Heroku, the PaaS platform that allows developers to build apps in the cloud, is going into maintenance mode. Owner Salesforce is not pulling the plug on the solution itself, but will no longer be selling new Enterprise contracts. Existing customers can still renew their subscriptions, but Salesforce wants to focus its attention primarily on enterprise-grade AI.
Nitin Bhat, SVP & GM at Salesforce and head of the Heroku Business Unit, announced on Friday that the platform will transition to a ‘sustaining engineering model’. In other words: don’t expect any new features, but do expect updates to ensure stability, security, and support. The announced renewal of the managed PostgreSQL service will still go ahead, but it will be the final piece in the development of what was once a promising service.
The focus is therefore shifting to AI for other Salesforce initiatives. Strikingly, less than a year ago, Heroku presented an extensive AI platform with new tools for event-based architectures and Agentforce integration. The company processes 65 billion requests for 65 million apps every day. Nevertheless, Salesforce has now decided to take a different course.
From startup to maintenance mode
Salesforce bought Heroku in 2011 for $212 million. At the time, the platform was specifically focused on Ruby applications. In the years that followed, Salesforce expanded its support to other programming languages and added numerous features. Heroku runs workloads in Linux containers, called “dynos,” which automatically restart in case of problems.
But the market has changed dramatically, perhaps in an almost unrecognizable way. When Salesforce acquired Heroku, the major public clouds were only a few years old and their PaaS offerings were limited. Today, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud offer comparable alternatives for virtually all Heroku components. That competition likely played a role in the decision. With the latest innovative technology, AI, the end of (the development of) Heroku appears unnecessary.
Internal overlap as a second factor
In addition, Heroku conflicts with newer Salesforce products. The platform includes a service for custom AI agents, Managed Inference and Agents. However, in 2024, Salesforce launched Agent Builder, which offers similar capabilities. “We are focusing our product and engineering investments in areas where we can deliver the most long-term value to customers, including enterprise-grade AI in a secure manner,” said Bhat.
Existing Enterprise customers will retain their renewal rights. New and existing users who pay by credit card will also be able to continue using the platform. Pricing, billing, and other core features will remain unchanged, Bhat emphasizes. The message is clear: Heroku will continue to operate, but will no longer grow.