AWS Advanced Tier PartnerISO 9001:2015 CertifiedISO 27001:2022 Certified
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Migrate Without Breaking Production

Migrate from Heroku to AWS ECS, Without Breaking Production

Move from Heroku to AWS ECS in 4-8 weeks. Lower costs, more control, EU data residency. We've migrated 9+ applications using this exact playbook.

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ISO 27001:2022 Certified
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Heroku → ECSProven Path

Heroku is great. Until it isn't.

9+
Apps Migrated
4-8
Weeks Per App
60%
Cost Cut Avg
0
Production Outage
Heroku exits accelerate when cost, region control, or compliance pressure crosses a threshold.— HAZERCLOUD migration playbook, 2025-2026
Migration time
4-8 weeks
The Problem We Solve

You started on Heroku for speed. Now scale demands more.

01, COST CEILING

Our Heroku bill has crossed $5.4K/month and we're still hitting dyno limits.

Heroku pricing scales linearly past mid-tier. AWS ECS Fargate at equivalent capacity typically costs 40-60% less, with better burst handling.

02, REGION CONTROL

We need EU data residency and Heroku doesn't give us region control.

Heroku Common Runtime is US-East. Heroku Private Spaces offer some EU options but at significant cost premium and without GDPR-grade architecture flexibility.

03, COMPLIANCE PRESSURE

Our compliance team wants AWS audit trails and Heroku can't provide them.

ISO 27001, SOC 2, and DORA evidence requires CloudTrail-grade logging. Heroku's audit capabilities don't reach the same depth as AWS-native services.

What You'll Get

From Heroku to production-ready ECS, without rewrite.

Stream A · Migration Plan

Migration Strategy

  • Application inventory + dependency mapping
  • ECS Fargate vs EKS decision (usually Fargate)
  • RDS Aurora Postgres migration plan
  • ElastiCache for Redis equivalent
  • S3 + CloudFront for static assets
  • Cutover plan with rollback path
Stream B · Build & Migrate

Build & Migrate

  • Dockerfile + ECS Task Definition
  • GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline
  • ECR for container registry
  • ALB + Route 53 DNS migration
  • Aurora Postgres data migration (zero-downtime)
  • CloudWatch Logs + alerting
Stream C · Cutover & Hardening

Cutover & Hardening

  • DNS-based traffic shift (canary or instant)
  • Heroku decommission with data export
  • AWS WAF + Shield Standard
  • VPC + IAM hardening
  • Cost monitoring + dashboards
  • 30-day post-migration support
Past Engagement Outcomes

Heroku → ECS migrations typically deliver

Outcomes from 9+ application migrations. Your specific results depend on traffic profile, but the pattern holds: lower cost, higher control, no production drama.

60%
Average monthly cost reduction
0
Production outages during migration
4-8wks
Per-application migration timeline
EU
Region selection (eu-west-1 / eu-central-1)
Built on Certified Foundations

From PaaS to AWS, with audit trails on day one.

AWS Advanced TierISO/IEC 27001:2022ISO 9001:2015Migration Specialty

Migrations include CloudTrail, Config, and Security Hub from day one, so the AWS environment you land on is already audit-ready for ISO 27001, SOC 2, or DORA evidence collection. No retroactive compliance work.

Mini Case Study

Case study: How a growth-stage FinTech migrated 9 applications in 6 weeks

A growth-stage FinTech (EU-headquartered, B2B customers) had grown to 9 production applications on Heroku, with a monthly bill north of $19k. Heroku's US-East default created GDPR friction with their EU customers, and PSD2 audit requirements demanded CloudTrail-grade logging Heroku couldn't deliver.

We migrated in three waves: first the lowest-risk internal tools (week 1-2), then the customer-facing API (week 3-4), then the dashboard and admin apps (week 5-6). Each wave used the same template: Dockerfile + ECS Task Definition + ALB + Aurora migration + GitHub Actions pipeline.

Final state: ECS Fargate cluster in eu-west-1 with multi-AZ, Aurora Postgres replacing Heroku Postgres, ElastiCache replacing Heroku Redis, S3 + CloudFront for static assets, CloudWatch + Datadog for observability. Monthly bill dropped from $19k to $7.8k. Zero production outages during migration.

We dreaded this migration for two years. The HAZERCLOUD playbook made it feel boring, which is exactly what you want.— VP Engineering · EU FinTech (anonymized)

Outcomes

Apps migrated9/9
Total duration6 wks
Monthly bill$19k → $7.8k
Production outages0
Regioneu-west-1
Read the full case study
Engagement Options

Per-application fixed fee. No surprises.

We price by application count, not hours. Most multi-app projects bundle for a discount. Single-app urgent migrations also available.

Stage 01

Migration Assessment

  • Application inventory + dependency mapping
  • Heroku → AWS architecture proposal
  • Cost projection (current vs projected)
  • Wave-based migration plan
  • Risk register + rollback strategy
Start with assessment →
Stage 02

Heroku to AWS ECS Migration

  • Dockerfile + ECS Task Definition
  • GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline
  • RDS Aurora migration with cutover
  • ALB + Route 53 + ACM
  • CloudWatch + alerting
  • 30-day post-migration support
  • Heroku decommission assistance
Book scoping call →
FAQ

Heroku exit questions every founder asks first.

Worried about downtime? Database migration? Team learning curve? Book a call and we'll walk through your specific Heroku setup.

Book Free Migration Review →
How long does a typical Heroku to ECS migration take?+
Single application: 4-6 weeks calendar time, including cutover and 30-day support. Multi-app projects (3-5 apps) typically run 6-10 weeks because of parallelization. Engineering work is roughly 60% of that, the rest is testing, customer communication, and DNS propagation. Urgent migrations can compress to 3-4 weeks but cost 25-40% more.
Will our team need to learn Kubernetes? (No, ECS is simpler than EKS)+
ECS Fargate is intentionally simpler than Kubernetes. Your team writes Dockerfiles (mostly the same as Heroku's containerization), defines ECS Task Definitions (declarative JSON), and deploys via GitHub Actions. There's no Kubernetes API to learn, no Helm charts, no operator pattern. We migrate to ECS specifically because the learning curve is minimal.
What happens to our Heroku Postgres? Aurora migration path?+
Aurora Postgres is the destination. We use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with continuous replication: Aurora becomes a read replica of Heroku Postgres during the build phase, and at cutover we promote Aurora to primary. Downtime is typically under 5 minutes. Aurora costs less than Heroku Postgres at equivalent capacity and gives you proper backups, point-in-time recovery, and multi-AZ.
Can we keep using Heroku for some apps and AWS for others?+
Yes, and many teams choose this. We migrate the apps where AWS gives the most value (cost, region, compliance) and leave low-traffic internal tools on Heroku. Hybrid is fine; the gradual approach reduces risk and lets your team build AWS muscle on lower-stakes apps first.
What's the typical cost reduction post-migration?+
60% is the median across our 9+ migrations, but it varies. Apps with steady traffic save 50-70%; apps with bursty traffic save more (Heroku charges for peak; ECS Fargate scales). Apps with very small footprint sometimes save less because Heroku's free/Eco tier is genuinely cheap. We model your specific savings during the assessment, with worst-case and likely-case projections.
How do we minimize downtime during cutover?+
DNS-based cutover with Route 53 weighted routing: send 5% traffic to AWS, validate, ramp to 25%, 50%, 100% over 24-48 hours. For databases, we use DMS continuous replication so Aurora is in sync until promotion. The actual cutover (DNS authoritative switch + database promotion) is typically a 5-minute window. Most customers can't tell when it happened.
Jobin Joseph, Founder & CTO of HAZERCLOUD
Jobin Joseph
Founder & CTO
AWS SA ProDevOps ProSecurity+2
Verify on Credly ↗
Who You'll Actually Work With

This engagement runs through me, personally.

The AWS-certified specialist on your discovery call leads the implementation team on your engagement. No bait-and-switch. No junior-led delivery.

Discovery call: I attend, no exceptions
Architecture sign-off: before any work begins
Weekly review: I'm on every call, every week
Material decisions: go through me first
Deliverable sign-off: my signature, my reputation
30 days post-handoff: direct line to me
Read more about Jobin and the engagement model
MIGRATE
Ready to exit Heroku?

30 minutes with our founder. One migration risk identified.

We'll review your Heroku setup, your dependencies, and the most likely risk in your migration. You'll leave the call with a specific recommendation and a realistic timeline, no sales pressure, no urgency theatre.

Book Free Migration Review →Download Migration Guide (PDF)

★ AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner · ISO 27001:2022 · ISO 9001:2015 · 5× AWS-Certified Founder