StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Platform as a Service
  4. Realtime Backend API
  5. Firebase vs Pusher vs Simperium

Firebase vs Pusher vs Simperium

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Pusher
Pusher
Stacks618
Followers1.4K
Votes234
Firebase
Firebase
Stacks42.5K
Followers36.0K
Votes2.0K
Simperium
Simperium
Stacks4
Followers20
Votes5

Firebase vs Pusher vs Simperium: What are the differences?

Firebase, Pusher, and Simperium are commonly used real-time data synchronization platforms for web and mobile applications. Each platform offers unique features and functions that cater to different needs of developers. Below are the key differences between Firebase, Pusher, and Simperium.

  1. Real-time Capabilities: Firebase provides real-time data synchronization out of the box and is ideal for applications that require instant updates across devices. Pusher offers real-time messaging through channels and events, making it a popular choice for chat applications. Simperium focuses on seamless data synchronization with conflict resolution mechanisms in place, ensuring data consistency in collaborative environments.

  2. Data Structure and Storage: Firebase uses a NoSQL database to store data in JSON format, allowing for flexible and scalable data storage. Pusher primarily focuses on real-time messaging and notifications, with the option to integrate with various databases such as MongoDB or MySQL. Simperium offers a simple key-value storage model that synchronizes data changes across devices effortlessly.

  3. Authentication and User Management: Firebase provides built-in authentication mechanisms, including email/password, social logins, and custom authentication, offering a comprehensive solution for user management. Pusher does not offer authentication services natively but can be integrated with third-party services like Auth0 for user authentication. Simperium does not include authentication features by default, but developers can implement custom authentication methods within their applications.

  4. Collaboration and Conflict Resolution: Simperium specializes in handling conflicts that arise when multiple users modify the same data simultaneously, providing automatic conflict resolution to maintain data integrity. Firebase also offers conflict resolution strategies, but developers have more control over handling conflicts manually. Pusher focuses on real-time messaging and may not have as robust conflict resolution mechanisms compared to Simperium.

  5. Scalability and Pricing: Firebase provides a scalable infrastructure with a pay-as-you-go pricing model, making it suitable for applications of all sizes. Pusher offers scalable real-time functionalities but may require additional costs for high message volumes. Simperium is designed for small to medium-scale applications and may not be as cost-effective for large-scale deployments compared to Firebase and Pusher.

  6. Integration and Ecosystem: Firebase offers a wide range of SDKs for different platforms and extensive documentation for easy integration with various technologies, making it a developer-friendly choice. Pusher also provides SDKs for popular programming languages and frameworks, with plugins available for seamless integration. Simperium has a smaller ecosystem compared to Firebase and Pusher, which may limit the availability of resources and community support for developers.

In Summary, Firebase excels in real-time capabilities and user management, Pusher is renowned for its real-time messaging features, and Simperium focuses on conflict resolution and data synchronization, catering to different aspects of real-time application development.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Detailed Comparison

Pusher
Pusher
Firebase
Firebase
Simperium
Simperium

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

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.

Simperium is a new kind of data layer. As your app reads and writes data, Simperium circulates that data everywhere it's needed. You add a Simperium library to your app and initialize it. This library keeps a persistent connection to the Simperium hosted service. The Simperium libraries and service work together to efficiently move data around for your users.

Easily build scalable in-app notifications, chat, realtime graphs, geotracking and more in your web & mobile apps with our hosted pub/sub messaging API.;Send programmable push notifications to iOS and Android devices with delivery and open rate tracking built in.;Easily add 1-1 and group Chat to your web & mobile apps. Presence, message storage, rich media, notifications, typing indicators and more.;Embed a realtime collaborative editor in your app in seconds to empower your users to do more, together.
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.
Data transparently moves across mobile, web, and desktop versions of your app;Your users can read and write data even when they're offline;Multiple users can collaborate with the same data at the same time;You can build unique backend services that read and write data
Statistics
Stacks
618
Stacks
42.5K
Stacks
4
Followers
1.4K
Followers
36.0K
Followers
20
Votes
234
Votes
2.0K
Votes
5
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 55
    An easy way to give customers realtime features
  • 40
    Websockets
  • 34
    Simple
  • 27
    Easy to get started with
  • 25
    Free plan
Cons
  • 11
    Costly
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
Pros
  • 3
    Simple and useful data model
  • 1
    Cross-platform
  • 1
    Free plan
Integrations
Slack
Slack
Datadog
Datadog
Librato
Librato
Trigger.io
Trigger.io
Famo.us
Famo.us
Backbone.js
Backbone.js
Ember.js
Ember.js
AngularJS
AngularJS
React
React
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Pusher, Firebase, Simperium?

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.

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.

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.

8base

8base

A cloud service designed to power enterprise-grade web and mobile applications that require support for large numbers of users, complex data and transactional requirements, comprehensive role-based security and a modern look-and-feel.

Supabase

Supabase

Supabase is currently in early-Alpha .It is an open-source Firebase alternative. It adds realtime and RESTful APIs to your PostgreSQL database without a single line of code.

Related Comparisons

Bootstrap
Materialize

Bootstrap vs Materialize

Laravel
Django

Django vs Laravel vs Node.js

Bootstrap
Foundation

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Node.js
Spring Boot

Node.js vs Spring-Boot

Liquibase
Flyway

Flyway vs Liquibase