A Heroku alternative in India, billed in rupees by UPI

Arun Kumar K — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 04:00:01 +0000

Originally published on the Plexivo blog.

Many developers learnt to ship with Heroku. You connect a repository, push your code and a new release goes live. That way of working is still the right one for most web apps and APIs. What changes in India is everything around it: where the app runs, how you pay, and what the invoice says.

This guide shows how that workflow looks on Plexivo, an AI-native cloud built in India and launched on 1 November 2026. Your app runs in Mumbai. Your database sits beside it. Prices are in US dollars, and you pay in rupees by UPI, card or net banking, with a GST tax invoice for every top-up.

What should a Heroku alternative in India offer?

When Indian teams look for a git-push platform, the same five needs come up again and again:

A region close to their users. Requests that stay in India arrive sooner.
Deploy on every push. Connect GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket once and stop thinking about it.
A managed database next to the app. Backups, patches and TLS handled for you.
Rupee payments that finance can file. UPI, cards and net banking, with a proper GST invoice.
No surprise bill. A clear price before anything runs, and a balance you can always see.

Plexivo is built around exactly these. The rest of this article walks through each one and ends with a step-by-step deploy.

Where will my app and data run?

India (Mumbai) is live; more countries are available on request. Your Plexivo App Runner apps, Plexivo Postgres and Plexivo MySQL databases, Plexivo Cache instances and Plexivo Kubernetes workloads all run in Mumbai. Database backups are kept in Mumbai and copied to Hyderabad, so a disaster in one city cannot take both your database and its backups.

Your account, billing and audit records are kept in India too. Every new account acknowledges where its data lives at sign-up. The full picture is on the data residency page.

How does git-push deployment work on Plexivo App Runner?

Plexivo App Runner deploys web apps and APIs from a Git repository or a container image, with HTTPS and autoscaling.

You connect your Git provider once. For GitHub you install the Plexivo GitHub App and choose which repositories it may read. For GitLab and Bitbucket you sign in and approve Plexivo, and Plexivo adds the webhook for you. From then on, every push to the branch you chose starts a new build, and the current release keeps serving until the new one is ready. Pushes to other branches are ignored.

Builds work in two ways. If your repository has a Dockerfile at its root, Plexivo builds it as it is. If it does not, Plexivo detects your language and framework, installs your dependencies, builds and sets the start command. Node.js, Next.js, React, Python, Django, FastAPI, Go, PHP, Laravel, static sites and any Dockerfile are supported. Each build runs in its own isolated sandbox, and the image is signed before release.

Your app needs one thing from you: listen on the port in the PORT environment variable, on 0.0.0.0. Unless your image declares another port, it is 8080. In Node.js that is two lines:

const port = process.env.PORT || 8080;
app.listen(port, '0.0.0.0');

Every app gets a free HTTPS address at <name>.plexivo.app, and you can add your own domain later. The build guide covers build minutes, logs and faster builds.

Can I run a managed PostgreSQL database beside my app?

Yes. Plexivo Postgres offers PostgreSQL 18 (recommended) and PostgreSQL 17. Every database comes with TLS on every connection, a generated password and continuous backups from the moment it starts. You can restore to any moment within your backup period into a new database, while the original keeps serving.

Put the database in the same project as your app and they talk over the private network. Connect the two in the console and the app receives DATABASE_URL and DATABASE_CA_CERT as environment variables. When the password rotates, the variables follow, so you never copy a password by hand.

Plexivo Postgres is also a whole backend if you want one: Auth, a Data API, Realtime, GraphQL and Functions from one database. Read create your first database to begin, or the deeper guide to managed PostgreSQL in Mumbai.

How do I pay for cloud hosting in rupees by UPI?

Plexivo is prepaid. You add money to your organisation's wallet, and plan fees and resource charges come from it.

Prices and wallets are in US dollars for every customer, so a price you see today means the same thing next month.
Indian customers pay in rupees by UPI, card or net banking. The rupee amount is the US dollar amount at this month's rate: the RBI reference rate on the 1st of the month plus a 2% conversion margin. It stays the same all month.
18% GST is added on top, never taken from your wallet credit. Before you pay, the Payment summary shows the wallet credit, the GST and the Total to pay.
Every top-up gets a GST tax invoice in rupees, with the rate used printed on it. Add your GSTIN and it appears on every invoice.

If the wallet runs low, Plexivo emails your owners and admins first. If it cannot pay, resources pause and nothing more is charged; your data is kept. A prepaid wallet means a pause, never a debt. The wallet and currency page explains each step, and our article on GST invoices for cloud hosting goes through the invoice line by line.

Anyone can sign up from anywhere. Payments from outside India are coming soon.

What does a small app cost to start?

There are two parts to what you pay: a plan for your organisation, and the resources you run.

The Developer plan is US$9 a month billed yearly, or US$11 a month billed monthly. It includes Plexivo App Runner, Plexivo Postgres, Plexivo MySQL and Plexivo Cache, 3 projects, 100 build minutes a month and 50 GB of internet transfer. Startup is US$99 a month billed yearly and keeps apps always on, with autoscaling. Yearly billing saves 17% on plan fees.

Resources are priced on their own and charged by the day:

Resource	Smallest size	Price a month
Plexivo App Runner	0.125 vCPU, 256 MB	US$6.04
Plexivo Postgres	0.25 vCPU, 512 MB, 10 GB	US$11.98
Plexivo Cache	256 MB, 10 GB volume	US$6.94

The smallest app, database and cache together come to US$24.96 a month. On Developer, an idle Plexivo App Runner instance sleeps after 15 minutes without requests and wakes on the next one. Every limit is on the pricing page.

Step by step: from repository to a live HTTPS address

Create your account. Go to cloud.plexivo.io, pick Individual or Business, and confirm your email with the 6-digit code. A business registered for GST can tick This organisation is registered for GST and enter its GSTIN.
Start a new app. On Home, choose Deploy your first app, or choose Create at the top of any page, then Plexivo App Runner.
Connect your code. Under Source, pick GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket and choose Connect GitHub (or GitLab, or Bitbucket). Then choose the Repository and Branch.
Name and size it. The name becomes your address. Under Size, choose the Instance size and the Minimum instances and Maximum instances.
Check the price and deploy. The panel on the right shows the Estimated monthly cost. Choose Deploy; the button carries your app's name. Follow the build on the Deployments tab.
Add a database. Choose Create, then Plexivo Postgres. On your app's Environment tab, under Add a database or cache, choose the Resource and Connect.
Top up in rupees. In Billing → Add money, enter the Amount to add (US$), check the Payment summary and choose Pay.

In India, your PAN is checked once, when you first approve a deployment. Prefer to describe it instead? Type it into the Plexivo AI box on Home and choose Plan my app. Plexivo AI reads the repository, prepares a plan with its price, and nothing runs until you choose Approve & deploy.

To reach your database from your laptop, install the Plexivo CLI and open an encrypted tunnel:

plexivo auth login
plexivo db connect orders-db

Moving an existing app and database

Coming from Heroku or another platform? Your app usually moves as it is: point Plexivo App Runner at the same repository, set the same environment variables, and read PORT. For data, open Migrations, choose New migration and pick your source; the console shows where to find the connection string for each one. The copy reads your source, which keeps running normally, and you switch your app over when you are ready. See move to Plexivo Postgres and our guide to deploying Next.js with a database in India.

FAQ

Is Plexivo a good Heroku alternative for Indian developers?

Plexivo keeps the familiar workflow: connect a repository and every push deploys. It adds a Mumbai region, managed Plexivo Postgres beside your app, and rupee payments by UPI with a GST tax invoice. Try it on the Developer plan to see if it fits your app.

Can I pay for cloud hosting by UPI?

Yes. Indian customers pay in rupees by UPI, card or net banking. The amount is the US dollar top-up at this month's rate plus 18% GST, and you see the Total to pay before you confirm.

Why are prices in US dollars if I pay in rupees?

One currency keeps prices stable and the same for every customer. The rupee rate is fixed on the 1st of each month, so every payment in a month uses the same rate, and it is printed on your invoice.

What happens if my wallet runs out?

Resources pause and nothing more is charged, while your data is kept. Owners and admins are emailed before each step. Add money and everything comes back at once.

Which languages and frameworks can I deploy?

Node.js, Next.js, React, Python, Django, FastAPI, Go, PHP, Laravel, static sites and any Dockerfile. You can also deploy a public container image built in your own CI.

Start building

Create your organisation at cloud.plexivo.io and deploy your first app to Mumbai. The free trial is on the Developer plan, and no credit card is required.

DEV Community: Arun Kumar K