/technology/vs-firebase/ · The comparison, with sources
A platform you configure, and a backend you compile.
Firebase is a mature app platform from Google: Firestore documents or a Realtime Database JSON tree, with auth, storage and hosting in one console, and relational Postgres only through Firebase SQL Connect. Harness is a compiled backend with SQL per venture, and most of the managed layer is still on the roadmap. Both columns below are meant to survive a Firebase engineer reading them.
The same comparison, row by row
Thirteen rows and the same Cratefield column on every page, each competitor cell cited to the competitor’s own documentation.
Shippingin the repo Designedpublic issues, unbuilt Plannednamed, unspecified
| Capability | Firebase (per its docs) | Cratefield Harness |
|---|---|---|
| Database | NoSQL by default. Firestore is a cloud-hosted document store — data lives in documents, organized into collections — and the Realtime Database is one large JSON tree; Google itself recommends Firestore for new customers. docs docs Relational Postgres exists only through Firebase SQL Connect (formerly Data Connect), GA April 2025: managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL behind a schema-first GraphQL API. docs | Cloudflare D1 (SQLite) per backend; 10 GB per database, single-threaded. Or real Postgres through the same port, on the native runtime Shipping |
| Multi-tenant isolation | The project is the top-level entity that holds data, auth and resources; per-tenant auth silos arrive only with the paid Identity Platform upgrade and its tenants. docs docs | One database per tenant; no shared tables, no RLS. Shipping |
| Where it runs | Google Cloud only, and no self-hosting: the FAQ states “nor do we offer dedicated infrastructure hosting,” and the emulator suite warns, “Do not attempt to use these emulators as ‘self-hosted’ versions of Firebase services.” docs docs | Managed by us, in your infrastructure account or ours — two modes Planned |
| Composition | Client SDKs plus Cloud Functions event handlers, deployed and wired at runtime; there is no compile-time step. Firebase Extensions are deprecated and shut down March 31, 2027, in favor of self-managed function kits. docs docs | Rust crates listed in Cargo.toml, compiled into one binary Shipping |
| Auth | A ready-made auth UI and backend services across email, phone and federated providers; 50K monthly active users at no cost under the Identity Platform framing, while phone/SMS auth requires the Blaze plan and multi-tenancy requires Identity Platform. docs docs | Passkeys, Google, Apple, Meta, email and password, magic links, sessions, authorization code + PKCE, ES256 JWTs with JWKS Shipping. Password login needs the paid Workers plan |
| Realtime | A genuine strength. The Realtime Database syncs one JSON tree to every connected client, and Firestore serves live listeners on documents and queries. docs docs | A Realtime port with an in-process adapter, which is the native runtime’s half Shipping. The Cloudflare Durable Object adapter behind the same port Designed, #103 |
| Object storage | Cloud Storage for Firebase, backed by a Google Cloud Storage bucket. docs | A Blob port over R2 on Cloudflare, or a directory on a native binary Shipping, #105. No access policies or image transforms |
| Dashboard | A mature console: analytics, auth, Firestore, Realtime Database, storage, hosting, functions and Crashlytics in one place. docs | Admin pages per module, built from its declared surface, behind a token login Shipping. No general data browser; build logs and deploy history wait on the control plane Planned |
| Custom domains | Firebase Hosting serves web apps on a global CDN, and documents connecting a custom domain: verify ownership, set the DNS records it returns, SSL provisions from there. docs | Cloudflare for SaaS: 100 custom hostnames included, then $0.10 per hostname per month, to a limit of 50,000 Planned |
| Egress | The no-cost Spark plan includes 10 GiB per month of Firestore egress and 360 MB per day of Hosting transfer; on Blaze, Google Cloud pricing applies and Hosting transfer is $0.15 per GB. docs | Workers and R2 make no charge for data transfer out Shipping |
| Idle projects | No scale-to-zero on the free tier: Spark quotas are daily allowances, and Blaze bills for what runs. docs | No administrative pause and nothing to restore. Compute scales to zero, so idle costs only storage. The Durable Object behind a D1 database hibernates between requests, which is a cold start, not an outage Shipping |
| License | Client SDKs are Apache-2.0 on GitHub; the backend service is proprietary and cannot be self-hosted. docs docs | MIT across all crates Shipping |
| Usable today | Yes. Fully GA and mature — create a project and ship this afternoon. docs | Open-source core, yes. Managed layer, no Shipping |
From firebase.google.com, docs.cloud.google.com and github.com/firebase, checked 2026-10-18. Re-check before relying on them.
firebase.google.com/
Fairness
When Firebase is the right answer.
- Mobile-first teams that want batteries-included NoSQL and realtime sync from the first commit.
- The largest no-cost tier in this comparison: daily quotas, free Analytics with unlimited reporting up to 500 events, and Crashlytics.
- A full local emulator suite, for development and CI.
- Mature SDKs across Apple, Android, Web, Flutter and Unity.
- Google infrastructure, and a platform that has run since 2014.
- If you already speak Firestore’s document model, and do not need SQL or self-hosting, Firebase is the faster start.
If the account boundary and compile-time composition matter more than the list above, request early access. The capability grid behind this table — same Cratefield column, more competitors — is on the comparison page.