H 
Heroku
Invented the category, then watched a cheaper generation collect the upside.
KINDA
why this verdict
Downgrade — pay for the workflow, not the AI
Anthropic's version covers the headline feature only, so the $7/mo is now paying for the workflow around it, not the AI.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Cheaper modern platforms absorbed the agent-generated app boom. Anthropic, February 24, 2025 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers headline only editorial call
- The headline feature, but not the workflow, data or integrations around it.
- Is there a free way to do it? paid only
- 2 replacements listed, all paid.
- What the call is worth $84/yr
- $7/mo at the entry paid tier — $84 a year per seat.
Reason composed from the fields above missing: announcement linked missing: free replacement listed recorded: two or more escape hatches
- Threatened by
- Anthropic
- Since
- February 24, 2025
- List price
- $7/mo
- Per year
- $84
The backstory
Heroku defined developer-friendly deployment. Removing the free tier in 2022 pushed a generation of hobby projects elsewhere, and when agentic coding created a flood of new small apps, they landed on Render, Railway, Fly and Vercel instead. This is a wound Heroku inflicted on itself, but the AI-driven surge in new projects is what made it visible.
