Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Firebase

41K
35.2K
+ 1
2K
uWebSockets

16
52
+ 1
0
Add tool

Firebase vs uWebSockets: What are the differences?

Developers describe Firebase 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. On the other hand, uWebSockets is detailed as "Simple, secure & standards compliant web I/O for the most demanding of applications". It is a simple to use yet thoroughly optimized implementation of HTTP and WebSockets. It comes with built-in pub/sub support, HTTP routing, TLS 1.3, IPv6, permessage-deflate and is battle tested as one of the most popular implementations, reaching many end-users daily.

Firebase and uWebSockets can be categorized as "Realtime Backend / API" tools.

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, uWebSockets provides the following key features:

  • HTTP and Websockets
  • Built-in pub/sub support
  • HTTP routing

uWebSockets is an open source tool with 10.9K GitHub stars and 1.07K GitHub forks. Here's a link to uWebSockets's open source repository on GitHub.

Advice on Firebase and uWebSockets
Needs advice
on
ApolloApolloFirebaseFirebase
and
Socket.IOSocket.IO

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.

See more
Replies (3)
Timothy Malstead
Junior Full Stack Developer at Freelance · | 7 upvotes · 484.4K views
Recommends
on
FirebaseFirebase

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.

See more
Recommends
on
AblyAbly

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

See more
Recommends
on
8base8base

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

See more
Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
Learn More
Pros of Firebase
Pros of uWebSockets
  • 371
    Realtime backend made easy
  • 270
    Fast and responsive
  • 242
    Easy setup
  • 215
    Real-time
  • 191
    JSON
  • 134
    Free
  • 128
    Backed by google
  • 83
    Angular adaptor
  • 68
    Reliable
  • 36
    Great customer support
  • 32
    Great documentation
  • 25
    Real-time synchronization
  • 21
    Mobile friendly
  • 19
    Rapid prototyping
  • 14
    Great security
  • 12
    Automatic scaling
  • 11
    Freakingly awesome
  • 8
    Super fast development
  • 8
    Angularfire is an amazing addition!
  • 8
    Chat
  • 6
    Firebase hosting
  • 6
    Built in user auth/oauth
  • 6
    Awesome next-gen backend
  • 6
    Ios adaptor
  • 4
    Speed of light
  • 4
    Very easy to use
  • 3
    Great
  • 3
    It's made development super fast
  • 3
    Brilliant for startups
  • 2
    Free hosting
  • 2
    Cloud functions
  • 2
    JS Offline and Sync suport
  • 2
    Low battery consumption
  • 2
    .net
  • 2
    The concurrent updates create a great experience
  • 2
    Push notification
  • 2
    I can quickly create static web apps with no backend
  • 2
    Great all-round functionality
  • 2
    Free authentication solution
  • 1
    Easy Reactjs integration
  • 1
    Google's support
  • 1
    Free SSL
  • 1
    CDN & cache out of the box
  • 1
    Easy to use
  • 1
    Large
  • 1
    Faster workflow
  • 1
    Serverless
  • 1
    Good Free Limits
  • 1
    Simple and easy
    Be the first to leave a pro

    Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

    Cons of Firebase
    Cons of uWebSockets
    • 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
    • 3
      Very unstable server
    • 3
      No Relational Data
    • 2
      Too many errors
    • 2
      No offline sync
      Be the first to leave a con

      Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

      - No public GitHub repository available -

      What is 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.

      What is uWebSockets?

      It is a simple to use yet thoroughly optimized implementation of HTTP and WebSockets. It comes with built-in pub/sub support, HTTP routing, TLS 1.3, IPv6, permessage-deflate and is battle tested as one of the most popular implementations, reaching many end-users daily.

      Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

      What companies use Firebase?
      What companies use uWebSockets?
      Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
      Learn More

      Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

      What tools integrate with Firebase?
      What tools integrate with uWebSockets?

      Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

      Blog Posts

      Oct 3 2019 at 7:13PM

      Ably Realtime

      JavaScriptPythonNode.js+8
      5
      3890
      GitNode.jsFirebase+5
      7
      2408
      What are some alternatives to Firebase and uWebSockets?
      Parse
      With Parse, you can add a scalable and powerful backend in minutes and launch a full-featured app in record time without ever worrying about server management. We offer push notifications, social integration, data storage, and the ability to add rich custom logic to your app’s backend with Cloud Code.
      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.
      Heroku
      Heroku is a cloud application platform – a new way of building and deploying web apps. Heroku lets app developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployment, ongoing operations, or scaling.
      Auth0
      A set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enables Single Sign On and user management to all your applications.
      Realm
      The Realm Mobile Platform is a next-generation data layer for applications. Realm is reactive, concurrent, and lightweight, allowing you to work with live, native objects.
      See all alternatives