very slow (~1000ms) response time. Heroku. node.js. mongolab. doing almost nothing

Question

With the free account on Heroku and the free account on MongoLab (not with the Heroku plug-in) I get response time of ~1000ms per request (single user, it is just me still, relevant to all requests, not only first one after a long idle time). I've checked from my own computer + the same free MongoLab account and I get ~168ms per the same type of requests. While it is still high, I want to ask regarding Heroku. Is it reasonable to have such poor response time, even with the free account. Will the response time go significantly better when I pay them?

Mongoose, MongoDB (node.js) Native Driver.

Do you have any idea for me what to check?

Answer 1

MongoLab helped me realize my database is defined in Europe, while the server (Heroku) is in the US. They also told me how to clone the existing database to a new one in us-east-1 (from their web console).