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Google Firebase vs IBM SoftLayer comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
48
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (5th)
IBM SoftLayer
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
2
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 3.7%, down 7.0% compared to last year.
IBM SoftLayer, on the other hand, focuses on Public Cloud Storage Services, holds 0.6% mindshare, up 0.2% since last year.
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Google Firebase3.7%
Amazon AWS16.6%
Microsoft Azure14.9%
Other64.8%
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
Public Cloud Storage Services Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM SoftLayer0.6%
Amazon S314.1%
Amazon S3 Glacier13.8%
Other71.5%
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

Mehmet Batuhan Ülper - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
reviewer1032702 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Realtime Database feature is the most important for us since we are able to see changes in the database the moment they are happening."
"The initial setup of Google Firebase is pretty straightforward."
"What I like most about Google Firebase is that it's one of the easier options to host a website or app quickly."
"It is a stable solution...It is a very scalable solution."
"We use the platform to deploy our software projects."
"The most valuable features of Google Firebase are its database, noSQL database, file storage, authentication, and notifications."
"Google Firebase is my top option, and I do not currently find any other competitors that match its offering."
"Google Firebase has a lot of services like storage, Firestore, and push notifications."
"The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer."
"The stability is the solution's most valuable aspect for our organization."
 

Cons

"The initial setup is not exactly straightforward."
"There needs to be an easy way to duplicate a database."
"The product is not that cheap."
"I would prefer Google Firebase to focus more on its integration capabilities since it is an area in the solution with certain shortcomings."
"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."
"We had some compatibility issues with Elixir."
"I would like to have a facility for testing possible scenarios by writing dummy data and then doing different queries."
"The product's user interface for developers needs improvement."
"The interface is hard to use for us. It should be simplified."
"For us, the versioning was an issue."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They have a free tier that will cover most projects. For more intensive use, you pay as you use it, but the price is very cheap."
"The price is perfect and very clearly defined. The price during the trial setup is free and then you move to a paid service."
"I rate the price of Google Firebase a four out of five."
"The pricing component is a bit confusing when it comes to what exactly you'll pay for, but I wouldn't say it's expensive."
"The solution's price is based on the number of consumers."
"Pricing for Google Firebase is not so expensive, and if you're a start-up with a small amount of data, it will be quite cheap, and there's even a free tier that you can use. If you're doing a pilot with a reasonable amount of data, for example, just a few gigabytes, it's still on the free tier. If you increase the amount of data, Google Firebase pricing is still reasonable."
"The moment you go into volumes, then you work on a pay-per-volume basis."
"My company makes monthly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no additional costs apart from the licensing costs attached to the solution."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
10%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise8
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...
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...
What do you like most about Google Firebase?
Google Analytics for Firebase is the best feature of the solution.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

No data available
CloudLayer
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Akamai and others in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS). Updated: September 2025.
870,701 professionals have used our research since 2012.