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Apologies for the question but what benefits do I get if I build on firebase? From the people I talked to it seems that the main audience for firebase is mobil

by dvcrn 10y ago

Apologies for the question but what benefits do I get if I build on firebase? From the people I talked to it seems that the main audience for firebase is mobile engineers that either don't have the skillset or the time to learn how to build a backend system. Most people I talked to also told me they wouldn't use firebase if they could build a backend.

hiou 10y ago
With firebase you can just write a front-end single page app and never think about servers or anything like that. It takes seconds to start using and very little knowledge about how it works.
intrasight 10y ago
Firebase is also useful for "rich prototyping". I work with a skilled front-end developer who can also work with Firebase. The result is that a functional app can be created quickly. Then it's up to the client to decide if they wish to replace Firebase or live with its limitations.
soundoflight 10y ago
Firebase gives you a real-time database with no initial setup. The only really big competitor I know of it is RethinkDB. Having "three-way" databinding in a SPA is pretty cool and wouldn't be something that would be trivial to setup without either of these two databases. I could see Firebase being a great go to for a certain size of project in the small to medium size that would rather pay for this feature set that using AWS, Azure, Rackspace, etc.
mazlix 10y ago
In addition to the other comments, by only needing to write frontend code you can also host your website much cheaper and scalably (via something like amazon S3 & CDN). You'd pay more like several pennies for 100's of users (ignoring any scaling costs w/ Firebase) rather than a min of ~$10/mo.
- WalterSear 10y ago
  Fwiw, Firebase also provides static file hosting. I've added an issue to document the process for uploading to firebase after building a production version.
WalterSear 10y ago
Another benefit that others haven't mentioned, is that if active server behaviours are needed, you can attach a 'server' like a client. In some circumstances, interacting with users via the database as a messaging system can protect them from issues with your server code, and server outages: if your server goes down, users will still be able to log in and interact with the database via client side code - they'll only lose access to server related functions.

by dvcrn 10y ago

hiou 10y ago

With firebase you can just write a front-end single page app and never think about servers or anything like that. It takes seconds to start using and very little knowledge about how it works.

intrasight 10y ago

Firebase is also useful for "rich prototyping". I work with a skilled front-end developer who can also work with Firebase. The result is that a functional app can be created quickly. Then it's up to the client to decide if they wish to replace Firebase or live with its limitations.

soundoflight 10y ago

Firebase gives you a real-time database with no initial setup. The only really big competitor I know of it is RethinkDB. Having "three-way" databinding in a SPA is pretty cool and wouldn't be something that would be trivial to setup without either of these two databases. I could see Firebase being a great go to for a certain size of project in the small to medium size that would rather pay for this feature set that using AWS, Azure, Rackspace, etc.

mazlix 10y ago

In addition to the other comments, by only needing to write frontend code you can also host your website much cheaper and scalably (via something like amazon S3 & CDN). You'd pay more like several pennies for 100's of users (ignoring any scaling costs w/ Firebase) rather than a min of ~$10/mo.

WalterSear 10y ago
Fwiw, Firebase also provides static file hosting. I've added an issue to document the process for uploading to firebase after building a production version.

WalterSear 10y ago

Another benefit that others haven't mentioned, is that if active server behaviours are needed, you can attach a 'server' like a client. In some circumstances, interacting with users via the database as a messaging system can protect them from issues with your server code, and server outages: if your server goes down, users will still be able to log in and interact with the database via client side code - they'll only lose access to server related functions.