Canner vs. Heroku
Heroku invented the modern PaaS. Salesforce owns it now. Your data is doubly American.
Heroku is mature, polished, and remains the standard-bearer of the category. It's also a Salesforce subsidiary, which means CLOUD Act exposure runs through the parent company. For Canadian buyers with sovereignty requirements, that's a stopper.
- Heroku's runtime stability is excellent and its add-on ecosystem is vast. Canner is simpler, Canadian-owned, and includes Postgres on every tier.
- Heroku killed the free tier in 2022. The cheapest dyno is US$5/month, with managed Postgres charged separately starting at US$5/month.
- Salesforce's US incorporation is a hard CLOUD Act exposure — even Heroku Shield, the regulated-industry offering, is still subject to US legal process.
| Feature | Canner | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Data location | Montreal, Quebec — sole region | US (Virginia), EU (Dublin), Sydney |
| Canadian region | Yes (sole) | No |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly per account | Per-dyno per-month, plus add-ons |
| Cheapest path to hello-world | CA$0 (Starter, no card) | US$5/mo eco dyno + US$5/mo mini-Postgres |
| Free tier | Permanent Starter — 1 project, up to 256 MB app memory (pooled, deprioritized) | None since November 2022 |
| Managed Postgres | Included on every tier, one per project | Separate paid add-on |
| Sleeping / always-warm | Pro tier opt-in always-warm; lower tiers cold-start after 24 h idle | Eco dynos sleep; Basic and Standard dynos do not |
| Owner | 100% Canadian-owned | Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) |
| CLOUD Act exposure | Not subject | Subject — Salesforce is US-incorporated |
| Currency | CAD | USD |
| Framework / runtime support | Next.js, Vite, plain Node | Buildpacks for Ruby, Python, Node, Java, PHP, Go, more |
When Canner is the right call
If your buyer's procurement form asks about CLOUD Act exposure and you can't say 'not subject', the deal stalls. Canner's structure — 100% Canadian-owned, no US entity in the supply chain — is the affirmative answer that contract reviewers in healthcare, fintech, and government actually require. The pricing edge is real too: managed Postgres is included rather than billed separately.
When Heroku still makes sense
Heroku's buildpack catalogue and add-on marketplace are still unmatched. If your stack is Ruby, Python, Java, or PHP, and you depend on a long tail of add-ons (Redis, Elasticsearch, Memcache, etc.), Heroku's ecosystem will move you faster. Organisations with an existing Salesforce or Heroku Enterprise relationship also benefit from consolidated billing and support that we can't replicate.
Ready to give it a try?
Free tier available — Starter is permanent, no card required to sign up. Cancel anytime.