Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Alibaba Cloud vs Google Firebase comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Alibaba Cloud
Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
8th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Google Firebase
Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category, the mindshare of Alibaba Cloud is 12.5%, up from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Firebase is 6.3%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Aderonke  Adeyegbe - PeerSpot reviewer
Good storage, great for smaller companies, and has impressive support
We're all aware that the pandemic accelerated digital transformation, and we believe that Alibaba, due to its pedigree, has what it takes to take small businesses to the cloud. It's a game-changer, for sure. The storage is very useful. It is easy to set up. Technical support is good. It is quite stable.
Shravan Revanna - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to get started with and offers integration features in multiple programming languages
The product provides integration features in multiple languages, such as Python, JavaScript, Golang, and all other languages. Google Firebase has documentation, which might seem a bit confusing, but one with decent knowledge can easily explore and get started with Firebase quickly. Before jumping into any cloud infrastructure, the tool should analyze how much it would cost to run the database. Google Firebase provides a certain number of reads and writes per day, which is approximately 40,000 reads and writes. If there are more than 200 to 300 active users per day, there will be plenty of reads and writes to the database. In such a case, one can't use Google Firebase and has to upgrade to Spark, which is where it is based on usage. The tool is fairly simple to get started with. Utilize all the features can get very complicated. One must be a pretty good developer who has a lot of experience to be able to utilize the best features. It gets really complicated over time. The basic functionality and basic usage are easy to use and easy to get started. There are plenty of deprecated versions, and frequently upgrading them causes inconvenience. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The installation is easy."
"What's good about Alibaba Cloud is its database service. It's also good in the virtual machine area."
"We use the solution to run VMs."
"The cost of hosting the solution is very reasonable. It's quite inexpensive."
"We use the product for storage and as a VPN."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy for me since I had a background in cloud products."
"ECS is the most valuable feature of the solution."
"Alibaba Cloud has lower costs and good support."
"What I like most about Google Firebase is that it's one of the easier options to host a website or app quickly."
"Firebase offers encryption out of the box."
"We used it to create credentials for DART for our Android and Flutter applications."
"Google Firebase is one I like a lot because it gives us a little bit more power and accessibility when it comes to publishing apps a lot quicker and for the needs that we have."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that its storage can be easily used in our mobile applications."
"Its initial setup process is easy."
"The solution is stable."
"The authentication features have made things a lot easier for our organization. About five years ago, developers had to create authentication systems from scratch. Now, services like Google Firebase provide secure and accurate authentication solutions. We can implement authentication quickly by following their documentation."
 

Cons

"Alibaba Cloud has some problems related to latency and connection issues. If you go for a cloud solution provider, you will need to access the Internet, which may result in latency and bandwidth issues, leading to slowness in operations."
"The solution name is not favorable in some markets and could cause us some problems gaining customers."
"The solution needs to improve its graphical user interface."
"The solution’s user interface could be improved."
"The solution should have more integration."
"From a performance point of view, Huawei and Azure are faster. Alibaba isn't as good."
"Alibaba Cloud needs to increase availability in Thailand."
"I think that sometimes the customer service for Alibaba Cloud is inefficient.... Sometimes it's hard to reach out to them."
"The product's user interface for developers needs improvement."
"The platform's bandwidth is quite expensive. Its price could be better."
"The exploration of the functions within Firebase could be improved."
"The UI for the realtime database could be simplified."
"In terms of DevOps, such as CI/CD deployments and integrating webhooks with GitHub, GitLab, or other platforms, Firebase does not offer those capabilities at that level."
"Google Firebase's app testing feature for Android, where you can upload your APK, needs improvement because it's not working very well."
"The product must support more complex queries."
"The solution's pricing could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We cut our costs significantly by migrating our infrastructure to the cloud. Alibaba Cloud employs a pay-as-you-go model, so that minimizes many costs for us."
"The cost is better than similar solutions."
"The solution's pricing is the same as AWS'."
"The cost of Alibaba Cloud is lower than that of AWS, but I feel that its price is on the higher end of the spectrum. Alibaba Cloud charges its users a price in dollars"
"I noticed on the pricing that it's quite expensive. It is the price you pay for making a practical choice for enterprise-level companies since it has so many features and it fits an enterprise-level company just like our company right now."
"I don't know the exact cost. It is cheaper than AWS."
"Alibaba Cloud is cheaper."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
"My company makes very minimal payments toward the licensing costs of the solution."
"We are using the free version of Google Firebase."
"I rate the price of Google Firebase a four out of five."
"The more the number of reads and writes, the more one gets charged."
"The pricing plans indicate it can get very expensive."
"The price of Google Firebase is very good."
"I rate Google Firebase a seven or eight out of ten for pricing."
"The price is perfect and very clearly defined. The price during the trial setup is free and then you move to a paid service."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) solutions are best for your needs.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alibaba Cloud?
ECS is the most valuable feature of the solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alibaba Cloud?
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten.
What needs improvement with Alibaba Cloud?
Alibaba Cloud needs to improve emails. Its pricing can also be lower. Regarding security issues, Alibaba Cloud is more complex and better suited for developers and R&D teams. On the other hand,...
How does Microsoft Azure compare to Google Firebase?
I would recommend Google Firebase instead of Microsoft Azure, simply for the array of features that it has to offer. In particular, the Firebase library grants you access to a shared data structure...
Looking to compare Google Firebase, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure
We like Google Firebase hosting and authentication and also the excellent cloud functionality. Our team found the flexibility of handling and dealing with the database through EDL to be very useful...
What do you like most about Google Firebase?
Google Analytics for Firebase is the best feature of the solution.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Schneider Electric, BorderX Lab, Royal Philips, Catchpoint, Conversant, Blogmint
Fabulous, Pic Collage, Shazam, SkyScanner
Find out what your peers are saying about Alibaba Cloud vs. Google Firebase and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.