Have services like Dokku, Empire(as nohaxplz pointed out) and now Kontena reached Heroku like convenience? I want to skip the dev ops but 500$ a month for an server with only 6 gigs of memory seems insane. If any dev here want to share there experience with any or all of them I would be happy to hear it.
There is a Dokku "application" VM you can one-click install on Digital Ocean. It's nearly identical to Heroku in terms of convenience and significantly better in price. For simple projects you might normally relegate to a Hobby tier or 1-2 dynos in Heroku, I would consider it a perfect fit.
