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Firebase

Google's platform for building web and mobile applications with cloud backend

As of 30 August 2026, Firebase is free to use. Firebase is Google's comprehensive platform for building web and mobile applications. Softwr lists it under Mobile Development. Firebase is made by Google, launched in 1998, available on iOS, Android, Web, API.

Overview

What Firebase does

Firebase is Google's comprehensive platform for building web and mobile applications. It provides REST and real-time database APIs, authentication, hosting, cloud functions, and extensive analytics.

What people use it for

  • Mobile app backend development
  • Real-time data synchronisation
  • Web application backend
  • Cross-platform app development

The honest half

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Firebase.

  • Spark plan limited to 1 GiB storage, 50,000 daily reads, 20,000 daily writes
  • Spark plan restricts to 100 concurrent database connections
  • Spark plan limits Firebase Studio to 3 workspaces maximum
  • Document size capped at 1 MiB per document
  • Transaction time limited to 270 seconds with 60-second idle expiration
  • Maximum 100 databases per project (increase requires support request)

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Firebase

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Pricing

What Firebase costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Spark

Free

  • No-cost usage with daily-refreshing quotas
  • Cloud Firestore: up to 1 GB storage, 20K writes/day, 50K reads/day
  • Cloud Functions: up to 2M invocations/month, 400K GB-seconds/month
  • Cloud Storage: 5 GB-months storage, 100 GB downloads/month, 5K upload operations/month
  • Hosting: 10 GB storage, 360 MB/day data transfer
  • Realtime Database: up to 1 GB storage

Blaze

On request

  • Pay-as-you-go usage beyond free tier
  • Cloud Firestore: $5/GB after 1 GB, writes beyond 20K/day at overage rates
  • Cloud Functions: $0.40 per million invocations beyond 2M/month, $0.12/GB for outbound networking beyond 5 GB/month
  • Cloud Storage: $0.026/GB after 5 GB, $0.15/GB data transfer beyond 100 GB/month
  • Hosting: same storage rates, $0.15/GB beyond 360 MB/day
  • Access to larger services and higher usage levels

Capabilities

Features

  • Real-time Database

  • REST API

  • Authentication

  • Google Cloud

    Integration with Google Cloud

  • Cloud functions

    Integration with Cloud functions

  • Cloud Storage

    Integration with Cloud Storage

  • Web support

    Available on Web

  • Mobile support

    Available on Mobile

  • Cloud support

    Available on Cloud

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

What are Firebase's free tier limits?

Firebase Spark plan includes no-cost daily-refreshing quotas: Cloud Firestore up to 1 GB storage with 20K writes and 50K reads per day; Cloud Functions up to 2M invocations monthly; Cloud Storage 5 GB-months with 100 GB downloads monthly; Hosting 10 GB storage and 360 MB daily data transfer; Realtime Database up to 1 GB storage. No payment method required.

Source
How much does Firebase Blaze plan cost?

Firebase Blaze is pay-as-you-go beyond free tier limits. Pricing includes Cloud Firestore storage at $5/GB after 1 GB; Cloud Functions $0.40 per million invocations beyond 2M monthly; Cloud Storage $0.026/GB beyond 5 GB; Hosting $0.15/GB beyond 360 MB daily. New eligible customers receive $300 free credit.

Source
Which Firebase services are always free regardless of tier?

A/B Testing, Analytics, App Check, Cloud Messaging, and Crashlytics are offered at no cost on both Spark and Blaze plans, with no usage limits stated.

Source

Behind it

Who makes Firebase

Company
Google
Based in
Mountain View, California, USA

Timeline

Firebase over time

  1. Acquisition2014-10-21

    Firebase joins Google

    Source
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Keep looking

Where to go from Firebase

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Firebase, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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