Learn App Development with Heroku for Students
Easy-to-use AI cloud platform for students to build, deploy, and scale apps and services.
Get Started NowAs you’re learning a new language or concept, you want to focus your time on writing great code and building beautiful apps. Heroku gives student developers a simple path to getting their application projects up and running quickly, without getting sidetracked by server and infrastructure management. Heroku handles web app deployment, so you don’t have to.
Heroku supports student developer learning with a cloud-based AI platform as a service (AI PaaS) for building, running, and managing apps. The platform gives you everything you need for AI application development, including a fully managed runtime environment, integrated data services, and managed AI inference services.. We take care of DevOps, so you can focus on learning how to develop AI applications.
Building and deploying a web app shouldn’t be complicated. As you use and learn Heroku, you’ll gain the skills to build and scale apps from educational experiments to competitive products.
Heroku’s cloud platform for students allows you to build apps using the language or framework you know best or love most. It’s a great place to practice popular architectural patterns, such as microservices, or deployment methodologies, such as continuous delivery. When you run into issues, our robust documentation, support, and community resources are available to help you understand the root cause and troubleshoot quickly.
Heroku gives student developers a streamlined path to AI application development. The platform enables you to integrate powerful AI models directly into your apps using managed inference services and agentic capabilities. With features like Model Context Protocol (MCP), you can connect external tools and data sources, so your applications can reason, act, and interact with APIs securely. As AI becomes central to modern software, learning to use these tools prepares you for the future of application development and gives you a competitive edge in the tech industry.
Many Heroku developers use a range of low-cost services to experiment, learn, and prototype new ideas. Some of our customers have even transformed their student projects into viable startup businesses on Heroku. When your app is ready to grow, Heroku’s operational experience offers built-in tools for easily scaling and maintaining application health.
Fast web application deployment
The Heroku Platform helps you get your app projects up and running quickly. Deploy on every push to GitHub or from your own Git, build and push a Docker image, or choose one of the many other ways to deploy to Heroku.
Choice of language or framework
The platform adapts to your personal development style. Heroku officially supports eight popular development languages and frameworks. Heroku Buildpacks extend the build system to support additional languages or customizations.
Low-cost services for easy experimentation
Easily prototype new ideas or practice new concepts using low-cost services on Heroku. Many of our add-on providers also offer free add-on plans.
Simplified DevOps
Heroku is a fully-managed platform, which means our staff monitors uptime, performance, and infrastructure concerns. This frees you from the hassle of setting up and managing your own servers and hardware operations.
Integrated data services
Our cloud data services are optimized for developers. Quickly install a managed data store, such as Heroku Postgres, Heroku Key-Value Store, MongoDB, JawsDB, and more, to easily persist, interact with, and manipulate data.
Ecosystem of add-on services
Extend the Heroku platform in a couple of clicks with fully-managed cloud services, like logging, monitoring, or error tracking. Over 200+ Heroku Add-ons support every stage of app development and operation.
Heroku for GitHub Students
A special offer for students enrolled in the GitHub Student Developer Pack.
Enjoy the best cloud computing for education
Heroku is meticulously designed to help developers be as productive as possible. The platform removes frustrating obstacles and mundane tasks so that you can stay free of distraction in your development flow. Wherever you are on the learning path, Heroku helps you love app development even more.
Low-cost services on Heroku
Heroku for Students offers low-cost plans to help you learn and get started on the platform. Heroku Buttons and Buildpacks are free, and many Heroku Add-ons also offer a free plan. Experiment easily with different technologies to discover what works best for you and your apps.
Docs & Support
The Heroku Dev Center provides a wealth of information, including technical reference docs, getting-started guides by language, learning resources, and more. The help portal connects you to support resources. We’re also proud of authoring the twelve-factor app manifesto.
Elements Marketplace
Find everything you need for your app, your stack, and your workflow in the Elements Marketplace. Our ecosystem of contributors provides code, tools, and fully-managed services to extend our runtime environment and make development faster and easier.
“Heroku is founded on best practices for building and running apps in the cloud. The platform guides you, so everything goes smoothly and you save time.”
Cloud computing for education: Resources and documentation
Developer docs
How Heroku Works
Read a high-level technical description of the platform and key concepts.
Deployment on Heroku
Discover the many ways that you can deploy apps to Heroku, including Git, GitHub, and Docker.
Getting Started Guides
Find language-specific tutorials for deploying your first app and mastering the basics of Heroku.
Technical Reference & Learning
View a documentation library on Heroku products and features.
Download the Heroku CLI
Use the Heroku Command Line Interface (CLI) to create and manage apps directly from the terminal.
Heroku for GitHub Students
Register for the GitHub Student Developer Pack and receive platform credits to spend on any Heroku product for 12 months.
Tutorials & Best practices
Heroku Showcase Videos
Learn more about Heroku through walkthroughs of various platform tools and workflows.
How to Prepare for Coding Interviews [Podcast]
Learn how to be successful in any programming interview in this discussion with Parker Phinney, creator of Interview Cake.
Becoming a Junior Developer [Podcast]
Transitioning into a career in tech can be intimidating and challenging. Two junior developers at Heroku share their experience.
Add more skills to your resume
Trailhead offers free, on-demand lessons to help you build skills in technology, business, leadership, and more.
Ready to Get Started?
Stay focused on building great data-driven applications and let Heroku tackle the rest.
FAQ: Learn Heroku for AI application development
Does Heroku have a student discount?
Yes, student developers who register for the GitHub Student Developer Pack are eligible for Heroku platform credits worth $13 per month for 24 months, totaling $312. These credits can be used for Heroku products such as Dynos, Heroku Postgres, and Heroku Key-Value Store.
Why should student developers choose Heroku to learn app development?
Student developers have enough on their plates without having to worry about the complexity of networking, server management, and container configuration. Heroku is designed for simplicity so that you can deploy and manage applications without the complexity found in other cloud platforms. Heroku handles infrastructure, scaling, and security for you, letting you focus on building and learning.
Heroku supports a wide range of programming languages and frameworks, and you can extend your apps easily with managed data services, AI tools, and a large ecosystem of add-ons.
What is an AI app platform?
An AI app platform extends the benefits of traditional platform as a service by making it easy to add AI capabilities to your applications. Heroku’s AI app platform provides managed inference services, so you can access leading AI models directly from your app without managing infrastructure or complex API integrations. Instead of provisioning your own AI servers or handling sensitive API keys, you attach the service to your app and call models as part of your workflow.
Can I learn how to develop an AI app with Heroku?
Yes, Heroku provides everything you need to learn AI application development. You can build and deploy applications that use leading AI models, integrate managed inference, and experiment with features like vector storage and agentic workflows. Our documentation and support resources guide you, whether you’re building your first AI project or adding advanced capabilities to your app.
Which programming languages and frameworks are supported on Heroku?
Heroku offers first-class support for Node.js, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, Go, Scala, Clojure, and .NET. You can also use other languages through community buildpacks. Heroku’s broad language support lets student developers experiment, learn, and build projects in widely used languages they know best or want to explore.