic release directories on your server. New releases are prepared in isolation, symlinked on success, and rolled back instantly on failure.

### One-Click Rollback

One of Heroku's best features was easy rollbacks. [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) provides [one-click rollback](https://www.deployhq.com/features/one-click-rollback) to any previous deployment — no CLI commands, no release slugs to manage.

### Build Pipelines

If your application needs a build step (compiling assets, installing dependencies, running tests), DeployHQ's [build pipelines](https://www.deployhq.com/features/build-pipelines) run these steps before deployment. Similar to Heroku's buildpacks, but configurable to match your exact workflow.

### Deploy Behind Firewalls

Unlike Heroku, which is limited to its own infrastructure, [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) can [deploy behind firewalls](https://www.deployhq.com/features/deploy-behind-firewalls) using network agents — reaching servers in private networks, corporate environments, or air-gapped infrastructure.

### Docker Builds

For teams moving toward containers, [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) supports [Docker builds](https://www.deployhq.com/features/docker-builds) as part of the deployment pipeline — build, test, and deploy container images to any registry or server.

## Migration Checklist: Heroku to DeployHQ

If you decide to move, here is a practical migration path:

### 1. Audit Your Heroku Setup

Before changing anything, document what you have:

- **Application type** : Web app, API, worker process, or scheduled job?
- **Language/framework** : PHP, Ruby, Python, Node.js, Go?
- **Add-ons** : Which Heroku add-ons do you depend on? (Postgres, Redis, logging, monitoring)
- **Environment variables** : Export your config vars (`heroku config -s > .env`)
- **Build process** : What does your Procfile and buildpack do?

### 2. Provision Your Server

[DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) deploys to servers you control. You will need:

- A VPS or cloud server (DigitalOcean, AWS EC2, Linode, Hetzner, or your own hardware)
- SSH access configured
- Your runtime environment installed (PHP, Node.js, Ruby, Python)

For teams deploying WordPress, Laravel, Rails, Django, or Express apps to a VPS, this is a natural fit. DeployHQ's [deployment targets](https://www.deployhq.com/features/deployment-targets) support SSH/SFTP, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud Files, and more.

### 3. Set Up DeployHQ

1. [Sign up for DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com/signup)
2. Create a project and connect your Git repository
3. Configure your server as a deployment target
4. Set up environment-specific [config files](https://www.deployhq.com/support/config-files) to replace Heroku's config vars
5. Add [build pipeline](https://www.deployhq.com/features/build-pipelines) steps if needed (e.g., `npm install && npm run build`)
6. Configure [automatic deployments](https://www.deployhq.com/features/automatic-deployments) to trigger on push

### 4. Migrate Your Data

- **PostgreSQL** : Export with `pg_dump`, import to your new database server
- **Redis** : Export with `redis-cli --rdb` or use `BGSAVE`
- **File storage** : If you used ephemeral storage on Heroku, move to S3 or equivalent

### 5. Update DNS and Go Live

Point your domain to your new server, run smoke tests, and monitor with your preferred observability stack. [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) integrates with [Slack, Discord, and other notification services](https://www.deployhq.com/features/integrations) to keep your team informed during the transition.

## DeployHQ vs Heroku: A Practical Comparison

| Capability | Heroku | DeployHQ |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **What it does** | Hosts and runs your app (PaaS) | Deploys code to your servers |
| **Server management** | Fully managed | You manage your servers |
| **Git push deploys** | Yes | Yes |
| **Rollback** | Via CLI (`heroku rollback`) | One-click in dashboard |
| **Build steps** | Buildpacks (limited customisation) | Fully configurable build pipelines |
| **Zero downtime** | Preboot (paid plans) | Included on all plans |
| **Deploy to own servers** | No | Yes (SSH, SFTP, S3, and more) |
| **Private network support** | No | Yes (via network agents) |
| **Docker support** | Container registry | Docker build pipelines |
| **Integrations** | Heroku add-ons marketplace | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Slack, Sentry, and more |
| **Pricing** | Starts at $5/mo per dyno | [Starts at $4/mo](https://www.deployhq.com/pricing) for 10 projects |
| **Active development** | Sustaining engineering only | Active feature development |

## What DeployHQ Does Not Replace

To be transparent: [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) is not a drop-in Heroku replacement for every use case.

- **App hosting** : [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) does not run your application. You need your own server or hosting provider.
- **Managed databases** : Heroku Postgres was convenient. You will need to self-manage or use a managed database service (AWS RDS, DigitalOcean Managed Databases, PlanetScale, Neon).
- **Add-on marketplace** : Heroku's add-on ecosystem has no direct equivalent. You will integrate services directly.
- **Scaling** : Heroku's dyno scaling is automatic. With your own servers, you handle scaling yourself (or use auto-scaling from your cloud provider).

For teams that want the full PaaS experience, platforms like Render, Railway, or Fly.io are closer Heroku replacements. [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) targets a different — and arguably larger — audience: **developers who already have servers and need a reliable way to deploy to them**.

## The Bigger Picture

Heroku's move to sustaining engineering is part of a broader industry trend. Salesforce acquired Heroku in 2010 for $212 million, and the platform defined a generation of developer experience. But priorities shift, and Salesforce's investment is now directed toward enterprise AI.

For developers, the lesson is practical: avoid single points of failure in your deployment infrastructure. Whether you stay on Heroku for now or migrate to a combination of your own servers and a [deployment tool like DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com/blog/best-software-deployment-tools), the goal is the same — control over how and where your code runs. If you're a small team weighing your options, our [guide to choosing the right deployment tool](https://www.deployhq.com/blog/how-to-choose-right-deployment-tool-guide) covers the criteria most Heroku migrators care about — pricing, server compatibility, and operational overhead.

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**Ready to take control of your deployments?** [Start a free trial of DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com/signup) and deploy your first project in under 5 minutes. If you have questions about migrating from Heroku, reach out to us at [support@deployhq.com](mailto:support@deployhq.com) or on Twitter at [@deployhq](https://x.com/deployhq).