Developing a software requires a lot of things especially when it is a complex project. Nowadays, there are many web services which make it easier. It is possible to scale an app according to its number of users and the traffic it generates. You can build a scalable web app or cloud app by yourself but you can’t manage it efficiently. That’s why services like Amazon Web Services and Heroku exist. There are many others but those two are the most used and the best.

Heroku

Heroku is a cloud-based server solution. Using it means you just focus on your application. You don’t have to worry about the infrastructure.

It supports Python, Ruby, Node.js, PHP, Java and Go. So it is very simple since you can use the language you already know to make and deploy apps. It is used by a lot of developers and even our team of Razor Theory has used it for many projects.

Features

• Instant deployment with Git: Heroku uses your build scripts to perform build of your app. You just have to focus on your code.
• Heroku Elements: Heroku Elements are services, components and tools for adding functionalities to your app. It includes Add-ons, Buildpacks and Buttons. There are over 150 Add-ons in the Elements Marketplace. They are integrated for use with Heroku and are fully-managed services. One command is enough to provision and scale them. They provide services for logging, caching, persistence, monitoring and more. Buildpacks are open source scripts for compiling apps on Heroku, specific to the frameworks and languages in your app. The default supported buildpacks are for the default languages of Heroku. But it is also possible to choose fin the Elements Marketplace. Heroku Buttons let you provision, configure and deploy third party components, library and patterns apps with one click. In the Elements Marketplace you can see all available Buttons.
• Isolation: Each dyno is completely isolated from each other.
• Processes scaling: Each component of your app can be scaled independently without loss of functionality and performance
• Full logging and visibility: Easy access to all dynos and every component of your app.

Heroku provides the first 750 computation hours free of charge and with very good performance. In addition they provide a great documentation to help new subscribers to understand how to build their app quickly. Heroku competitors are: AWS, OpenShift, Windows Azure, VMWare, Google App Engine, Force.com and HP Cloud Services.

On Heroku, you can scale when you need to with ease. You just upgrade when you feel it and pay for what you added.

Another feature is Heroku PostGres. It provides a SQL database-as-a-service that lets you be more concentrated on your application instead of losing all your time with database management.

Heroku is the best cloud platform for building your apps. It is cheaper and provides great tools and documentation to start even if you are beginner. It helped us a lot at Razor Theory and still is our first choice.