Heroku Connect is a widely used tool for synchronizing data between Salesforce and a Heroku Postgres database [1]. While it serves a purpose, engineering teams often run into its significant limitations, especially the strict cap on the number of objects you can sync.

These limits create bottlenecks, prevent your applications from scaling, and push developers toward building costly and time-consuming workarounds.

For any business that relies on a complete and real-time view of its data, these constraints are a major roadblock. Stacksync is the modern, scalable solution designed specifically to overcome these challenges, offering real-time, high-volume data synchronization without restrictive caps.

Understanding Heroku Connect's Object and Row Limits

The most significant limitation of Heroku Connect is its cap of 100 objects (or tables) per connection [5]. This applies to both standard and custom Salesforce objects, meaning that as your data model grows more complex, you are forced to decide which critical data to leave behind.

Beyond the object limit, Heroku Connect plans also have row limits. While these aren't always strictly enforced, exceeding them will trigger a call from a Salesforce account executive to discuss upgrading your plan, leading to unexpected cost increases [6]. This makes budgeting unpredictable as your business grows.

Performance issues also reveal the platform's constraints. A common error, "Maximum number of duplicate updates in one batch," occurs when a single record is updated too frequently [3]. This error forces the system to switch to a slower sync process, highlighting its inability to handle rapid data changes efficiently. These are just a few of the many platform limits that can become a major headache for growing businesses [5].

The Business Impact of Hitting Heroku Connect's Ceiling

When businesses encounter Heroku Connect's limitations, the consequences are felt across the organization.

• Data Bottlenecks and Sync Failures: Hitting the object limit means you have incomplete datasets in your database, which undermines everything from analytics to customer-facing applications. Syncs can also fail unexpectedly, with mappings getting stuck in an "Altering DB schema" status that requires manual intervention and causes significant downtime.
• Inhibited Scalability: As your Salesforce instance grows with more custom objects, the 100-object limit becomes a hard wall. It prevents your applications from evolving with your business unless you invest in complex and fragile workarounds.
• Increased Engineering Costs: Developers are forced to spend valuable time building and maintaining complex solutions, like using multiple Heroku Connect instances or custom API scripts. This is time that could be spent building core product features that drive business value.
• Data Latency: Heroku Connect relies on a polling system that typically syncs data every 10 minutes. This means your applications are always working with stale information, which is unacceptable for real-time use cases. It's time to replace Heroku Connect with an affordable real-time sync that scales.

Stacksync: The Scalable Alternative for Unlimited Object Sync

Stacksync is a purpose-built data synchronization platform designed to handle enterprise-level complexity and scale without the arbitrary limits found in tools like Heroku Connect. With Stacksync, there are no hard limits on the number of objects or rows you can sync, allowing you to replicate your entire data model without compromises.

Key features that directly solve Heroku Connect's pain points include:

• Unlimited Standard and Custom Objects: Sync every piece of data you need from day one, ensuring your database is a complete and accurate mirror of your source systems.
• Real-Time, Event-Driven Sync: Instead of waiting 10 minutes for an update, Stacksync uses an event-driven architecture to sync data changes in milliseconds, enabling mission-critical applications that need up-to-the-second accuracy.
• Two-Way Sync: Stacksync provides true bi-directional synchronization, keeping data consistent across all your connected systems—not just from Salesforce to your database.
• Smart API Rate Limit Management: Our platform intelligently manages API calls to avoid hitting Salesforce quotas, ensuring a smooth and reliable sync process even with high traffic.

To see how we stack up, check out this comparison of Heroku Connect and Fivetran vs Stacksync's real-time platform.

A Side-by-Side Comparison: Stacksync vs. Heroku Connect

A direct comparison makes it clear why modern engineering teams are choosing Stacksync over Heroku Connect's restrictive model.

‍

Object & Data Volume Scalability

Heroku Connect: Is strictly limited to 100 objects. Its pricing is tied to row counts, which can lead to unpredictable and escalating costs as your data grows.

Stacksync: Has no limits on objects or rows. Our platform is built to scale seamlessly from thousands to hundreds of millions of records, ensuring your infrastructure grows with your business. We offer a robust Postgres Heroku two-way sync integration without these restrictive constraints.

Sync Speed and Architecture

Heroku Connect: Uses a polling mechanism with a minimum 10-minute interval, which inherently creates a lag between your systems. This is unsuitable for any application that depends on real-time data.

Stacksync: Employs a modern, event-driven architecture that syncs data changes in milliseconds. This provides the real-time data consistency needed for modern operational systems and customer-facing applications.

Cost and Pricing Model

Heroku Connect: Its pricing model is tied to row counts, which makes costs difficult to predict and can penalize you for growing your business.

Stacksync: Offers a transparent and predictable pricing model that is cost-effective at scale. Our model is designed to support your growth, not penalize it. You can explore a comparative analysis of pricing models to see how you can save.

Error Handling and Reliability

Heroku Connect: Error messages can be cryptic, and resolving issues often requires deep technical knowledge and manual fixes. For example, a mapping stuck in the "Altering DB schema" state can cause major downtime [4].

Stacksync: Features an advanced Issue Management dashboard that gives you clear, actionable insights into any sync failures. It allows you to retry or revert issues with a single click, dramatically reducing troubleshooting time and ensuring data integrity.

Don't let outdated tools dictate your data architecture. If you've hit the ceiling with heroku connect object sync limits, it's time to migrate to a platform built for modern data needs.