Why are my basic Heroku apps taking two seconds to load?

Question

I created two very simple Heroku apps to test out the service, but it\'s often taking several seconds to load the page when I first visit them:

• Cropify - Basic

Answer 1

You should check out Tom Robinson's answer to "Scalability: How Does Heroku Work?" on Quora: http://www.quora.com/Scalability/How-does-Heroku-work

Heroku divides up server resources among many different customers/applications. Your app is allotted blocks of computing power. Heroku partitions based on resource demand. When you have a popular application that demands more power, you can pay for more 'dynos' (application containers) and then get a larger chunk of the pie in return.

In your case though, you are running a free app that few people--if any outside of you--are visiting/using. Therefore, Heroku cuts down on the resources you're getting by unloading your app--putting it in hibernation essentially--until there is a request made to your address. When that happens, and your app has been idling for a long time, it takes time to reload.

Add 1 extra dyno to keep your app from falling asleep, if that reload time is important.