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Google Cloud Firestore vs Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud Firestore
Ranking in NoSQL Databases
13th
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
Ranking in NoSQL Databases
3rd
Ranking in Managed NoSQL Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), Vector Databases (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

AnthonyAbah - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time syncing boosts productivity with efficient data management
The most valuable features are Firestore's query capabilities and its real-time syncing functionality. The queries are efficient, apart from some limitations. Real-time syncing allows any changes at the backend to automatically appear at the frontend. This is highly useful as it eliminates the need to reload the browser to see the updates.
MichaelJohn - PeerSpot reviewer
Very efficient for application-facing scenarios
There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, having a local development emulator or simulator for Azure Cosmos DB would be beneficial. It would be very handy to have a Docker container that developers can use locally. Although, I know there is a free tier and so on and so forth, having a local environment would be nice. For example, SQL Server is very portable. You can even install it on your machine. That is the number one thing that is missing in Azure Cosmos DB. The second improvement area is the IDE of choice. That means how you interact with Azure Cosmos DB. For example, with SQL Server, you have SQL Server Management Studio. I know there is a little bit of support for Azure Cosmos DB in Azure Data Studio, but it is not heavily advertised or it does not feel like first-class citizen support. Developer experience or developer tooling is missing in terms of interacting with the database. Better developer tools or an IDE for interacting with Azure Cosmos DB would enhance the developer experience. Lastly, there is some mixed messaging about what Azure Cosmos DB is, given its multiple APIs. There are so many Azure Cosmos DB APIs available. There is NoSQL. There are MongoDB, Gremlin, and others. There is still some mixed messaging for others who are new to Azure Cosmos DB about what Azure Cosmos DB is. Is this like MongoDB, but then there is also MongoDB in Azure Cosmos DB? I know it well, and I know that the default one is just NoSQL, but others I have interacted with over the last ten years or so get confused.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features are Firestore's query capabilities and its real-time syncing functionality."
"I use the solution for maps, saving some locations, and chats."
"The graphical representation of data is the most valuable feature of the solution."
"What I appreciate most are the latency and the access, which are guaranteed by the tool, which is really impressive."
"It is easy to use because you don't need to know much about Cosmos DB or have prior experience."
"From a global distribution perspective, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is good and easy to handle."
"It has been very efficient so far. The team has been using it for quite a while. I am new to the team, but they always talk about how efficient it is."
"Cosmos DB is a document database that stores data in JSON format for faster retrieval of unstructured data. I personally appreciate the speed, which is significantly better for unstructured data, especially since Cosmos DB had JSON as a data type early on."
"Cosmos DB has helped us by providing faster response times for everything, which significantly improved our search results quality."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is very easy to use."
 

Cons

"Firestore needs improvements in its querying capabilities, particularly the ability to join tables and merge data from different tables before sending it to the front end."
"I initially faced a problem creating groups in individual chats."
"The auto-scaling feature adjusts hourly. We have many processes that write stuff in batches, so we must ensure that the load is spread evenly throughout the hour. It would be much easier if it were done by the minute. I'm looking forward to the vector database search that they are adding. It's a pretty cool new feature."
"One area of improvement for Cosmos database is the auto-scaling of RUs during high loads. It would be beneficial if the database could automatically scale resources rather than requiring manual adjustments."
"The one thing that I have been working on with Microsoft with regard to this is the ability to easily split partitions and have it do high-performance cross-partition queries. That is the only place where either our data size or our throughput has grown beyond one partition, so being able to do cross-partition queries efficiently would be my number one request."
"If you want to bring the data from AWS, you must pay data egress costs. That's a pain point."
"One of the primary challenges with Cosmos DB as a non-relational data store is the careful data modeling required due to the lack of collection-level joins when using the SQL API."
"We'd like to avoid full DR replication if possible, as this would result in significant cost savings."
"We encountered an issue with Cosmos DB's recently introduced hierarchical partition feature."
"Cosmos DB should continue evolving in AI features. We expect Cosmos DB to lead on that. There is potential for improved security features, which is important for data storage, especially for Dell Technologies. We must ensure data security remains the top priority."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Because of the lack of understanding about RUs, the costs become unpredictable. It sometimes goes over the budget."
"Cost isn’t a big hurdle for us right now. The solution is not costly."
"Cosmos DB gave us three accounts for $400. We pay according to the usage."
"Azure Cosmos DB's pricing is competitive, though there is a need for more personalized pricing models to accommodate small applications without incurring high charges. A suggestion is to implement dynamically adjustable pricing that accounts for various user needs."
"The pricing and licensing model was initially difficult to understand, but as soon as I learned what was going on and how it was priced, it was pretty easy."
"The solution is very expensive."
"Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB pricing is based on RUs. Reading 1 KB document costs one RU, whereas writing one document costs five RUs. Pricing for querying depends on the complexity of the query. If you increase the document size, it will automatically increase the RU cost."
"The pricing is perceived as being on the higher side. However, if you have large data operations, it might reduce costs due to performance efficiencies."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Legal Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Firestore?
Firestore needs improvements in its querying capabilities, particularly the ability to join tables and merge data from different tables before sending it to the front end. The pricing model is also...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Firestore?
I use Google Cloud Firestore for user management and data storage, primarily for web applications. Firestore helps sync data between different users and stores documents efficiently.
What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud Firestore?
I highly recommend Google Cloud Firestore due to its cost-effectiveness and real-time syncing capabilities. However, it needs improvements in querying functionalities and a simplified pricing model.
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. You can set up a Cosmos DB in a day, even configuring things like availability zones around the world.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
Its cost is transparent. Pricing depends on the transaction and data size, but overall, it is cheaper compared to hosting it on your corporate network due to other factors like power consumption. C...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB?
I had a challenging experience implementing the emulator with a Mac. I had to install the emulator in a Docker container because it is not natively compatible. A significant amount of time was spen...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Azure DocumentDB, MS Azure Cosmos DB
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
TomTom, KPMG Australia, Bosch, ASOS, Mercedes Benz, NBA, Zero Friction, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Kinectify
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Firestore vs. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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