Launchmatic: a Heroku alternative for AI-built apps
Heroku invented this category. `git push heroku main`, buildpacks, add-ons, and the twelve-factor app doctrine shaped every platform that came after, including this one. It remains a mature, battle-tested PaaS with an enormous add-on marketplace, now part of Salesforce.
When to stay on Heroku
Stay on Heroku if you're an established team with paid dynos, pipeline promotions, and add-on contracts that work — migration has real cost and Heroku's operational maturity is earned. Enterprise compliance requirements (Heroku Shield) are also something a younger platform won't match.
When to switch to Launchmatic
- You're looking for what Heroku's free tier used to be — it was eliminated in 2022, and Eco dynos sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity.
- Dyno + database pricing feels heavy for a side project: even small always-on setups cost real money monthly.
- Your AI tool generated a stack outside the classic buildpack set — Bun, Deno, or a mixed monorepo — and you're writing custom buildpacks to cope.
- You want your coding agent to deploy directly: Heroku has no MCP story; Launchmatic is MCP-native.
Heroku vs Launchmatic
| Heroku | Launchmatic | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Removed in 2022; cheapest dynos sleep when idle | $0 forever — 1 service + 1 GB Postgres; always-on from $9/mo |
| Build system | Buildpacks (classic, mature, sometimes stale for new runtimes) | Nixpacks auto-detection, 30+ runtimes including Bun and Deno |
| Deploy trigger | git push heroku main or GitHub integration | lm deploy, GitHub auto-deploy on push, or MCP tool call |
| Database | Heroku Postgres add-on, billed per plan | Managed Postgres included from the free tier up |
| Add-on ecosystem | Huge marketplace, a real strength | Smaller — managed DBs built in, everything else via env vars |
| Preview environments | Review apps on paid pipelines | Per-branch preview deploys on Pro |
| AI agent integration | None | Remote MCP server + lm CLI designed for agents |
Pricing, honestly
Heroku's model is per-dyno plus per-add-on, and since the 2022 removal of the free tier even hobby projects carry a monthly floor — the cheap dynos also sleep when idle. Launchmatic keeps the Heroku-style flat, predictable pricing but restores the part people actually miss: a $0 tier that exists and never expires, with always-on starting at $9/mo instead of a dyno + database stack.
Migrating from Heroku
- 1Install the CLI:
npm i -g @launchmatic/cli && lm login. - 2From your repo:
lm init. Your Procfile still works — Nixpacks reads it — or is unnecessary because the runtime is auto-detected. - 3Export config:
heroku config -sthen re-set each var withlm env set KEY=value. - 4Move the database:
heroku pg:backups:capture && heroku pg:backups:download, thenpg_restoreinto theDATABASE_URLfromlm db create app-db --service <serviceId>. - 5Deploy with
lm deployand verify on the preview URL. - 6Repoint your custom domain and let SSL provision automatically, then scale down the Heroku dynos.
FAQ
Does my Procfile work on Launchmatic?+
Yes — Nixpacks honors Procfile process declarations, so a `web:` entry maps straight to your service's start command. Most apps don't even need one; the runtime is detected from the repo.
What replaces Heroku add-ons?+
Databases (Postgres, Redis, MongoDB) are built-in managed offerings. For everything else — email, search, monitoring — use the vendor's hosted service directly and drop the credentials in with `lm env set`, the same way add-ons injected config vars.
How do I migrate Heroku Postgres data?+
Capture a backup with `heroku pg:backups:capture`, download it, and `pg_restore` into the connection string `lm db create app-db` gives you. For small databases, `pg_dump | psql` piped directly also works.
Try the migration
Free to start, no credit card — deploy next to your Heroku setup and compare before you switch anything over.