Firebase is an excellent platform for building and running successful apps. As a developer, you can use it to build, improve, and grow web and mobile applications. It also helps build apps faster, release and monitor them, and engage the app users.
Firebase is a technology that allows swift app development for the web, OS X, Android, and iOS. It allows developers to produce web apps without writing server-side programming code. The platform comes with powerful tools to help hasten the process of app building.
Its notable features include hosting, file storage, real time database, notifications, authentication, push messages, and analytics. It being cloud-hosted means as a developer, you can perform on-demand scaling effortlessly.
However, Firebase has its limitations too. It runs on Google Cloud, and you can’t use it anywhere else. Since it isn’t open source, it doesn’t offer the customization and flexibility to adapt its code, and its services aren’t all free to start.
The platform also has vendor locking and the queries are pretty slow. It does not offer GraphQL APIs, and because it’s Google’s subdomain, it may not be accessible in many other countries. With Firebase, you’ll only access the NoSQL database.
For these reasons, you may prefer a Firebase alternative that speaks to your particular app development needs. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best Firebase alternatives you can rely on.
Let’s delve in.
Top Alternatives To Firebase
1. Parse
Parse is the first Firebase alternative on our list. This open source application stack framework features robust tools for developing apps. You can deploy it on any server without any issues.
Parse features a dashboard, APIs, file and object storage, user authentication, database, and more. Its database looks like a spreadsheet.
Parse can be deployed on any infrastructure that runs Node.js and uses PostgreSQL or MongoDB as a database. It lets you develop and test your application locally using Node.
Parse is an open source without the vendor lock-in that Firebase has. It allows you to access its large community and feature-packed framework – all for free.
With Parse, you’ll get email notifications, GraphQL APIs, cloud functions, social login, real time notifications, and REST.
Parse’s repositories include SDK JavaScript, iOS, and Android. It can be self-hosted on servers like AWS, Alibaba, Azure, and Google or hosted on-premise.
Its backend tools allow you to run custom codes, manage identity, and store data, among other functions. It has easy app foundation customization and its user experience is top-notch.
Parse Server’s price information is not provided.
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2. AWS Amplify
AWS Amplify is Amazon’s cloud platform. It offers a set of services and tools for building full-stack, scalable apps powered by Amazon. Some of its tools can be used in combination or alone.
AWS allows you to configure app backends and connect your app in minutes. It also lets you deploy any static web app fast and manage the app content outside the console.
The software supports Angular, Vue, Next.js, JavaScript, React, and other web frameworks. Mobile platforms like Ionic, Android, React Native, and Flutter are also supported for fast marketing.
It’s quick to set up authentication using Amplify Auth and control who can access the apps through native authorization.
If you’re looking for a platform that connects front ends seamlessly, connects backends and deploys fast, and allows you to manage content through the admin user interface for easy access, AWS Amplify does this best.
You can use it for real time collaboration, targeted campaigns and push notifications, onboarding flows, and machine learning or AI.
AWS is an excellent Firebase alternative that offers GraphQL, REST APIs, and an open-source backend, which are valuable features lacking in Firebase.
It also has CLI plugins and user interface components, and you can access pre-built UI components, fine-grained authorization, web and mobile front-end libraries, and intuitive configuration.
With this tool, you can create serverless apps that integrate with Javascript front-end elements.
AWS Amplify offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model.
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3. PubNub
PubNub is a global DSN (Data Stream Network) API developers use to create, scale, manage and connect real time web and mobile apps and IoT devices. It’s user-friendly and secure, well known for its versatile streaming capabilities.
The platform can send instant push notifications on mobile, even if the app isn’t running. It also integrates playback options, streams controllers with a single connection, and transfers trillions of messages.
Other standout features and core services include scalable chat APIs, publish/subscribe, chaEngine, and PubNub functions.
It also has a collection of building-block services for real time applications, including real time analytics, AES Encryption, storage, playback, offline mobile push, access management, online presence detection, multiplexing, and more.
Its simple pricing model and separate API for managing accounts are the features that make PubNub stack up against Firebase.
PubNub offers client API in multiple programming languages and technologies. It flexibly integrates with custom applications too.
It’s a real time communication platform with notifications and alerts. If you need an in-app chat service app, PubNub will be a great companion throughout your entire backend service.
PubNub’s Basic Plan is Free. Its Starter Plan costs $49/month, while the Pro Plan is quote-based.
4. Back4App
Back4App is a common code backend platform based on the Parse software. It lets you create high-end, modern apps faster, on a global scale, without managing the infrastructure.
The open-source software features REST and GraphQL APIs, data storage, push notifications, file storage, authentication, and cloud code functions. It lets you build relational data models, store and query relational data in the cloud, deploy your apps over the cloud, and host IoT, web, and mobile apps.
Back4App is user-friendly, with a multitenant environment and a fast, low latency performing environment. It’s a fully managed service offering 24/7 customer support. Its cache/CND is implemented by default.
With this serverless platform, you can leverage databases that allow fast and efficient updates and data syncing. It has multiple solutions for convenient app development and rapid integration.
What makes Back4App a better Firebase alternative is its highly optimized storage methods. The tool has multiple private cloud options to store data.
Back4App has a free plan, a Shared Plan starting at $25/month, and a Dedicated Plan that costs $250/month.
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5. Couchbase
Couchbase has a distributed server designed to support modern mission-critical apps. Its engagement database is NoSQL, document-oriented.
Couchbase is open source and runs natively on-device while managing synchronization to the server for IoT and mobile environments. It is built to help large-scale interactive applications manage low latency data.
The platform’s features include analytics, unified programming interface, search, query, memory first architecture, database engine, and more. It lets you access powerful tools, including APIs across connectors and multiple programming languages, that make app building and marketing a speedy and straightforward process.
As a developer, you can add intelligence to your apps by placing the data access patterns that fit their requirements, integrating data in their ecosystems and using full-text search.
The analytics component has a robust parallel query process that helps developers efficiently execute long-running queries. It helps to address challenges associated with ad hoc analytics on a single dataset and supports scalable and responsive apps.
Couchbase’s database increases the RAM, disk space, and CPU capacity, scaling quickly to share the load. That’s why it’s the best alternative to Firebase that scales up as your business grows. It offers outstanding performance on-premise, in a container, edge service at scale, and in the cloud.
Pricing plans for Couchbase include a Basic Plan from $0.32/hr per node, a Developer Pro Plan from $0.40/hr per node, and an Enterprise Plan from $0.65/hr per node.
6. Kuzzle
Kuzzle helps you to solve your digital needs, including collaboration, secondary screens, single sign-on, messaging, and more.
It’s an open-source, cross-industry, and cross-technology platform that helps you build IoT, web, and mobile apps, and middleware. It comes with a scalable server, multiprotocol API, administration console, and a set of plugins, including real time pub/sub for advanced operations.
Kuzzle allows you fast search, data sync, and geofencing experience. It’s a ready-to-use stack you can deploy on-premise with excellent backend features for you to extend with any framework as desired.
It presents a fast and effective way to produce apps while your team focuses on business logic and user interfaces. With its native development, API, search within the platform, and database integration features you have everything you need in a single software.
You can give your clients a modern, upscale experience with real time collaboration, multi-device compatibility, geofencing, and other features. The Node.js backend has multiple protocols, storage, search, and an API accessible through Kuzzle SDKs and other development tools.
Kuzzle is scalable on-premise, cloud service, IoT hardware, Linux/Docker infrastructure, and horizontally on the intranet.
The multi-protocol API and real time functionality are the highlight features that make Kuzzle one of the best alternatives to Firebase.
Its pricing plans include a Starter Plan at 500 pounds/month, Business Plan at 1000 pounds/month, and a custom-based Premium Plan.
7. NativeScript
NativeScript enables you to develop native mobile apps with a single codebase using the JavaScript and CSS libraries. It’s also open-source and builds apps with TypeScript, JavaScript, or Angular.
NativeScript is based on the write once, run everywhere logic, and the apps you build are mobile enhanced. It uses controls and APIs to render, letting you create sophisticated apps compared to using a hybrid approach.
NativeScript gives you built-in themes to work with, something that Firebase doesn’t offer. It also has the flexibility and customization you need to build highly responsive apps.
It has plugins that give you access to device hardware and platform-specific features. The pre-installed camera plugin allows you to access your device’s camera to take photos. For social sharing features, you can install the NativeScript social share plugin and add platform-specific tools.
It’s an ideal software that lets you build different apps like social networking, live fees, games, music, video streaming apps, chat apps, geolocation and maps apps, and more using different plugins.
No pricing information is provided.
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8. LoopBack
LoopBack is another Node.js framework that will assist you in composing scalable APIs faster. It is highly extensible and runs on top of the TypeScript framework based on the Express web framework.
With LoopBack, you get to create end-to-end REST APIs fast and connect to backend systems like SOAP or REST services and databases. It enables you to develop models based on a schema or define these models and build correlations among them.
Its new core delivers excellent extensibility and flexibility, allowing you to solve business issues like expanding services and products to reach the audiences of those developers who use the APIs.
LoopBack simplifies REST API creation with minimal coding and offers developers a consistent way to design and implement APIs, including REST layer and ORM models.
What gives it an edge over Firebase is its connection to legacy systems. It also works with multiple databases and can define your schemas and endpoints, write those endpoints in JavaScript, and use the defined schemas and endpoints without generating code.
Your teams can effortlessly review the changes to endpoints without digging through JavaScript and remain consistent by automating schema and endpoint validation.
LoopBack can help you create your own framework or platform, build standard libraries with reusable components, and use connectors to integrate with databases, web services, and other platforms.
Pricing details are not available on the website.
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9. RxDB
RxDB or Reactive Database is a NoSQL database for JavaScript apps, including electron apps, hybrid apps, progressive web apps, PWAs, and websites. With Reactive, you can query the current state and subscribe to all the state changes, such as the result of one document or query field.
RxDB offers excellent performance benefits, including simplifying the development of interface-based real time apps. It also features real time queries, schema, multi-window tab support, replication, encryption, and key compression module.
It allows you to replicate data between your server and customers. It has modules that enable real time replication with endpoints compliant with CouchDB and GraphQL endpoints.
While RxDB gives you real time queries. In contrast, Firebase’s queries are often slow.
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10. Kinvey
Kinvey is a serverless cloud platform with a low code and no code studio, legacy system acceleration, data integrations, and complete app backend for building web, mobile, and chat-based applications for iOS, Android, Windows, and the web.
Its flexibility allows you to create multichannel apps, set up and scale them. It can also set up most backend elements and cloud services. Its logic helps developers to host codes.
Kinvey supports various app development frameworks, including Xamarin, .Net, JavaScript, native, Cordova, and more. It has built-in control, governance, and compliance tools that offer data security to businesses.
You can use it to build and design cross-platform HIPAA compliant mobile apps based on customer requests and requirements. Its operational intelligence tools help you manage end-user support, compliance reporting, security, and usage analytics.
Kinvey also supports enterprise identity solutions, including Open ID, SAML, and Active Directory, and offers integrations with software like SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, EHRs, Microsoft, and more.
With Kinvey, you can access multiple authentication systems, limitless data storage, and syncing between backend and apps. Unlike Firebase, it has a modern, patented, serverless architecture that scales to any workload while maintaining data privacy.
Pricing details are not shown on the website.
11. Flutter
Use Flutter to develop native mobile apps using a single code base. It is an open-source framework from the Google family too.
With Flutter, you can develop your apps fast and achieve performance and native visual consistency on multiple platforms.
Compared to Firebase, Flutter is built on widgets, including styles, scrolling, and fonts. It has a helpful growing community with high-quality documentation and resources.
It’s a Google user interface toolkit that enables you to develop the most beautiful native mobile, web, and embedded apps. You’ll have all the tools, documentation, and libraries at your disposal to create cross-platform apps.
Flutter offers the best way to build native interfaces and ship high-end features focused on the native end-user experience. The platform is free and can be used on all operating systems, including Google Fuschia.
It’s free to use.
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12. Kumulos
Kumulos is a powerful mobile app performance management platform for developers. It has a comprehensive white label multi-tenant solution that enables quick app development.
To help drive better business outcomes, Kumulos centralizes the management of technical and commercial mobile app performance in a unified place.
It has a rich feature set, including crash reporting, mobile Backend as a Service (mBaaS), push notifications, app store optimization, agency console, reporting & analytics, and client portal.
Kumulos is easy to use and very secure. It allows you to link your client-side app to the backend cloud storage, which minimizes the hassle of managing your own backend infrastructure.
The granular permissions and branded messaging apps features make it an excellent Firebase alternative to consider. Your clients are able to conduct campaigns and monitor their effects.
It entirely focuses on push notification platforms and close client engagements. Besides improving the commercial performance of the apps, you’re also assured of timely reports. With in-app messaging, you can optimize your apps within the app store.
Kumulos uses a pay-as-you-go approach that allows you to pay for what you use.
13. SashiDo
SashiDo lets you build serverless APIs quickly using scalable Node.js, REST, and GraphQL API. The platform also builds user-friendly built-in CDN, CMS, user management object and file storage, CRUD, system emails, cloud functions, push notifications, relations, and more.
With Sashido, you get to scale your app automatically based on your needs. The platform allows you to develop mobile and web apps on any framework using the SDK you want and will deploy your custom business logic on your server however you want to.
You can also integrate third-party tools using WebHooks. It allows you unlimited opportunities to expand the functionalities of your app. Compared to Firebase, all SashiDo’s features are free to use, and you can enhance the apps the way you want based on your customer engagement needs.
SashiDo offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model that you pay each month based on your usage. It starts at $4.95/month/app.
14. Supabase
Supabase is another open-source platform you can use to generate backend in minutes. It adds RESTful and real time APIs to your current PostgreSQL database without any line of code.
You can start your projects with authentication, instant APIs, PostgreSQL database, real time subscription, and storage. It also handles your business security while providing features of logins and sign-ups to protect your data.
With Supabase, you can organize, store and share large files, including images and videos, with ease, and write down your personalized cron jobs and codes without deploying or scaling servers.
You’ll also be able to develop apps locally then scale up when your business grows. When you compare it with Firebase, it is simple to use for everyone, including non-technical users. The software has fast speeds and reliability to manage your data efficiently.
Using this platform, you can listen to your PostgreSQL database changes, query tables, including pagination, filtering, and nested relationships, and create, delete, and update laws using WebSockets.
It can listen to built-in replication functionality in Postgres and convert the byte stream of the replication into JSON and broadcast the JSON over the WebSockets. Supabase offers real time relationships data.
Supabase has a free plan, a Pro pricing Plan that costs $25, and a Pay-as-you-go plan that starts at $25/project /month plus usage costs.
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15. NHost
NHost is an open-source platform working with GraphQL API. It lets you replicate your production environment locally to develop functions and manage any changes. Its infrastructure is run on top of Digital Ocean.
The software utilizes the Hasura framework to power the API. It has a serverless backend for mobile and web applications. You don’t need to manage infrastructure when using NHost since it has all the backend logic needed, including events, cloud functions, permission, and hooks hosted on the platform.
Its core features include API, storage, real time SQL database, and serverless functions like custom backend code with error handling and logs. With real time sync, you can sync data to multiple clients and define your security permissions to protect your data.
NHost has more customization and versatility than Firebase, making it a great alternative. Besides the defaults, the platform works well with other systems.
The Hasura Backend Plus backs customizable storage rules on S3 compatible instances. It also works with other third-party authentication providers like Google, Twitter, GitHub, Facebook, and more.
Upload your files to the cloud for easy management. It also lets you resize and optimize your images on the fly. Your authentication flows with various login methods will be handled efficiently, giving you the backend tools to manage your users.
It has two pricing tiers besides the free Tier, including the Professional Tier that costs $19/month and the Enterprise Tier offered on quote.
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Wrapping Up
I would choose NHost as the best alternative to Firebase.
Besides being open source, the platform has some of the best technologies it combines to give you the best tools for app development, PostgreSQL combined with a paradigm like GraphQL is what every app developer is looking for.
NHost has a user-centric design as a backend as a service (BaaS) platform, with its front end as the main differentiator to guide app development and the backend as a commodity.
Equipped with an API paradigm like GraphQL and management through a powerful platform like Hasura, users will undoubtedly experience high productivity.
