Firebase / Firestore
Realtime app database, auth, hosting, storage, and functions.
- Card required
- No
Firebase / Firestore scores 4.2/10 for free value in DB. The main constraint: Spark plan exists; reads/writes/storage have product-specific quotas.
Free value score
4.2 / 10Show the math
Key metrics
What you get
Spark plan exists; reads/writes/storage have product-specific quotas.
Realtime frontend apps and Google-account-heavy flows.
Gotchas
- Firestore 50K reads/day
Cloud Firestore allows up to 50,000 document reads per day on the Spark (free) plan, resetting daily.
- Firestore 20K writes/day
Cloud Firestore allows up to 20,000 document writes per day on the Spark plan, resetting daily.
- Firestore 20K deletes/day
Cloud Firestore allows up to 20,000 document deletes per day on the Spark plan, resetting daily.
- Firestore 1 GiB storage cap
Total stored data in Cloud Firestore is capped at 1 GiB across the entire project on the Spark plan.
- Firestore 10 GiB egress/month
Network egress from Cloud Firestore is limited to 10 GiB per month on the Spark plan.
- Realtime DB 100 simultaneous connections
Firebase Realtime Database on the Spark plan is capped at 100 concurrent connections, severely limiting real-time fan-out apps.
- Realtime DB 1 GB storage cap
Firebase Realtime Database storage is capped at 1 GB total on the Spark plan.
- Realtime DB 10 GB download/month
Realtime Database data download is capped at 10 GB per month on the Spark plan.
- No Cloud Functions on Spark
Cloud Functions for Firebase is entirely unavailable on the Spark (free) plan; a paid Blaze plan is required.
- No Cloud Storage buckets on Spark
All Firebase Cloud Storage (both legacy appspot.com and new firebasestorage.app buckets) requires the Blaze paid plan.
- Hosting 360 MB/day transfer
Firebase Hosting data transfer is capped at only 360 MB per day on the Spark plan, exhausted quickly by even modest traffic.
- Hosting 10 GB storage
Firebase Hosting storage is limited to 10 GB total on the Spark plan.
- Auth 50K MAUs/month
Firebase Authentication (with Identity Platform) allows up to 50,000 monthly active users on the free plan.
- Auth SAML/OIDC limited to 50 MAUs
SAML and OIDC federated authentication is capped at just 50 monthly active users on the Spark plan.
- Cloud SQL 3-month trial only
Firebase SQL Connect / Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL is only available as a 3-month no-cost trial; the instance is archived if not upgraded to Blaze by trial end.
- Cloud SQL limit 1 instance per project
Only one Cloud SQL instance is allowed per project during the 3-month trial period.
- No App Hosting on Spark
Firebase App Hosting (Next.js/Angular SSR) is unavailable on the Spark plan; Blaze with a billing account is required.
- No Cloud Functions outbound networking
Even if functions were available, outbound network requests from Cloud Functions to non-Google APIs require the Blaze plan.
Sources
-
"Cloud Firestore | Standard edition | Stored data | 1 GiB total | Document writes | 20K writes/day | Document reads | 50K reads/day | Document deletes | 20K deletes/day | Network egress | 10 GiB/month"
https://firebase.google.com/pricing -
"Free tier | Quota | Stored data | 1 GiB | Document reads | 50,000 per day | Document writes | 20,000 per day | Document deletes | 20,000 per day | Outbound data transfer | 10 GiB per month ... Quotas are applied daily and reset around midnight Pacific time."
https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/quotas -
"Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL | 3 month no-cost trial. Limit 1 per project. ... If you have not upgraded your project to a paid plan (Blaze) by the end of your trial, your instance will be archived. After an additional 90 days, it will be deleted."
https://firebase.google.com/pricing -
"What is Firebase's market share? Firebase holds 2.04% of the Development Tools market by detected domains, ranking #1 in the category with 42,377 active domains"
https://technologychecker.io/technology/firebase
