I really like that this service allows the use of existing VPS providers instead of wrapping their service around one and charging a monthly premium. Unfortunately, PHP is one of the easiest to install, low-maintenance language platforms, so I don't know how much value they can add there, but give me something like Heroku that I can use with my own VPSs and I'll gladly pay you $10/month.
> something like Heroku that I can use with my own VPSs and I'll gladly pay you $10/month.
You could try something like Dokku, Docker powered mini-Heroku https://github.com/progrium/dokku
If I am not wrong, DigitalOcean has dokku-installed images which you can just use within a few minutes.
Yeah, they do. Flynn (http://flynn.io) and Deis (http://deis.io/) are other popular choices, though Flynn is extremely new and difficult to get running properly, and it's not production ready. Deis is based on CoreOS now so it won't work on Digital Ocean at the moment if you prefer using them.
Since it is just creating machines for you (i.e., it's created under your DigitalOcean account) can't you just stop paying for forge after you've created your servers, and keep using your DO account normally.
Well, you could. But you do get other features such easy management of env. variables, scheduling, New Relic monitoring and network handling.
Even if you are just running 2 sites, I really do think this is a great value for money ($10). If they only (as I wrote in my other comment) allowed for alternative ways to push your code.
