Google Firebase vs IBM SoftLayer comparison

The compared Google and IBM solutions aren't in the same category. Google is ranked #4 in ISI , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 3.9% mindshare in the category. IBM is ranked #23 in PCSS , and holds a 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Google Firebase

Read 48 Google Firebase reviews

4,143 Views
4,143 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM SoftLayer

Read 2 IBM SoftLayer reviews

224 Views
125 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Google Firebase

IBM SoftLayer

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Google Firebase and IBM SoftLayer based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Akamai and others in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS).

To learn more, read our detailed Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) Report (Updated: August 2025).

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Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

August 2025

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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 Firebase

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (4th)

IBM SoftLayer

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Public Cloud Storage Services (23rd)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Cloud Services solutions, they serve different purposes. Google Firebase is designed for Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) and holds a mindshare of 3.9%, down 7.0% compared to last year.
IBM SoftLayer, on the other hand, focuses on Public Cloud Storage Services, holds 0.5% mindshare, up 0.2% since last year.

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Google Firebase	3.9%
Amazon AWS	16.0%
Microsoft Azure	15.5%
Other	64.6%

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

Public Cloud Storage Services Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM SoftLayer	0.5%
Amazon S3 Glacier	14.5%
Amazon S3	13.6%
Other	71.4%

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

Mehmet Batuhan Ülper

Intern Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Crash insights empower user analytics and highlight potential for session replay integration

We use Firebase for understanding crashes and tracking analytics about our users, which supports marketing, development, and distribution purposes Firebase has been helpful in providing analytics and crash insights. It still needs more detail for larger scale applications. Crashlytics is the…

Read full review

reviewer1032702

Global Principal Cloud Architect at NTT DATA

Stable with excellent speed and agility

The most valuable aspect of the solution is simply to have the ability to host in a cloud form and out of the data center - the IBM big iron solution. It's the speed and the agility that really sell SoftLayer. The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer. The ability to extract act from your current location, load into your future location, with limited change, and then be able to take the transfer actions slowly and methodically after you're in your new location is the part that really makes this awesome. The stability and scalability are quite good.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main feature for us is that the tools are all in one place and that you don't need to bother with the backend system and the infrastructure."

"We use the platform to deploy our software projects."

"It is a completely reliable product."

"It has security rules to control database read/write operations in real-time."

"The connection between Firebase and the integrated development environments, especially when using Android Studio, is crucial as it saves time."

"The most beautiful feature of Google Firebase is that it gives you a lot of functionalities out of the box, without you having to develop or having to complete a solution. For example, identity management is integrated, and security is out of the box, particularly security for the user and the ability of each user to see his data. I also like that Google Firebase has a really good performance and is comparable to MongoDB. It's on the same level, and sometimes, it's on an even higher level than MongoDB. Other functions that Google Firebase has that I find valuable include information dissemination, mail automation, and SMS, available out of the box. Another valuable feature of the solution is that it allows you to develop some functionalities on the server side, so you can write JavaScript functions on the server side and use those functions quite easily. Google Firebase gives you almost a full backend environment out of the box without you having to do any deployments or a lot of administration because all administration is given out of the box."

"Its simplicity makes it quite handy for my needs in app development."

"We used it to create credentials for DART for our Android and Flutter applications."

More Google Firebase pros

"The stability is the solution's most valuable aspect for our organization."

"The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer."

Cons

"One of the challenges I was facing when I was using it was the library called Google Dialogflow which allows you to connect your chatbot with an intent. So there is so much adding when you are trying to connect it with your service because you have to do a lot of repetition writing a new intent, putting it step by set so it is good to escape. I believe it should be flexible and dedicate the intents based on the relating and to write a lesser code when doing that."

"They have discontinued some very valuable features, including the Firebase UI that I used to log in."

"The notifications must be made a little bit better."

"The cold start-up of the cloud function needs to speed up. For me personally, I'm not experienced in anything there, however, I've just read online it's a problem."

"You need to have some experience with deployment."

"Automation testing with mobile devices could be improved, especially in regression testing to ensure that new feature launches do not affect other features."

"The product's user interface for developers needs improvement."

"There's always room for improvement in every product, and the major improvement that's needed in Google Firebase is its simplification, particularly for unsavvy users or non-technical users. If you're not tech-savvy, it would be very difficult for you to use the functions of the solution and understand its security rules. If you want even non-technical people to find it easy to use Google Firebase, it should be simplified because the difference between screen-derived management and code-derived management isn't complex, so simplification wouldn't be an issue."

More Google Firebase cons

"The interface is hard to use for us. It should be simplified."

"For us, the versioning was an issue."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The more the number of reads and writes, the more one gets charged."

"My company makes very minimal payments toward the licensing costs of the solution."

"The price is perfect and very clearly defined. The price during the trial setup is free and then you move to a paid service."

"The tool is affordable."

"Google Firebase is an expensive solution."

"It is an expensive tool."

"I rate Google Firebase a seven or eight out of ten for pricing."

"The moment you go into volumes, then you work on a pay-per-volume basis."

More Google Firebase pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

University

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	8

No data available

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Azure compare to Google Firebase?

I would recommend Google Firebase instead of Microsoft Azure, simply for the array of features that it has to offer. In particular, the Firebase library grants you access to a shared data structure...

See all answers

Looking to compare Google Firebase, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure

We like Google Firebase hosting and authentication and also the excellent cloud functionality. Our team found the flexibility of handling and dealing with the database through EDL to be very useful...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Firebase?

Google Analytics for Firebase is the best feature of the solution.

See all answers

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Comparisons

Microsoft Azure vs Google Firebase

Compared 46% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Google Firebase

Compared 18% of the time

DigitalOcean vs Google Firebase

Compared 16% of the time

Alibaba Cloud vs Google Firebase

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Google Firebase

Compared 6% of the time

More Google Firebase Competitors

Oracle Cloud Software Appliance vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 54% of the time

Amazon AWS vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 46% of the time

More IBM SoftLayer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Firebase

September 2025

Download Google Firebase product report

Buyer's Guide

Public Cloud Storage Services

August 2025

Download IBM SoftLayer product report

Also Known As

No data available

CloudLayer

Overview

Google Firebase is a stable, reliable, and scalable mobile platform that enables you to quickly develop apps, accelerate them, and monitor their performance.

With Google Firebase You Can

Build and run successful apps
Scale globally
Monitor app quality and performance with little effort
Boost user engagement

Google Firebase Features:

Crashlytic
Automatic updates
Fast and easy deployment
Access to Cloud Firestore
Multi-platform sign-in authentication
Flexible drop-in UI
Real-time database
Remote configuration
Firebase machine learning
Cloud messaging
Advanced message targeting
Push messages
Error monitoring

SDKs supported by Google Firebase:

Web SDK
iOS SDK
Android SDK
Admin SDK

Benefits of Google Firebase:

Fast implementation: Google Firebase makes it possible for you to set up your authentication system quickly, using minimal code.
Comprehensive security: With Google Firebase, your systems remain secured; It is backed by Google Sign-in, Chrome Password Manager, and also Smart Lock.
Machine learning capabilities: Firebase offers machine learning capabilities that help you deploy and train custom models.
Eliminate the need to manage servers: Because Google Firebase offers cloud functions, it enables you to run your mobile backend code without having to also manage your servers.
Authentication for any platform: Google’s Firebase authentication makes the sign-in process easier by providing an end-to-end identity solution that works with any platform.
Customized notifications: With cloud messaging, you can customize alerts, defining how and when they are sent, what sounds they should make, and can also select the expiration date for each message. In addition, it gives you the ability to track custom conversion events.
Fast and secure web hosting: Firebase makes it possible for you to have easy and secure web hosting with fast content delivery. Firebase hosting also provides free SSL certificates.
Cloud storage: With Google Firebase you have access to cloud storage that supports robust uploads and downloads, can handle user-generated content, and provides simple and intuitive access control.
Developer-friendly: Developers prefer to use Firebase because it lets them focus on creating frontend code for mobile applications rather than having to concentrate on backend code.

Reviews from Real Users

PeerSpot user Nilakshi S., technical team lead at AuthentiCode says, “The solution is very stable and very reliable. There aren't any bugs or glitches.”

"What I like most about Google Firebase is that it's one of the easier options to host a website or app quickly," says Craig F., application development manager at a financial services firm.

A senior developer at a consultancy says, “The documentation for Google Firebase is great. Also, what I like about it is the integration to Android, which is the reason I went with Firebase.”

Google

SoftLayer provides cloud infrastructure as a service from a growing number of data centers and network points of presence around the world. Our customers range from Web startups to global enterprises.

Products and services include bare metal and virtual servers, networking, turnkey big data solutions, private cloud solutions, and more. Our unique advantages include the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology for true out-of-band access, and an easy-to-use customer portal and robust API for full remote-access of all product and service management options.

IBM

Sample Customers

Fabulous, Pic Collage, Shazam, SkyScanner

Whogohost Ltd., Skypicker, Infinity Computers and Communications Company, Grace Co. Ltd., Keyword, Uvionics Tech, Tennis Australia, immixGroup, Salesbox, Cxense ASA, Avnet Inc., Komsomolskaya Pravda, Seekr

Buyer's Guide

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

August 2025

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