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R&D Team Lead at Becon
Real User
Has fast updates, good performance and realtime chat
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature I like is about the realtime. Updates are also very fast."
  • "We use Firebase for media processing and we are growing more. As we grow, the pricing goes high and it's high compared to competitors. The solution is expensive."

What is our primary use case?

We use Firebase on-premise. Our primary use cases are for push notifications and for realtime chat.

How has it helped my organization?

I'm really happy with the performance and with what it gives us. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature I like is that it is in realtime. Updates are also very fast. 

What needs improvement?

We use Firebase for media processing and we are growing more. As we grow, the pricing goes up and it's high compared to competitors. The solution is expensive. 

In the next release, they should focus more on realtime features. 

Buyer's Guide
Google Firebase
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Google Firebase. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Firebase for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable. Stability and the performance are really good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have plans to expand it across the organization. 

How are customer service and support?

I never had to contact their technical support. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing costs are on a monthly basis. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it a seven and a half out of ten. Not a ten because I haven't explored every facet to it. I am very happy with what I have seen so far. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Senior Architect at Masterworks
Real User
Offers flexibility of handling and dealing with the database through EDL
Pros and Cons
  • "I found the flexibility of handling and dealing with database through EDL to be very useful."
  • "Their technical support needs to be enhanced with more support for customers."

What is our primary use case?

We use Firebase as a proof of concept to introduce Apogee functionality in the future. We need to simulate some scenarios using Apogee as a lesson for API management and Firebase is the backend database we use to simulate custom scenarios regarding the customer needs.

We use the public cloud version.

What is most valuable?

I found the flexibility of handling and dealing with the database through EDL to be very useful.

What needs improvement?

Their technical support needs to be enhanced with more support for customers.

They should also improve the monitoring and control for the database to monitor the performance and fine-tuning of the database itself. Automatic detection of potential errors or failures in the database would also be very helpful. For example, I would like to receive notifications for the admin to take appropriate action for database failures.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for around two months.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Deployment and maintenance requires two or three people for us.

How are customer service and technical support?

I think it's a rich community, but they should increase the line support of technical issues and get official support to users or customers for Firebase so they can get their answers quickly. Most questions can be answered from the history of other questions and there is a community for all these questions and answers, which helps newcomers to with deployment and maintenance of the Firebase Database.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I was mainly using Oracle Database, which has different concepts for different scenarios, to some extent. Since it's one year old, it's tough to move to the Firebase Database.

I have had a good experience in both Google and Oracle environments and I also have had good experiences in Google constantly, which is a cloud environment, in which you can build a private cloud environment.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It took around two or three hours.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Firebase as eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Google Firebase
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Google Firebase. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director Private Sector Software Solutions at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Great interface, easy to use, but needs consistent pricing and cost estimation is difficult
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "There was no way of knowing how the rise in traffic would impact the price."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case for this solution is the backend for the mobile app.

How has it helped my organization?

We tried to save costs by cutting some unnecessary operational things in the infrastructure and in the backend.

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

As we were not able to calculate the amount of traffic and the bandwidth, we were not able to calculate the pricing accurately. There was no way of knowing how the rise in traffic would impact the price.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

While we used this solution, it was quite stable and it worked. We have had five people trying and working with this platform.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't tested the scalability performance of this platform. We did not do any stress or any other load tests. Although I have not tested this myself, I have read that there are some problems with the scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

We did not have a need to contact the technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are using Mircosoft Azure in parallel with Google Firebase.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy to install and it is easy to use, very friendly. 

What about the implementation team?

We implemented ourselves. We did not use any third party.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is not easy to calculate the cost per copy, use or if the load rose dramatically we did not know how that would impact the final price.

The pricing for the authentication is based on SMS rates and is not consistent all over the world. For example, the cost in the US and Canada is one cent, but six cents in Serbia and the rest of the world. This should be adjusted. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other options, including AWS, and one more platform based in Python. 

What other advice do I have?

It's a good product for prototyping, with a nice interface and is easy to work with, but difficult to predict the cost.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Programador at SOAINT
Real User
It has security rules to control database read/write operations in real-time
Pros and Cons
  • "It has security rules to control database read/write operations in real-time."
  • "Firebase uses JSON, and the storage format is very different to that of SQL. This does not allow for easy migrations."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is the documentation.

How has it helped my organization?

Firebase is awesome and easy to use. It is a database without any schema from the client-side. Additionally, it has security rules to control database read/write operations in real-time.

What is most valuable?

  • Information stored in the cloud and readily available everywhere.
  • The big power of their the data host.

What needs improvement?

Firebase uses JSON, and the storage format is very different to that of SQL. This does not allow for easy migrations.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

How is customer service and technical support?

The support team is responsive and well-informed.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Android Mobile & Software Developer Engineer & TI Manager at Nova Palma Energia Ltda.
Real User
We use this technology to build mobile applications and to communicate with our back-end infrastructure.
Pros and Cons
  • "Allows us to create functions without any infrastructure apart from the Google App Engine."
  • "Google Cloud Functions (which is still a BETA version) needs to have more control over the uploaded functions. That is, it needs more options for controlling the functions itself."

How has it helped my organization?

We already use this technology in our company to build our Android and iOS mobile applications and to communicate with our back-end infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

Google Cloud Functions: Allows us to create functions without any infrastructure apart from the Google App Engine. These functions can have several kinds of triggers:

  • Realtime Database Triggers
  • Firebase Authentication Triggers
  • Firebase Analytics Triggers
  • Cloud Storage Triggers
  • Cloud Pub/Sub Triggers
  • HTTP Triggers

Google Cloud Auth: Allows our Android and iOS mobile applications and JavaScript codes to make authentication with almost no effort. The reason is because the Auth has already implemented it for us.

Google Cloud Real-time Database: Allows our Android and iOS mobile applications and JavaScript codes to record and retrieve data with persistence and minimum effort.

What needs improvement?

In my humble opinion, Google Cloud Functions (which is still a BETA version) needs to have more control over the uploaded functions. That is, it needs more options for controlling the functions itself. I might think about some characteristics that can improve a lot this:

- A START button to start the function. This button should be
incorporated in each one of the functions that the developer created and
deployed in Google Cloud Functions;
- A STOP button to stop the function. This button should be incorporated
in each one of the functions that the developer created and
deployed in Google Cloud Functions;
- A RESTART button following the save behavior as above buttons with
RESTART capability.
- A better and improved log view. The actual LOG view has a Slow
performance to show the log items and also it doesn't allow fast searching
for past log items. For example, whenever we need to look for a block of
log items that happened in the past, it's very difficult to access that
block of code.
- Capability to save the log to an external tool.


What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I did not find any stability issues yet.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our actual phase in development (MVP), doesn't allow me to give my opinion on this point.

How are customer service and technical support?

Currently, it has not been necessary to contact technical support, due to the vast and informative documentation with Google Standard.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We tried to use the AWS cloud. They have a very good solution, although the documentation is a little verbose, in my humble opinion.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is very easy and straightforward. You just need to follow the documentation from the Google App Engine.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Amazon AWS, but due to the reasons explained above, especially the flowery documentation, we decided to go through Google App Engine and Google Firebase. We have no regrets at all.

What other advice do I have?

I would say that they should go ahead with Google App Engine and Google Firebase.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PradeepKumar3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Technology Solutions at Redintegro Consulting Solution LLP
Real User
Top 5
A highly stable and scalable solution that is useful for managing users and user authentication
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is useful for managing users and user authentication."
  • "We had some compatibility issues with Elixir."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for user management.

What is most valuable?

The solution is useful for managing users and user authentication.

What needs improvement?

We had some compatibility issues with Elixir. It had some library compatibility issues. We did a workaround through Google Cloud Functions and achieved the desired output.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for the last four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s scalability a ten out of ten. In the past, we had 70,000 users. The usage was reduced later.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is simple. The solution is cloud-based.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the pricing a five out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Anas_Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Frontend Engineer at iSchoolConnect
Vendor
Top 5Leaderboard
Helps us deploy software projects, but it could be simpler to understand for the beginners
Pros and Cons
  • "We use the platform to deploy our software projects."
  • "The product is complicated for beginners to understand."

What is our primary use case?

We use the platform to deploy our software projects.

What needs improvement?

The product is complicated for beginners to understand. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Google Firebase for around two and a half years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have around 50 Google Firebase users in our organization. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

The architecture and higher management decided to set up all the projects on Firebase, which is why we are using it.

How was the initial setup?

We need to install Firebase from the terminal and set up everything before deploying it, whereas some other tools require less setup.

What other advice do I have?

I would not recommend the product to others and rate it a six out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Google Firebase Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Google Firebase Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.