Firebase

An app development platform backed by Google

5.0•237 reviews•

3.9K followers

An app development platform backed by Google

5.0•237 reviews•

3.9K followers

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Engineering & Development

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Authentication & identity tools

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Databases and backend frameworks

An app development platform that helps you build and grow apps and games users love. Backed by Google and trusted by millions of businesses around the world.

Firebase Reviews

The community submitted 237 reviews to tell us what they like about Firebase, what Firebase can do better, and more.

5.0

Based on 237 reviews

Review Firebase?

Reviewers largely see Firebase as a fast way to get a backend running, especially for MVPs, prototypes, and small teams that want auth, hosting, storage, analytics, and real-time sync without managing servers. Users repeatedly praise Firestore, Authentication, and FCM for simplicity and cross-platform coverage. Makers of Context.dev and Omi also say it is useful, fast, and simple in production. The main complaints are surprise billing, growing complexity tied to Google Cloud, weak support for relational data, and sprawling documentation.

+235

Summarized with AI

Pros

authentication (25)

scalable backend (24)

real-time database (20)

easy setup (12)

fast performance (12)

analytics (11)

cloud storage (6)

Firestore (6)

Crashlytics (3)

Google Cloud integration (3)

Cons

complex documentation (2)

complex setup (2)

Pros

Cons

ReplayAutonomous app testing for teams who ship at AI-speed

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Reviews

All Reviews

Most Informative

Founder Reviews (225)

Other Reviews (12)

used Firebase to build QuitSugar

•6 reviews

Firebase simplifies the heavy lifting of backend tasks like authentication, notifications, and real-time database management. Its ready-to-use authentication service with Google and email login saved hours of development time compared to rolling out custom solutions. Firebase's real-time database capabilities enable instant syncing of user progress and collaborative challenges, making it perfect for the social features in Quit Sugar. Its tight integration with Flutter made it a natural choice over alternatives like AWS Amplify.

What's great

authentication (25)real-time database (20)

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40 views2yr ago

used Firebase to build GyftPro

•3 reviews

We chose Firebase for GyftPro because of its comprehensive suite of backend services that streamline app development, making it the ideal choice over other alternatives. Firebase offers real-time database capabilities, seamless authentication, and powerful cloud functions that enable us to build and scale GyftPro efficiently. Its integration with Google Cloud ensures top-tier security and scalability, crucial for handling user data and traffic spikes during peak gifting seasons. The built-in analytics and crash reporting tools give us real-time insights to optimize the app’s performance and user experience. Overall, Firebase’s ease of use and robust features make it the perfect backend solution for GyftPro.

What's great

analytics (11)scalable backend (24)authentication (25)real-time database (20)Google Cloud integration (3)Crashlytics (3)

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25 views2yr ago

used Firebase to build Enki

•3 reviews

We chose Firebase for our authentication solution because it’s cost-effective and offers extensive customization options. One standout feature we built is a guest mode that lets users seamlessly try the app without signing up. When they're ready to commit, all user data is effortlessly transferred. Additionally, Firebase plays a key role in our per-user encryption system. By enabling encryption keys to be embedded within user tokens, Firebase ensures we can only access those keys when provided by the user. This allowed us to implement a highly secure encryption method with relative ease.

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6 views1yr ago

•29 reviews

What's great

fast performance (12)easy setup (12)cloud storage (6)analytics (11)scalable backend (24)authentication (25)real-time database (20)

Firebase lets you go from idea to working backend in minutes. Auth, real-time database, cloud storage, hosting, analytics, it's all preconfigured and works together out of the box. For MVPs and prototypes, nothing else gets you to market faster. The real-time sync is genuinely magical for collaborative features, and the free tier is generous enough to validate ideas before spending a penny.

What needs improvement

price predictability (1)

Pricing predictability is the biggest issue, it's easy to get surprise bills if a real-time listener goes haywire or a function gets hammered. The documentation is sprawling and sometimes inconsistent between older and newer SDK versions. Vendor lock-in is real, migrating off Firebase is painful once you're deep in Firestore. And the emulator suite, while helpful, doesn't perfectly replicate production behaviour, which leads to "works locally, breaks in prod" moments.

vs Alternatives

Supabase

Supabase was the main alternative, open-source, Postgres-based, and more transparent on pricing. AWS Amplify for the full AWS ecosystem. For auth specifically, Auth0 and Clerk. I ended up moving to Supabase for production work because I wanted SQL, row-level security, and predictable pricing, but Firebase is still my go-to for rapid prototyping and hackathons.

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

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24 views4mo ago

•9 reviews

What's great

easy setup (12)cloud storage (6)authentication (25)

Firebase gives us reliable push notifications (FCM) across iOS, Android, and web from a single API - no per-message pricing, massive scale out of the box, and deep OS integration for delivery guarantees. For a sports

scheduling app where timely match reminders are critical, it just works.

What needs improvement

complex documentation (2)

Token management is our weak spot - stale tokens accumulate in user_push_tokens and we only clean up on send failure. No built-in delivery analytics (did the user actually see it?). FCM quotas and error codes are poorly

documented. And the Firebase Admin SDK is a heavy dependency for what's essentially just HTTP calls to FCM v1 API.

vs Alternatives

OneSignal and raw VAPID/web-push. OneSignal was tempting (great dashboard) but adds a third-party dependency sitting between us and users. Raw VAPID worked for web only - no iOS support without FCM. Firebase won on cross-platform coverage and we already use Google infrastructure.

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

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31 views4mo ago

•17 reviews

What's great

fast performance (12)easy setup (12)Firestore (6)real-time database (20)simple content backend (1)

For my use case, Firebase was a very practical backend for a content-driven product workflow. I used Firestore for a blog/CMS pipeline, where the main requirement was storing and managing structured content without building a separate backend service just for publishing. The setup is quick, the SDK experience is straightforward, and it works well when you want to move fast with a frontend-heavy product. For smaller content and SaaS workflows, that simplicity can save a lot of setup time.

What needs improvement

query flexibility (1)

Firebase is very convenient when the data model is simple, but Firestore needs more planning once querying and relationships become more complex. For content-heavy or relational workflows, I sometimes prefer a database where querying and schema relationships are more explicit. Firebase is great for speed, but it is not automatically the best fit for every backend.

vs Alternatives

Supabase

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

I’ve worked with Supabase, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL on other products, but I didn’t do a formal database comparison for this project. Firebase was already a good fit for a lightweight content/CMS workflow where speed of setup mattered more than complex relational querying.

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

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7 views22d ago

•12 reviews

While Firebase has many strengths, I find it notably challenging, if not impossible, to create diagrams for tracking KPIs directly in the platform. The need to constantly reapply filters is not the most efficient way to monitor important metrics. Furthermore, I'm somewhat skeptical about the accuracy of the tracking data, which sometimes seems less precise than expected. Despite these issues, I must commend the excellent features like Authentication and Firestore that Firebase provides. These tools are fantastic and greatly simplify many aspects of app development and data handling. They certainly add significant value to the platform and make it a powerful tool for developers. I look forward to seeing how Firebase evolves to address these feedback points in future updates.

What's great

authentication (25)Firestore (6)

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18 views3yr ago

•1 review

its ok... not very beginner-friendly. It asks you for a justification when you create more than 5 projects... I did so because I was unsure about my Auth system, so had to remake things- it sent me an email asking why I require more space

What needs improvement

complex setup (2)

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6 views2yr ago

•1 review

It's incredible how complex Firebase has become, because of the link with Google Cloud. Firebase used to be an easy solution, but it's all soo overly complex that I don't trust any of it. Maybe I will suddenly get a large bill because I made a mistake, or the configuration is bad. It's really annoying. The service has gone from an easy to use cloud solution to a complete mess of configuration annoyances, security angst, complex issues. The documentation is overly complex. You loop around in al the options. And everything refers to Google Cloud again. Nothing is easy with Firebase anymore. It has become a little glue on top of GC, nothing more. It's a mess

What needs improvement

complex setup (2)complex documentation (2)Google Cloud integration (1)

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6 views2yr ago

•1 review

Using Firebase has been a fantastic experience! The real-time database and easy authentication make it incredibly straightforward to build and scale applications. I appreciate the detailed documentation, which helped me get up to speed quickly. Plus, the integration with other Google services is a major bonus. It allows me to focus on creating rather than managing servers. If you’re looking to streamline your development process, I highly recommend giving Firebase a try!

What's great

authentication (25)real-time database (20)Google Cloud integration (3)

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7 views2yr ago

•10 reviews

Despite these issues, I must commend the excellent features like Authentication and Firestore that Firebase provides. These tools are fantastic and greatly simplify many aspects of app development and data handling. They certainly add significant value to the platform and make it a powerful tool for developers. I look forward to seeing how Firebase evolves to address these feedback points in future updates.

What's great

authentication (25)Firestore (6)

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5 views1yr ago

•7 reviews

It is a very logical tool for writing very fast, especially when connecting and writing from different sources, it is very fluid. However, even in the paid plan, the limits on reading data are sometimes annoying. There should be plans to be able to draw more data or the process should be streamlined.

What's great

fast performance (12)

What needs improvement

real-time database (1)

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5 views2yr ago

•3 reviews

Perfect when starting new projects, it has many features which take hours to build if you were to do them yourself. I was able to launch products which would never see the light of day just because of how fast working with Firebase is.

What's great

fast performance (12)

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4 views3yr ago