Firebase Authentication vs JSON Web Token

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Firebase Authentication

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JSON Web Token

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Firebase Authentication vs JSON Web Token: What are the differences?

Firebase Authentication and JSON Web Token (JWT) are both authentication systems used for securing websites and applications. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two.

  1. Scalability and Infrastructure: Firebase Authentication is a ready-to-use service provided by Google that handles all aspects of user authentication, including user management, password recovery, and authentication flows. On the other hand, JSON Web Tokens are stateless and require implementation and infrastructure from the developer's end to handle authentication.

  2. Flexibility in Authentication Providers: Firebase Authentication provides built-in support for popular authentication providers like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and more. This allows developers to easily integrate multiple authentication options into their applications. In contrast, JSON Web Tokens can be used with any authentication provider, as long as the server can validate the tokens.

  3. Token Expiration and Revocation: Firebase Authentication provides built-in token expiration and revocation, ensuring security and control over access tokens. In contrast, JSON Web Tokens need to be manually configured for expiration and revocation, which requires additional infrastructure and implementation effort.

  4. Authenticating Backend Services: Firebase Authentication provides backend SDKs that allow easy integration and authentication of backend services with minimal setup. JSON Web Tokens also allow authentication of backend services but require the developer to implement the necessary logic for validating and verifying the tokens.

  5. Storing User Data: Firebase Authentication provides a user management system that securely stores user data, including profile information, user IDs, and authentication details. JSON Web Tokens do not inherently include a user management system and require additional implementation for storing and managing user data.

  6. Powerful Authentication Flows: Firebase Authentication provides out-of-the-box support for authentication flows like email verification, password reset, multi-factor authentication, and social login. JSON Web Tokens do not offer these functionalities natively and require additional implementation and infrastructure to handle these authentication flows.

In Summary, Firebase Authentication offers a ready-to-use authentication system with built-in support for multiple providers and powerful authentication flows, while JSON Web Tokens provide flexibility but require more manual implementation and infrastructure to handle authentication.

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Pros of Firebase Authentication
Pros of JSON Web Token
  • 12
    Completely Free
  • 8
    Native App + Web integrations
  • 8
    Email/Password
  • 7
    Passwordless
  • 6
    Works seemlessly with other Firebase Services
  • 5
    Integration with OAuth Providers
  • 4
    Anonymous Users
  • 4
    Easy to Integrate and Manage
  • 1
    MFA
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    Cons of Firebase Authentication
    Cons of JSON Web Token
    • 6
      Heavy webpack
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      - No public GitHub repository available -

      What is Firebase Authentication?

      It provides backend services, easy-to-use SDKs, and ready-made UI libraries to authenticate users to your app. It supports authentication using passwords, phone numbers, popular federated identity providers like Google,

      What is JSON Web Token?

      JSON Web Token is an open standard that defines a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. This information can be verified and trusted because it is digitally signed.

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      What companies use Firebase Authentication?
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      See which teams inside your own company are using Firebase Authentication or JSON Web Token.
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      What tools integrate with Firebase Authentication?
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      What are some alternatives to Firebase Authentication and JSON Web Token?
      Auth0
      A set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enables Single Sign On and user management to all your applications.
      MongoDB
      MongoDB stores data in JSON-like documents that can vary in structure, offering a dynamic, flexible schema. MongoDB was also designed for high availability and scalability, with built-in replication and auto-sharding.
      Passport
      It is authentication middleware for Node.js. Extremely flexible and modular, It can be unobtrusively dropped in to any Express-based web application. A comprehensive set of strategies support authentication using a username and password, Facebook, Twitter, and more.
      Okta
      Connect all your apps in days, not months, with instant access to thousands of pre-built integrations - even add apps to the network yourself. Integrations are easy to set up, constantly monitored, proactively repaired and handle authentication and provisioning.
      Firebase
      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.
      See all alternatives