Google Firebase vs Microsoft Azure comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category. Google is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.4, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Google holds a 8.2% mindshare in ISI, compared to Microsoft’s 20.8% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Google Firebase

Read 45 Google Firebase reviews

8,309 Views
5,375 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure

Read 312 Microsoft Azure reviews

19,323 Views
15,087 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Google Firebase

Microsoft Azure

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Microsoft Azure and Google Firebase operate in the cloud services category. Microsoft Azure stands out due to its extensive flexibility and comprehensive service offerings.

Features: Microsoft Azure offers flexibility with compatibility across multiple platforms and languages, robust security, and scalability. It provides services such as virtual machines, data storage, and advanced analytics to meet diverse business needs. Google Firebase provides rapid development tools with strong integration for mobile applications, featuring ease in deployment for real-time databases and cloud functions. Firebase is known for its simple database management and automatic app scalability.

Room for Improvement: Azure faces challenges due to complex pricing models and occasional support responsiveness issues. Improvements are needed in debugging and network management capabilities. Google Firebase could enhance data migration options, pricing clarity, data query languages, and real-time performance. It would also benefit from better integration with other cloud ecosystems and an improved user interface for non-technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure supports public, hybrid, and private clouds, providing deployment flexibility but with a complicated initial setup. Customer support is generally responsive, though navigating the right channels can be challenging. Google Firebase complements easy deployment for public cloud environments with strong community resources and documentation, though customer support can be variable. Users appreciate its simpler initial setup compared to Azure, especially for mobile and web apps.

Pricing and ROI: Azure offers varied pricing models that cater to different usage needs, though it is known for difficult cost estimation and unexpected charges. Despite appearing expensive, its comprehensive services and infrastructure cost savings justify the investment for many. Firebase's pricing is straightforward with a generous free tier, attracting startups and smaller projects. It offers cost-effective solutions for real-time data management with scalable options, though higher-tier pricing may be unpredictable.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Firebase vs. Microsoft Azure Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Google Firebase vs. Microsoft Azure

January 2025

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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

Google Firebase

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

312

Ranking in other categories

PaaS Clouds (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Firebase is 8.2%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure is 20.8%, up from 18.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

Q&A Highlights

Netanya Carmi

Content Manager at PeerSpot

Nov 21, 2021

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. We also like that it has security rules to control database read/write operations in real time. We feel the stability and performance of Google Firebase to be very good. We feel it would be advantageous for Google Firebase to have capabilities to work offline. If Google Firebase had faster migration and support for more languages it would be a more attractive solution. Amazon AWS has been great in helping us move clients easily and seamlessly to the cloud and offers a wide range of cloud services within the growing AWS ecosystem. It interacts very well with on-premise data centers. You can scale up to an unlimited number of processes very quickly. They offer a price forecasting and billing dashboard broken down by service, with budgets and alerts that have helped us recognize and shut down services we no longer needed (thereby reducing costs), which has been a very big win for us overall. You really have to watch your costs for processes and such if you go with AWS, as they can add up very quickly. Also, although AWS is available globally, not all service centers offer every service, so it causes some functionality issues in different markets. Microsoft Azure is extremely scalable with the capability to build an environment quickly. The automation and agility of Microsoft Azure is very valuable. It offers a great information protection feature - you can create custom labels for different documents and files. This keeps data more organized and secure. Support with Microsoft Azure depends on the plan you purchase; lower-tier plans get limited support. Microsoft Azure can be a very expensive solution overall and can be complex to set up and manage. Integration with other products needs to be better. Microsoft Azure seems to be a bit slow in catching up with what other solutions have to offer. Conclusion: All of these solutions are very good and offer many of the same features and perform similar functions and capabilities. Although Google Firebase tends to be a slightly cheaper and more flexible option, at the end of the day it boils down to which ecosystem you or your client are more heavily vested with as each of these solutions has attributes that make them more valuable and more efficient within their prescribed ecosystem.

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Featured Reviews

Shravan Revanna

Vice President at E-Cell Ramaiah

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.

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Nicolas Chabrier

Cloud Strategy B2B leader at Sunrise UPC

Promotes clear, logical structures preventing impractical configurations and offers seamless integration

The only thing is regarding the management of multi-cloud environments. That's not really possible. So basically, it's wonderful if you manage Microsoft clearly and if you manage Microsoft Azure, but if you need to consume external services and have a global overview of all your consumption, it's not the case. Google, for instance, has tools that help you manage multiple environments, which makes sense because Google is really the cloud provider. So that's why they need to be compliant with the others. But for sure, Microsoft's approach is different, and it's wonderful when you're one hundred percent on Azure. But if you'd like to have something more of a multi-cloud strategy, that's a bit of a gap where they could improve.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"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."

"It is a stable solution...It is a very scalable solution."

"The solution is useful for managing users and user authentication."

"The product is easy to use."

"The Realtime Database feature is the most important for us since we are able to see changes in the database the moment they are happening."

"The most beautiful feature of Google Firebase is that it gives you a lot of functionalities out of the box, without you having to develop or having to complete a solution. For example, identity management is integrated, and security is out of the box, particularly security for the user and the ability of each user to see his data. I also like that Google Firebase has a really good performance and is comparable to MongoDB. It's on the same level, and sometimes, it's on an even higher level than MongoDB. Other functions that Google Firebase has that I find valuable include information dissemination, mail automation, and SMS, available out of the box. Another valuable feature of the solution is that it allows you to develop some functionalities on the server side, so you can write JavaScript functions on the server side and use those functions quite easily. Google Firebase gives you almost a full backend environment out of the box without you having to do any deployments or a lot of administration because all administration is given out of the box."

"If there's data added to the solution, there's a good record of it so it's easy to track everything."

More Google Firebase pros

"The product is rather stable. We haven't had any issues with it in that sense."

"Azure virtual machines are stand-out."

"The solution has high stability."

"Managed storage capabilities, which create a very simple way to create, copy, and replicate local or geo-replicate, it's very simple to assign workloads."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The user interface is very nice and makes everything easy to use."

"The solution is user-friendly and compatible."

"The most valuable feature is the single sign-on with multifactor authentication."

More Microsoft Azure pros

Cons

"The tool's support requires improvement."

"They could add a session replay to better understand how a crash or bug happened."

"The solution needs to offer capabilities to work offline. Like Firestore, we should be able to do insertion, updating, and deletion offline."

"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."

"Firebase uses JSON, and the storage format is very different to that of SQL. This does not allow for easy migrations."

"They have discontinued some very valuable features, including the Firebase UI that I used to log in."

"Firebase's real-time information isn't technically real-time. It takes a while to upload user activity into the app. It's not as fast as Datadog, the other solution we use."

"As we are a small team, we have only utilized some features, however, all those features have been very useful, and there is no problem."

More Google Firebase cons

"Predictability and quality. Make sure things work predictable, as expected, and documented."

"I think Azure Active Directory and also the backup solutions provided in Azure need to be improved by Microsoft. The backup solution is not a very enterprise solution, and it is very simple. I think in comparison with other backup solutions like Nakivo and Veeam Backup, it can be improved to have a lot of options."

"They can add more documentation about the solution."

"There are always new features to add in terms of additional indicators, improving the looks of the dashboard and stuff. There are some dashboards that are not attractive, we are looking to make them fancier and nice-looking."

"Technical support could be better. They need to be more responsive."

"Its costing can be improved. There should be better cost management."

"I don't understand why we spend so much time and money on Azure when Microsoft relies on third-party companies for support in the CSP model. I don't know how the support model works within Microsoft, but giving it to poor-performing third-party companies is not ideal."

"Azure's security and compliance tools are not enough."

More Microsoft Azure cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's price is based on the number of consumers."

"The product is free."

"It is not easy to calculate the cost per copy, use or if the load rose dramatically we did not know how that would impact the final price."

"It is an expensive tool."

"We are using the free version of Google Firebase."

"The price of Google Firebase is very good."

"The more the number of reads and writes, the more one gets charged."

"Google Firebase is an expensive solution."

More Google Firebase pricing and cost advice

"I am currently on a pay-as-you-go subscription and my customers are going to be on a three-year contract. For what is offered in the three-year package it is quite reasonably priced."

"We pay a monthly licensing fee for the solution, which could be cheaper."

"There is a monthly fee you need to pay for the use of Microsoft Azure."

"We are on a monthly subscription for Microsoft Azure and the cost is more expensive than some of the competitors, such as Amazon AWS. They should be more competitive with other solutions."

"We have an annual license subscription to use the solution."

"Related to pricing and licensing, you have to be careful how you operate with the concept."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The license cost could be reduced."

More Microsoft Azure pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user8586

Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Aug 14, 2013

Amazon vs Rackspace vs Microsoft vs Google: Cloud Hosting Services Comparison

Amazon Web Services, Rackspace OpenStack, Microsoft Windows Azure and Google are the major cloud hosting and storage service providers. Athough Amazon is top of them and is oldest in cloud market, Rackspace, Microsoft and Google are giving tough competition to each other and to Amazon also for…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

University

10%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

45%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

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Looking to compare Google Firebase, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure

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What do you like most about Google Firebase?

Google Analytics for Firebase is the best feature of the solution.

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Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?

IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...

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Which is better - SAP Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure?

One of the best features of SAP Cloud Platform is that it is web-based and you can log in from anywhere in the world. SAP Cloud Platform is suitable for companies of any size; it works well with bo...

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How does Salesforce Platform compare with Azure?

Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform is not easy or intuitive to deploy. The difficulty will be impacted by the type of application that you are trying to use the platform to build. Organizations tha...

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Comparisons

Amazon AWS vs Google Firebase

Compared 12% of the time

DigitalOcean vs Google Firebase

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Google Firebase

Compared 6% of the time

Alibaba Cloud vs Google Firebase

Compared 6% of the time

Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs Google Firebase

Compared 1% of the time

More Google Firebase Competitors

Alibaba Cloud vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 10% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 9% of the time

SAP Cloud Platform vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 8% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs Microsoft Azure

Compared 8% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Firebase

January 2025

Download Google Firebase product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure

December 2024

Download Microsoft Azure product report

Also Known As

No data available

Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure

Overview

Google Firebase is a stable, reliable, and scalable mobile platform that enables you to quickly develop apps, accelerate them, and monitor their performance.

With Google Firebase You Can

Build and run successful apps
Scale globally
Monitor app quality and performance with little effort
Boost user engagement

Google Firebase Features:

Crashlytic
Automatic updates
Fast and easy deployment
Access to Cloud Firestore
Multi-platform sign-in authentication
Flexible drop-in UI
Real-time database
Remote configuration
Firebase machine learning
Cloud messaging
Advanced message targeting
Push messages
Error monitoring

SDKs supported by Google Firebase:

Web SDK
iOS SDK
Android SDK
Admin SDK

Benefits of Google Firebase:

Fast implementation: Google Firebase makes it possible for you to set up your authentication system quickly, using minimal code.
Comprehensive security: With Google Firebase, your systems remain secured; It is backed by Google Sign-in, Chrome Password Manager, and also Smart Lock.
Machine learning capabilities: Firebase offers machine learning capabilities that help you deploy and train custom models.
Eliminate the need to manage servers: Because Google Firebase offers cloud functions, it enables you to run your mobile backend code without having to also manage your servers.
Authentication for any platform: Google’s Firebase authentication makes the sign-in process easier by providing an end-to-end identity solution that works with any platform.
Customized notifications: With cloud messaging, you can customize alerts, defining how and when they are sent, what sounds they should make, and can also select the expiration date for each message. In addition, it gives you the ability to track custom conversion events.
Fast and secure web hosting: Firebase makes it possible for you to have easy and secure web hosting with fast content delivery. Firebase hosting also provides free SSL certificates.
Cloud storage: With Google Firebase you have access to cloud storage that supports robust uploads and downloads, can handle user-generated content, and provides simple and intuitive access control.
Developer-friendly: Developers prefer to use Firebase because it lets them focus on creating frontend code for mobile applications rather than having to concentrate on backend code.

Reviews from Real Users

PeerSpot user Nilakshi S., technical team lead at AuthentiCode says, “The solution is very stable and very reliable. There aren't any bugs or glitches.”

"What I like most about Google Firebase is that it's one of the easier options to host a website or app quickly," says Craig F., application development manager at a financial services firm.

A senior developer at a consultancy says, “The documentation for Google Firebase is great. Also, what I like about it is the integration to Android, which is the reason I went with Firebase.”

Google

Windows Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform, where developers can create, deploy, and maintain their apps. This cloud application platform allows developers to concentrate on the actual applications, while it takes care of all the elements behind the apps.

Windows Azure works across multiple frameworks and languages. It is fully scalable, localized in that it is hosted globally in many datacenters, and has widespread capabilities with elements of application development, deployment, and management.

Azure is comprised of several different service modules, including Infrastructure; Web; Mobile; Dev & Test; Big Data; Media;Storage, Backup & Recovery; and Identity & Access Management.

Microsoft Azure works as a:

Platform as a service (PaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS)
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Microsoft Azure is available:

On-premises
Hybrid
Multi-cloud
At the edge

Compared to its competitors, Microsoft Azure:

Has more affordable features
Has easier migration for organizations already using other Microsoft tools
Has several educational resources available
Provides robust support
Is ideal for small and large businesses

Microsoft Azure Features:

Scalability
Stability
Flexibility
Azure Site Recovery
Active Directory
Monitoring features
Cloud-based
Automated tasks
Change capability cadence
Showback capabilities
Information protection
Azure Data Lake
Excellent portal
Intuitive user interface
Remote desktop
Fast provisioning
Data security
Data resiliency
Speed of service
Integrated delivery pipeline
Disaster recovery
Robust templates
Flexible coding languages
Virtual systems testing

Benefits of Microsoft Azure:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Because Microsoft Azure is an IaaS, organizations can deploy as well as manage applications easily and quickly. Azure also provides you with the ability to customize the cloud software to meet your specific business needs.
Seamless integration: Microsoft Azure is built to seamlessly integrate with existing IT departments via hybrid databases, secure private connections, and storage solutions.
Cost-effective: Because Azure can harmoniously exist in your business environment with your data center, it is a very cost-effective solution.
Analytics support: Azure is designed with built-in support that is used to analyze data and provide key insights. Azure offers Cortana Analytics, Stream Analytics, Machine Learning, and SQL services.
Unique storage system: Compared to other cloud services, Microsoft Azure has more data centers and delivery points, which helps create an optimal user experience and also helps deliver content faster. In addition, Microsoft Azure makes it possible for organizations to exchange content across several virtual machines.
Enhanced flexibility: Azure provides extreme flexibility by allowing you to choose any level of functionality you require. It also supports many of the same technologies IT teams and developers usually depend on, making it easier for them to manage.
Easy implementation: Microsoft Azure is easy and quick to deploy. If necessary, you can change web apps to Azure with almost zero downtime.

Reviews from Real Users:

"It is a flexible solution that is straightforward to use," says the principal consultant at a computer software company.

OmarJ., future datacenter consultant: Microsoft Azure Cloud at a tech company, adds that "The user interface is very nice and makes everything easy to use."

“You can build an environment in minutes. It's very good in terms of being an infrastructure as a service, and I found that really fascinating,” says an information technology consultant at a computer software company.

"I think Azure's level of automation to achieve efficiency or agility is valuable. I also like the change capability cadence, the showback capabilities, and understanding what our costs are," says an enterprise architect at an energy/utilities company.

Marco C., Ing. at Wolters Kluwer, says "The valuable features of Microsoft Azure are that it is cloud-based and has good storage. The storage is completely managed by Azure. We do not need to do any patching of security because it is handled by Azure which is a benefit. The solution is fully compatible with the Microsoft technology stack and is very scalable."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure is it has everything together in one place. It is one large tool with lots of small tools that are updated often," says the owner of a media company.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Fabulous, Pic Collage, Shazam, SkyScanner

BMW, Toyota, easyJet, NBC Sports, HarperCollins, Aviva, TalkTalk Business, Avanade, and Telenor.

Buyer's Guide

Google Firebase vs. Microsoft Azure

January 2025

Free Report: Google Firebase vs. Microsoft Azure

Find out what your peers are saying about Google Firebase vs. Microsoft Azure and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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