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Firebase vs Heroku: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Firebase and Heroku are both popular platforms used for web application hosting and deployment. While they share some similarities, there are also key differences that set them apart in terms of features, scalability, and ease of use.
Pricing Model: Firebase follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where you pay for the actual usage of resources such as storage, database, and bandwidth. On the other hand, Heroku offers a dyno-based pricing model, where you pay based on the number of dynos (server instances) you use. This difference in pricing models allows for more flexibility in terms of cost control when using Firebase.
Database Options: Firebase offers a NoSQL real-time database as its primary database component, which is optimized for real-time syncing and offline functionality. Heroku, on the other hand, is a platform that allows you to host your own applications, giving you the freedom to choose any database of your choice, whether it's SQL or NoSQL. This difference in database options provides more flexibility when it comes to choosing the ideal database for your specific application.
Platform Complexity: Firebase is a fully managed platform, which means it abstracts away the infrastructure management and enables users to focus on building their applications. Heroku, on the other hand, provides more control and visibility over the infrastructure, giving users the ability to configure and fine-tune their application settings. This difference in platform complexity allows for more customization options with Heroku but may require more technical expertise compared to Firebase.
Real-time functionality: Firebase is known for its real-time capabilities, providing features like real-time database updates and real-time messaging. Heroku, on the other hand, does not inherently provide real-time functionality but can integrate with other services like WebSocket or third-party tools to achieve real-time communication. This difference in real-time functionality makes Firebase a preferred choice for applications that require real-time updates and messaging.
Scalability and Performance: Firebase is designed to scale automatically based on demand, making it suitable for applications with unpredictable traffic patterns. Heroku, on the other hand, requires manual scaling by adjusting the number of dynos or using add-ons for additional scalability. This difference in scalability and performance management provides Firebase with a more hands-off approach, while Heroku allows for more fine-tuning and control over the application's performance.
Deployment Process: Firebase offers a simplified deployment process, where you can easily deploy your application with a few commands or clicks. Heroku, on the other hand, requires more setup and configuration, with the need to push code to a Git repository and manage deployment pipelines. This difference in deployment processes makes Firebase more beginner-friendly and time-saving, while Heroku provides more options for customization and integration with other development workflows.
In Summary, Firebase offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, a real-time database, and a simpler deployment process, while Heroku allows for more customization options, a variety of database choices, and more control over infrastructure settings.
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 transitioning to Render from heroku. The pricing scale matches my usage scale, yet it's just as easy to deploy. It's removed a lot of the devops that I don't like to deal with on setting up my own raw *nix box and makes deployment simple and easy!
Clustering I don't use clustering features at the moment but when i need to set up clustering of nodes and discoverability, render will enable that where Heroku would require that I use an external service like redis.
Restarts The restarts are annoying. I understand the reasoning, but I'd rather watch my service if its got a memory leak and work to fix it than to just assume that it has memory leaks and needs to restart.
(2/3) Numpy: This is a package for scientific computing in python. Vectorised code from this library also makes this very efficient. This is an absolutely essential library for machine learning and will help us develop our models efficiently. SciKit-Learn, our machine learning library of choice, uses Numpy extensively and therefore it has to be used by us.
SciKit-Learn: SciKit-Learn is a machine learning library in python. It includes models for regression, classification, clustering, SVM’s, forests, etc. We have chosen this because of all the types of models it offers and the ease with which they can be integrated with our software.
Stripe: POS system of choice with direct integration to all major forms of payment. By using stripe, we can worry less about payment security as they are innovators in the industry and are dedicated to making POS reliable, fast, and scalable.
Firebase: Direct integration into Python makes this NoSQL database a perfect choice. Search is fast and uses an indexing method similar to Google allowing for low latency. Also has the benefit of allowing context casting to remodel JSON data into workable python objects easily.
Heroku: Heroku integrates really well with GitHub and makes the process of deploying our web app extremely easy. After setting up Heroku on our GitHub project, a simple push to it’s master branch deploys the updates. It’s really simple to set up and uses and it is absolutely free. Furthermore, it makes the web app accessible to everyone instead of deploying it locally which is a huge plus.
React is used for its functional nature and simplification of ES6. The efficiency of how it re-renders based on components is an added bonus. styled-components is used to simplify CSS 3 styling, and to avoid having additional files.
The Node.js framework, ExpressJS, is used for the back-end to create a RESTful API for the NoSQL Firebase database.
Deployment is done through Heroku. ExpressJS, Firebase, and Heroku are used for their ease of use and simplicity, over its alternatives for this proof of concept application.
They would most likely be migrated into Laravel, aws, and MySQL, for production because of their scalability, and robustness if used with a larger dataset and userbase.
Finally, Visual Studio Code is used as a code editor, due to its combination of features and speed, while also having an integrated terminal.
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
Pros of Heroku
- Easy deployment703
- Free for side projects459
- Huge time-saver374
- Simple scaling348
- Low devops skills required261
- Easy setup190
- Add-ons for almost everything174
- Beginner friendly153
- Better for startups150
- Low learning curve133
- Postgres hosting48
- Easy to add collaborators41
- Faster development30
- Awesome documentation24
- Simple rollback19
- Focus on product, not deployment19
- Natural companion for rails development15
- Easy integration15
- Great customer support12
- GitHub integration8
- Painless & well documented6
- No-ops6
- I love that they make it free to launch a side project4
- Free4
- Great UI3
- Just works3
- PostgreSQL forking and following2
- MySQL extension2
- Security1
- Able to host stuff good like Discord Bot1
- Sec0
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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
Cons of Heroku
- Super expensive27
- Not a whole lot of flexibility9
- No usable MySQL option7
- Storage7
- Low performance on free tier5
- 24/7 support is $1,000 per month2
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