Aquiva blog
Heroku Enterprise End of Sale
What it means for AppExchange partners and Salesforce customers — and why waiting for the official end-of-life date is the worst time to start planning a migration.
Salesforce has announced that Heroku Enterprise is now End of Sale (EOS) for new enterprise customers. The platform will no longer receive new license sales, though existing customers can typically continue using, renewing, and receiving support for a defined period.
End of Sale vs. End of Life: an important distinction
End of Sale (EOS) prevents new enterprise license sales to new customers, but existing customers retain usage rights, renewal options, and support access.
End of Life (EOL) is a more definitive milestone where products stop receiving updates, patches, or official support, potentially leading to full decommissioning.
Heroku announced a transition to a "sustaining engineering model" on February 6th, 2026. While no official End of Life date has been set, historical patterns suggest a 4–5 year wind-down. When Salesforce ended CPQ sales in March 2025, observers anticipated sunsetting around 2029–2030, with customer support maintained during the transition window.
Why this happened
Heroku revolutionized deployment through "git push to deploy" but didn't evolve with modern infrastructure expectations. Enterprise customers increasingly demanded containerization, Kubernetes support, serverless capabilities, and cost-effective maintenance — areas where Heroku consistently underperformed relative to competitive offerings.
What this means for AppExchange ISV partners
Partners running managed package backends on Heroku face several considerations:
- Backend infrastructure runs on a declining platform with diminishing talent and investment
- Heroku Connect, essential for bidirectional Salesforce data synchronization, is strategically uncertain even though no separate EOL announcement has been made
- Security evaluations by enterprise customers increasingly treat sunsetting platforms as a risk factor in procurement reviews
- Running applications on platforms with uncertain futures can negatively impact deal closure
What this means for Salesforce enterprise customers
Organizations using Heroku for custom applications, customer-facing portals, internal tools, or data integration layers should start migration planning now. A phased approach looks like:
- Technical assessment of current architecture
- Detailed migration planning
- Pilot migration of non-critical applications
- Production cutover
Enterprises depending on Heroku Connect for CRM synchronization need particular attention, since rebuilding integration layers demands careful planning to prevent downtime or data loss.
Cloud alternatives worth evaluating
Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominates cloud infrastructure through Elastic Beanstalk, ECS, and Lambda. AWS offers maximum flexibility but requires significant engineering resources to run the stack.
Microsoft Azure suits organizations invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. Azure App Service provides a PaaS experience comparable to Heroku, with mature enterprise security integration and Active Directory compatibility.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers Cloud Run and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Cloud Run provides container-based deployment with more flexibility than Heroku while maintaining familiar workflows. GCP typically provides competitive pricing for compute-intensive workloads.
Platform selection depends on architecture requirements, team capabilities, compliance obligations, and existing technology investments.
How Aquiva Labs can help
We provide end-to-end support for Heroku transitions:
Discovery and advisory. Technical assessments of current Heroku architecture, Salesforce integration requirements, and platform recommendations based on practical multi-cloud experience.
Migration planning and execution. Infrastructure setup, data synchronization redesign, CI/CD pipeline configuration, security hardening, and team collaboration to minimize operational disruption.
Ongoing managed engineering. Post-migration support for infrastructure stability, scaling, and sustained Salesforce integration robustness.
Don't wait for the official end-of-life date
Official End of Life announcements typically arrive after optimal migration windows close and experienced engineering talent becomes harder to find. Proactive planning today prevents reactive crisis management tomorrow. Early discovery engagements establish clear migration roadmaps aligned with your timelines and priorities.