Re:The Heroku Pricing Gap + Add-on Fever
by bryanlanders on Saturday June 30, 2012 @11:14AM
(#4181814)
Yes, maintenance (upgrades, security patches, scaling up instances...) if you're going DIY on AWS is also significant. The time needed for setup + maintenance varies greatly depending on the developer(s) as well as the exact project needs, but at a minimum, Heroku needs to be at least as expensive as AWS minimum costs + bare minimum setup costs before switching to AWS could be considered cost-effective.
Heroku is only expensive if your time has no value.