Ionic developers frequently use Heroku as a backend or to host their Ionic applications as mobile websites or externally-loaded apps, prompting Ionic to create a ready-to-go app with Node.js and Express to facilitate this integration. This setup allows developers to either host Ionic apps as mobile websites or build Node.js API servers, with easy deployment available via a Heroku Deploy button or manual instructions on GitHub. Max Lynch, CEO of Ionic, encourages developers to try this solution and provide feedback, while also promoting the Ionic newsletter for the latest updates and related posts on topics such as Capacitor and progressive web apps.