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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Platform as a Service
  4. Realtime Backend API
  5. Azure Notification Hubs vs Firebase

Azure Notification Hubs vs Firebase

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Firebase
Firebase
Stacks42.5K
Followers36.0K
Votes2.0K
Azure Notification Hubs
Azure Notification Hubs
Stacks21
Followers156
Votes0

Azure Notification Hubs vs Firebase: What are the differences?

  1. Scalability: Azure Notification Hubs provides the capability to scale up to millions of devices, ensuring that messages can be reliably delivered to a large number of users. Firebase, on the other hand, is optimized for smaller scale applications.
  2. Platform Support: Azure Notification Hubs supports a wide range of platforms including iOS, Android, Windows, and web, allowing developers to reach users across different devices. Firebase, on the other hand, primarily focuses on mobile platforms such as iOS and Android.
  3. Integration: Azure Notification Hubs seamlessly integrates with other Azure services, allowing developers to easily combine it with various cloud services for additional functionality. Firebase, on the other hand, provides a suite of services that are tightly integrated, making it easy to use multiple Firebase services together.
  4. Customization: Azure Notification Hubs offers extensive customization options, allowing developers to tailor notifications based on user preferences and behavior. Firebase, on the other hand, provides a more streamlined approach with predefined templates and notification types.
  5. Backward Compatibility: Azure Notification Hubs provides support for legacy push protocols, ensuring that applications using older versions of push notification services can still function. Firebase, on the other hand, focuses on the latest push notification technologies and may not have support for older protocols.
  6. Data Sync: Firebase offers a real-time database that syncs data across clients in real-time, making it easy to build real-time applications. Azure Notification Hubs, on the other hand, primarily focuses on delivering notifications and does not provide real-time data sync capabilities.

In Summary, Azure Notification Hubs offers scalability, platform support, integration with other Azure services, customization options, backward compatibility, and does not provide real-time data sync capabilities, whereas Firebase focuses on smaller scale applications, primarily supports mobile platforms, is tightly integrated with other Firebase services, offers predefined templates and notification types, focuses on the latest push notification technologies, provides real-time data sync capabilities, and may not have support for older protocols.

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Advice on Firebase, Azure Notification Hubs

Jared
Jared

Contractor at Insight Global

Aug 9, 2019

ReviewonFirebaseFirebase

I started using Firebase over 5 years ago because of the 'real-time' nature. I originally used to use Real Time Database, but now I use Cloud Firestore. I recommend using the Google Firebase PaaS to quickly develop or prototype small to enterprise level web/mobile applications. Since Google purchased Firebase, it has exploded and it growing rapidly. I also find some level of comfort that it is Backed by Google.

272k views272k
Comments
Noam
Noam

Jul 16, 2020

Needs adviceonNode.jsNode.jsExpressJSExpressJSReactReact

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.

1.15M views1.15M
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Firebase
Firebase
Azure Notification Hubs
Azure Notification Hubs

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.

Tutorials, API references, and other documentation show you how to set up and send push notifications from any backend to any mobile device

Add the Firebase library to your app and get access to a shared data structure. Any changes made to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.;Firebase apps can be written entirely with client-side code, update in real-time out-of-the-box, interoperate well with existing services, scale automatically, and provide strong data security.;Data Accessibility- Data is stored as JSON in Firebase. Every piece of data has its own URL which can be used in Firebase's client libraries and as a REST endpoint. These URLs can also be entered into a browser to view the data and watch it update in real-time.;Real-time Synchronization- Firebase takes a new approach to the way data is moved around an app. Rather than using a traditional request & response model, it works by synchronizing data between devices. Whenever your data changes, all clients are immediately notified within milliseconds. The synchronized data is also persisted, allowing new clients to be immediately updated.;First-class Data Security- Traditional applications intermix security code with application code, whereas Firebase treats security as a first-class feature. You define your security policies in one place using a flexible rules language, and Firebase ensures that they are consistently enforced across all parts of your application. Having all your security logic in one place allows for easy auditing and helps you avoid security mistakes. The safety and security of your data is our top priority.;Automatic Scaling- The Firebase API is built from the ground up for performance and scale. Whenever your data changes, Firebase calculates the minimum set of updates required to keep all your clients in sync. In addition, all Firebase API functions are designed to scale linearly with the size of the data being synchronized. More importantly, Firebase handles all of the scaling and operations for you. Your app will scale from its first user to its first million without any code changes.;Servers are Optional- Firebase can provide all of the data storage, control, and transmission needs of most apps. In many cases, Firebase can completely replace your server and server-side code. This means you no longer need to build complicated backend software and can instead focus on your application logic and your customers.
Reach all major platforms—iOS, Android, Windows, Kindle, Baidu; Use any back end, in the cloud or on-premises; Fast broadcast push to millions of mobile devices with single API call; Tailor push notifications by customer, language, and location; Dynamically define and notify customer segments; Scale instantly to millions of mobile devices; Get started
Statistics
Stacks
42.5K
Stacks
21
Followers
36.0K
Followers
156
Votes
2.0K
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 371
    Realtime backend made easy
  • 270
    Fast and responsive
  • 242
    Easy setup
  • 215
    Real-time
  • 191
    JSON
Cons
  • 31
    Can become expensive
  • 16
    No open source, you depend on external company
  • 15
    Scalability is not infinite
  • 9
    Not Flexible Enough
  • 7
    Cant filter queries
No community feedback yet
Integrations
Trigger.io
Trigger.io
Famo.us
Famo.us
Backbone.js
Backbone.js
Ember.js
Ember.js
AngularJS
AngularJS
React
React
.NET
.NET
PHP
PHP
Windows
Windows
Node.js
Node.js
Java
Java
iOS
iOS
Android OS
Android OS

What are some alternatives to Firebase, Azure Notification Hubs?

Socket.IO

Socket.IO

It enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.

PubNub

PubNub

PubNub makes it easy for you to add real-time capabilities to your apps, without worrying about the infrastructure. Build apps that allow your users to engage in real-time across mobile, browser, desktop and server.

Pusher

Pusher

Pusher is the category leader in delightful APIs for app developers building communication and collaboration features.

SignalR

SignalR

SignalR allows bi-directional communication between server and client. Servers can now push content to connected clients instantly as it becomes available. SignalR supports Web Sockets, and falls back to other compatible techniques for older browsers. SignalR includes APIs for connection management (for instance, connect and disconnect events), grouping connections, and authorization.

OneSignal

OneSignal

OneSignal is a high volume push notification service for websites and mobile applications. OneSignal supports all major native and mobile platforms by providing dedicated SDKs for each platform, a RESTful server API, and a dashboard.

Ably

Ably

Ably offers WebSockets, stream resume, history, presence, and managed third-party integrations to make it simple to build, extend, and deliver digital realtime experiences at scale.

Syncano

Syncano

Syncano is a backend platform to build powerful real-time apps more efficiently. Integrate with any API, minimize boilerplate code and control your data - all from one place.

NATS

NATS

Unlike traditional enterprise messaging systems, NATS has an always-on dial tone that does whatever it takes to remain available. This forms a great base for building modern, reliable, and scalable cloud and distributed systems.

SocketCluster

SocketCluster

SocketCluster is a fast, highly scalable HTTP + realtime server engine which lets you build multi-process realtime servers that make use of all CPU cores on a machine/instance. It removes the limitations of having to run your Node.js server as a single thread and makes your backend resilient by automatically recovering from worker crashes and aggregating errors into a central log.

deepstream.io

deepstream.io

Scalable Server for Realtime Web Apps with JSON structures that can be read, manipulated and listened to, messages that can be sent to one or more subscribers, and request response workflows, between two clients or servers.

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