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The detail that amazed me is the lack of visibility of the issue in reporting tools - it's all very well changing the terms, but not giving your customer any ab

The detail that amazed me is the lack of visibility of the issue in reporting tools - it's all very well changing the terms, but not giving your customer any ability to see what is increasing the bill seems massively unfair.

wowtip 9y ago
"It costs this much because we say so"
Hedja 9y ago
Exactly the reason why I decided not to pay for Firebase and instead went with gradually rolling my own solutions. Their Realtime Database is extremely convenient and pretty useful for web apps, but there's no way to limit the connections and track bandwidth usage in real time. It's basically an open door for anyone with only your Security Rules to block data access. There's no logs to even see if your rules are working as expected, nor where your connections are coming from. They didn't even have that simple blue line showing basic usage in OP's post until recently. The profiling tool mentioned in the OP is also recent and doesn't give a proper picture. It's just really pathetic. They sell themselves as a service company for startups, but one of the biggest things startups need to do is manage their costs, which Firebase doesn't provide in any form. And now since Google bought them, their support will be near non-existent as with all Google products. Having said all that, their Free tier is great for live prototypes and doesn't require adding payment information. Just make sure you're not tying yourself in if you want to progress. Make thin wrappers around their libraries and export your data regularly if it's not throwaway.
- kefka 9y ago
  "Welll, we have this there chalkboard that we write what we think your price is. And some intern draws lines on a graph to match what we think it is. Oh, proof? Nahh, we dont do that. Oh, logs? Nope, you'll just have to trust us..."
tlarkworthy 9y ago
The database usage tab in the web console tells you how much bandwidth you have consumed including SSL. Author's issue was with the commandline profiler. (A Firebase dev)
- camus2 9y ago
  No the issue is you forcing him to move to the "pay as you go" plan or shutting down his app.

wowtip 9y ago

"It costs this much because we say so"

Hedja 9y ago

Exactly the reason why I decided not to pay for Firebase and instead went with gradually rolling my own solutions. Their Realtime Database is extremely convenient and pretty useful for web apps, but there's no way to limit the connections and track bandwidth usage in real time. It's basically an open door for anyone with only your Security Rules to block data access. There's no logs to even see if your rules are working as expected, nor where your connections are coming from. They didn't even have that simple blue line showing basic usage in OP's post until recently. The profiling tool mentioned in the OP is also recent and doesn't give a proper picture. It's just really pathetic. They sell themselves as a service company for startups, but one of the biggest things startups need to do is manage their costs, which Firebase doesn't provide in any form. And now since Google bought them, their support will be near non-existent as with all Google products. Having said all that, their Free tier is great for live prototypes and doesn't require adding payment information. Just make sure you're not tying yourself in if you want to progress. Make thin wrappers around their libraries and export your data regularly if it's not throwaway.

kefka 9y ago
"Welll, we have this there chalkboard that we write what we think your price is. And some intern draws lines on a graph to match what we think it is. Oh, proof? Nahh, we dont do that. Oh, logs? Nope, you'll just have to trust us..."

tlarkworthy 9y ago

The database usage tab in the web console tells you how much bandwidth you have consumed including SSL. Author's issue was with the commandline profiler. (A Firebase dev)

camus2 9y ago
No the issue is you forcing him to move to the "pay as you go" plan or shutting down his app.