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Firebase vs Flurry: What are the differences?
Developers describe Firebase as "The Realtime App Platform". 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. On the other hand, Flurry is detailed as "Build, measure, advertise and monetize your apps". More companies trust Flurry Analytics to understand how consumers interact with their mobile applications than all other app analytics providers combined. Over 80,000 companies use Flurry Analytics in more than 230,000 applications to measure audience reach, engagement, retention, conversions, revenue and more.
Firebase can be classified as a tool in the "Realtime Backend / API" category, while Flurry is grouped under "Mobile Analytics".
Some of the features offered by Firebase are:
- 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.
On the other hand, Flurry provides the following key features:
- Harness the power of industry-leading mobile app analytics for free
- Look beyond the download to investigate how users interact with your app
- Learn how, when, where and by what kind of audience your app is used
"Realtime backend made easy" is the top reason why over 318 developers like Firebase, while over 5 developers mention "Most complete and developer/marketing friendly metrics" as the leading cause for choosing Flurry.
According to the StackShare community, Firebase has a broader approval, being mentioned in 859 company stacks & 997 developers stacks; compared to Flurry, which is listed in 24 company stacks and 5 developer stacks.
What is Firebase?
What is Flurry?
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Why do developers choose Firebase?
- Easy setup220
- Real-time196
- JSON170
- Free110
Why do developers choose Flurry?
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What are the cons of using Flurry?
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We use Firebase at work (and I use it for my personal projects) for several reasons:
1) it is not just real-time DB with subscriptions but a lot more (storage for files, push notifications for mobile, cloud functions etc.) so it allows to build quite a robust solutions, but still possible to use just a minimal set of what you need
2) In most cases it's pretty cheap (unless you messed up you DB structure, reads/writes etc. - could be problem for a lot of traffic - so in such a case ready pricing and related guides properly), for side projects basically free.
3) offers free hosting with SSL certificates for static files
4) you can bootstrap functional prototype really quick and for the production, you do not need to worry about scaling.
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.
It is a rare combination as you guess and there are not a lot of solutions especially in rather-new mobile analytics field that are both easy to integrate for your development team and provides a lot of accurate, relevant data for your marketing department! Great job flurry!
Firebase is great, cheap and very flexible. Their docs are very helpful and so is the customer support, but the one thing that is so awesome about firebase is that everything is done in realtime!

We were looking for a solution to find out about all the errors our customers experienced but never informed us about.
We use it for a few things. We use it internally for a few dashboards because it’s actually really nice to have real-time dashboard data with Firebase. We also use it extensively for live order updating. For example, when a shopper is picking your items, you'll be able to go on your order screen. There will be live showing like found or not found or whatever. You'll have live position updating of your shopper on the map. You will have live information of the status of the order like “Nicole is now picking up your order,” and all these kind of things, so you don’t have to reload the page or pull or anything. Just live updates happen natively through Firebase API, which is nice.
We use it for a few things. We use it internally for a few dashboards because it’s actually really nice to have real-time dashboard data with Firebase. We also use it extensively for live order updating. For example, when a shopper is picking your items, you'll be able to go on your order screen. There will be live showing like found or not found or whatever. You'll have live position updating of your shopper on the map. You will have live information of the status of the order like “Nicole is now picking up your order,” and all these kind of things, so you don’t have to reload the page or pull or anything. Just live updates happen natively through Firebase API, which is nice.
Used for storing results of users (malaria predictions) and displaying to user in the app. Although the realtime aspect wasn't huge in this project, it was much quicker to push data elements for each user as firebase elements since they were purely numerical and very small. And again, the idea of familiarity - I've worked with Firebase at previous hackathons, so no need to spend time going through docs, just straight to the coding.
Firebase let's us iterate quickly. We've used the Realtime Database to build rich UX features– like push notifications– fast. Likewise, Firebase Authentication and Cloud Functions save us from having to rebuild redundant server infrastructure. Even though Firebase can get pricey, we've saved money in developer time.