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Firebase vs GitHub Pages: What are the differences?
What is Firebase? 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.
What is GitHub Pages? Public webpages freely hosted and easily published. Public webpages hosted directly from your GitHub repository. Just edit, push, and your changes are live.
Firebase belongs to "Realtime Backend / API" category of the tech stack, while GitHub Pages can be primarily classified under "Static Web Hosting".
Some of the features offered by Firebase are:
- 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.
On the other hand, GitHub Pages provides the following key features:
- Blogging with Jekyll
- Custom URLs
- Automatic Page Generator
"Realtime backend made easy", "Fast and responsive" and "Easy setup" are the key factors why developers consider Firebase; whereas "Free", "Right out of github" and "Quick to set up" are the primary reasons why GitHub Pages is favored.
Instacart, 9GAG, and Twitch are some of the popular companies that use Firebase, whereas GitHub Pages is used by Lyft, CircleCI, and HubSpot. Firebase has a broader approval, being mentioned in 1215 company stacks & 4651 developers stacks; compared to GitHub Pages, which is listed in 775 company stacks and 4401 developer stacks.
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.
FirebaseI 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.
AblyHello 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
We use Netlify to host static websites.
The reasons for choosing Netlify over GitHub Pages are as follows:
- Netfily can bind multiple domain names, while GitHub Pages can only bind one domain name
- With Netfily, the original repository can be private, while GitHub Pages free tier requires the original repository to be public
In addition, in order to use CDN, we use Netlify DNS.
Pros of Firebase
- Realtime backend made easy367
- Fast and responsive268
- Easy setup239
- Real-time212
- JSON188
- Free132
- Backed by google126
- Angular adaptor82
- Reliable67
- Great customer support35
- Great documentation30
- Real-time synchronization25
- Mobile friendly21
- Rapid prototyping18
- Great security14
- Automatic scaling12
- Freakingly awesome11
- Chat8
- Angularfire is an amazing addition!8
- Super fast development8
- Ios adaptor6
- Firebase hosting6
- Awesome next-gen backend6
- Built in user auth/oauth6
- Speed of light4
- Very easy to use4
- Brilliant for startups3
- Great3
- It's made development super fast3
- Low battery consumption2
- Free hosting2
- Cloud functions2
- Push notification2
- JS Offline and Sync suport2
- Free authentication solution2
- The concurrent updates create a great experience2
- I can quickly create static web apps with no backend2
- Great all-round functionality2
- Easy Reactjs integration1
- Easy to use1
- Free SSL1
- CDN & cache out of the box1
- Faster workflow1
- Google's support1
- .net1
- Serverless1
- Good Free Limits1
- Large1
Pros of GitHub Pages
- Free288
- Right out of github217
- Quick to set up185
- Instant108
- Easy to learn107
- Great way of setting up your project's website58
- Widely used47
- Quick and easy41
- Great documentation37
- Super easy4
- Easy setup3
- Instant and fast Jekyll builds2
- Great customer support2
- Great integration2
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Cons of Firebase
- Can become expensive31
- No open source, you depend on external company15
- Scalability is not infinite15
- Not Flexible Enough9
- Cant filter queries6
- No Relational Data3
- Very unstable server3
- No offline sync2
- Too many errors2
Cons of GitHub Pages
- Not possible to perform HTTP redirects4
- Supports only Jekyll3
- Limited Jekyll plugins3
- Jekyll is bloated1
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