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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Platform as a Service
  4. Realtime Backend API
  5. Cloud Foundry vs Firebase

Cloud Foundry vs Firebase

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Firebase
Firebase
Stacks42.5K
Followers36.0K
Votes2.0K
Cloud Foundry
Cloud Foundry
Stacks188
Followers346
Votes5

Cloud Foundry vs Firebase: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Cloud Foundry and Firebase are two popular platforms used for developing and deploying applications. While both offer benefits for developers, they have key differences that make each suitable for different use cases.

  1. Database Support: Cloud Foundry is platform agnostic and supports various databases, allowing developers to choose the database that best fits their needs. On the other hand, Firebase is tightly integrated with Google's Cloud Firestore, providing real-time syncing and offline support out of the box.

  2. Scalability: Cloud Foundry offers horizontal scalability, allowing applications to handle increased load by adding more resources. Firebase, on the other hand, scales automatically based on demand without the need for manual intervention.

  3. Pricing Model: Cloud Foundry typically charges based on resource consumption, such as memory and CPU usage. Firebase, however, offers a pay-as-you-go model where users only pay for what they use, making it more cost-effective for smaller projects.

  4. Authentication: Firebase provides built-in authentication services using email/password, social login, and anonymous authentication methods. In contrast, Cloud Foundry relies on external identity providers for authentication services.

  5. Vendor Lock-in: Cloud Foundry is an open-source platform that can be deployed on multiple cloud providers, reducing the risk of vendor lock-in. Firebase, on the other hand, is tightly integrated with Google Cloud Platform, which may limit flexibility in choosing a different cloud provider.

  6. Real-time Capabilities: Firebase provides real-time data synchronization through its Cloud Firestore database, making it ideal for applications that require live updates and instant messaging features. While Cloud Foundry can support real-time applications, developers may need to implement additional tools for real-time functionality.

In Summary, Cloud Foundry and Firebase differ in database support, scalability, pricing model, authentication methods, vendor lock-in, and real-time capabilities, making each platform suitable for different types of applications.

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Advice on Firebase, Cloud Foundry

Jared
Jared

Contractor at Insight Global

Aug 9, 2019

ReviewonFirebaseFirebase

I started using Firebase over 5 years ago because of the 'real-time' nature. I originally used to use Real Time Database, but now I use Cloud Firestore. I recommend using the Google Firebase PaaS to quickly develop or prototype small to enterprise level web/mobile applications. Since Google purchased Firebase, it has exploded and it growing rapidly. I also find some level of comfort that it is Backed by Google.

272k views272k
Comments
Noam
Noam

Jul 16, 2020

Needs adviceonNode.jsNode.jsExpressJSExpressJSReactReact

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.

1.15M views1.15M
Comments
Eric
Eric

Owner at The Richner Group

Sep 24, 2020

Needs adviceonReactReactElasticsearchElasticsearchFirebaseFirebase

We are starting to work on a web-based platform aiming to connect investors/wholesalers (clients) and buyers (service providers). A third service provider, lenders, will be added in the future.

The ability to create profiles of buyers w/ their buying criteria, to create saved records of properties for sale (provided by client) to be cross-referenced against the buyers' criteria is our core functionality.

In-app, timeline-based, real-time communication between users (& storing it), file transfers, and push notifications are post MVP features we would like as well.

We are considering using React, Elasticsearch / App Search w/ their Search UI, and using Real-Time Database and functionalities of Firebase.

30.1k views30.1k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Firebase
Firebase
Cloud Foundry
Cloud Foundry

Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.

Cloud Foundry is an open platform as a service (PaaS) that provides a choice of clouds, developer frameworks, and application services. Cloud Foundry makes it faster and easier to build, test, deploy, and scale applications.

Add the Firebase library to your app and get access to a shared data structure. Any changes made to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.;Firebase apps can be written entirely with client-side code, update in real-time out-of-the-box, interoperate well with existing services, scale automatically, and provide strong data security.;Data Accessibility- Data is stored as JSON in Firebase. Every piece of data has its own URL which can be used in Firebase's client libraries and as a REST endpoint. These URLs can also be entered into a browser to view the data and watch it update in real-time.;Real-time Synchronization- Firebase takes a new approach to the way data is moved around an app. Rather than using a traditional request & response model, it works by synchronizing data between devices. Whenever your data changes, all clients are immediately notified within milliseconds. The synchronized data is also persisted, allowing new clients to be immediately updated.;First-class Data Security- Traditional applications intermix security code with application code, whereas Firebase treats security as a first-class feature. You define your security policies in one place using a flexible rules language, and Firebase ensures that they are consistently enforced across all parts of your application. Having all your security logic in one place allows for easy auditing and helps you avoid security mistakes. The safety and security of your data is our top priority.;Automatic Scaling- The Firebase API is built from the ground up for performance and scale. Whenever your data changes, Firebase calculates the minimum set of updates required to keep all your clients in sync. In addition, all Firebase API functions are designed to scale linearly with the size of the data being synchronized. More importantly, Firebase handles all of the scaling and operations for you. Your app will scale from its first user to its first million without any code changes.;Servers are Optional- Firebase can provide all of the data storage, control, and transmission needs of most apps. In many cases, Firebase can completely replace your server and server-side code. This means you no longer need to build complicated backend software and can instead focus on your application logic and your customers.
Application and services centric lifecycle API;High performance dynamic routing;Buildpack support;Data and web services brokers;Linux Container management;Role Based Access and Teams;Active application health management;Standards based user authentication and authorization;Integrated real time logging API;Multi-provider ecosystem
Statistics
Stacks
42.5K
Stacks
188
Followers
36.0K
Followers
346
Votes
2.0K
Votes
5
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 371
    Realtime backend made easy
  • 270
    Fast and responsive
  • 242
    Easy setup
  • 215
    Real-time
  • 191
    JSON
Cons
  • 31
    Can become expensive
  • 16
    No open source, you depend on external company
  • 15
    Scalability is not infinite
  • 9
    Not Flexible Enough
  • 7
    Cant filter queries
Pros
  • 2
    Perfectly aligned with springboot
  • 1
    Free service discovery (Eureka)
  • 1
    Application health management
  • 1
    Free distributed tracing (zipkin)
Integrations
Trigger.io
Trigger.io
Famo.us
Famo.us
Backbone.js
Backbone.js
Ember.js
Ember.js
AngularJS
AngularJS
React
React
VMware vSphere
VMware vSphere
Logentries
Logentries
Amazon EC2
Amazon EC2
OpenStack
OpenStack
Papertrail
Papertrail
Amazon VPC
Amazon VPC
Splunk Cloud
Splunk Cloud
Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic

What are some alternatives to Firebase, Cloud Foundry?

Heroku

Heroku

Heroku is a cloud application platform – a new way of building and deploying web apps. Heroku lets app developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployment, ongoing operations, or scaling.

Clever Cloud

Clever Cloud

Clever Cloud is a polyglot cloud application platform. The service helps developers to build applications with many languages and services, with auto-scaling features and a true pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Socket.IO

Socket.IO

It enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.

Google App Engine

Google App Engine

Google has a reputation for highly reliable, high performance infrastructure. With App Engine you can take advantage of the 10 years of knowledge Google has in running massively scalable, performance driven systems. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow.

Red Hat OpenShift

Red Hat OpenShift

OpenShift is Red Hat's Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. OpenShift is an application platform in the cloud where application developers and teams can build, test, deploy, and run their applications.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Once you upload your application, Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.

PubNub

PubNub

PubNub makes it easy for you to add real-time capabilities to your apps, without worrying about the infrastructure. Build apps that allow your users to engage in real-time across mobile, browser, desktop and server.

Pusher

Pusher

Pusher is the category leader in delightful APIs for app developers building communication and collaboration features.

Render

Render

Render is a unified platform to build and run all your apps and websites with free SSL, a global CDN, private networks and auto deploys from Git.

SignalR

SignalR

SignalR allows bi-directional communication between server and client. Servers can now push content to connected clients instantly as it becomes available. SignalR supports Web Sockets, and falls back to other compatible techniques for older browsers. SignalR includes APIs for connection management (for instance, connect and disconnect events), grouping connections, and authorization.

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