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Amazon EC2 vs Firebase: What are the differences?
Key Differences Between Amazon EC2 and Firebase
1. Deployment and Scalability: Amazon EC2 provides scalable virtual servers that can be easily deployed and managed. It allows users to select the type of EC2 instance suitable for their needs and scale up or down as required. On the other hand, Firebase is a backend-as-a-service (BaaS) platform that provides a serverless architecture. It handles automatic scaling and load balancing without the need for server configuration, allowing developers to focus on the frontend development.
2. Infrastructure Management: Amazon EC2 requires users to manage their infrastructure, including operating system updates, security patches, and backups. It provides full control and flexibility but requires more technical expertise. Firebase, on the other hand, abstracts away the infrastructure management, allowing developers to focus solely on application development. It handles all the server-side tasks and provides built-in scalability and robustness.
3. Database Options: Amazon EC2 offers a wide range of database options, including Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, and more. Users can choose the most suitable database for their application requirements. Firebase, on the other hand, provides a NoSQL database called Cloud Firestore, which is fully managed and scalable. While it provides powerful querying and real-time updates, it may have limitations compared to the extensive database offerings of Amazon EC2.
4. Pricing Model: Amazon EC2 operates on a pay-per-use pricing model, where users are charged based on the instance types, storage, data transfer, and other resources used. It provides various pricing options and cost calculators to help users estimate their expenses. Firebase, on the other hand, offers a flexible pricing model based on usage and features. It offers free usage quotas and provides different pricing plans based on specific needs, such as the number of monthly active users or data storage.
5. Integration with Other Amazon Services: Amazon EC2 seamlessly integrates with other AWS services such as S3, CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancer, and more. It provides a comprehensive ecosystem for building scalable applications. Firebase, although owned by Google, also offers integration with several Google Cloud Platform services like Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage, and Analytics. However, its integration options may be more limited compared to Amazon EC2's extensive AWS ecosystem.
6. Target Audience and Use Cases: Amazon EC2 is suitable for a wide range of use cases, from simple web applications to complex enterprise systems, and it can cater to both small businesses and large enterprises. It offers extensive control and customization options. Firebase, on the other hand, is more targeted towards mobile and web developers who want to quickly develop and deploy applications without worrying about server management. It is ideal for startups and smaller projects that prioritize speed and ease of development.
In Summary, Amazon EC2 provides more control and customizability with a wide range of services, ideal for larger projects and enterprises, while Firebase simplifies application development by abstracting away infrastructure management, making it suitable for smaller projects and startups.
We are starting to work on a web-based platform aiming to connect artists (clients) and professional freelancers (service providers). In-app, timeline-based, real-time communication between users (& storing it), file transfers, and push notifications are essential core features. We are considering using Node.js, ExpressJS, React, MongoDB stack with Socket.IO & Apollo, or maybe using Real-Time Database and functionalities of Firebase.
I would recommend looking hard into Firebase for this project, especially if you do not have dedicated full-stack or backend members on your team.
The real time database, as you mentioned, is a great option, but I would also look into Firestore. Similar to RTDB, it adds more functions and some cool methods as well. Also, another great thing about Firebase is you have easy access to storage and dead simple auth as well.
Node.js Express MongoDB Socket.IO and Apollo are great technologies as well, and may be the better option if you do not wish to cede as much control to third parties in your application.
Overall, I say if you wish to focus more time developing your React application instead of other parts of your stack, Firebase is a great way to do that.
Hello Noam 👋,
I suggest taking a look at Ably, it has all the realtime features you need and the platform is designed to guarantee critical functionality at scale.
Here is an in depth comparison between Ably and Firebase
Hey Noam,
I would recommend you to take a look into 8base. It has features you've requested, also relation database and GraphQL API which will help you to develop rapidly.
Thanks, Ilya
I'm looking for a storage service for a simple website (built with Vue) with browser games. The website will have a login system and will collect some basic information about users. It will also have a chat, so it needs to store messages. I would prefer a free solution for now, because the number of users and transferred data will be very small. I Was choosing between Amazon EC2 and Google Firebase even tho they aren't really in the same category. Any advice on that will be appreciated
Hi Michal,
Correct, AWS EC2 is not at all the same thing as Firebase. AWS EC2 is a server instance where you can run server code. Firebase is a suite of pre-built cloud services that help developers offload maintenance, development and speed up development.
In your situation, if you are looking for a free or low cost option, where you can integrate many of the different types of services you have mentioned (authentication, storage, chatting, etc), Firebase is your best bet for the lowest effort.
If you go with AWS, you will end up needing much more than just EC2 to build and run your backend. More over, you will have to learn AWS's console which isn't the greatest user experience.
Beware that Firebase has a tendency not to be very reliable compared to AWS.
If you are using only Vue.js, you could consider Amazon S3 for the static portion of your site and Amazon Lambda for the bits you need to store data (also in S3).
https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/projects/host-static-website/services-costs/ https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/WebsiteHosting.html
This setup would require more work on your side, but it can be WAY cheaper than EC2 instances: it can be from $0 to $3/month. If you use only AWS free tier, you can make a very nice app paying for nothing for the first year, at least.
DigitalOcean was where I began; its USD5/month is extremely competitive and the overall experience as highly user-friendly.
However, their offerings were lacking and integrating with other resources I had on AWS was getting more costly (due to transfer costs on AWS). Eventually I moved the entire project off DO's Droplets and onto AWS's EC2.
One may initially find the cost (w/o free tier) and interface of AWS daunting however with good planning you can achieve highly cost-efficient systems with savings plans, spot instances, etcetera.
Do not dive into AWS head-first! Seriously, don't. Stand back and read pricing documentation thoroughly. You can, not to the fault of AWS, easily go way overbudget. Your first action upon getting your AWS account should be to set up billing alarms for estimated and current bill totals.
We first selected Google Cloud Platform about five years ago, because HIPAA compliance was significantly cheaper and easier on Google compared to AWS. We have stayed with Google Cloud because it provides an excellent command line tool for managing resources, and every resource has a well-designed, well-documented API. SDKs for most of these APIs are available for many popular languages. I have never worked with a cloud platform that's so amenable to automation. Google is also ahead of its competitors in Kubernetes support.
GCE is much more user friendly than EC2, though Amazon has come a very long way since the early days (pre-2010's). This can be seen in how easy it is to edit the storage attached to an instance in GCE: it's under the instance details and is edited inline. In AWS you have to click the instance > click the storage block device (new screen) > click the edit option (new modal) > resize the volume > confirm (new model) then wait a very long time. Google's is nearly instant.
- In both cases, the instance much be shut down.
There also the preference between "user burden-of-security" and automatic security: AWS goes for the former, GCE the latter.
Most bioinformatics shops nowadays are hosting on AWS or Azure, since they have HIPAA tiers and offer enterprise SLA contracts. Meanwhile Heroku hasn't historically supported HIPAA. Rackspace and Google Cloud would be other hosting providers we would consider, but we just don't get requests for them. So, we mostly focus on AWS and Azure support.
Pros of Amazon EC2
- Quick and reliable cloud servers647
- Scalability515
- Easy management393
- Low cost277
- Auto-scaling271
- Market leader89
- Backed by amazon80
- Reliable79
- Free tier67
- Easy management, scalability58
- Flexible13
- Easy to Start10
- Widely used9
- Web-scale9
- Elastic9
- Node.js API7
- Industry Standard5
- Lots of configuration options4
- GPU instances2
- Simpler to understand and learn1
- Extremely simple to use1
- Amazing for individuals1
- All the Open Source CLI tools you could want.1
Pros of Firebase
- Realtime backend made easy371
- Fast and responsive270
- Easy setup242
- Real-time215
- JSON191
- Free134
- Backed by google128
- Angular adaptor83
- Reliable68
- Great customer support36
- Great documentation32
- Real-time synchronization25
- Mobile friendly21
- Rapid prototyping19
- Great security14
- Automatic scaling12
- Freakingly awesome11
- Super fast development8
- Angularfire is an amazing addition!8
- Chat8
- Firebase hosting6
- Built in user auth/oauth6
- Awesome next-gen backend6
- Ios adaptor6
- Speed of light4
- Very easy to use4
- Great3
- It's made development super fast3
- Brilliant for startups3
- Free hosting2
- Cloud functions2
- JS Offline and Sync suport2
- Low battery consumption2
- .net2
- The concurrent updates create a great experience2
- Push notification2
- I can quickly create static web apps with no backend2
- Great all-round functionality2
- Free authentication solution2
- Easy Reactjs integration1
- Google's support1
- Free SSL1
- CDN & cache out of the box1
- Easy to use1
- Large1
- Faster workflow1
- Serverless1
- Good Free Limits1
- Simple and easy1
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Cons of Amazon EC2
- Ui could use a lot of work13
- High learning curve when compared to PaaS6
- Extremely poor CPU performance3
Cons of Firebase
- Can become expensive31
- No open source, you depend on external company16
- Scalability is not infinite15
- Not Flexible Enough9
- Cant filter queries7
- Very unstable server3
- No Relational Data3
- Too many errors2
- No offline sync2