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

Firebase vs OpenShift

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Firebase
Firebase
Stacks42.5K
Followers36.0K
Votes2.0K
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Stacks1.6K
Followers1.4K
Votes517
GitHub Stars885
Forks510

Firebase vs OpenShift: What are the differences?

Introduction

Firebase and OpenShift are both popular platforms used for deploying and managing applications, but they have key differences that set them apart. In this comparison, we will highlight six key differences between Firebase and OpenShift to help you decide which platform best fits your needs.

  1. Hosting and Backend Services: Firebase is a fully managed platform that provides hosting, authentication, databases, cloud functions, and other backend services, all under one roof. On the other hand, OpenShift is a container application platform that allows users to deploy and manage applications on their own servers or on public cloud infrastructure. OpenShift offers more control over the backend services compared to the all-in-one solution provided by Firebase.

  2. Scalability and Performance: Firebase is designed for easy scalability with automatic load balancing, whereas OpenShift requires manual configuration for scaling applications. Firebase's global CDN helps in delivering content faster, resulting in better performance for distributed users. OpenShift offers more customization options for performance tuning but requires more effort to set up and maintain.

  3. Cost and Pricing Model: Firebase follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model based on usage, with a generous free tier for small projects. OpenShift, on the other hand, is open-source software that can be self-hosted for free, but costs may vary depending on the chosen infrastructure provider. Users need to consider their budget and scalability requirements when choosing between the two platforms.

  4. Backend Flexibility: Firebase offers a set of predefined backend services that are easy to integrate, making it suitable for rapid prototyping and small to medium-sized projects. OpenShift provides more flexibility in terms of backend customization, making it a better choice for complex enterprise applications that require specific configurations and integrations with existing systems.

  5. Community and Support: Firebase has a large community of developers and detailed documentation, which makes it easy to find help and resources online. OpenShift also has a strong community backing, with active forums and support channels, but may require more technical expertise to navigate due to its container-focused architecture. Choosing a platform with robust community support can be crucial for troubleshooting and continuous learning.

  6. Compliance and Security: Firebase ensures compliance with industry standards and offers built-in security features such as authentication and data encryption. OpenShift provides tools for managing security policies and access controls within containerized environments, allowing users to implement their own security protocols based on specific requirements. Understanding the compliance and security needs of your application is essential when choosing between Firebase and OpenShift.

In Summary, Firebase excels in providing an all-in-one solution for hosting and backend services with easy scalability, while OpenShift offers more control over backend customization and performance tuning, making it suitable for complex enterprise applications. Consider factors such as cost, scalability, flexibility, community support, and security when choosing between the two platforms.

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Advice on Firebase, Red Hat OpenShift

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
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift

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.

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.

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.
Built-in support for Node.js, Ruby, Python, PHP, Perl, and Java (the standard in today's Enterprise);OpenShift is extensible with a customizable cartridge functionality that allows developers to add any other language they wish. We've seen everything from Clojure to Cobol running on OpenShift;OpenShift supports frameworks ranging from Spring, to Rails, to Play;Autoscaling- OpenShift can scale your application by adding additional instances of your application and enabling clustering. Alternatively, you can manually scale the amount of resources with which your application is deployed when needed;OpenShift by Red Hat is built on open-source technologies (Red Hat Enterprise Linux- RHEL);One Click Deployment- Deploying to the OpenShift platform is as easy a clicking a button or entering a "Git push" command
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
885
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
510
Stacks
42.5K
Stacks
1.6K
Followers
36.0K
Followers
1.4K
Votes
2.0K
Votes
517
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
  • 99
    Good free plan
  • 63
    Open Source
  • 47
    Easy setup
  • 43
    Nodejs support
  • 42
    Well documented
Cons
  • 2
    Decisions are made for you, limiting your options
  • 2
    License cost
  • 1
    Behind, sometimes severely, the upstreams
Integrations
Trigger.io
Trigger.io
Famo.us
Famo.us
Backbone.js
Backbone.js
Ember.js
Ember.js
AngularJS
AngularJS
React
React
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Firebase, Red Hat OpenShift?

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.

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.

Hasura

Hasura

An open source GraphQL engine that deploys instant, realtime GraphQL APIs on any Postgres database.

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