Firebase Vs. AWS: Which One Should You Use For Your Mobile App’s Backend

Building your mobile app’s backend is a complicated let alone cumbersome task. There are a lot of technicalities that arise in backend development which a developer needs to be mindful of before choosing which server to build their app’s infrastructure with.

Two very renowned cloud-based servers in the market are Amazon’s AWS and Google’s Firebase.

Let’s take a closer look at these two to better understand which one fits the bill for you!

Amazon AWS

AWS has a whole lot of services (almost anything you can think of under the sun). It converts many open source solutions such as AS-IS to the cloud along with adding billing under its belt. Most of the services in AWS (except a few) are services where you would still have to think of capacity, traffic, etc.

AWS is something that requires a decent-sized infrastructure team. One drawback about it is that billing becomes (usually) complicated as some services have various tiers and different ways you can buy stuff, etc. If not used properly, AWS can potentially incur a lot of costs.

One thing to note is that AWS DevOps is Amazon’s reply to deploy DevOps with the help of cloud platforms and dedicated tools and services. AWS offers a set of customizable services that allow businesses to build & deliver products more quickly by combining AWS with DevOps methodologies.

Dedicated AWS DevOps enables application development teams to quickly build secure source code with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).

Firebase

Firebase adheres to some of the principles Google tries to have in its cloud products. It is a backend as a service and requires very little server-side code if at all.

It scales/loads balances without any intervention from you and has an excellent support system that responds quickly. There is a lot of library support as well from the open source community.

Some of the best parts about firebase are that it is built over WebSockets so you can build real-time applications with ease. More importantly, you can give a real-time feel to even traditional applications. The second best part is that billing is straightforward and overall it incurs a low cost after Google started backing it.

Which one should you use for your mobile app’s backend?

Despite being standalone, you can combine AWS or Firebase with any backend. You can always combine the good features of each cloud and not have to choose between AWS or Firebase.

But still, if you have to make a choice, here’s what you should keep in mind.

Prioritise user preference and business needs. If you’re a smaller business or startup, go with Google Firebase for creating your mobile app’s backend. It is more cost-effective and lets you write applications from scratch and even rewrite existing applications. It is an even better option if you don’t have any custom coding to deal with.

Amazon AWS on the other hand is for larger businesses that have heavier requirements and need an entire suite of services. It is mostly suited for applications that have to perform heavier data processing and complex user authentication functions thus it is also more cost-heavy.