Europa-only Alternative zu Heroku (Salesforce).
Heroku is the original developer-first PaaS, acquired by Salesforce in 2010 and now part of Salesforce.com Inc. Salesforce is a US corporation, Heroku's default region is in the US, and the EU "Common Runtime" lives in AWS Ireland — meaning your Heroku app is on AWS infrastructure with Salesforce as the contractual processor. Both layers are US-jurisdictional. The sovereign alternative is straightforward: a self-hosted PaaS like Coolify or Dokku on EU infrastructure, or a fully-managed equivalent operated by an EU partner.
"EU-Region" ist keine Souveränität. Vier Fragen entscheiden.
Datenresidenz sagt, wo die Daten liegen. Souveränität sagt, welches Rechtssystem Zugriff erzwingen kann. Die Antwort muss in allen vier Punkten stimmen — sonst ist der Stack nicht souverän.
Wo sind die Daten physisch gespeichert?
Nicht "in der Cloud" — welches Rechenzentrum, in welchem Land, unter welcher Rechtsordnung.
Wer ist sonst noch in Ihrem Datenpfad?
Jeder Anbieter, der die Daten berührt: das CDN, das E-Mail-Relay, der Error-Tracker, die Analytics-Pipeline.
Wessen Gesetze können die Offenlegung erzwingen?
Ein Anbieter mit US-Hauptsitz unterliegt FISA 702 und dem CLOUD Act — auch wenn die Daten in Frankfurt liegen.
Wer hält tatsächlich die Verschlüsselungsschlüssel?
Wenn der Cloud-Anbieter sowohl die Daten als auch die Schlüssel besitzt, sind die Daten für ihn lesbar — unabhängig von einer AVV.
Scheitert an Rechtsmacht und Schlüsselverwahrung.
EU-Daten, US-Mutterkonzern, US-Subprozessoren im Standardpfad, vom Anbieter verwaltete Schlüssel.
Besteht in allen vier Punkten.
EU-gehostet auf Infrastruktur mit EU-Hauptsitz. Null US-Subprozessoren im Standardpfad. Kunden- oder EU-KMS-Schlüssel. Namentlich in Ihrer Artikel-28-AVV aufgeführt.
Warum Teams aussteigen Heroku (Salesforce)
Heroku exits we have run come from three triggers: a customer audit (B2B SaaS) flagging the AWS-Ireland-via-Heroku data path as Schrems II–exposed, the discontinuation of free dynos in 2022 forcing a cost reassessment, or a strategic decision to remove the double provider chain (Salesforce → AWS) which complicates DPA management. Heroku's value is the developer experience; modern alternatives like Coolify, Dokku, Caprover and Railway-on-Hetzner reproduce 90% of that DX on EU infrastructure.
Heroku (Salesforce) Dienste und ihre EU-only Äquivalente
Eine Migration ist nicht "eine Box gegen eine andere tauschen". Die Zuordnung unten ist das, was wir für Kunden ausführen, die Folgendes verlassen: Heroku (Salesforce) aus Schrems-II-Gründen — volle EU-Rechtsmacht, keine US-Mutter im Datenpfad.
| Heroku (Salesforce) Dienst | EU-only Alternative | Engineering-Hinweis |
|---|---|---|
| Dynos (web/worker) | Coolify on Hetzner, Dokku on OVH, Scaleway Serverless Containers | Coolify gives near-identical Heroku DX (git push deploys, one-click apps) on EU infrastructure. Bills typically 60-80% lower than Heroku for equivalent compute. |
| Heroku Postgres | OVH Managed PostgreSQL, Aiven, self-managed PostgreSQL with PgBouncer | Logical replication enables zero-downtime cutover. Heroku Postgres backups can be downloaded as standard pg_dump and restored anywhere. |
| Heroku Redis | OVH Managed Redis, Aiven Redis, self-managed Redis | Standard Redis API; migration via SLAVEOF or RDB transfer. |
| Heroku Connect (Salesforce sync) | Self-built sync via Salesforce REST API, n8n self-hosted, or Pipedream EU | For teams keeping Salesforce CRM, the sync layer rebuilds; for teams replacing Salesforce, this concern goes away. |
| Add-ons marketplace | Direct vendor relationships with EU equivalents (Mailpace for SendGrid, Plausible for Mixpanel, etc.) | Heroku's add-on convenience is the biggest DX loss; direct vendor management is the trade-off for sovereignty. |
| Pipelines (review apps, CI/CD) | GitLab CI EU, Forgejo Actions, GitHub Actions self-hosted on EU runners | Coolify supports preview environments per branch. |
| Heroku Buildpacks | Cloud Native Buildpacks (Paketo), Dockerfile, nixpacks (used by Coolify) | Most Heroku apps deploy unchanged via Cloud Native Buildpacks on Coolify. |
| Logplex / Logging | Self-hosted Loki + Grafana on EU compute, Papertrail EU instance (US-parent — flag) | Loki is the standard pattern; aggregates logs from all containers. |
| Heroku CI | GitLab CI, Forgejo Actions on EU runners | GitLab CI on a self-hosted EU runner is the production-grade replacement. |
| Heroku Private Spaces | Hetzner private networks, OVH vRack, AWS-VPC-equivalent on EU sovereign stack | The "Private Spaces" concept is a VPC by another name; standard EU networking handles it. |
| SSL / domains | Let's Encrypt via cert-manager or Caddy on Coolify, EU registrar (TransIP, Hetzner, OVH) | Domain transfer is a registrar change; SSL is automated by all modern PaaS alternatives. |
Wie wir migrieren von Heroku (Salesforce)
Eine typische Mittelstand-Migration läuft in drei Phasen. Die Zahlen unten gehen von einem 6–10-köpfigen Engineering-Team und einem mäßig komplexen Anwendungs-Stack aus.
PaaS choice + dependency map
Decide on the EU PaaS (Coolify is our default for Heroku-style DX; Dokku for minimalists; managed offering from Binadit for hands-off teams). Inventory Heroku apps, dynos and add-ons.
Database + add-on swap
Heroku Postgres replicated to EU managed PostgreSQL with logical replication. Each add-on replaced with EU equivalent (one-by-one to control risk). Logging migrated to Loki.
Application cutover
Apps redeployed on Coolify with the same buildpacks. DNS cutover with low TTL window. Heroku app archived after a verification period.
5-year TCO on Heroku exits: 60–85% cheaper. Heroku's pricing model (per-dyno, per-add-on, per-database tier) compounds quickly; Coolify on Hetzner replaces a typical $500-2000/month Heroku bill for $30-80/month in raw infrastructure plus the managed-partner fee if you don't want to operate the PaaS yourself.
Häufig gestellte Fragen
Is Heroku's EU region sufficient for GDPR?
Residency only. Heroku's "Common Runtime" EU region runs in AWS Ireland — that is two layers of US-controlled processors (Salesforce as the immediate contracting party, AWS as the underlying infrastructure). The CLOUD Act analysis applies to both. For Schrems II–strict workloads, Heroku EU is not sufficient.
Will we lose the Heroku DX?
Coolify reproduces git-push deploys, one-click app templates, preview environments per PR, automated SSL, environment variables, and per-branch deploys. The DX is genuinely close. The main loss is the add-on marketplace; you swap that for direct vendor relationships, which is more manageable than Heroku marketing suggests.
What about Heroku Connect for Salesforce sync?
If you're keeping Salesforce CRM, Heroku Connect needs to be rebuilt (REST/Bulk API + queue). If you're also moving off Salesforce — which is increasingly common in Schrems II–driven exits — this concern disappears.
Can we use Coolify ourselves or do we need help?
Many teams self-host Coolify successfully on a single Hetzner VM. For multi-tenant production scenarios — multi-environment, blue-green, secrets management — a managed-partner setup makes sense. We deploy and operate Coolify clusters for clients.
How long does a Heroku exit take?
For a small workload (1–3 apps, 1 Postgres, a few add-ons): 1–2 weeks. For a multi-app enterprise Heroku setup with Private Spaces and Heroku Connect: 6–10 weeks. Heroku's app surface is intentionally simple, which makes the migration mostly a choreography exercise.
What about Render or Railway as Heroku alternatives?
Both are US-headquartered, so they don't solve the sovereignty question — they just shift it. We have a separate /alternatives/render page covering Render specifically. For sovereign EU PaaS, Coolify, Dokku and managed offerings on EU infrastructure are the answer.
Plane deinen Exit von Heroku (Salesforce).
30-minütiges Scoping-Gespräch. Wir bilden Ihren Stack auf EU-only Alternativen ab, schätzen den Migrationsaufwand und sagen Ihnen, ob es die richtige Entscheidung ist.