I’ve learned that Heroku limits you to 5 free apps, which is not…ideal. I’d like to finish up all of FCC some day, but I also do side projects which might require Heroku. Turns out, if you are verified Heroku customer, you can use 100 free dynos(!!)
Now the issue is that this needs you to enter your credit card, and being a student I don’t have one, I’ll have to use my parent’s. I don’t want to spend any of their cash on Heroku (unless I can pay it back) so I want to know:
- If I only use free tier apps, is there a chance of Heroku charging me? Can the dynos scale without permission in case of small spikes in traffic?
- I’ll use mlab with this; is it possible for them to charge me without notice?
If anyone has become a verified user, I’d love to know your experience and get feedback.
Hyperdev is still beta and as far as I could see you can’t even name or delete projects.
I tried Hyperdev, but it doesn’t seem to have database support, which means I have to use mlab. It also seems more like Cloud9.io than Heroku? I’ll have to configure my app for it and try it out. If you’ve used for any FCC projects, I’d like to have a look on how you set it up.
I’d like to stick with Heroku only because of how easy it is to push from Github and have an application running. Otherwise I do have about $50 of credit in Digital Ocean, but I have 0 sys-ops experience so I’m not very eager to use that just yet.
I read a little bit about hyperdev now and it seems that this is more something like jsfiddle or codepen.io where you can show your code, collaborate with others and so on.
It seems not the right place for serious or great projects. But it seems to be good for “simply play around” things, which must be not bad if you wanna learn something.
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My bad, I missed the “remove” button (when the project is paused). So, in that case, I have to agree that hyperdev is a good service!
Ah, didn’t read the FAQ properly. I’ll have to rewrite a bunch of my mongodb stuff to get persistence then (I’ve been working on the voting app), but I’ll try making hyperdev work.
From Heroku:
Notifications
When you exceed 80% of your Free dyno quota, you will receive an email notification warning you of your account usage, giving you time to adjust Free dyno usage across your apps.
A second notification will be sent when you reach 100% of your account quota, at which point your application’s dynos will be put to sleep for the remainder of that month. As a result, any apps using free dynos will not be accessible for the remainder of the month. This doesn’t affect any paid apps you may have, which will continue to run.
My reading of this is that you won’t be accidentally charged, even if your usage spikes. You can only be charged if you manually activate non-free dynos. If you go over your quota, you are simply shut down for the rest of the month.
Source: Free Dyno Hours | Heroku Dev Center
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@JacksonBates thanks for finding this. Definitely puts my mind at ease for when I hit the 5 app limit. I like Heroku too much, and Hyperdev seems to kill apps too quickly for my liking, so I’d love to continue using the former. Just asking, have you used your credit card for Heroku yet, in case you’ve hit the limit yet?
I’ve given them my credit card details but I haven’t been charged or had any of my apps go offline.
I’m a total cheapskate when it comes to spending on web stuff, so if it cost a penny I wouldn’t have done it!
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Thanks for the reply, this is the answer I was looking for.
I’m sure it differs from place to place, but in Australia, where I live, we can buy pre-paid debit cards from the post office that work just like a credit card but with your potential spend limited to whatever you pay for the card (they are about $6 + the balance).
@imtoobose
Note: I have never tested this and have no idea if it even works, but it sounds promising.
You could try using a Visa prepaid card (or some kind of prepaid card of the same type.) They’re essentially a card you put money on that you can use at shops or online. You can (generally) get these at some retail stores. If you do try this method, try leaving the name on card field blank.