Deploy, Manage, and Scale .NET Applications

Heroku manages .NET dependencies using the standard NuGet package manager. When you deploy your application, the official .NET buildpack automatically detects your solution (.sln) and project (.csproj, .vbproj, or .fsproj) files. It then runs the dotnet publish command, which automatically restores all NuGet dependencies and then compiles your code, ensuring everything is correctly installed before the application is packaged for deployment.

The fastest way to get started is by following the official Getting Started on Heroku with .NET guide in the Heroku Dev Center. This tutorial provides a sample application and walks you through cloning the repository, provisioning a Heroku app, and deploying your code with a simple git push heroku main command.

Heroku’s .NET support follows the official .NET support policy and provides support for the latest Long-Term Support (LTS) and Standard-Term Support (STS) versions of .NET. Heroku stays current with the official .NET release cycle, ensuring you can always build with modern and secure runtimes.

Heroku’s platform is ideal for modern, cross-platform .NET development. It fully supports popular frameworks like ASP.NET Core for building robust web APIs and MVC applications, and Blazor for creating interactive web UIs. For developers in the F# ecosystem, frameworks like Giraffe are also excellent choices for deployment on Heroku.

Yes, all three languages are supported on Heroku as part of our first-class support for the modern, cross-platform .NET ecosystem. While C# is the most common language we see, F# is an excellent choice for functional programming (especially with frameworks like Giraffe and Saturn), and Visual Basic is also fully supported.

No, applications built with the older, Windows-only .NET Framework cannot be deployed to Heroku. This is because Heroku’s platform runs on a Linux-based infrastructure, while the legacy .NET Framework is dependent on the Windows operating system.

Heroku’s .NET support is designed to seamlessly integrate modern, cross-platform .NET (versions 8.0 and higher) applications with everything Heroku has to offer. Applications and APIs built with frameworks like ASP.NET Core are fully supported because they are designed to run anywhere, including Linux and Heroku.

The best practice for managing secrets, API keys, and other environment-specific settings is to use Heroku config vars. Config vars are environment variables that are securely stored with your application and are exposed to your code at runtime.

Modern .NET applications integrate seamlessly with this system; the standard IConfiguration interface that reads your local appsettings.json file will also read Heroku’s config vars in production. This allows you to keep sensitive credentials out of your source code, which is a critical security best practice.

Yes, Heroku fully supports deploying .NET console apps and Worker Services, not just web applications. Heroku’s build system automatically detects and configures all executable project types in your solution, providing smart defaults to get you running quickly. This streamlined process allows you to deploy diverse .NET applications with ease. For more advanced control, you can use a Procfile to specify custom processes. This flexibility, combined with features like instant scaling and automated testing, helps you focus on your code and innovate faster. Heroku makes it simple to deploy, manage, and scale your .NET apps.

No. Heroku’s platform simplifies the deployment process by handling compilation for you. You should push your .NET source code directly to Heroku, and the buildpack will automatically run the dotnet publish command during deployment to compile your code and create a runnable application. This source-based workflow ensures a consistent build environment and allows you to keep your Git repository clean by not committing compiled artifacts like DLLs.