Is Firebase Free?

Firebase is one of the best-known platforms for building mobile and web applications. Originally, this platform was developed as Firebase Inc. However, later on, Google purchased it in the year 2018. Till then, Firebase was being backed by Google.

Firebase is an excellent option for app development, but is Firebase free? This article will help you to answer this question and explore the details of Firebase’s pricing structure.

Let’s proceed below because here you will learn about:

• Main pricing plans for Firebase 
• Always free services by Firebase 
• Firebase paid services pricing 
• How to estimate your Firebase costs?

Pricing plans of Firebase 

When it comes to knowing how much Google Firebase costs, then there are two major pricing plans of Firebase that you need to know:

• Spark Plan

Spark Plan is basically a free plan that is offering 1 GB total storage with 50k reads per day, 20k writes per day, and 20k deletes per day.

• Blaze Plan 

However, on the other side, the Blaze plan is a paid plan based on a pay as you go pricing method. Under this plan, Firebase users are being charged $0.18 per GB for database storage. However, for application storage, charges are $0.26 per GB. At the same time, users have to pay an additional amount for database transfer, database operations, and more.

Always free services of Firebase 

When it comes to getting some interesting, always free services, Firebase can offer you many. Have a look at the free services of Firebase that are not being charged in either pricing plan, i.e., free or paid:

• Application delivery to the trusted testers. 
• Application indexing to let Google or other search engines index your app. 
• Deployment of different application versions to specific users for A/B testing. 
• Application performance’s reporting and prediction. 
• In-app messaging to interact with consumers using applications actively. 
• Firebase Cloud messaging sends automatic notifications and messages to the users in Android, iOS, and web applications. 
• Performance monitoring of Firebase application.
• Crashlytics to let you detect crashes in application.
• Dynamic links to redirect app users from one platform to the other.
• Customization of essential app functions remotely.
• Predictions via Firebase machine learning tools to let you know If a user has returned to your app. 

Firebase paid services pricing

Do you want to know Firebase paid services you have to pay for in the Blaze pricing plan? Let’s have a look at the information given below in this regard:

Note: Some of these services can be free to some extent in Firebase’ Spark Plan:

Cloud Firestore Database 

Cloud Firestore database is a recommended database of Firebase. It offers a total of 1GB free storage in the Spark plan. However, under the Blaze plan, the user will be charged with $0.18 per GB.

Even more, the Spark plan comes up with 50k reads per day, 20k writes per day, and 20k deletes per day for free. While Blaze plan costs $0.18 for 100K writes, $0.06 for 100K reads, and $0.02 for 100K deletes.

Real-time Database 

Firebase is offering free and unlimited write and read operations with its real-time databases:

Spark Plan 

For real-time database:

• 100 simultaneous connection 
• 1 GB storage for stored data 
•  10 GB monthly storage for downloaded data 
• 1 database per project 

For Storage:

• 5 GB storage for stored data 
• 1 GB downloaded per day
• 20k uploads daily 
• 50k downloads daily 
• 1 bucket per project 

Blaze Plan 

For real-time database:

• 200k/database simultaneous connection 
• $5/GB storage for stored data 
•  $1/GB storage for downloaded data 
• Multiple databases per project 

For Storage:

• $0.026/GB storage for stored data 
• $0.12/GB downloaded
• $0.05/10k uploads
• $0.004/10k downloads
• multiple buckets per project 

Hosting Services 

Firebase can host your application free in the Spark plan. While in the Blaze plan, it charges a modest per GB fee to store and transfer your application data. Both of the plans come up with multiple sites per project and free SSL.

Spark Plan 

• 10 GB stored application data
• 10 GB data transfer monthly

Blaze Plan 

• $0.026 per GB stored application data 
• $0.15 per GB transfer 

Authentication 

Firebase is providing 10,000 authentications monthly in both pricing plans. However, in the Blaze plan, you have to pay $0.01 per authentication in the USA, India, and Canada for above 10k authentications. However, in the rest of the world, authentication charges are $0.06/ authentication.

Google Cloud Functions 

Google Cloud functions are a service product of Firebase. However, let’s have a look at what Google Cloud functions will cost you below:

Test Lab 

The Google Test Lab can be utilized 5 times per day for real devices. However, you can use it for virtual devices to 10 times a day. 

Firebase Machine Learning 

The Google Machine Learning kit is also available in Firebase. It can let you use 1k images per project and can be used for a fantastic variety of image processing operations with ease.

How to estimate your Firebase costs?

Firebase comes up with a usage tab in the console where you can see your payments’ status and multiple Firebase services usage.

Conclusion 

Firebase comes up with two primary pricing levels. One is incorporating a free tier, which can be a fantastic solution for small applications. However, the second one is based on the pay as you go formula, this can be the best to use for production apps.

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