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My understanding is that Heroku charges Cron tasks based on the actual amount of time the task runs, using a dyno (based on: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/scheduler#dynohour-costs).

So, if I need a quick task to run every X minutes, I could use the cron addon to process it, instead of a worker dyno and I would be charged a fraction of the cost.

So, if everything above is true, what is the use of the Iron.io workers? They charge (about) the same as dynos from the cron jobs and they can't connect to the DB.

I have a feeling that I am missing something.

Alain
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  • "The Scheduler add-on runs one-off processes that will count toward your dyno-hours that you will be charged for each month." => be sure your cron task ends!! If it hands and remain running charges are applied. – dani herrera Jan 02 '13 at 14:55

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I'm under the impression that IronWorker can use the databases for Heroku. I may be mistaken about this, however.

I can't claim a great deal of experience with cron tasks on Heroku, so forgive me if I get its limitations wrong. However, I'm under the impression that scaling from one dyno to many dynos is a little bit of a process. Where IronWorker shines is really in enabling the number of worker servers to fluctuate based on demand--you have the capacity to scale at a moment's notice, but are only paying for the scale you're actually using.

Paddy
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    Got an email from Iron.io today saying the doc on Heroku wasnt up to date and it is now possible to connect to the DB which makes it the preferred solution vs cron jobs. – Alain Jan 04 '13 at 03:22
  • Sorry about that. That confusion is totally my fault. – Paddy Jan 04 '13 at 04:07
  • What DB are you using please? ClearDB or HerokuPostgres? – Goaler444 Jan 05 '13 at 12:25
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    @Goaler444 there are a few examples of connecting with heroku postgres online. http://blog.iron.io/2013/10/ironcast-4-how-to-connect-to-your.html – Stephen Nguyen Oct 08 '13 at 21:57