Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Firebase Authentication VS Cloud Firestore

Compare Firebase Authentication VS Cloud Firestore and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Firebase Authentication logo Firebase Authentication

Application and Data, Application Utilities, and User Management and Authentication

Cloud Firestore logo Cloud Firestore

Use our flexible, scalable NoSQL cloud database to store and sync data for client- and server-side development.
  • Firebase Authentication Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-19
  • Cloud Firestore Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-07

Firebase Authentication features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Firebase Authentication provides a seamless and user-friendly way to integrate authentication into your application with minimal coding.
  • Multiple Providers
    Supports various authentication methods including email/password, phone, Google, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, and more.
  • Security
    Firebase Authentication employs industry-standard practices and measures to secure user data, including automatic protection against common vulnerabilities.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Compatible with both mobile and web platforms, making it versatile for different types of applications.
  • Scalability
    Built on Google's infrastructure, ensuring robust performance and ability to scale as your user base grows.
  • Integration with Firebase Services
    Easily integrates with other Firebase services like Firestore, Realtime Database, and Firebase Analytics for a more comprehensive development experience.
  • Customizable UI
    Provides templates and options to customize the authentication UI to match your application's look and feel.
  • Cost-Effective
    Offers a free tier that is suitable for many small to medium-sized applications, with paid options available for larger-scale needs.

Possible disadvantages of Firebase Authentication

  • Vendor Lock-In
    Depending on Firebase Authentication means your project is tightly connected with Google's ecosystem, making it harder to switch to another provider.
  • Limited Customization
    While offering various authentication methods, deep customization options can be somewhat limited compared to building your own authentication system.
  • Region Support
    Some Firebase services, including Authentication, may not be available in all geographical regions, which can impact global applications.
  • Feature Limitations
    Advanced features that are sometimes necessary for enterprise applications may not be available in Firebase Authentication.
  • Regulatory Compliance
    Handling specific regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) may require additional customizations and considerations.
  • Dependency on Internet Connectivity
    As a cloud-based service, it requires a stable internet connection for both development and end-user interaction, which can be a limitation in areas with poor connectivity.
  • Pricing Complexity
    While the free tier is generous, costs can escalate quickly with a growing user base, and understanding the pricing model can be complex.
  • Learning Curve
    Although generally user-friendly, there is still a learning curve involved, particularly for developers new to Firebase or cloud services.

Cloud Firestore features and specs

  • Real-time Updates
    Cloud Firestore offers real-time data synchronization, which ensures that any changes to the database are immediately reflected across all connected clients.
  • Scalability
    Firestore can handle massive amounts of data and traffic, scaling automatically as your app grows without requiring manual intervention.
  • Ease of Use
    Firestore provides a simple and intuitive API, which is easy to use for developers, especially those already familiar with Firebase services.
  • Offline Support
    Cloud Firestore allows your application to remain functional and retain data even when offline, synchronizing changes when the connection is restored.
  • Security
    Firestore uses Firebase Authentication and security rules to protect data, which is crucial for ensuring that your data is safe and that only authorized users can access it.
  • Flexible Data Model
    It allows you to store data in a flexible, hierarchical structure which can adapt to various use cases and data requirements.

Possible disadvantages of Cloud Firestore

  • Pricing Complexity
    Firestore uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model based on operations and data storage, which can become expensive and complex to manage as application usage scales.
  • Query Limitations
    While Firestore supports a range of queries, there are limitations compared to SQL-based databases, such as the lack of JOIN operations and complex queries.
  • Data Hierarchy Constraints
    Though it offers flexibility, the JSON-like data structure may require a rethink of data architecture, especially for complex relational data models.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Using Cloud Firestore ties your application to Google's ecosystem, which can make it challenging to migrate to another platform or database in the future.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers new to NoSQL or real-time databases might encounter a learning curve, as Firestore’s data modeling and querying concepts differ from traditional relational databases.

Firebase Authentication videos

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Cloud Firestore videos

What is a NoSQL Database? How is Cloud Firestore structured? | Get to know Cloud Firestore #1

More videos:

  • Review - Cloud Firestore Data Modeling (Google I/O'19)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore)
Identity Provider
92 92%
8% 8
NoSQL Databases
0 0%
100% 100
Identity And Access Management
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore

Firebase Authentication Reviews

Textverified Alternatives – Nonvoipusapp.com & 6 more
Firebase Authentication, a part of Google’s Firebase platform, provides a comprehensive suite of authentication services, including phone number verification. It allows developers to add seamless authentication and verification processes to their applications, enhancing both security and user experience. Firebase’s integration with other Google services can be advantageous...

Cloud Firestore Reviews

We have no reviews of Cloud Firestore yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Firebase Authentication might be a bit more popular than Cloud Firestore. We know about 50 links to it since March 2021 and only 46 links to Cloud Firestore. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Firebase Authentication mentions (50)

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Cloud Firestore mentions (46)

  • How to write clean, typed Firestore code
    Ever since I started using Firestore more than 7 years ago, I have been wanting to find a better way to type my code and reduce boilerplate. In this article I will describe my journey, and how I finally found a way to write clean, strongly-typed code with abstractions that are easy to use and adopt in any Typescript project. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Unlocking the Power of JSON Patch
    Weird, you work at Mozilla and haven't heard of JSON in DBs. A few resources to get you started: https://www.mongodb.com/ https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype-json.html https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Are Sync Engines The Future of Web Applications?
    If you've been following trends in the web-dev world, you'd know that sync engines have been a centrepiece in several of them, namely: progressive web apps, offline-first apps, and the lately trending term: local-first software. You might have even looked into some of the databases that offer a built-in sync engine such as PouchDb or online services that do the same (e.g., Firestore). I have too, but my general... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • 5 Best Instant Messaging APIs
    Firebase is an app development platform backed by Google that famously replaces the need for a backend. It accomplishes this by providing developers with a variety of services, including authentication, push notifications, and a database called Cloud Firestore that can be adapted to store and broadcast chat messages in realtime. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • How do you handle different user roles?
    Within the Firebase system, I use Firestore. To minimize queries of multiple collections ( keep server costs down ) I keep users in one collection. Within each user object I have a "roles" property that is a sub-object referencing the different roles available:. Source: over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore, you can also consider the following products

Auth0 - Auth0 is a program for people to get authentication and authorization services for their own business use.

Firebase - Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications for mobile and web.

Spring Security - The Spring portfolio has many projects, including Spring Framework, Spring IO Platform, Spring Cloud, Spring Boot, Spring Data, Spring Security...

Redis - Redis is an open source in-memory data structure project implementing a distributed, in-memory key-value database with optional durability.

OAuth2 - Application and Data, Application Utilities, and User Management and Authentication

Cloud Functions for Firebase - Serverless / Task Processing