Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Firebase Cloud Messaging VS Apache Kafka

Compare Firebase Cloud Messaging VS Apache Kafka and see what are their differences

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Firebase Cloud Messaging logo Firebase Cloud Messaging

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is a cross-platform messaging solution that lets you reliably send messages at no cost.

Apache Kafka logo Apache Kafka

Apache Kafka is an open-source message broker project developed by the Apache Software Foundation written in Scala.
  • Firebase Cloud Messaging Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27
  • Apache Kafka Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-01

Firebase Cloud Messaging features and specs

  • Scalability
    Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is designed to handle a large number of messages efficiently, making it suitable for apps with a substantial global user base.
  • Cross-platform Support
    FCM supports multiple platforms including Android, iOS, and web, allowing for a unified messaging solution across different devices.
  • Free Tier
    Firebase provides a generous free tier for Cloud Messaging, which can be especially beneficial for startups and small projects.
  • Real-time Messaging
    FCM allows for real-time and instant messaging, improving user engagement and experience by delivering timely notifications.
  • Integration with Firebase Services
    Seamlessly integrates with other Firebase services like Analytics, Crashlytics, and Remote Config, which can enhance app functionality and insights.

Possible disadvantages of Firebase Cloud Messaging

  • Data Privacy Concerns
    Depending on the region and application, using a cloud-based service might raise concerns regarding data privacy and compliance with local regulations.
  • Complexity in Advanced Use Cases
    While straightforward for basic implementation, FCM can become complex when dealing with advanced features or customization requirements.
  • Delivery Delays
    There might be occasional delays in message delivery due to network issues or server overloads which can impact user experience.
  • Dependence on Google Infrastructure
    Reliance on Google's infrastructure means that any disruptions or changes by Google can affect app functionality.
  • Limited Offline Support
    FCM requires an active internet connection for message delivery, which can limit functionality in offline scenarios.

Apache Kafka features and specs

  • High Throughput
    Kafka is capable of handling thousands of messages per second due to its distributed architecture, making it suitable for applications that require high throughput.
  • Scalability
    Kafka can easily scale horizontally by adding more brokers to a cluster, making it highly scalable to serve increased loads.
  • Fault Tolerance
    Kafka has built-in replication, ensuring that data is replicated across multiple brokers, providing fault tolerance and high availability.
  • Durability
    Kafka ensures data durability by writing data to disk, which can be replicated to other nodes, ensuring data is not lost even if a broker fails.
  • Real-time Processing
    Kafka supports real-time data streaming, enabling applications to process and react to data as it arrives.
  • Decoupling of Systems
    Kafka acts as a buffer and decouples the production and consumption of messages, allowing independent scaling and management of producers and consumers.
  • Wide Ecosystem
    The Kafka ecosystem includes various tools and connectors such as Kafka Streams, Kafka Connect, and KSQL, which enrich the functionality of Kafka.
  • Strong Community Support
    Kafka has strong community support and extensive documentation, making it easier for developers to find help and resources.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Kafka

  • Complex Setup and Management
    Kafka's distributed nature can make initial setup and ongoing management complex, requiring expert knowledge and significant administrative effort.
  • Operational Overhead
    Running Kafka clusters involves additional operational overhead, including hardware provisioning, monitoring, tuning, and scaling.
  • Latency Sensitivity
    Despite its high throughput, Kafka may experience increased latency in certain scenarios, especially when configured for high durability and consistency.
  • Learning Curve
    The concepts and architecture of Kafka can be difficult for new users to grasp, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Hardware Intensive
    Kafka's performance characteristics often require dedicated and powerful hardware, which can be costly to procure and maintain.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing Kafka's dependencies and ensuring compatibility between versions of Kafka, Zookeeper, and other ecosystem tools can be challenging.
  • Limited Support for Small Messages
    Kafka is optimized for large throughput and can be inefficient for applications that require handling a lot of small messages, where overhead can become significant.
  • Operational Complexity for Small Teams
    Smaller teams might find the operational complexity and maintenance burden of Kafka difficult to manage without a dedicated operations or DevOps team.

Firebase Cloud Messaging videos

Google Cloud Messaging

More videos:

  • Review - Android Push Notifications + Firebase Cloud Messaging
  • Review - Google Firebase Cloud Messaging Step By Step Guide
  • Review - Google Cloud Messaging performance factors - Google I/O 2016
  • Review - Sending Notifications on iOS through Google Cloud Messaging (Route 85)
  • Review - PUSH NOTIFICATIONS Android 🔥 FIREBASE Cloud Messaging

Apache Kafka videos

Apache Kafka Tutorial | What is Apache Kafka? | Kafka Tutorial for Beginners | Edureka

More videos:

  • Review - Apache Kafka - Getting Started - Kafka Multi-node Cluster - Review Properties
  • Review - 4. Apache Kafka Fundamentals | Confluent Fundamentals for Apache Kafka®
  • Review - Apache Kafka in 6 minutes
  • Review - Apache Kafka Explained (Comprehensive Overview)
  • Review - 2. Motivations and Customer Use Cases | Apache Kafka Fundamentals

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apache Kafka)
Web Push Notifications
100 100%
0% 0
Stream Processing
0 0%
100% 100
Push Notifications
100 100%
0% 0
Data Integration
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 Cloud Messaging and Apache Kafka

Firebase Cloud Messaging Reviews

35 Best Free Push Notification Services and Tools (+ Open Source Push Notification Services to Consider)
FCM is part of Firebase cloud services from Google. The free service from Google helps to send notifications across various platforms. A simple to use console and APIs provide many capabilities to developers and marketers, such as message targeting, customized messages, A/B testing, etc. FCM can also be used without writing any code.

Apache Kafka Reviews

Best ETL Tools: A Curated List
Debezium is an open-source Change Data Capture (CDC) tool that originated from RedHat. It leverages Apache Kafka and Kafka Connect to enable real-time data replication from databases. Debezium was partly inspired by Martin Kleppmann’s "Turning the Database Inside Out" concept, which emphasized the power of the CDC for modern data pipelines.
Source: estuary.dev
Best message queue for cloud-native apps
If you take the time to sort out the history of message queues, you will find a very interesting phenomenon. Most of the currently popular message queues were born around 2010. For example, Apache Kafka was born at LinkedIn in 2010, Derek Collison developed Nats in 2010, and Apache Pulsar was born at Yahoo in 2012. What is the reason for this?
Source: docs.vanus.ai
Are Free, Open-Source Message Queues Right For You?
Apache Kafka is a highly scalable and robust messaging queue system designed by LinkedIn and donated to the Apache Software Foundation. It's ideal for real-time data streaming and processing, providing high throughput for publishing and subscribing to records or messages. Kafka is typically used in scenarios that require real-time analytics and monitoring, IoT applications,...
Source: blog.iron.io
10 Best Open Source ETL Tools for Data Integration
It is difficult to anticipate the exact demand for open-source tools in 2023 because it depends on various factors and emerging trends. However, open-source solutions such as Kubernetes for container orchestration, TensorFlow for machine learning, Apache Kafka for real-time data streaming, and Prometheus for monitoring and observability are expected to grow in prominence in...
Source: testsigma.com
11 Best FREE Open-Source ETL Tools in 2024
Apache Kafka is an Open-Source Data Streaming Tool written in Scala and Java. It publishes and subscribes to a stream of records in a fault-tolerant manner and provides a unified, high-throughput, and low-latency platform to manage data.
Source: hevodata.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Kafka should be more popular than Firebase Cloud Messaging. It has been mentiond 143 times since March 2021. 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 Cloud Messaging mentions (39)

  • Receiving Push Notifications from Firebase in Android MAUI
    To power this feature, we are utilizing Firebase as the backend service for sending out messages. Firebase Cloud Messaging service provides a reliable and scalable solution for managing and delivering push notifications. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • How to Build Progressive Web Apps in 2024? A Step-byStep Guide
    Push Notifications allow PWAs to send real-time updates and messages to users, similar to native apps. React itself doesn't handle push notifications directly, but you can integrate third-party libraries like Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) to enable this functionality. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • How to Send Firebase Push Notifications to Android
    Each mobile operating system provides its own solution for native application push notifications, so they can be tricky to integrate into your app. In Android, the mechanism native applications use for push notifications is Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) notifications. PubNub has taken FCM one step further and integrated the use of Firebase Cloud Messaging notifications into the PubNub Real-time Communications... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Custom vs. off-the-shelf React web notification systems: Which is better?
    Firebase Cloud Messaging, or FCM, is a service by Google that allows you to send notifications to Android and iOS devices. It is widely used and known for its reliability and scalability. It's also free up to a specific limit, making it an attractive option for startups and small businesses. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Looking to build a web tool inside a wordpress website from which push notifications can be sent
    I don’t see why not. I don’t have much experience with firebase myself I’ve always just contacted APNS etc directly via NodeJS. Maybe these docs will help you. Source: almost 2 years ago
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Apache Kafka mentions (143)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apache Kafka, you can also consider the following products

OneSignal - Customer engagement platform used by over 1 million developers and marketers; the fastest and most reliable way to send mobile and web push notifications, in-app messages, emails, and SMS.

RabbitMQ - RabbitMQ is an open source message broker software.

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

Apache ActiveMQ - Apache ActiveMQ is an open source messaging and integration patterns server.

Pusher - Pusher is a hosted API for quickly, easily and securely adding scalable realtime functionality via WebSockets to web and mobile apps.

StatCounter - StatCounter is a simple but powerful real-time web analytics service that helps you track, analyse and understand your visitors so you can make good decisions to become more successful online.