Heroku is the leading platform as a service (PaaS) that allows developers to build and deploy applications quickly. It is used for creating customer-centric apps that seamlessly integrate with the Salesforce data in your Salesforce CRM, making synchronizing data more efficient. After Salesforce acquired Heroku, the synergy between the two platforms expanded, providing businesses with unprecedented possibilities to scale their data management and streamline app development.
The acquisition expanded Salesforce’s platform capabilities, enhancing app development and integration, and improving data management across multi-cloud environments. The integration of Heroku into the Salesforce platform enhanced its ability to automate app development and operations, while also improving integration with multi-cloud platforms like AWS and Azure.
When Salesforce platform absorbed Heroku, it also demonstrated the company's commitment to enhancing its software offerings by adding capabilities like AI-driven insights, advanced automation, and more powerful integration with multi-cloud platforms. The union ensures businesses can access an even more secure, flexible, and scalable solution for developing mobile apps and managing apps and CRM data across various platforms.
Now, as Salesforce and Heroku are deeply integrated, using the two together has never been simpler, smoother, or more efficient. Let’s explore why businesses in 2025 should use Heroku alongside Salesforce and how this powerful integration can transform operations.
When And Why Use Heroku?
Heroku simplifies app development by enabling seamless connections between various systems and managing external processes, whether for front-end customer interfaces or back-end databases, streamlining the flow and synchronization of data.
Apps created on Heroku bridge gaps between systems that might otherwise be incompatible, offering businesses more flexibility and reducing the complexities often tied to traditional Salesforce integrations.
With Heroku, developers can utilize open source technologies and programming languages they prefer while taking advantage of a robust, ready-made infrastructure.
Developers no longer need to start from scratch on infrastructure, saving valuable time. Heroku’s 24/7 maintenance, patching, and support ensure that your development team can focus on delivering innovative solutions, not troubleshooting.
For Salesforce development companies, the result is a powerful, streamlined solution that delivers business-critical apps quickly and reliably from disparate data sources.
5 Benefits of Using Heroku Connect with Salesforce
Heroku brings several key benefits for businesses using Salesforce, helping to scale customer data management while providing a full-cycle CRM. The top benefits of Heroku and Salesforce integration include: improved developer experience, innovative apps, product data management, add-ons, scalability, and security that Heroku Connect maintains.
Improved Developer Experience
Heroku enables developers to focus on building rather than managing infrastructure. It supports various programming languages, including Ruby, Java, Scala, PHP, Python, and JavaScript, ensuring that developers work in the environments they are most comfortable with, including advanced data science tools.
Heroku’s features, such as Heroku Runtime, simplify critical functions like logging, configuration, and failovers, ensuring that apps stay up and running, including those integrated with an SQL database.
Data and Apps Together
While Heroku is primarily known for app development, it also excels at managing data. With Heroku Postgres Database, Heroku Redis, Apache Kafka, data proxies, and Heroku Connect, developers can access critical data and insights without having to create complex infrastructure, while also supporting standard SQL.
This seamless integration also supports Heroku applications with data replication across systems, ensuring that data remains synchronized and accessible at all times.
- Heroku Postgres Database: This is the most advanced open-source database of its kind. It is fully optimized for developers, allowing them to build data-driven apps while being guided by the expert knowledge and teams that Heroku has to offer. The Heroku Postgres database has been running on the cloud for over 12 years, and comes with around-the-clock maintenance, a scaling system that responds automatically to fluctuations in your app traffic, accessible insights and analytics based on safe experimentation and alternative use cases, and strict data protection and security measures, including the option to use your own encryption key.
- Heroku Redis: An in-memory data store that improves data access and performance, offering a visual analytics interface for monitoring and responding to data trends.
- Apache Kafka: A middleware tool that provides real-time data streaming, giving businesses deeper insights into customer behavior and interactions within their app.
- Data Proxies: Data proxies act as intermediaries to manage requests and responses between apps and databases, enabling more efficient data retrieval, improving security by masking sensitive information, and providing an additional layer of abstraction to enhance scalability and performance.
175 Available Add-Ons
With over 175 add-ons available, Heroku provides extensive options to personalize and extend your app development environment, including tools for monitoring, security, and data management. With so many trusted tools available, including lightning components, developers can reliably acquire the functionality they need and build better apps, faster.
Each add-on is fully managed by an expert Heroku team, giving you all the advice and guidance you could need to get the most out of its capabilities. As each add-on has been specially designed for Heroku applications, integration is quick and simple, and they can be easily scaled as app use grows.
Add-ons provide a huge range of Salesforce integration services, including Salesforce Connect, up-time alerts, automatic backups, and instant Salesforce data access through Salesforce REST APIs.
Scalability
One of the key benefits of the Salesforce takeover of Heroku is the fact that Heroku and Salesforce can work seamlessly together, but the integration still requires proper configuration, and Magicfuse can help with that.
Configuration requires very little input from developers, allowing for a custom user interface, and the two systems are guaranteed to work seamlessly to inform and improve one another. Whatever the size of your business, apps designed with Heroku are easy to scale.
At every step, from your chosen database to the specific portfolio of add-ons you have chosen to implement, your app and Salesforce CRM are fully scalable at just the click of a button. All data will be synchronised across both platforms, and the actions taken on your app will be automatically added to your CRM, enabling you to go beyond the standardised data architecture of Salesforce.
As your business grows, these capabilities and associated memory will grow with it, and your new teams, as they adapt, will be added to this shared resource. Once you have outgrown your current platform, advanced features can be quickly and easily added to improve performance.
Security
Implementing your own security protocols can be difficult when creating an app. It's a part of development that your developer would rather not focus on when devising an app that ticks every box for the business, especially when incorporating machine learning.
When you develop with Heroku, the security is dealt with for you. Heroku provides continuous threat monitoring, automatic vulnerability patching for the operating system, and ops throughout the day. For example:
- Smart containers called dynos mean that your apps are kept secure, but also ensure they can be easily monitored and quickly upgraded by the Heroku team. Dynos in Heroku are containers for running applications. They provide isolation, which helps with security and scalability.
- Features such as code and data rollback allow you to restore a previous version if problems occur.
- Heroku's secure Data Clips keep everyone on the team informed with up-to-the-second insights, without compromising security.
- At the Enterprise level, Private Spaces provide dedicated runtime environments that are network isolated, for optimised power and performance.
New Features in 2025 for Heroku and Salesforce Integration
In 2025, the integration between Salesforce and Heroku has advanced significantly with enhanced AI and automation capabilities, making it an even more powerful tool for businesses through various integration methods.
AI and Automation
Salesforce and Heroku have become even more tightly integrated with AI-driven analytics and automation tools to facilitate data exchange between Salesforce and apps built on Heroku. AI can now provide predictive insights based on data from both Salesforce CRM and apps built on Heroku. These insights can help businesses streamline operations, improve customer experiences, and make data-driven decisions more effectively.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
Heroku now offers greater compatibility with other cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure and AWS, enabling businesses to operate with a multi-cloud strategy. This improvement allows companies to access more flexibility and scalability when integrating their apps with Salesforce.
Enhanced Security Features
In 2025, Heroku continues to evolve in security by enforcing a Zero Trust security model, ensuring that all apps and users are authenticated and authorized at all times. This constant validation makes it more secure for businesses to manage apps and data in a complex, interconnected environment.
Heroku and Salesforce in the Multi-Cloud Era
As businesses increasingly adopt multi-cloud strategies, Heroku’s integration with Salesforce, Microsoft Azure, AWS, and other platforms becomes crucial for integrating apps effectively. The ability to connect Salesforce with these platforms through Heroku allows businesses to create flexible and scalable environments that meet diverse needs.
Heroku’s robust cross-cloud capabilities make it an ideal choice for businesses looking to future-proof their operations and take advantage of the best features each cloud provider offers, especially when transitioning from legacy systems.
Most Common Heroku Uses
Heroku can be used in a number of different ways, but four common uses appeal to a range of business types.
Middleware Apps
Middleware connects isolated systems, such as websites and payment systems, or website forms and databases. Middleware apps can provide services such as single sign-on, in-memory caching, and messaging tools, as well as transform your legacy applications into cloud-based applications that will stand the test of time.
Like Apache Kafka, you can also use middleware to produce real-time data streaming. Altogether, this provides a unique opportunity to bypass the complexities of different systems cost-effectively, that will continue to work every single time it is deployed.
With Heroku, you can build middleware apps that run on a predetermined schedule to pull specific data from an external system into your Salesforce CRM. The flexibility of the coding language used in Heroku ensures that it is possible to build a bridge between two separate systems with ease, potentially connecting various web services.
External Databases
Enterprise-level businesses will require exceptional data storage capabilities beyond what out-of-the-box Salesforce can offer. Old contact records that are no longer used regularly can be exported to external databases and then called upon when needed. Heroku Postgres provides a database that can be accessed from anywhere using a unique URL, and is secured with trusted IP ranges.
One major benefit of Postgres is the automated backup service that can be activated from your Heroku app. With Postgres, you are able to free up space on your Salesforce CRM, back up valuable historical data, and access the data at a later date from anywhere using the seamless data synchronisation tools of Heroku Connect.
Salesforce Continuous Integration Implementation
Continuous Integration (CI) in Salesforce simply means ensuring any new code that is introduced into the system doesn't bring with it dangerous bugs. With Heroku Flow, you can use Heroku CI in conjunction with Heroku Pipelines, Review Apps, and GitHub to do just that.
When you deploy your app to GitHub, Heroku CI duplicates it as a disposable review app within a staging or production environment so that new features can be tested. Tests are run automatically, making it easier to retrieve data and highlight any issues or bugs to the developer before they can be experienced by the user. Once solved, the test can be automatically re-run until full functionality is achieved, and the app updates can be made live.
Complex Salesforce Functions
Salesforce does not support some functionalities, such as connections with FTP servers, sending and receiving big (more than 12MB) documents with Apex, time-tracking, and custom-branded web forms, so require an external app to do so. This app can be custom-built on Heroku for each custom user by either your developers or those at MagicFuse and connected to Salesforce with an API.
Why Choose MagicFuse?
100% Certified Team
Our entire engineering team holds Salesforce certifications, ensuring expert-level knowledge and proven skills to deliver reliable, high-quality solutions.
250+ Salesforce Certifications
With over 250 certifications earned, including recent ones like Experience Cloud Consultant, Data Cloud Consultant, B2B Solution Architect, AI Specialist, and more, we stay at the forefront of Salesforce innovations to meet your evolving needs.
Customer-Facing Engineering Team
We believe in full transparency. Our clients have direct access to our engineers and resources, with no hidden layers, enabling smooth communication and collaborative problem-solving.
Fast Recruitment & Strong Retention
We recruit top Salesforce experts quickly, averaging 6 weeks per hire, while maintaining strong employee retention of over 3 years to provide consistent expertise on your projects.
Outstanding Client Satisfaction
Our commitment to quality is reflected in an impressive Net Promoter Score of 92%, showing that clients trust and recommend our services.
Top AppExchange Rating
With a stellar 4.9-star rating on Salesforce AppExchange, we demonstrate consistent excellence and customer satisfaction in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Summary
We built countless apps using Heroku, and so we're familiar with the different possibilities and add-ons available to your business.
For detailed advice on how to get your business set up on Heroku, how to integrate Heroku with your Salesforce ecosystem, and how to begin creating those apps that will revolutionise the way Salesforce works for you, contact us here.
FAQs
How does Heroku improve the Salesforce development experience?
Heroku simplifies the development process by providing an optimized platform that integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, enabling developers to focus on building custom apps without worrying about infrastructure.
What are the benefits of using a specified Heroku Postgres database for data management?
Heroku Postgres offers scalability, automated backups, and real-time data access, ensuring that businesses can manage large volumes of data securely and efficiently.
Can Heroku handle complex integrations with Salesforce?
Yes, Heroku’s flexible platform supports complex integrations with Salesforce, including custom APIs, middleware apps, and external databases, allowing businesses to extend Salesforce functionality.
How can MagicFuse assist with Heroku and Salesforce integration?
MagicFuse’s expertise in Salesforce and Heroku integration helps businesses seamlessly connect these platforms to optimize data management, app development, and scalability.
What security measures does Heroku provide for Salesforce apps?
Heroku enforces a Zero Trust security model, continuous monitoring, vulnerability patching, and secure data storage to ensure that Salesforce apps are safe and resilient.
How do I scale my Heroku app with Salesforce?
Scaling a Heroku app with Salesforce is easy, with automatic synchronization between both platforms. As your business grows, the integration ensures that your apps and data are scaled seamlessly across Salesforce and Heroku.
How can I use Heroku External Objects with Salesforce?
Heroku External Objects allow you to connect external databases, such as Heroku Postgres, directly into Salesforce, providing seamless data access without the need to import data into Salesforce. This feature makes it easier for businesses to work with large datasets, while maintaining real-time updates and reducing data redundancy.
What are the main use cases for using Heroku with Salesforce?
Common use cases include middleware apps, external databases, continuous integration for Salesforce, and building custom Salesforce functions that aren’t natively supported.
