Render Pricing Plans 2026 — Web Services, Databases & Hosting

Current Render Pricing (May 2026)

Service	Free Tier	Starter	Standard	Pro
Web Services	✅ 1 (pauses)	$7/month	$25/month	$50/month
Postgres Database	✅ Free (0.4 GB)	✅ Included	✅ $15/month (1 GB)	$30/month (4 GB)
Memory	512 MB	512 MB	1 GB	2 GB
CPU	Shared	Shared	Dedicated	Dedicated

Render vs. Heroku Cost Comparison

Hobby Project

Render (Free tier with DB) $0

Heroku (Eco + Postgres) $16/month

Production App

Render (Starter Web + DB) $7/month

Heroku (Standard-1X + Postgres) $34/month

Savings (monthly) $27/month

Render's Starter tier ($7) is 79% cheaper than Heroku's Standard-1X ($25) for web services, plus Postgres is included at no extra cost.

Render's Key Advantages

Free tier doesn't disappear: Auto-pauses but persists (unlike Heroku which killed free tier entirely)
Database included: Free PostgreSQL with paid web service tiers (no separate $9+ database charge)
Transparent pricing: Pay only for what you use, no surprise Dyno charges
Better infrastructure: Built on modern cloud (vs. Heroku's older platform)
Deploy via GitHub: Auto-deploy on git push, just like Heroku
Environment variables: Easy secrets management built in

Render's Limitations

Smaller ecosystem: Fewer add-ons and integrations than Heroku (but growing)
Less mature: Heroku has 13+ years of edge case handling; Render is newer
Support: Heroku has more community resources and Stack Overflow answers
Free tier pauses: App goes to sleep after 15 minutes inactivity (fine for side projects, not prod)

When to Use Render vs. Heroku

Use Case	Render	Heroku
Hobby project (free)	✅ Best choice	❌ $7/month minimum
MVP / Early stage	✅ $7-25/month	$34/month
Production, high-traffic	✅ Performance-M ($50)	Performance-M ($250)
Team with Heroku expertise	Stick with Heroku	✅ Existing knowledge
Cost-sensitive startup	✅ 70% cheaper	Too expensive

Real Monthly Cost Examples

Freelancer side project (Render Free) $0

Small SaaS startup (Starter Web + DB) $7/month

Growing service (Standard Web + DB) $40/month

High-traffic app (Pro Web + 4GB DB) $80/month

Same on Heroku (rough equivalent) $300+/month

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my free tier app pause on Render?

Yes. Free tier services pause after 15 minutes of inactivity. Paid tiers ($7+) run 24/7 without pausing.

Can I migrate from Heroku to Render?

Yes. Most apps migrate in < 1 hour. You'll need to: update your deploy settings, move environment variables, and change your database connection string.

Does Render have better uptime than Heroku?

Both have 99.9%+ uptime SLA. Uptime is comparable. Choose based on pricing and features.

Is Render good for production?

Yes. Render powers production apps for thousands of companies. At $7-50/month, it's much more affordable than Heroku while maintaining reliability.

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