Firebase review

Firebase ranks second because it covers more of a mobile app's needs than any other platform here. Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Realtime Database, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions and hosting sit next to Cloud Messaging, Crashlytics, Remote Config, A/B Testing and Analytics, and many of those are no-cost at any scale. The Spark plan needs no payment method and includes 50K monthly active users for authentication, 1 GiB of Firestore storage, 50K document reads and 20K writes a day. The Blaze plan keeps those allowances and bills usage beyond them, such as $0.40 per million Cloud Functions invocations after 2M a month, and eligible accounts can get $300 in free credit. SQL Connect now adds a Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL option for relational data, with a 3 month no-cost trial. The tradeoffs are cost predictability and lock-in: there is no flat plan, bills track reads, writes and egress, and the data stores are Google Cloud services rather than portable open-source software.

Who it is for

Mobile app teams building on Google Cloud

Price

No-cost Spark plan; Blaze plan is pay as you go with Spark allowances included.

No-cost up to 50K MAUs Then Google Cloud pricing
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 12, 2026.

Key features

• Authentication with Identity Platform is no-cost up to 50K monthly active users
• Cloud Firestore free quota covers 1 GiB stored, 50K reads and 20K writes per day
• Cloud Functions on Blaze include 2M invocations a month at no cost, then $0.40 per million
• Cloud Messaging, Crashlytics, Remote Config, A/B Testing and Analytics are no-cost
• SQL Connect adds a Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL option with a 3 month no-cost trial

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Spark plan needs no payment method to start
• Strength: Push messaging, crash reporting and analytics come with the same project at no cost
• Strength: Eligible Blaze accounts can get $300 in free credit
• Weakness: Blaze has no fixed price, so the monthly bill depends on reads, writes and egress
• Weakness: SAML and OIDC sign-in is no-cost only up to 50 MAUs
• Weakness: Free Cloud Storage quotas on new buckets apply only in three US regions

Key facts

• Free plan: Yes, Spark plan
• Paid plan: Blaze, pay as you go
• Free auth MAUs: 50K
• Database: Cloud Firestore, Realtime Database, Cloud SQL via SQL Connect

Where it ranks

Firebase is No. 2 in our Best Backend-as-a-Service Platforms verdict.