# Heroku sustaining engineering: what changed and what to do

By Rotomal team · Updated 2026-11-03 · Part of [Heroku-22 Exit](https://rotomal.com/heroku-22-exit/)

**Short answer:** On 6 February 2026 Heroku said it is moving to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability and support, and stopped offering Enterprise Account contracts to new customers. Heroku is not shutting down, and existing customers, including credit card customers, saw no change in pricing, billing or service. The deadline that does apply is Heroku-22's end-of-life on 30 April 2027, so decide per app: upgrade the stack and stay, or plan a move.

## What Heroku announced

- Heroku is transitioning to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability and support.
- Enterprise Account contracts are no longer offered to new customers.
- Existing Enterprise subscriptions and support contracts continue to be honored and may renew as usual.
- Customers paying by credit card in the Heroku dashboard continue with no changes to pricing, billing, service or day-to-day usage.

## What it does not mean

It is not a shutdown notice and sets no closing date. The concrete deadline in front of most Cedar apps is the stack: Heroku-22 reaches end-of-life on 30 April 2027, and builds for Heroku-22 apps stop on 1 May 2027. Heroku has already published Heroku-26, supported through April 2031.

## Stay or move: a per-app decision

| Your app | Usual answer |
| --- | --- |
| Small, stable, deployed now and then | Upgrade to Heroku-26 and stay |
| Heavy use of Heroku add-ons and pipelines | Upgrade now; plan a move only if cost or features push you |
| Growing app with a multi-year roadmap and cost pressure | Upgrade to stay safe, and write an exit plan in parallel |
| New project | Compare platforms before you start; the move is cheapest before launch |

## Where teams move

| Option | Model | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Render | Managed platform | Offers managed Postgres and Redis-compatible Key Value stores |
| Railway | Monthly plan fee plus usage billed per second | Plan fee includes a monthly usage credit |
| Fly.io | Usage-based, no monthly platform fee | Machines billed by the second while running; apps can run in several regions |
| Dokku on your own server | Open-source platform on a single server of your choice | Builds from a git push using a Dockerfile or buildpack detection |

Check each platform's current pricing and limits on its own site; they change often.

## What a move involves

- Map each process type in your Procfile to a service or machine.
- Map each add-on: Postgres, Redis, scheduler, logging, email, monitoring.
- Copy config vars, keeping secrets out of chat and tickets.
- Move the database with a planned read-only window, then switch DNS.
- Keep the Heroku app ready to take traffic back until the new one has run for a while.

## If you want help

Heroku-22 Exit upgrades an app to Heroku-24 or Heroku-26 for $149, or writes the per-app exit plan, with dynos, add-ons and cutover mapped to the platform you choose, for $249. Both start with a stack check.

## FAQ

### Is Heroku shutting down?

No. Heroku announced a sustaining engineering model on 6 February 2026 and said there is no change for customers using Heroku today.

### What does sustaining engineering mean for Heroku?

In Heroku's words, a model focused on stability, security, reliability and support. It also stopped offering Enterprise Account contracts to new customers.

### Do I have to leave Heroku?

No. You do have to move apps off Heroku-22 before 1 May 2027 if you want to keep building them, which you can do within Heroku.

### What are the main Heroku alternatives?

Render, Railway and Fly.io are the managed platforms teams most often compare, and Dokku is an open-source option that builds from a git push on your own server.

### Did Heroku change prices?

Not in the announcement. Heroku said credit card customers continue with no changes to pricing, billing, service or day-to-day usage.

## Sources

- Heroku Blog: An update on Heroku (6 February 2026) https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/
- Heroku Changelog: Heroku-22 stack deprecation and end-of-life https://devcenter.heroku.com/changelog-items/3705
- Heroku Dev Center: Stacks https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/stack
- Render: Leaving Heroku in 2026, a migration decision guide https://render.com/articles/leaving-heroku-migration-guide-2026
- Railway: Pricing https://railway.com/pricing
- Fly.io: Pricing https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing
- Render: Pricing https://render.com/pricing
- Dokku documentation https://dokku.com/docs/getting-started/installation/

[Heroku-22 Exit](https://rotomal.com/heroku-22-exit/) does this for you. Request it free, no card: https://rotomal.com/heroku-22-exit/request/
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Rotomal · https://rotomal.com/heroku-22-exit/heroku-sustaining-engineering/ · hello@rotomal.com