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Amazon LightSail vs Firebase: What are the differences?
Key Differences between Amazon LightSail and Firebase
1. Scalability and Infrastructure Management: Amazon LightSail provides a scalable and fully managed virtual private server (VPS), offering complete control over the infrastructure. On the other hand, Firebase is a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that abstracts the infrastructure management, allowing developers to focus solely on building the app and not worrying about scalability or server management.
2. Database Options: Amazon LightSail supports a wide range of database options, including Amazon RDS, Amazon Aurora, and Amazon DynamoDB. With Firebase, the primary database option is Firebase Realtime Database, a NoSQL cloud-hosted database that simplifies data storage and synchronization in real-time.
3. Pricing Model: Amazon LightSail follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where users are billed for the resources consumed. Firebase, on the other hand, adopts a usage-based pricing model with a free tier, allowing developers to get started without incurring any costs. However, as the app scales, Firebase can become more expensive compared to LightSail.
4. Authentication and User Management: Firebase provides an out-of-the-box authentication and user management system, supporting various authentication providers like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. It offers features like email/password authentication, social login, and custom authentication. Amazon LightSail does not provide built-in authentication features, requiring developers to implement authentication from scratch or rely on third-party services.
5. Functionality and Ecosystem: Firebase boasts a rich ecosystem with a wide range of features, including real-time database, authentication, hosting, analytics, cloud messaging, and more. It also offers convenient integration with other Google Cloud services. While Amazon LightSail provides a reliable VPS solution, it lacks the breadth of features and services offered by Firebase.
6. Language and Platform Support: Firebase supports multiple platforms and programming languages, including iOS, Android, web, and Unity. It provides SDKs for popular languages like JavaScript, Java, Swift, and Objective-C. On the other hand, Amazon LightSail has broader language support, allowing developers to choose their preferred language, including PHP, Python, Ruby, .NET, and more.
In Summary, Amazon LightSail offers a scalable VPS solution with extensive database options, while Firebase provides a BaaS platform with a wide range of features and services. Both differ in terms of infrastructure management, pricing models, authentication, functionality, and language support.
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.
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.
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
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
Pros of Amazon LightSail
- Low cost4
- Simple Deployment4
- Simple pricing scheme1
Pros of Firebase
- Realtime backend made easy371
- Fast and responsive270
- Easy setup242
- Real-time215
- JSON191
- Free134
- Backed by google128
- Angular adaptor83
- Reliable68
- Great customer support36
- Great documentation32
- Real-time synchronization25
- Mobile friendly21
- Rapid prototyping19
- Great security14
- Automatic scaling12
- Freakingly awesome11
- Super fast development8
- Angularfire is an amazing addition!8
- Chat8
- Firebase hosting6
- Built in user auth/oauth6
- Awesome next-gen backend6
- Ios adaptor6
- Speed of light4
- Very easy to use4
- Great3
- It's made development super fast3
- Brilliant for startups3
- Free hosting2
- Cloud functions2
- JS Offline and Sync suport2
- Low battery consumption2
- .net2
- The concurrent updates create a great experience2
- Push notification2
- I can quickly create static web apps with no backend2
- Great all-round functionality2
- Free authentication solution2
- Easy Reactjs integration1
- Google's support1
- Free SSL1
- CDN & cache out of the box1
- Easy to use1
- Large1
- Faster workflow1
- Serverless1
- Good Free Limits1
- Simple and easy1
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Cons of Amazon LightSail
Cons of Firebase
- Can become expensive31
- No open source, you depend on external company16
- Scalability is not infinite15
- Not Flexible Enough9
- Cant filter queries7
- Very unstable server3
- No Relational Data3
- Too many errors2
- No offline sync2
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