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AWS Amplify vs Firebase: What are the differences?
Developers describe AWS Amplify as "JavaScript Open Source Library with React, React Native Extensions". A JavaScript library for frontend and mobile developers building cloud-enabled applications. The library is a declarative interface across different categories of operations in order to make common tasks easier to add into your application. The default implementation works with Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources but is designed to be open and pluggable for usage with other cloud services that wish to provide an implementation or custom backends. On the other hand, Firebase is detailed as "The Realtime App Platform". Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.
AWS Amplify belongs to "AWS Tools" category of the tech stack, while Firebase can be primarily classified under "Realtime Backend / API".
AWS Amplify is an open source tool with 5.54K GitHub stars and 906 GitHub forks. Here's a link to AWS Amplify's open source repository on GitHub.
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
Firebase is the most powerful platform that I saw to support an MVP stage of a project that implies a website + mobile applications.
Be careful with what I say there: "to support an MVP". Firebase is awesome for early stages, but it has some huge technical problems.
Let's talk now about the PROS:
- With a few clicks, you have a full platform, with an AWESOME free tier, ready to be used. Serverless support for static files (your website in JS, probably), backend support for realtime DB, or even Google Cloud Functions made simple (Firebase Functions).
- Probably one of the most important things: You can integrate Analytics, and Push Notifications to your Android and iOS app with a few clicks.
- NoSQL DB (this may also be consider as a CONS. Careful here.
- With Firebase Functions, it's super simple to have global vars in memory, to speed up the backend responses
- Awesome support with Expo (awesome technology for mobile MVPs)
- Super simple local testing. Just run
firebase initand thennpm run serveand you'll have your backend running in your local env. - Huge Authorization+Authentication integrated flows: Login with Facebook, Gmail, and all the other options, with just a couple of minutes of configurations and barely few lines of code.
Now, some CONS:
In Firebase Firestore DB (the DB you'll probably use): Compound queries are not allowed. For example, you can NOT do this:
.where("state", ">=", "CA").where("population", ">", 100000). You can't combine different attributes of the object in thewherequery. Read more about that limitation in https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/query-data/queries#compound_queriesIn Firebase Functions: OR querys (like
where user_status = 2 OR user_status = 3in SQL) are not allowed. Yes... This is HUGE. Not be able to do an OR query is a huge blocker in performance. Luckily in the last months Firebase added an "IN" query, where you can do.where('country', 'in', ['USA', 'Japan'])but it's limited to only 10 values in theinarray. Good enough, but still some limitations there. Check more about that limitation in https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/query-data/queries#in_not-in_and_array-contains-any
Feel free to ask any question, and I'll share some details here
Pros of AWS Amplify
- GraphQL4
- Better with Relations and Security3
- Cheaper2
- Flexible Auth options2
- Continuous deployment1
- Backed by Amazon1
Pros of Firebase
- Realtime backend made easy369
- Fast and responsive268
- Easy setup240
- Real-time213
- JSON190
- Free133
- Backed by google126
- Angular adaptor82
- Reliable67
- Great customer support35
- Great documentation31
- Real-time synchronization25
- Mobile friendly21
- Rapid prototyping18
- Great security14
- Automatic scaling12
- Freakingly awesome11
- Chat8
- Super fast development8
- Angularfire is an amazing addition!8
- Built in user auth/oauth6
- Firebase hosting6
- Awesome next-gen backend6
- Ios adaptor6
- Speed of light4
- Very easy to use4
- It's made development super fast3
- Brilliant for startups3
- Great3
- Free hosting2
- Cloud functions2
- JS Offline and Sync suport2
- Low battery consumption2
- .net2
- The concurrent updates create a great experience2
- I can quickly create static web apps with no backend2
- Great all-round functionality2
- Push notification2
- Free authentication solution2
- Simple and easy1
- Free SSL1
- Faster workflow1
- Easy Reactjs integration1
- Easy to use1
- Large1
- Google's support1
- Serverless1
- Good Free Limits1
- CDN & cache out of the box1
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Cons of AWS Amplify
- Free tier is limited2
- Steep Learning Curve1
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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