April 6, 2026
Maintenance or make-believe?
Dear Heroku: Uhh What's Going On?
Heroku says “maintenance” then ships new stuff — devs are confused
TLDR: Heroku told users it’s in a keep-the-lights-on phase, then shipped new features, leaving customers puzzled. Commenters split between “Salesforce-era slow slide” and “it’s just serving big clients,” while jokers say devs finally get to do what they want—important because teams need clarity to plan where their apps live.
Developers are side‑eying Heroku after a February post said the platform was shifting to “sustaining engineering” — corporate‑speak for “we’ll keep the lights on, not add new features” — and that new enterprise accounts were stopping. Then March hit and… surprise! Heroku shipped bigger app packages, faster security‑certificate renewals, and even a rebuilt command‑line tool. Maintenance mode… with a makeover? Devs are spiraling.
The community’s strongest take: Heroku’s mixed messages feel like PR fog. One camp says this is classic big‑company move: keep it steady, keep the whales happy, don’t promise anything. Another group, sharper elbows out, calls it the Salesforce slump, claiming the platform’s been sliding since the acquisition. And the pragmatists shrug: it’s all about enterprise money — if a giant customer asks nicely, features still happen, “maintenance mode” label or not.
There’s also humor. One commenter joked that management says “maintenance,” devs hear “do whatever you want!” Others mock the term itself — “sustaining engineering” sounds like it was brainstormed by a thesaurus in a boardroom. The author begs for clarity and a public roadmap — even if the roadmap says “do nothing.” Meanwhile, HN threads are buzzing, and everyone’s asking the same thing: Is Heroku cruising or quietly changing lanes?
Key Points
- •Heroku announced a transition to a “sustaining engineering” model focused on stability, security, reliability, and support.
- •Heroku stated that Enterprise Account contracts will no longer be offered to new customers.
- •In March, Heroku rolled out changes including larger slug sizes, more frequent SSL/TLS certificate provisioning, and a rebuilt Heroku CLI (v11).
- •Heroku’s Head of Product and Engineering reiterated sustaining engineering while noting continued feature releases aligned with that goal.
- •The author requests clear communication, a public roadmap, and business clarification, citing items like Fir to common runtime, Postgres updates, and cost optimizations.