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Firebase

Stacks28.3K

Followers23.9K

+ 1

Votes1.9K

SignalR

Stacks412

Followers992

+ 1

Votes108

Socket.IO

Stacks9.1K

Followers7.6K

+ 1

Votes777

Advice on Firebase, SignalR, and Socket.IO

Noam Shemesh

Jul 16, 2020 | 9 upvotes · 639.5K views

Needs advice

Socket.IO

Firebase

and

Apollo

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.

Replies (3)

Timothy Malstead

Junior Full Stack Developer at Freelance · Jul 17, 2020 | 7 upvotes · 257.5K views

Recommends

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.

Ramiro Nuñez Dosio

Nov 30, 2020 | 3 upvotes · 143.6K views

Recommends

Ably

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

Ilya Lazarev

PM · Jul 26, 2020 | 2 upvotes · 251.3K views

Recommends

8base

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

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Pros of Firebase

Pros of SignalR

Pros of Socket.IO

361
Realtime backend made easy
264
Fast and responsive
234
Easy setup
207
Real-time
186
JSON
128
Free
121
Backed by google
81
Angular adaptor
63
Reliable
36
Great customer support
26
Great documentation
23
Real-time synchronization
20
Mobile friendly
17
Rapid prototyping
12
Great security
11
Automatic scaling
10
Freakingly awesome
8
Chat
8
Angularfire is an amazing addition!
8
Super fast development
6
Awesome next-gen backend
6
Ios adaptor
5
Built in user auth/oauth
5
Firebase hosting
4
Speed of light
4
Very easy to use
3
It's made development super fast
3
Great
3
Brilliant for startups
2
Great all-round functionality
2
Low battery consumption
2
I can quickly create static web apps with no backend
2
The concurrent updates create a great experience
2
JS Offline and Sync suport
1
Faster workflow
1
Large
1
Serverless
1
.net
1
Free SSL
1
Good Free Limits
1
Push notification
1
Easy to use
1
Easy Reactjs integration

25
Supports .NET server
17
Real-time
13
Free
13
Fallback to SSE, forever frame, long polling
12
WebSockets
7
Simple
7
JSON
6
Open source
4
Ease of use
4
Cool

214
Real-time
143
Event-based communication
142
Node.js
102
Open source
102
WebSockets
26
Binary streaming
22
No internet dependency
9
Fallback to polling if WebSockets not supported
8
Large community
5
Ease of access and setup
4
Push notification

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Cons of Firebase

Cons of SignalR

Cons of Socket.IO

29
Can become expensive
15
No open source, you depend on external company
15
Scalability is not infinite
9
Not Flexible Enough
5
Cant filter queries
3
Very unstable server
2
Too many errors
2
No Relational Data
1
No offline sync

2
Requires jQuery
2
Expertise hard to get
1
Weak iOS and Android support
1
Big differences between ASP.NET and Core versions

11
Bad documentation
4
Githubs that complement it are mostly deprecated
3
Doesn't work on React Native
2
Websocket Errors
2
Small community

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

- No public GitHub repository available -

What is Firebase?

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.

What is 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.

What is Socket.IO?

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

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What are some alternatives to Firebase, SignalR, and Socket.IO?

MongoDB

MongoDB stores data in JSON-like documents that can vary in structure, offering a dynamic, flexible schema. MongoDB was also designed for high availability and scalability, with built-in replication and auto-sharding.

Parse

With Parse, you can add a scalable and powerful backend in minutes and launch a full-featured app in record time without ever worrying about server management. We offer push notifications, social integration, data storage, and the ability to add rich custom logic to your app’s backend with Cloud Code.

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.

Auth0

A set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enables Single Sign On and user management to all your applications.

Realm

The Realm Mobile Platform is a next-generation data layer for applications. Realm is reactive, concurrent, and lightweight, allowing you to work with live, native objects.

See all alternatives

Firebase vs SignalR vs Socket.IO

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Pros of SignalR

Pros of Socket.IO

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What is Firebase?

What is SignalR?

What is Socket.IO?

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What companies use Firebase?

What companies use SignalR?

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What tools integrate with Firebase?

What tools integrate with SignalR?

What tools integrate with Socket.IO?

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