Firebase Free Tier: Building and Growing Your App Without Cost

Planning to build your first mobile application? Here you go with this article to help you to get the most out of the free version of a Firebase by Google.

Firebase provides a free tier that allows developers to get started with their app development without any cost. The free plan includes a range of features to help you build and grow your app. Some of the key features available in Firebase’s free tier include

Firebase by Google is a mobile and web app application development platform that was originally an independent company founded in 2011 later in 2014, Google acquired this Firebase platform, and the name was appended Firebase Google.

In our today’s article, you will come to know everything related to Firebase that will give you an overall essential idea related to Firebase.

What is Firebase?

Have you ever thought of building your own apps? if yes then you have definately heard about Firebase.

Firebase is a Backend-as-a-Service(Baas) both for mobile and web-based applications that provides a variety of tools and services for the developer that helps them to build, test, and manage their apps perfectly.

Firebase is a Baas service so when you connect your app with Firebase further you don’t have to bother much about the management of the backend database of your app.

You just have to plug Firebase into your app via dedicated APIs for each separate service. Firebase can integrate with platforms like Android, IOS, Web, and Unity.

Firebase is a Realtime Database, When you connect Firebase to your app, you’re connecting it through a WebSocket(much faster than HTTP), whatever data is saved by you or your client is updated automatically without a delay.

Quick Comparision between NoSql vs SQL

List of Features Provided by Firebase

Database Management
Hosting
Authentication
File storage
Cloud Messaging
Remote Config
Machine Learning
Test Lab
Crash Reporting

How to use Firebase with Android?

We have already discussed that firebase can integrate with the Android Platform for developing high-quality apps. All you have to do is to connect your app with Firebase via dedicated APIs for each separate service.

There are some Prerequisites for adding Firebase to your Android project. Let’s have a look at it.

Install or update Android Studio latest version.
Now make sure that the project meets these requirements:
- Targets API level 16 (Jelly Bean) or later
- Uses Gradle 4.1 or later
- Uses Jetpack (AndroidX),
Set up your Android device or use an emulator to run your app.
Note that Firebase SDKs with a dependency on Google Play services require the device or emulator to have Google Play services installed.
Sign into Firebase using your Google account.

After that, you can integrate Firebase services with your app directly from Android Studio using the Assistant window

Source:- firebase android setup, Android developers

For getting more familiar with Firebase in Android you can check their main site.

What is Firebase Realtime Database?

Firebase has 2 Types of databases

Realtime Database
Cloud Firestore

The Firebase has 2 types of databases one is Realtime Database and another one is Cloud Firestore. Both are NoSQL Databases. Realtime Database that allows you to store your data securely and at a high speed on Google cloud servers which gets synchronized in real-time across all clients sharing the same database with a little bit of coding effort by the developer.

Firebase Realtime Database

Realtime Database provides data persistence by storing data locally so that the data can be accessed even when a device is offline and the local data gets automatically synchronized after the connectivity is re-established and gets merged with the remote data.

Firebase stores and sync data using NoSQL cloud databases for storing data in real-time.NoSQL stores data in the form of a JSON(JavaScript Object Notation )object as JSON format is both lightweight and easy for understanding. whenever there will be a change in the database, it will get reflected in all the other devices connected to it in real-time

How the data is stored using JSON? Well the entire database in Firebase has multiple JSON objects and those are structured in the form of a big JSON tree with multiple nodes, so you have to manage the json structure in such a way that the data are easy to access way without the need to the nesting of child nodes

A simple example of JSON format:-

{ "name"&nbsp;: "beetechnical" }

Firebase Realtime Database

Cloud Firestore  stores simple  data as a collection of documents which is quite similar to JSON. It also provides online support like in Realtime Database . Cloud firesdtore gives you advanced writes and reactions operations. In the matter of Reliability and Performance Cloud Firestore is better as it provides multi-region solution for  scaling automatically. For providing strong realibility and scalability  data is shared across multiple data centers in separate
Note :- Cloud Firestore is Firebase's newest database. It builds on the successes of the Realtime Database with a new, more intuitive data model. Cloud Firestore also features richer, faster queries and scales further than the Realtime Database. If you are confuse regarding which one to choose then check their main site.

use cases for Firebase

We already know that Firebase is used as a Realtime Database that helps with the backend development of your app in Android, iOS, or web, along with that firebase is also used for some other reasons too i.e. they provide some other good functionalities which are beneficial to your app that makes your app grow much faster. Let’s look at 4 of the uses of the Firebase:-

Analytics
Authentication
Cloud Messaging
Remote Config

Is Firebase Hosting Free?

Firebase Hosting is free but may have usage limits on some of the features. By default, it provides an SSL certificate and offers an Amazing speed across multiple geographic locations. Their pricing tagline itself says ” start for free, then pay as you go”. Check their pricing plans here.

What is Firebase Authentication?

Firebase Authentication will provide you backend services, easy-to-use SDKs, and ready-made UI libraries for authenticating users to your app. Authentication is done using passwords, phone numbers, and popular federated identity providers like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Lets discuss How does authentication work:-

When a user gets signs in to your app they give their credentials such as the user’s email address and password, or an OAuth token from a federated identity provider and you get the authentication credentials from the user after that these credentials are passed to the Firebase Authentication SDK and Firebase backend services verify those credentials and return a response back to the client.

After that a successful sign-in takes place and you can access the user’s basic profile information, and control the user’s access to data stored in other Firebase products. The provided authentication token by the user can be used by you to verify the identity of users in your own backend services.