Migration Guide
Migrate from Heroku to DigitalOcean
Migrate Heroku apps to DigitalOcean App Platform. Map web/worker dynos to App Platform services, move Postgres/Redis to DO Managed databases, and commit an App Spec for reproducibility.
What you get
Risk assessment
Blockers, warnings, and unknowns ranked by severity
Effort estimate
Hours, t-shirt size, and role breakdown
Cost estimate
Labor, infrastructure, and tooling cost range
Migration steps
Ordered execution plan with durations
Open questions
What still needs to be answered before you start
Draft config or code
Starter configs when the migration path supports it
Why teams migrate from Heroku to DigitalOcean
Good fit when
- +Teams who want a Heroku-like developer experience with predictable pricing at scale.
- +Apps with simple web/worker/Postgres/Redis layouts that fit App Platform's service model.
- +Organizations that want managed infrastructure without the complexity of AWS, GCP, or Azure.
Strengths
- App Platform maps cleanly to Heroku dynos: web services, workers, and release processes all have direct equivalents.
- Managed Postgres and Redis with straightforward pricing and scaling.
- App Spec (YAML) gives you infrastructure-as-code without a full IaC tool.
Tradeoffs
- App Platform has stricter build time/size limits than Heroku; heavy monorepos may need Dockerfiles.
- Not every Heroku add-on has a DigitalOcean marketplace equivalent (Papertrail, SendGrid, etc.).
- Less mature than AWS/GCP for advanced networking, IAM, and compliance requirements.
Migration notes
- Scope the migration to App Platform unless you explicitly need Droplets or DOKS.
- Map Procfile web/worker dynos to App Platform services and workers.
- Migrate Heroku Postgres to DO Managed Postgres via pg_dump/pg_restore or logical replication.
- Commit the App Spec YAML alongside the migration for reproducibility.
How it works
Describe your migration
Select Heroku as source and DigitalOcean as target. Add context about your setup — configs, docs, architecture notes.
Keshro runs the analysis
Keshro researches the path, finds similar past migrations, and generates a structured assessment with risks, effort, cost, and steps.
Get your plan
Review the migration plan, refine it with your team, and use it as a living document during execution.
Resources
Related migrations
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