Azul Platform Core vs. Heroku Platform

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azul Platform Core
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Azul Systems headquartered in Sunnyvale is exclusively focused on Java and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). They build fully supported, standards-compliant runtimes that help enable Java-based businesses. Azul Platform Core (formerly Zulu Enterprise) subscribers get quarterly access to security-only updates (ideal for rapid deployment) plus standard quarterly updates that include security patches, bug fixes, and new features.N/A
Heroku Platform
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
The Heroku Platform, now from Salesforce, is a platform-as-a-service based on a managed container system, with integrated data services and ecosystem for deploying modern apps. It takes an app-centric approach for software delivery, integrated with developer tools and workflows. It’s three main tool are: Heroku Developer Experience (DX), Heroku Operational Experience (OpEx), and Heroku Runtime. Heroku Developer Experience (DX) Developers deploy directly from tools like…
$85
per month
Pricing
Azul Platform CoreHeroku Platform
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Production
$25.00
per month
Advanced
$250.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azul Platform CoreHeroku Platform
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azul Platform CoreHeroku Platform
Features
Azul Platform CoreHeroku Platform
Platform-as-a-Service
Comparison of Platform-as-a-Service features of Product A and Product B
Azul Platform Core
-
Ratings
Heroku Platform
7.2
44 Ratings
9% below category average
Ease of building user interfaces00 Ratings6.027 Ratings
Scalability00 Ratings7.044 Ratings
Platform management overhead00 Ratings7.043 Ratings
Workflow engine capability00 Ratings6.030 Ratings
Platform access control00 Ratings7.043 Ratings
Services-enabled integration00 Ratings6.042 Ratings
Development environment creation00 Ratings9.039 Ratings
Development environment replication00 Ratings9.038 Ratings
Issue monitoring and notification00 Ratings8.042 Ratings
Issue recovery00 Ratings7.039 Ratings
Upgrades and platform fixes00 Ratings7.044 Ratings
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Azul Platform CoreHeroku Platform
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User Ratings
Azul Platform CoreHeroku Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
7.4
(9 ratings)
7.0
(47 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.2
(17 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
6.5
(9 ratings)
8.7
(19 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.1
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azul Platform CoreHeroku Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
Azul Systems, Inc
I would go for Azul Platform Core where someone needs secure JRE and JDK at a cheaper price where they can afford some CPU memory spikes. If you are highly concerned about the high availability of systems, or CPU memory usage, then, in my opinion, Azul Platform Core should be avoided. Also, considering what I believe to be their poor support, you might want to reconsider buying this subscription.
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Salesforce
Heroku is very well suited for startups looking to get a server stack up and running quickly. There is little to no overhead when managing your instances. However, you'll need a background in basic DevOps or system management to make sure everything is set up correctly. In addition, it's easy to accidentally go crazy on pricing. Make sure you're only creating the server instances you need to run the base application and set up an auto-scaler plugin to handle peaks.
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Pros
Azul Systems, Inc
  • Updates are released quickly
  • Notifications of patches are sent ahead of time to prepare for the change
  • Delivery was quick and seemless
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Salesforce
  • Heroku has a very simple deployment model, making it easy to get your application up-and-running with minimal effort. We can focus on our efforts the unique aspects of our application.
  • The robust add-on marketplace makes it easy to try out new approaches with minimal effort and investment -- and when we settle on a solution, we can easily scale it.
  • Heroku's support is quite good -- their staff is quite technical and willing to get into the weeds to diagnose even complicated problems.
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Cons
Azul Systems, Inc
  • Offer more docker configurations with popular application stacks.
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Salesforce
  • Large price jumps between certain resource tiers (2x Dyno for $50 per month versus Performance Dyno for $250). Free Postgres next jumps to $50 per month.
  • Marketing/Branding to non-technical stakeholders. As the years pass, I've had to fight more to convince stakeholders on the value of Heroku over AWS.
  • Improve Buildpack documentation. This is one area where Heroku's documentation is fairly confusing.
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Likelihood to Renew
Azul Systems, Inc
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Heroku is easy to use, services a ton of functions for you out of the box, and provides a means to get a software product off the ground and managed quickly and easily. The tools provide allows a small to medium size org to move very quickly. The CLI tools provided make managing an entire technical infrastructure simple.
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Usability
Azul Systems, Inc
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Easy to use web based console and easy to use command line tools; deployment is done directly from a GIT repository. What more could you ask for? The one thing that keeps me from giving it a 10 is that custom build packs are almost incomprehensible. We used one for a while because we needed cairo graphics processing. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a different way to do what we needed so that we could get off the custom build pack.
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Reliability and Availability
Azul Systems, Inc
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Heroku availability correlates pretty strongly to AWS US EAST availability. We had a couple of times where there was a Heroku-specific issue but not for the last 7-8 months.
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Performance
Azul Systems, Inc
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
The only issue that I ever have is that about 1 out of 20 deployments (git push) will hang and need to be cancelled and done again.
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Support Rating
Azul Systems, Inc
We have had plenty of contact previously with the Azul Platform Core's support team. They provided us with ways of debugging our JVM crashes and upload data to a provided FTP server where their support employees could assist by reviewing our special cases. The help they provided has been invaluable in optimizing our JVM.
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Salesforce
I've used it for many years without facing any major problem. It's not hard at all to get used to it, it's documentation is outstanding and simple. We are close to 2020 and I don't think most of the existing companies or startups should still face old problems such as wasting time deploying code and calculate computing resources.
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Implementation Rating
Azul Systems, Inc
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Be ready to pay a bit more than expected in the beginning if you're migrating from a big server. The application is probably not ready for the change and you have to keep improving it with time.
It's also important to consider that you can't save anything to the disc as it will be lost when your application restarts, so you have to think about using something like S3.
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Alternatives Considered
Azul Systems, Inc
1. Cost Saving 2. Good support for enterprise customers 3. Easy installation and good compatibility
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Salesforce
Heroku is the more expensive option for hosting compared to some of the cloud platforms we investigated, but it's worth it for us because of the plug-and-play nature of Heroku deployment. We can be up and running in a few minutes and know with precision how much it will cost us each month to run the application, unlike Amazon Web Services where you have to go to great pains to configure it correctly or else you might end up with a shocking monthly bill. Overall, spending the time to configure Amazon Web Services or one of its competitors is likely the more affordable and powerful choice, because you have control over so many specifics of the configuration. But it also requires the burden of continuing to maintain and update your AWS instance, whereas with Heroku they take care of security fixes and platform upgrades. It's a great service and we are happy to pay the extra cost for the value-adds Heroku provides.
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Return on Investment
Azul Systems, Inc
  • Cost savings compared to going with Oracle
  • Since using Azul Platform Core our system has been much more stable with fewer crashes causing our team being able to focus on new features
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Salesforce
  • It has been critical in seamlessly operating our platform with runs all of our programs.
  • It has been impressive with its ability to scale quickly which results in the growth of our work.
  • It allows for tracking of different features which allows for quick problem solving which saves us time.
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