Is Firebase Good for Startups

This article will unlock the hidden secrets of Firebase and explore and answer the question “Is Firebase Good for Startups”.

The entrepreneurs who start new businesses with a website or mobile application usually ask questions about reliable BaaS development platforms.

As we know, Firebase is a credible Backend as a Service app development platform; that is why most of them must consider it. The common question that these entrepreneurs ask is whether Firebase is good for startups or not.

It is challenging to answer this question in yes or no because there are several things you need to consider while picking a development platform for your project. Therefore, this article is going to address this question in a detailed manner.

What is Firebase?

Firebase is a cloud-based platform that helps startups, large enterprises and SMEs to create, manage and operate applications successfully. It is a combination of toolsets to build, engage and release modern applications.

Cloud Firestore, Realtime Database, Remote Config, Cloud Messaging, Authentication, Google Analytics and Crashlytics are core Firebase products.

According to BuiltWith, 297,119 live websites use Firebase for their tech stacks. The major companies that are utilizing Firebase for mobile and web applications are Lyft, Todoist, OneFootball and The New York Times.

Is Firebase Good for Startups?

You must thoroughly read the advantages and limitations of Firebase to know whether it is good for your startup or not.

Advantages of Firebase

Here are some of Firebase benefits.

All-In-One Comprehensive App Development Platform

Firebase is good for startups because it is an all-in-one app development platform where entrepreneurs can find all tools in the same place. Google Firebase is a great tool to accelerate software development.

Undoubtedly, Firebase provides a comprehensive toolset to build, release and monitor applications. Firebase divides its products into the following three categories:

Build

Firebase is popular among startups because it enables them to create applications in a short period of time.

In this regard, it offers Realtime Database and Cloud Firestore to sync and gather data in no time. These NoSQL and cloud-hosted databases are also highly optimized for offline use.

Similarly, startup teams also find SSD-backed hosting, Authentication, Cloud Functions, remote configuration, storage, and Cloud Messaging under the same roof.

Release & Monitor

Startup teams can flexibly test and launch their web or mobile applications with Firebase. With Firebase Test Lab, developers can examine their apps on virtual and physical devices.

By the same token, entrepreneurs can preview their applications before releasing them with the help of the App Distribution tool of Firebase.

This platform also facilitates the startups with properties like Google Analytics, Remote Config and Performance Monitoring to thoroughly observe their apps after release.

Engage

Building and releasing an application is not enough because it is significant to keep your users happy and intact for the success of your project. Hereof, Firebase products like In-App Messaging, Dynamic Links, Crashlytics and Cloud Messaging come forward for the assistance of startups.

Reduce Time to Market & Development Costs

Another benefit of using Firebase for startups is its less time to market and affordable cost. First of all, if we talk about its time to market, then it works as a Backend as a Service (BaaS) vendor, so businesses can emphasize frontend development.

Definitely, Firebase helps them to take care of all server-side operations. Indeed, it reduces the development duration of a minimum viable product (MVP), due to which you can get the users’ feedback about the product in less time. This fast MVP development also leads to a reduction in time to market. Moreover, startups can also convenience investors through MVP for funds.

On the other hand, if we talk about the development cost, it is also flexible. Compared to custom app development, the charges of Firebase are minimal. According to Salary.com, the hourly charges of an app developer are around $50 in the United States. It shows Firebase charges are very affordable for startups that usually commence their business with less budget.

Even your startup team can go with Spark Plan of Firebase without paying anything. Several products like Analytics, A/B Testing and App Distribution also don’t cost you anything, even in Blaze Plan.

Amazing Analytics

Firebase works with the robust backing of Google. So, it is seamless to explore user analytics and app insights.

Startups can utilize Google Analytics to get insight reports about 500 events, including retention ratio, traffic demographics, and user engagement. With the StreamView property of Google Analytics, Firebase clients can also view the live user statistics.

Furthermore, you can also integrate Firebase with Google Ads and AdMob. Having said that, if startups want to get the analytics of their application functions, then they can consider using Firebase Performance Monitoring. The dashboard of this tool presents the core app performance metrics.

The key analytics that Firebase Performance Monitoring product displays are which countries, devices and app versions are using the app. Businesses can examine the app’s health with this tool as well.

Increase Your App Revenue

Firebase products assist the startups in enhancing their revenues. Its tool Google Analytics aids businesses to check the recent trends and user behaviors. This 100% free tool provides detailed data to engage more audiences for your app.

In the same token, Firebase Invites and Notifications play a strong role to attain and retain potential users. In addition, if your startup is a web app, you can earn some revenue through Google Ads.

However, if it is about an iOS and Android app or even a C++ and Unity game, then you can get attractive ad income with AdMob.

Easy Scalability

Firebase is famous among entrepreneurs because it is highly scalable. As we know, startups begin their journey with small budgets and users where they need limited resources. But with the passage of time, when their venture grows, they want to add more resources.

The use of Firebase is very beneficial in this regard because this BaaS platform has the ability to deal with big projects. Clients can extend their resources with Firebase anytime.

The automatic scaling feature of Firebase enables the startups to scale resources without making any modifications to the code.

Limitations of Firebase

Although Firebase is the first choice of startups but it is also crucial to know its limitations. To enhance your knowledge about Firebase, we are also presenting its drawbacks here:

Not Open-Source

Firebase community is considered open-source because its demos, SDKs, libraries and many samples are available on GitHub. But in reality, it is not an entirely open-source platform.

Only 88 Firebase repositories are available on GitHub, which is not enough to call it an open-source development platform.

Undoubtedly, open-source development platforms are considered ideal for startups because available codes and resources help the new teams.

Similarly, with the help of these open-source SDKs and libraries, they can also enhance their development speed and identify and fix errors.

Therefore, the closed-source status of Firebase is a setback for using this platform for startup ventures.

Vendor Lock-In

Vendor lock-in is another key drawback of using Firebase. Startups begin their journey with Firebase because it has free-tier and inexpensive plans, but they like to leave this platform after specific growth.

At this stage, it becomes expensive and challenging for such businesses to migrate from Firebase to another platform.

The unavailability of migration tools on this BaaS platform is another Firebase limitation due to which startups don’t pick it.

Costs are Hard to Estimate

Although Firebase promotes its Blaze Calculator function a lot, but in actuality, this tool navigates you towards a ‘Google Cloud Pricing Calculator’.

It is complex to estimate your startup project cost with this Cloud Pricing Calculator because it displays numerous categories like Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL and many other options on the top.

To evaluate the cost, you only don’t need to choose these categories separately but also have to answer several other questions.

In simple terms, it is not an easy way to go with the pay-as-you-go pricing model and calculation policy of Firebase.

Does Not Offer Dedicated Plans

If your startup owns sensitive data and you are willing to get a dedicated server or plan for it, then Firebase is not the right option for you.

Only Works with NoSQL Databases

Albeit, Firebase confers two databases to its users. One is Realtime Database, and the second is Cloud Firestore, but unluckily, both of them are NoSQL databases. These non-relational databases don’t perform well when it comes to complex queries.

It is also complicated for developers to build complex queries with large JSON files. Moreover, development teams think it is quite challenging to execute connections between the items and data with the single file infrastructure of Firebase Realtime DB.

Several Firebase users have complained about Firebase’s complex query on Stack Overflow.

Conclusion

Firebase is one of the most appealing backend development platforms startups love to use. Withal, before making the final decision about using this platform, startups should thoroughly evaluate its pros and cons.

This guide has discussed both benefits and limitations of using Firebase to help these entrepreneurs who are finding the answer to ‘is Firebase Good for startups or not’.

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